Kayak Camping - Day 2

After a shockingly comfortable night of sleep in the midst of the temperate rainforest along the Johnstone Strait, our guides woke us up early this morning with loads of coffee and a delicious breakfast, so we could get packed up and on our way. 

Zoe had the special experience of celebrating her 14th birthday on the trip and was wished happy birthday by all and sundry, including a special drawing from our guide Luca.

Is it a campsite? Or jurassic park?

Breakfast/cleanup was interrupted by a long blowing sound, and we looked across the water and were fortunate to see a humpback whale taking a series of breaths before showing off its fluke and diving down deep. 

I know Brad mentioned it in the last post, but I cannot get over what an amazing trip this was.  After seeing two different groups of orcas yesterday, including right from our campsite, we felt so fortunate to be able to have this experience. 

Once we got everything packed up, we set out enshrouded in fog and headed toward the Robson Bight, a nature reserve where boats are not permitted - we paddled as far south as Boundary Beach, where our guide Jesse took us on a secret hike up into the mountain where we slipped and slid our way up the mud to a set of massive old growth cedar. It was totally worth the mudbath.

This massive, ancient tree was awe-inspiring. Almost as awe-inspiring as me deciding to hike up a mountain in a kayak skirt and lifejacket.

We slid back down the mountain then hopped back into our kayaks and made our way back up the coast, where we were greeted with dozens of jellyfish, and also saw seals, bald eagles, loads of jumping salmon and all sorts of other sea life.

Seals! Loved floating by these guys

Zoe punctuated the experience with periodic serenades via kelp horn, and Rosie spent most of her time spotting jellyfish with her eagle eyes, and peppering our very patient guides with her endless questions about everything she saw.

Jellyfish! We saw so many but this guy was super colourful.

All told, we paddled about 20km yesterday (after about 13 yesterday), so my aching shoulders were pretty happy to see Telegraph Cove appear in the distance. 

OMG it's Telegraph Cove! A welcome site after almost 35km of paddling over two days.

This may have been perpetuated by my kayak mate, who was so busy revelling in birthday wishes that she may not have remembered to paddle for much of the trip.

We bid farewell to our fellow tourmates (a fantastic family from the Netherlands, with two wonderful teens who got along amazingly with the girls) and to our guides, and made our way out of Telegraph Cove and back down to Campbell River. 

I cannot recommend North Island Kayak enough. Their two day family sea kayaking trip was the perfect adventure for our family - our guides, Jesse and Luca, were entertaining and hardworking and we felt like we got to enjoy this magical part of Canada from a truly special vantage point.

Birthday cheers!!

After a late birthday dinner at Boston Pizza, we are reorganizing our gear (and drying a lot of it - everything that went into the rainforest came out so very very moist...lol) and getting prepped for a big hike tomorrow to Bedwell Lake.  

Very excited and also a little nervous as to whether we'll be up to it after two days of solid adventure. Will report back.