Trains and Grizzly Bears, A Canadian Roadtrip - Vancouver to Campbell River, BC

Friday, September 13

Our plan for today is to take a cab back to the Rocky Mountaineer Train station, pick up our car, and then drive to the BC Ferry Terminal and catch the ferry to Vancouver Island where we'll be spending the next week.

Today is Friday the 13^th, and I’m glad we’re not superstitious or I might be worried about what today might bring.  Since our ferry reservation for Vancouver Island wasn’t until 12:45, we had some time to relax this morning.  We originally had planned to catch the 11:00 AM ferry from Horseshoe Bay in North Vancouver, but they were booked up and we would be on standby.  We didn’t want to take a chance on not getting across so we made reservations at the larger Tsawwassen terminal in South Vancouver, but they didn’t have anything that would be convenient for us before 12:45.

I don’t know whether Friday the 13^th was a factor or not, but we did have one bit of bad news; when we got up this morning, Val looked over at me and said “I got it” and I immediately new what she meant – she had gotten my cold.  I haven’t really mentioned my cold in the last few days because it is nearly gone and I feel much better.  I feel really bad that I have passed it on to Val, but hopefully it will be will be as short lived as mine was.

We wanted to give ourselves plenty of time to get to the ferry, so at 10:00 I called the bell desk and asked for our luggage to be picked up and for a cab.  A bellman was up shortly and a few minutes after that were at the front of the hotel and in our taxi.  It was only a ten minute ride to the Rocky Mountaineer Train terminal.  A train had left at 7:00 AM this morning, but it was very quiet when we arrived and the only person we saw was a security person making sure we belonged there.  As we had come to expect, he was very helpful and friendly and even helped us load our luggage.

It was about a 40 minute drive to the ferry terminal and even though we were a little unsure of the route, we made it without problem and very little traffic.  It was really easy finding our ferry as the entry lanes were all clearly marked.  There was a booth to buy our tickets and we were directed to a lane to wait in so all we had to do was sit back and wait.  Because we were a bit unsure about the whole process, we got there quite early and had to wait an hour.  We were hungry and had saved our Rocky Mountaineer cookies from last night so we ate those to tide us over until we boarded the ferry.

Around 12:15 we noticed the ferry had arrived and cars and trucks were unloading, so at 12:30, it was time for us to load.  We were on the Coastal Inspiration which I believe is a larger and newer ferry.  There are three auto / truck decks that have a capacity of 310 vehicles.  There was a benefit for getting there early as we one of the first to board, we would therefore be one of the first to get off.

The ferry docked next to us is the Spirit of Vancouver Island.  It is older, but is the largest ferry in the fleet.

After parking, we made our way up to the passenger deck and settled in for the nearly two hour crossing.  There were two enclosed passenger decks plus an open deck on top and they were huge.  There was a coffee / snack shop at one end and a full service food court at the other end.  There was a large shop selling all sorts of things, a kids area, an arcade and various types of seating all over.  The first thing Val did was get herself some tea and I explored a bit.  I found where the food court was, but the lines were horrendous so we decided to wait to eat.

After being underway for about a half an hour, the lines disappeared and we had lunch.  We ended up sharing a french dip sandwich with french fires and it was very good, a far cry from the greasy spoon fast food that was offered the last time we were on the ferries, which was over 20 years ago.  I don’t know whether it was just because we were on a newer ferry or they have upgraded the food on all of them, but we were impressed.

It was still raining, so we stayed inside and returned to our seats and found that we had lost them so we found some others a bit less to our liking, but still very comfortable.  Time went by pretty quickly and soon we were arriving at the Duke’s Point ferry terminal, just south of Nanaimo on the East Coast of Vancouver Island.  We returned to our car and it wasn’t long before we were headed north towards Campbell River, our destination for the night.

It was raining and there was a bit of traffic since it was Friday afternoon, but we made relatively good time on our drive to Campbell River.  The last time we were here, which as I said was quite a while ago, they were working on a North-South inland highway on the East Coast of the Island, but if I remember correctly, it didn’t go very far past Nanaimo.  It now appears to be complete at least as far a Campbell River and it made the drive north much easier.  The drive along the coast is more scenic, but there are numerous small towns and traffic slows to a crawl through some of them so the highway built a little bit inland is much more efficient.

We have rented a cottage in Campbell River, which is right on the beach of the east coast Vancouver Island.  We arrived in Campbell River just before 5:00 and found our home for the next four nights without much trouble.  It’s a bit tucked away so we missed the driveway the first time by, but turning around we drove right to it.

The house turned out to be very nice, nothing fancy, but a great location on the coast.  After dropping off our luggage (no more delivery 😕 ) we drove a short distance to a market and got some food and drink supplies.  Val got the makings for chili for tomorrow night, but for tonight we didn’t feel like going out or cooking so we got some meat, cheese and crackers which made for a very pleasant dinner sitting and watching the beautiful view out the living room windows.

There is a hot tub out on the deck and Val decided a good hot soak might make  her feel a little better so that’s what we did.  It was very enjoyable sitting in the tub out on the deck with a view of the coast.  At one point a large cruise ship passed by.  This is where a lot of the cruise ships on their way or returning to Alaska pass by, but it seemed a little early as the ones docking in Vancouver usually come by later in the night, but maybe it was headed to Seattle.

The Holland America Nieuw Amsterdam sails by.

Val called it a night early, which is good as nothing helps a cold more than rest in my opinion.  I stayed up awhile working on the blog as I had fallen behind and then after reading a bit, followed Val to bed.  We have nothing planned for tomorrow except for doing laundry, which is badly needed.