Harbour at Telegraph Cove, Vancouver Island
Telegraph Cove, Vancouver Island
Drinks with Walter at Belle Vue B&B, Courtenay, Vancouver Island
After a well earned night’s sleep we had a hearty, home prepared breakfast served by Mayela with lots of chat and merriment. She’s a Peruvian and has lived in Canada married to a Welshman for over 30 years. She obviously enjoyed chatting and was keen to hear of our travels and to give friendly advice on things to see and do on Vancouver Island.
The local Budget Rent-a-car man, Rob picked us up and drove us to his depot and organised all the formalities for us hiring the car (a near new red Dodge Caravan). The car has six seats but we’ve put the two back seats down to give ourselves a station wagon which turned out to be absolutely ideal.
Our drive down the eastern side of Vancouver Island followed the main highway with a diversion out to Telegraph Cove for lunch.
This inlet is a delightful spot with a well-protected marina surrounded by steep hillsides covered with dense forest for all but the narrow entrance to the cove. At the cove there are a few houses, a resort and a shop where we sat in warm sunny conditions and relaxed whilst enjoying a bite to eat and some coffees. The temperature would have been about 25oC. There was a small jewellery shop nearby and the girls bought locally made blown glass pendants with marine motifs in other coloured glass inside.
We then continued on our southwards journey past areas of high mountains and hillsides where large areas had been logged for both timber and paper pulp production. Being close to the sea means that many of the spruce logs are transported by floating them in large rafts towed by tug-boats.
After leaving the main highway and following a coast road to the town of Courtenay and we arrived at ‘Belle Vue’ which is the B&B recommended by Rae and Malcolm Wells. We quickly realised why their recommendation was made. The Jordan’s home is right on the waterfront with beautiful gardens, spacious rooms and excellent facilities.
We joined Walter (Haideh, his wife is away at a dog show for three days) for drinks on the front terrace and he advised us of a nice restaurant (‘Locals’) for dinner and of possible activities for tomorrow.
The restaurant specialised in produce from the local area and was quite up-market and obviously very popular gauging from the number of people present.
After a very pleasant dinner we returned to ‘Belle Vue’ for an early night and an opportunity to catch up on emails etc.