Onboard The MV Uchuck
William and I drive to Vancouver, B.C. and took the ferry over to Vancouver Island. Our destination was the Gold River, which was about a five hour dive from the ferry terminal. We ran into a snag when we got to the ferry and discovered it was a Canadian holiday and didn’t know to make a reservation for the ferry. We ended up waiting about three hours to catch one to the island. That, with the long drive, we didn’t get to Gold River until around midnight.
There was nobody around to check us in at the campground, so we just pitched out tent in an empty space. It was raining, which added to our misery. We were exhausted and could wait to get snuggled in our sleeping bags!
We woke up around 5am to find that there was about 2″ of water inside our tent, soaking all our clothes. Our dry clothes were still in our car, so we had to put on the wet, cold clothes. At this point, we looked at each other and said, “Motel!”
We found a vacancy in a motel down the street and stripped off our wet clothes and hopped into a hot shower. After eating a nice breakfast, we drove to the dock to board the MB Uchuck (the locals call it the upchuck – LOL).
This working vessel takes mail, travels, equipment, etc. around the island. It carries passengers who just want to see the scenery and wildlife.
It was still raining off and on, which made for a miserable day, but we ran into luck at Friendly Cove, where the ship stopped for two hours. We had lunch there and explored the trails and church. The property is owned by native people and we got to see some of their totem poles.
I want to do this trip again in the future and maybe spend the night at the campground at Friendly Cove.
