We're going on a Bear Hunt, RV trip with Kids - Day 5 Ucluelet and Bear Watching

[Campinggirl]

This was the day I was most looking forward to. We had booked a bear watching tour just before leaving the UK with a company called Subtidal Adventures which cost $374 dollars, these tours leave at low tide (which is the best chance of seeing bears) so we were booked on at 11.30.

We woke up and I cooked breakfast of bacon and eggs, I had to remove the smoke alarm from the RV every time I turned the burner on as it was so sensitive it even went off when boiling water , I did put it back after cooking though!

I then hopped back into the driver seat to drive to Ucluelet for the tour. The road at Wya Point to the main road is like 'offroading', not an easy drive. They do warn you about it on their website but it was worse than I realised, worth it for the views though if you are brave enough .

Today I struggled with the van, we got on to the 'main road' to Ukee and even with the Sat Nav we weren't 100% sure where we were going so I drove at a reasonably slow pace when we reached the town so that we didn't overshoot. Anyway when we turned onto the driveway of the cafe/ shop which houses Subtidal Adventures we were followed by a guy driving a van, assuming that there must be something wrong with the RV I wound the window down to be told to be 'more considerate of the locals' and drive a bit faster! Given that Ucluelet's main industries are tourism and fishing I was a bit peeved by him and couldn't really work out why, if he was in such a hurry, he had the time to follow me off road to lecture me! Simon thought it was really funny as I am by no means a slow driver normally!

We were a little early for the tour so had a coffee/ kids had a hot choc and then we crossed the road and headed down to the little marina to board the Dixie IV.

The tour was again amazing , the Dixie IV is a small ex-police boat there were only 9 of us on the tour so it was much more intimate than the tour from Victoria, our host Brian, was very knowledgeable and we thought he had the perfect job! Again whilst bear sightings are not guaranteed these guys know what they are doing and we saw 3 bears, raccoons, seals, eagles and a humpback on the tour! Brian found the humpback and radioed the other boats in the area to alert them!

Here are some pics, apologies again for the poor quality!

Again we were on the boat for 3 hours and the time flew! There were some German Tourists on the boat who we spotted a few days later on a campsite in Clearwater which was a strange coincidence!

After the tour we hopped back into the RV and I made some sandwiches and coffee as we were all peckish, Simon then took the kids for an ice cream.

I was now feeling quite nervous about driving, thanks to the guy this morning, so we just drove down the road to the COOP for some more food and then back to the campsite. I was relieved to park up!

We then went and watched the sunset on the Pacific Ocean and the kids enjoyed the beach and the sea!

We then went back to the RV for steak and a campfire! This was the only time we were able to have one as most of British Columbia and Alberta had campfire restrictions due to the forest fires.

The next day we were to make the journey back across the Island so we had a reasonably early night, despite the difficult access this campsite remains one of my favourites!

[Melbatb]

What a rude man!

The tour looks fabulous - how lucky to see such a variety of wildlife! I bet the water was cold - DH and the kids has a day surfing when we were there and it was about 16C

[Campinggirl]

Originally Posted by Melbatb

What a rude man!

The tour looks fabulous - how lucky to see such a variety of wildlife! I bet the water was cold - DH and the kids has a day surfing when we were there and it was about 16C

See more...

I bet it was cold, I wasn't brave/ stupid enough to go in!

[jocat]

Today was such a lovely day for you all, well apart from that man! The bear watching tour sounds fantastic.

You’re doing so well with the van. I wouldn’t be able to do it at all.

[disney owl]

exciting to see bears!

[Pussycat Doll]

Great day!