RV Camping Vancouver Island: It's a Whirlwind!

Hi everyone, so we are waiting for a ferry to Victoria or Schwartz Bay. Yeah, we're off to actually a anniversary dinner for our friends Mike and Jane. Happy 40th. And then we're doing a trip on Vancouver Island, it's kind of like one day we're one place, one day we're somewhere else. Yeah, I think there's only one place we're staying for two nights. Yeah, it was just, we, end of summer so we wanted to get reservations and that was almost difficult, almost impossible to get more than one day anywhere. Yeah. But I think we're just very grateful to be able to travel and we had the advance booking for the island because we have a lot of smoke everywhere now, wildfires, and wildfire situation's pretty bad. Although today we just found out that things in Kelowna are looking better. Yeah, West Kelowna, at least it's optimistic and there's been a lot of devastation both there and in the Shushwap area, just a lot of challenges. Yeah, people have lost their homes. Yeah, so really tough. There was, at least today it sounded like the weather was sort of looking a little more positive and hopefully that works out for everyone. Yeah. Our hearts go out and our thoughts go out to everybody who's been affected. So yeah, so we're off to the island and we hope you enjoy this video. Spot 74, which is actually about the price. And we'll probably plug in because we're actually running AC right now. It's cool enough just to use the fan and the windows, but the air quality is still not so great. Good morning everyone. Good morning. We're at Fort Victoria. Fort Victoria. Yeah, RV park. And we actually really like it. Yeah, we've stayed here a couple times. It's a big campground and I think a lot of it is actually permanent people, but there's lots of spots for people that are just here for a day or two. Nice washrooms, old building, but you know, everything's quite nice. And then close to the bicycle trail of which name I can't... Galloping Goose. Is it Galloping Goose? Yeah. It's a nice paved biking trail. So you're only a short bike ride to downtown Victoria or you can go many kilometers to the north and to the west I guess. Yeah, and so last night we actually took a cab over to the Oak Bay Hotel. Yeah, Oak Bay Beach Hotel. Beach Hotel. Yeah, beautiful hotel on the water. Yeah, we were there for our friends Michael and Jane's, it was their 40th anniversary. They were married there. And so we had a wonderful dinner with a few friends. We had a wonderful host who guided us through a series of different courses. It was so nice of Michael and Jane to invite us to help us celebrate their 40th anniversary. Yeah, and you'll remember Michael from the Caget's Scott video. Yes, so it's just about time to check out. Yeah, everybody's packing up to leave. Yeah, so we're going to head up island. So it's been a very nice stay. Air quality's been mixed with some of the smoke from some of the fires, but this morning it doesn't actually look bad at all. It looks great actually. Yeah, all the haze is gone. So we're very fortunate to be on the island. Yeah, so we're looking forward to the next few days of our adventure. We're just doing a little detour around Mill Bay. Yes. Yeah. Borden is reminiscing about his childhood spent on the beach. Yes, we used to do a lot of picnicking here. It's very pretty. Yeah, it's a nice area. I think he wants to inflate the raft. That's a good spot. Campsite spot number 24. We're getting a little bit of sun right now. We were in the shade for a little while. Forest and hills behind us, and a river just off this way. Well, that was fun. I almost got stuck in one spot because I took the area that was a little too shallow. But pleasant. But I think I'm going to get out here. Hey, that was quick. How was it? It was fine. It was nice. It's only a short run, like 20 minutes. And then I pulled out just at the entrance to the park, I think. Because that's the last sort of easy pull out. Is that where the boat launches? Yeah. It should just be the trail down to the water. And several of the campsites were actually open. I was quite surprised about that. Probably a half a dozen just on the walk back on the road. Some space is still available. Great. Some room at the inn. Perfect. All right, to celebrate my river journey, which I'm going to refer to as my journey down the Yukon River. Even though we're nowhere near the Yukon and the river's nowhere near this size. And to celebrate, I have Moon Underwater Dry Side of the Moon IPA. Now, this is a non-alcoholic beer made in lovely Victoria. And I think it has 80 calories. 20 grams of carbohydrates. One gram of protein. And this is actually a gift from our friends Michael and Jane. While we were attending their anniversary dinner, they also had gifts for folks being there. We received some non-alcoholic beer, and some wine, and some lovely chocolates. It was quite a surprise. And maybe something to our detriment of our trip, they gave us a map to Vancouver Island that has a bunch of the wineries. So Mickey's been trying to spot all the wineries as we drive up. Anyway, this is a good beer. I've had it before. This is a beer that Art Mike introduced to me on our last trip out to Cape Scott. This is for Mickey. She's still in the van with the windows all open, just trying to keep it cool for Finch. And for me. And because it's non-alcoholic, I can drink quite a bit more. Taste it and think. Cheers. Tastes like real beer. Yeah, it's excellent. Or as we say on our channel often, amazing. And a beautiful morning. No smoke. Blue sky. Morning. We're at the Cowichan River Provincial Park. And we're not too far out of Duncan. Probably about half an hour. It's a beautiful park right along the river. It's fun. A lot of people have their floaties and they float down the river. I'm in a pack raft, all geared for a little bit more hardcore. And then there's people floating down behind me that are in little rubber floatie boats. We've got a nice campsite. Most of the sites are nicely treed, so there's some shade, which is important for us. Yeah, it's just beautiful. And then we're just out right now on Stoltz Trail. Which seems to sort of loop the campground. It's not a big, heavy, hard hike or anything along that line. But a beautiful way to spend the morning. Yeah, we're enjoying the sun through the trees and the beautiful big tree right in front of us. Yeah, beautiful big maple. It's really nice. So, so far, highly recommend. Thumbs up. Yeah, and if all goes to plan, we're going to be heading over to Strathcona Park this morning. Took us about 40 minutes, 35 minutes, something like that, to do the loop. Good morning. Good morning, everyone. We're actually at Strathcona Park. Yes, Buddle Lake. Buddle Lake Campground, yeah. We did go to the Ralph River Campground previously, but we haven't stayed at this one yet. That was a few years ago, and if you watched that video, you may recall there was quite a bit of smoke. Whereas on this trip, there's just quite a bit of smoke. Actually. Actually, there wasn't any yesterday. No, yesterday, yesterday it was beautiful. We had blue skies, looked really nice. You know, when I was a child, I remember seeing a movie that I think was relatively old called, I think it was, if today is Tuesday, this must be Belgium. And if my memory is correct, I doubt it is. But it was a movie about someone who was doing a whirlwind tour of Europe and sort of a different country, different day. So, of course, by noting what day it was, they knew what country they were in. And although this is only our third campsite in three days, I kind of feel that this is my Tuesday, this is Belgium moment. Although, in this case, if this is Tuesday, this must be Strathcona Park. All right, tonight we're having Beyond Meat burgers. I get two. We've already got the burgers made up, and we've got some coleslaw to go with it. It started to rain in the middle of the night. And Gordon scrambled out to get the patio furniture under some trees. Yeah, which didn't do much good. And then I noticed it was really smoky then. And you can see, just if you look around us, there's both heavy cloud up higher, but there's also a good layer of smoke. So when you first get out of the van, it smells like you're near a campfire. So I was going to go out for a paddle in this little lake called Darkest Lake, which we hiked up to yesterday, and then we went to the other side of the beach. But it was hard to get motivated on a day that might rain, and it's smoky to want to come out for a paddle. So we're down here at one of the beach access points. Yeah, it's at the other end of the campground from where we are. We're in site 47. Yeah, so the far end when you come in. Past the playground. And we just did a little walk, I don't know, about... Half a K, kilometer, something like that maybe? Yeah, something like that, yeah. But it's nice, you come out into this little peninsula. You get a nice view of the mountains, and you can see the, I don't know if the camera will see it, but you can see the light smoke everywhere. Plus, just some nice clouds on the side of the mountain. So it's nice and moody. So we're just here for one night. I do wish it was going to be a nice sunny day. I really would have liked to have gone for a little paddle on Darkest Lake, Buddle Lake, maybe at some point in the future. We really like Vancouver Island, and we're... I mean, Strathcona Park, if you're aware, is... I guess it's sort of... It's not really central Vancouver Island, but maybe close to it. We're still a good three hours if we were to go up to northern Vancouver Island, which actually we are heading up to in a couple days. Do you feel like Gilligan? A little beach hut for the next day. Well, I guess we have to go home, so... Next time we're here, this is where I'm staying. Sounds perfect for you. Okay, that's pretty much everything we have outside. Our mat, a thermostat, a couple of chairs and a table. They're all damp, but they're not soaking wet. And then, of course, I turn off the propane under here. I don't know if you'll be able to see it. Yeah, it's done. So, all that takes about five minutes. Not too bad. That's one of the things we like about our camper van. It takes us a little longer to get organized inside, just to put some things away, but... Yeah. It is nice to just pull in, pull a few things out. And when we leave, five, seven minutes, we're gone. We're actually at Miracle Beach Provincial Park. In some ways, we... Staying here, we also got to have showers. Yeah. Although Mickey seemed to use up all the hot water. I know. She comes back telling me how warm the showers were. And mine were so cold that I got wet and then soaped up and then got back in the water and rinsed off. The spots are really nice. Big, huge spaces. And we've got about, maybe, I don't know, a five-minute walk to the beach, which we're just heading to now. That way. So, we're just walking on the trail. Our friend Henry was here a little while ago, and he told us that it was, A, hard to find the Santa Dump. No, actually, he said the Santa Dump was right by one of the spots. So, we used the Santa Dump at Elk Falls. And then he did say it was a long walk to the beach. He said sometimes people drive, but maybe if you're at the back of the beach. We were, I don't know, three, five minutes to get here. Though there's a lot of trails, so if you didn't take the most direct route, it could take a little longer. Yeah, from the back of the campground, it might take a little longer. You walk on the estuary trail. Powell River's just behind that island, I believe. That's Harwood Island. This is Black Creek Estuary. You can see how low the water is right now. Gordon's so cold. He's standing in a little patch of sunshine to keep warm. It's a little cool this morning. Or at least I got cold when I was down at the beach. This is my vegan breakfast sandwich. So, I've got tomatoes, some vegan bacon, and vegan just egg. So, we really enjoyed our stay at various campgrounds in part one of our Vancouver Island Blitz. The reason why we say that is because we just have gone to so many different places. Every night, we were at a different campsite. Some people travel that way all the time. I find it a little tiring. Yeah, well, especially for the driver. But we had a nice time. Fort Victoria was a great place to stay. Working our way up. Cowichan River was nice. It was nice to get in a little paddle. Probably if I'd gone farther up the river, I would have had a little bit longer paddle. So, that was nice. And then we moved our way up to Bottle Lake Campground at Strathcona Provincial Park. Because we could have had a nice paddle up on Darkest Lake or Bottle Lake itself. So, that would have been fun. Yeah, and the campsite itself was really nice. Yeah, very private. It was great. And then we moved on to Miracle Beach. And Miracle Beach is a really nice provincial campground. I would describe it as a family campground. And by that, I mean, well, it's popular with families. So, that means it's very busy during the day. Loud, kids doing endless loops on their bikes. Kids playing, just doing kids stuff. But then when it gets dark, it quietens down. Very, very quiet. Yeah, and they have good facilities. A shower building. They have flush toilets. And they have a sandy dump. The beach was wonderful. I enjoyed it. It was nice. So, we hope you enjoyed Part 1 of our Vancouver Island trip. And if you did, please be sure to give us a thumbs up and subscribe to our channel if you haven't done so already. And stay tuned for our next video. We'll be exploring a little bit more of... Northern Island. Yeah, Northern Island and the Campbell River area.