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Hello Everyone!
Quite a lot has happened in the past 7 days.
We arrived in Vancouver after a 12 hour bus drive and made our way to the Hostel. The remainder of the day was spent in a park along the shore and the beach.
In the next couple of days we got our JR Railway Pass for Japan organized, dealt with the Visa for India (still in progress) and enjoyed the sunny weather in the city.
Early Friday (July 12th) morning we made our way to Tofino (via ferry to Nanaimo). Thanks to the effort of Geoff, we got to spend 2 amazing nights at the Wickaninnish Inn in a room with a king size bed that felt like heaven on earth, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. In 2 days we explored Tofino, a relaxed hippie town, on bikes, walked on the beach, enjoyed fresh, delicious seafood, woke up to the sound of the ocean and an bald eagle outside our window and went on a hiking adventure!
For everyone who looks for a different kind of hike, we highly recommend the Bomber Trail. You won't find the trail on any map as it is not an official hike and the only marks are little coloured ribbons and a rope between trees. We looked up the directions for the beginning of the trail online (the 15th phone pole after Radar Hill has a little airplane drawn on it; trail starts right there), hitch-hiked there and started to walk. The first 10 minutes were spent on a nice wide trail through the rain forest and up the hill until we reached an old, abandoned building. On the other side we had to walk down the hill and that's where the fun began - looking for ribbons, following the rope, balancing on logs through huge mud patches and trying not to step in while getting attacked by mosquitoes. In the end it's all worth it when you get to the crash side of the World War 2 Canso A Bomber which crashed in 1945. A shiver ran down our spines and we got goosebumps when seeing how the plane crashed right into the mountain. Astonishingly, almost the full body of the plane is still lying there.
After Tofino and luxury we headed a little bit further south to Ucluelet and hostel with bunk beds for 2 nights. Ucluelet is a small town whith an harbor and a nice walking trail "Wild Pacific Trail" along the coast. We had a couple of quiet days and sleep-ins before our flight would leave.
Since life as a backpacker is limited and a 69$ bus ticket is totally unacceptable and not in our budget, we decided to hitch-hike all the way from Ucluelet to Victoria (for several reasons only doable in Canada). Starting at 8am from Ucluelet, we reached Victoria 7 hours and 5 different cars later. What an experience! Seems like 2 pretty, German girls with heavy backpacks look trustworthy. Luckily we only had to wait around 20 minutes each time to catch a ride and always met nice people - from the Dutch Family that drove us all the way to Nanaimo in their RV over the friendly, divorced guy who talked about ufos the whole time to the world traveler who earns his money by growing medical marihuana (completely legal of course!).
We catched the ferry from downtown Victoria to downtown Seattle at 6:45pm. This ferry ride was probably the best part of our Western Canada trip (not because Sabrina survived the ferry ride without throwing up) because halfway to Seattle we saw a beautiful sunset and 6 Orcas playing in the water right in front of the ferry. What a magical moment. No words can describe how we felt in that moment.
Once we arrived in Seattle, we headed straight to the airport. Now we have about 10 hours left before our flight leaves for Tokyo (via Los Angeles). The next report will be from The Land of the Rising Sun!
Cheerio,
Ann & Sabrina
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Banana Ladies that sound like you are having the time of your life. And the adventure has just begun. I am looking forward to read more stories!