Part 15. Barkley Sound cont'd

So we left Eagle Nook lodge on a beautiful fall morning. The trip to Bamfield would take approx 30 mins. Once there the plan was to spend a little time looking around and then meeting the Francis Barkley for the return to Port Alberni.

Bamfield.
Bamfield was named after William Eddy Banfield who arrived in the summer of 1859 and was the first white settler in Barkley Sound. Those of you who are observant will notice a deliberate mistake (Banfield/ Bamfield). The change of the spelling was made after a cartographer's error in 1861.
Bamfield realised that this site would take advantage of possible lumber exports, a whaling station, good fishing for both herring and salmon and a better investment for English capital! Today it is a sleepy fishing village, the start of the West Coast Trail, and the home of the Bamfield Marine Station.
The West Coast Trail is known world wide and people come from far and wide to experience this rugged wilderness. The whole trail is 77Km long and a strict booking system helps to keep hikers safe.

The Bamfield Marine Station is a facility offering labs, classrooms, digital imaging facilities etc for schools, universities and other establishments wanting to study marine life. As you can see from the image above it is a large facility and used year round. Charlotte spent a couple of fun packed days here with her school a few years ago, mooching in rock pools and then in the lab looking at their finds.

Bamfield can be reached by both boat and road. The road, however, is not for the faint hearted, being approx 55km on gravel road!!
The village itself is situated on two side of the inlet. One accesible by road the other not. There is a store, post office, hospital, school, library and various houses and cabins including plenty of B and B's.
There are also the ' cat houses'. These house the group of semi feral cats who live there. It is quite the set up with a rotor of volunteers who sign up at the local store for feeding and cleaning duties.

Once you have pulled yourself away from these beautiful houses the people have just as lovely properties. There is a boardwalk that runs along the north side of Bamfield inlet, connecting this side with the road. It is a lovely walk viewing the many eclectic houses, boats and general scenery of the area.
There is also a Coast Guard Station which services the west coast and on call for the hikers on the West Coast Trail.

Back on board the Barkley it was full steam ahead to Port Alberni...Oh we did stop to pick up one man his dog and his boat that needed a tow! Yes it was the same man and dog from a few days before!
You never know what you will encounter on this interesting, working vessel.

Part 15 Barkley Sound

As mentioned in the previous post we made a side trip to Barkley Sound to visit with Richard and Janice. They have moved there to caretake a lodge and so it was a good opportunity to visit and see a part of the coast we are not familiar with.
The journey started in Port Alberni where we boarded the MV Francis Barkley. This is a 128 foot passenger/cargo vessel that delivers people, freight and mail to the remote places in Barkley Sound and Bamfield.

This boat was built in 1958 in Sweden and was used as a car ferry in the Norwegian ferry fleet. She can carry 200 passengers and 100 tons of freight. These details played a major role in the vessel coming to BC as the ALberni Marine Transportation Company were looking for just such a vessel. She was sailed across the Atlantic and through the Panama Canal in June of 1990 on a journey of 51 days. Today she has a schedule from Port Alberni to Bamfield/ Ucluelet and the Broken Islands with passengers and freight.

Our first stop was in Uchucklesaht Inlet and the community of Kildonan. Here we stopped at a couple of houses delivering a dish washer, one man and his dog, and a quick stop at the post office! Yes, that is the post office in the image above! Their mail comes in much like ours, three times a week.
We were the next stop as the skipper so profesionally told everyone, we were doing a boat to boat rendevous. This entailed Richard and Janice coming along side and us taking a step out of the Barkley into their boat. All done with precision if I say so my self and no wet feet!!
As this boat is a 'working vessel' you never quite know what to expect as far as deliveries are concerned which makes it so very interesting.

Our home from home for the next few days was to be at Eagle Nook Lodge. Richard and Janice have moved their sail boat round there and are established for the winter/spring season. This lodge caters to about 25 people at any one time. They arrive by either boat or helicopter and once here can partake in fishing charters, kayak tours, eco tours or just relaxing with one of the many spa treatments on offer.
We enjoyed the area and went on a few hikes on the 70 acre poperty but spent many hours talking and catching up with our freinds who we hadn't seen since early summer.

This is a view from the top of one of the trails.
Of course some of these lodges have many toys to play with! Boys will be boys!!!

It was so good to see our friends are to see a different part of the country. More to come on the return journey and our visit to Bamfield.