Van Life Adventure to Vancouver Island'S Most Remote Spot [S7-E60]

Landslide area! Be prepared for the unexpected. I feel like I'm in a fairy forest. Isn't this amazing? These pillars of rock with trees growing out the top. Not sure where we're going now, that's getting a bit spooky now my sweet, we're lost in the woods. We're Marianne and Chris, in 2018 we quit the 9-5 and bought Trudy our campervan. We are currently on an adventure We've woken up here at Clint and Linda's house, we had a great night's sleep here in JB. It's a bit of an experience, we'll share with you tonight what it's like sleeping in such a small space, but it is a little bit chaotic isn't it Marianne? It's completely chaotic, oh well we didn't realise how much stuff we would be bringing with us, yeah like camera bags and everything else. Anyway, so after talking to the guys yesterday, we've actually come up with a slightly different route plan. So we're here in Campbell River, so now we've changed our route, not dramatically, but we're going to drive up to Port Hardy up here, and then we're going to cross and go to St Joseph Bay here. Apparently it's an epic beach that can only be accessed at low tide. Low tide today, we looked online, is four o'clock and the drive from Port Hardy to the bay is down a dirt track, and then you've got a 45 minute hike to get to the beach. We'll probably stop at Port Neal for a quick lunch on the way up. So we better hit the road, because we've got quite a long way to go today! JB started, always good! The weather's looking a little bit cloudy today, but hopefully it will brighten up for us. I love it! One thing we can't control is the weather, and so the next drive we've got a couple of hours drive North to Port McNeil, just in time for our early lunch I think. I'm hungry already! We're being good at the moment, so we're not having breakfast, so we're only having lunch and dinner. Yeah we've never really been people that worry about our weight, but my best friend Jenny's getting married, I love you Jenny, and I'm her bridesmaid, so I have to look gorgeous! You are gorgeous! Okay so first stop, we need a little bit of fuel, gas, diesel, no it's not diesel, don't go to diesel, we're unleaded Marianne! It's on my side, so just go that one there, and we can clean the windscreen. Okay all fuelled up, $78, 35 litres, let's see, hopefully it gets us most of the way there. Well we'll soon find out, Trudy is very economical, so this might be a shock for us! Because we're on tribal land, look the stop sign actually says Walla! So as we drive further North up the island, it's going to get more and more wild, because most of the habitated parts of the island, and most of the parts of the island that tourists go, are all on the South, so we're looking forward to getting up to the North of the island. We've heard that there's a good chance of seeing much more nature, and there's bears, there are a few wolves apparently, lynx, cougars, so there's a chance we'll be eyes peeled by the side of the road, in case we're lucky enough to see some of those today. This drive just highlights how big Vancouver Island is, and how many trees there are. I reckon Vancouver Island height-wise is probably the same size as England, so far it's just mile after mile of forest. Just passed a car in the trees there, that's never a good sign! We're just coming into a rest area, we decided to have a quick pull over, because we've got queues of cars behind us, and we want to take it slow and enjoy the drive today. There you go, that takes the pressure off, there's nothing worse than driving and trying to enjoy the scenery, and there's like 10 cars piling up behind you. I feel like they're risking their lives, because they're trying to overtake on a no overtake road, so I'd rather just do the least. Loving the way the mist is hugging the top of the mountains ahead of us, and all the the browns of the ferns dying back for winter, it's looking really really nice to drive. We're just driving up a hill, JB struggles a little bit getting up the hills, but she's doing good, and the sun is coming out. This is a good example of the forest management here, so the you can see on the first hill here, where they've replanted or let the woodland grow back, and on the hill right at the back, you can see where it's recently been logged. That's a nice river isn't it? There you go, we've only got about 15 minutes and we should be just in time for lunch, it's just after 12 o'clock now, we're just coming into the outskirts of town, past the fire station, you can see the water in the distance there, so we're going to head down to the marine harbour, the seafront and try and find somewhere to eat. Oh there's a little supermarket there, a Chinese restaurant, over the road works, fixing up the road, there we go, there's guses, is it open? Yeah it looks open, the open sign is on and there are cars outside, and there's a light! I love recommendations because you just know it's going to be wonderful. After a fabulous lunch, we are refuelled, ready to do the next bit, but we can't leave this wonderful little town without going to have a look at this amazing harbour, look at this! It's got a real Valdez vibe, but without the mountains! Yeah it does, it's so nice to come down to the water, I love these little harbour towns, you can see one of the ferries here leaving, one of the BC ferries, Vancouver Island has lots of islands dotted around, you can see them over here, and their only way to connect to the mainland is by these ferries, and there's a whole network of ferries that operate around the island. Okay Port Macneil is famous for something other than a lovely view, it apparently has the world's largest pearl, in fact I just found out it has the two largest pearls in the world, the first one is the largest and the second one is the heaviest, now we're only going to go and see one of them, but I popped into the visitor centre, and Chris who is incredibly helpful, thank you very much Chris, different Chris, different Chris, not that I have two Chris's in my life, but the Chris from the visitor centre explained to me, and I said what exactly technically is a pearl, and he explained that if a tree gets a disease, like a tumour or some kind of infection, it will create a protective ball around it, oh they're like those lumps on the sides of trees, and he said and that way the tree can often survive that disease. Well there you go, is it just me or does that look like an alien egg? That's weird as hell, the tree's not there anymore! The world's largest pearl, that is, can you just go stand in front of it to give it a bit of perspective, because it's very large, it's like a tree pimple, look at that, that is huge solid wood, wow that's pretty impressive. Okay back to JB, and we're heading now to the other side of the island, although we probably should get petrol while we're here, we should, because we've used half a tank, we have, there you go, and there won't be any petrol on the other side of the island, because we're going in the middle of nowhere. Okay refuelled, another 65 dollars of gas put in, petrol or whatever you call it, and we're off! We would like to say a huge thank you to Surfshark VPN for sponsoring today's video. So what is a VPN? It basically stands for Virtual Private Network, and by creating an encrypted tunnel, it keeps you and your data safe whilst you're surfing online. It's like having your own personal online security guard, but there's more to Surfshark than just online security, at the click of a button you can change your computer's virtual location, which makes it think it's somewhere else in the world, and in turn that unlocks content that wouldn't normally be available to you. And Surfshark VPN is the only company that allows use on an unlimited number of devices, and the very kind people at Surfshark have offered Tread the Globe followers a very special discount by clicking the link in the description below, or if you're watching on a TV, scan this QR code, use the code Tread the Globe and you'll get a whopping 83% discount plus three months free. Back to the show! So we've got the road map out and it's this road here, we're trying to go across to St Joseph Bay, and we're pretty sure it's this road here. Okay so we're trying this road, I reckon it's about an hour and a half down here and we should be good, if not it will be very scenic my sweetness! It will indeed! Oh it's nice to come off, apparently this road does turn into a dirt road a little bit further down. Gravel bumpy road, it started at an hour and 15 minutes to get there, to start the 45 minute hike to the beach for low tide. I don't know, when we make it, if we drive slowly because the road's bumpy, which it is, then maybe we'll miss low tide, but we'll have a nice drive anyway. Just passed a sign saying you are entering an active logging area, looks like we're entering a bear area, that's for sure! The roads are fine, you just got to take them nice and slow and we'll get there when we get there. We've got a spare tyre! So normally the logic goes that to see the most epic scenery in places, you have to go down the dodgiest roads. Well judging by this road, it's going to be one heck of an epic view! Well apparently St Joseph Bay at the end here, Clint and Linda said is one of those places tourists don't normally come so much, probably because it's so far away, but yet the beach when the tide goes out, he showed me some pictures, it looks absolutely amazing, so fingers crossed we make it there before the tides come in. And yeah, when we looked at what time low tide was early in the morning, it was something like four o'clock in the morning, which is no good because it will be dark. So this afternoon, this is the time of day to go at the moment, starting to look a little bit grey actually in the distance. We've been driving for about, I don't know what would you say? 15 minutes? 20 minutes? We haven't seen a car yet, we're definitely coming into one of the more remote places on the island. I'm not sure whether this is what she had in mind, sorry Aunt Julia! It's the other side of the tree, there's a lake we're running parallel to at the moment, and it looks pretty beautiful, it's just so thick with trees you really can't see. Why is it? What? Oh back up, did you see that? There looks like a tree covered in shoes, I need to just, I'm not sure what I just saw. What is that? Hiked Cape Scott, oh it's a hiking trail and then people that have hiked it leave their shoes at the end, how mad is that? I wasn't expecting to see that! There you go, there's a logging truck, just passed a sign saying slide area for the next 4km, so presumably that's a landslide area. Beautiful views here again, another lake we're going past, no bears yet, no bears but we're looking! Getting a bit muddy my sweetness, I know, what is that? Anyone would think we're on a forest road, they've been doing logging I think, be prepared for the unexpected and there's a tree on top of a car. Well that's unexpected, that's not expected, drive with caution, heavy vehicles, great! We pick all the best roads my sweetness! Okay it's 3.41am, we're just coming near Holberg here, we've got to go to St Joseph's Bay here, no tides in about half an hour and we've probably got an hour's hike and a half hour drive, so it's looking a little bit, we might have missed the boat a little bit. Holberg store, gas and diesel, welcome to Holberg, I don't know, East Hardway, should I just ask at the shop? You can do! The Holberg store, now we weren't planning on sleeping out here tonight, we haven't got any food, so we might be able to get some snacks just in case we don't make it back tonight. And it's open till, oh it's open till 7pm, that's great! Hi, how are you doing? Good man, where are you guys on your way to? St Joseph's Bay, oh yeah you're on the right track, salt and vinegar, salt and vinegar chips, What a nice chap, from South Africa of all places, and it must be hard to get supplies up here. Got a bit of tarmac road for a while, very interesting little community, Kate and Scott, yeah she said it's about 30 kms, oh St Joseph's Campsite 18 kms. Nice, we're just saying it's interesting how all the trees are pretty well bare up here, because we're further North than where we set off, and they're not pine as well, they're a different species. Yeah, we've just come into this opening and it looks weird how the trees are bare at the bottom, and then we're just in this area that's just all cut out, very strange. Oh my god, there's a bear right in the road, oh bless him, so we literally just came around the corner and there was a black bear just stood right in the middle of the road, first bear, today. Just when we thought we were getting lost, time was getting ahead of us, there is what looks like Cape Scott Provincial Park. Is this here? I don't even know where we are, there's a map over there, oh yeah let's go and look at the map. Okay so we've parked up now, I just want to make sure are we in the right place? Let's have a look, yes we are! Okay so although it's pretty late now, it's probably five o'clock and it's maybe a 45 minute walk each way, we thought we'd go down and see if we can have a look at the bay, see how the water is. We can always go back in the morning if it doesn't work out, but it'll be nice just to stretch the legs after sitting in the car all day. Yeah and i've got my keys jingling, actually a bear bell, yeah i've got i've got the bear spray just in case. Look at this path, this is fantastic, i feel like i'm really in a fairy forest here, look at this! Incredible, this is incredible, but we have a bit of a marching session to get there before dark. It's a bit spooky as the forest comes right up to the edge of the path, and i don't want to make a bear jump! Yeah i'm randomly shouting out, hey bear! Yeah we watched Alone, was it Alone or Survivor? No it's a series on Netflix called Alone, whilst we were up in Alaska, hey bear! And the survival expert teaches the people that are living on the island alone, to shout out hey bear! Just to let the bear know! But look how thick this wood is, yeah you wouldn't see a bear coming, you would not! Or a cougar, a lot of people have told us cougars are more scary because they approach you from behind! Yeah listen! Nothing, absolute silence, isn't that unusual in today's world? Complete silence, that's not good! Hey bear! It's hard to imagine the whole of the planet covered in crazy vegetation like this before we all built on it, but this makes me literally, it makes me feel like feel like i'm back in the dinosaur times! And big trees, huge! Oh it's mad, some of the trees have fallen over to make little bridges over the pathway, perfect cougar path! St Joseph's Bay 1.7 km, oh with a tent you can camp there maybe? This way! Never a good sign when you're walking along and just see a random hat on its own! Where's the guy? Hey cougar! And we cannot stop, even though we know we have a deadline of the tide, we cannot stop stopping to film what all is going on around us, because this is completely epic! So walking along, there's lots of different wild mushrooms and i'd love to know what they, yeah you see another one there, i'd love to know what they are, you know are they poisonous, non-poisonous, edible, non-edible? That's a really great knowledge isn't it, to have those foraging skills! If we're hanging out in the wilderness, we should probably do a foraging course! I don't have them yet! Got this cool bridge, the river's pretty well dry, look how much wood is in that! You can imagine this flowing in winter, a lot of debris, it's really rather spooky isn't it? What the hell are we doing? Let's go on an adventure! Yeah of course, you know the best time to see bears is when they come out in the evening, like now! Just look at the structure of that tree, it's like grown up there three or four bits. I wonder whether that tree just does that? It's just really weird isn't it? Or whether it's been damaged by storm and it has to, i don't know, it's like got little holes in the bottom. It's like that one, that tree's fallen down and that's grown around it and that's grown out of it. Oh it's amazing, absolutely amazing! Wow look at that for a view! Isn't that epic? We've got another walkway, we must be nearly there! I reckon we've probably got about an hour and a half of daylight left, and i don't want to get stuck, oh my god this bridge is moving! I don't want to get stuck in dark, suddenly getting brighter in the distance and i can hear waves, which means we must be nearly at the beach. I've got a feeling this is going to be pretty beautiful. Oh wow, look at this beach! Now normally the water goes out, it's not quite low tide, but it's still pretty good, and we're going to go and have a little walk down to have a look at these stone structures here. There's a bit of a mist coming in this evening, i think this was worth the walk love isn't it? Isn't this amazing? Absolutely, that sea mist coming in is making it just smell the sea, the sun's still thinking about coming out. Lovely, some guys just camping on the beach over there, you can pay and come down camping, oh it's easier walking on this, it's harder. Normally this whole beach, all of this is underwater, and if you come near low tide you can actually walk, and there's rock islands around here that you can walk around. We've just made it in time to to show you guys, yeah this is one of the islands, we're going to try and walk around it before the tide comes in. It's just coming in, you can see the one over there, it's completely surrounded, yeah but this you can see where the water would go up, normally this would all be all be underwater in another half an hour or an hour. The sun is just going down, we'll have to walk around this rock and then we need to start heading back, so we're not in the dark, but look you can see all the mussels on the rocks here. Wow look at that, isn't that amazing? They look like actually look like bonsai trees at the top there. I love walking between these rocks, look this is where the tide would come in, got seaweed down here, look how it's carved the rocks out, yeah the rocks are amazing. Now we have a rock guy in our community, Nick what sort of rock is this? It's very cool, and then we're coming in, look there's a tunnel there, look at that, just when i thought it couldn't get any better, we've come behind now, look at this giant bonsai tree, caves under there and then there's these pillars of rock with these trees growing out the top. That is just absolutely magnificent, I've never seen anything like it. Just walking along, what the hell is that bug? I was nearly leaning on it! How can you have on this rock right next to the beach, doesn't this go underwater? Yeah it must do! There's strawberry plants and there's actually little strawberry buds on them, look that's mad, looks like strawberries. Right what time is it Marianne? Six o'clock. We better, six o'clock was the deadline to be heading back, because it's an hour's walk and it gets dark by seven. We're going and we've got to go all the way to the end of the beach before we hit the path again. These are for keeping the campers, keeping the food away from the bears. They've got big heavy carabiners, so the bears can't get in, but it is starting to get dark, so we better get going. And what time do the bears come out to eat baby? Now! The sun's lighting up the trees, it's the last bit of sunlight as it goes down up there look. Okay so we've come back to JB, we've made it back before it gets dark, and rookie mistake, we just read the sign at the entrance to the car park and it says no overnight parking. The sign we saw where it says camping is allowed, is for people camping in the park, so there is a campsite nearby, we're going to go and see if we can try and find it before it gets dark, or somewhere else we can park up, because we like to stick to the rules if we can, if not i'm coming back. Yeah if not, well we have no choice, we'll have to come back. RV camping So let's try this, see it's getting dark in the trees now Marianne isn't it? You know what i'm like, i don't really like trees and foresty areas at night. Give me an open field any day, then you can see them coming for you. There's a bit of a few holes in the road love, there must be, unfortunately JB is quite high up, yeah not sure where we're going now love, at least we're coming out of the woods, there's a little bit of an opening there, but it looks like it's, have we gone too far? No there's only one road, boat launch and RV park, i'm not sure what the hell this is. This isn't an RV park is it? There's a shed there, we'll just have to keep driving down. There's a yurt, a pile of, well that house has collapsed, that was a house look at it, a few abandoned trucks and a tractor, and now we're going back into the woods. Oh my goodness gracious mate, you know when sometimes you think you might have made a mistake, i've made a mistake, i'm gonna give it five more minutes and then i'm turning around. Oh JB, no parking beyond this point, oh we have to turn around, that's bonkers. We've come to a dead end, well there's the boat launch, well there's no RV, there was a sign saying RV park, but it's not here is it? We'll have to go back to that car park, this is unusual for us not to be parked up before it gets dark, yeah we don't normally look for places in the dark, and we were going to go back to the parking lot where we started hiking, but saw there was a no overnight parking site. I don't understand, because the sign said RV park down here, unless it was the RV park and it collapsed, oh maybe. Maybe this was, this is getting a bit spooky now my sweet, we're lost in the woods. Okay we're back to the main road, we've made an executive decision, we're going back to the car park, we're not allowed to park in because it's getting dark and it's dangerous driving these roads, and we've tried the RV park and it wasn't there, we drove all the way to the end of the road as you saw. Okay we're back, we're back, we're going to set up camp here, I feel happy here, I'm happy here in this open area, it's open, moon's coming out, it's quiet, I know we're not necessarily supposed to park, but it is low season, yeah there's nobody else really here, there's a guy in the car at the end that waved at me when we came in, and like I say if somebody comes around, we'll bang them $20 and it should all be good, and we'll apologise, but we did try and we'll get JB ready, and then we have crisps for dinner tonight, and we can watch Netflix that we downloaded in bed. Okay we're getting the van ready, Marianne's got some curtains, she has to put, they just pop on the side there, they're good curtains, but they're they're not blackout curtains, which means we are up at the crack of dawn, but we'll probably leave at the crack of dawn tomorrow, because first of all we've got no food for dinner, because actually I misjudged today, because I thought we were going to get here, do the hike and get back to Port Hardy today, but of course Chris's judgment of the dirt road, Sam if you're watching, the hour and a half dirt road was a lot longer. What's really nice is Aunty Judy has lent us her van, so we still have a comfy bed and somewhere safe. We do, the bed is there, it's all comfy, we got the the mattress topper and we put it on top, so it's going to be cosy. Are we there yet? We've made it into bed, it's about eight o'clock, I don't know where the time has gone, it is very low under here, I don't know how anybody lives in one of these VW's, it's great to be able to use it for a weekend away, but it's not my cup of tea. You need a medal mate, I'm telling you, you need to do yoga just to be able to live in one of these. Six foot three man and that's why van lifers do yoga, because you need to be flexible to be able to bend in small spaces. Chris doesn't do yoga and he doesn't bend in small spaces.