Vancouver Island, Canada

Finally the bike arrived and we took off, we took a long drive up north from Vancouver and got a brief taste of the snow capped mountain ranges that form the Rockies. We then headed back down south and took a ferry over to Vancouver Island. We were so keen to make tracks we headed straight down the highway until we met another motorbiking couple at the traffic lights who stopped had a coffee with us and encouraged us to get off the beaten track and see some of the island. It has been amazing to me to be a part of the motorcycling community, there is an automatic camaraderie. The highway wasn't all that pretty so we decided to take their suggestion. We made our way to a small town called Port Renfrew and the drive was beautiful, still lakes and tall pine wood trees, the temperature was rapidly dropping though and we were turning numb. Eventually we arrived and found a comfortable place to stay for the night, we had planned on camping but it was just too cold. The next day we headed for the ferry terminal to catch a boat to the US and complete the final border crossing of the whole trip!

On our way to the ferry we drove through miles of dark pine wood forests and were amazed to see a black bear at the side of the road, he was gorgeous and looked so cuddly with his big black furry feet. He was peeking at us from behind a tree at the side of the road. We waited and eventually he came out and casually sauntered across the road and walked along looking for berries by the side of the road. We had been told that the black bears eat berries not people so we weren't too fearful for our safety. We were quietly thrilled. Further along we also saw a graceful deer in the forest, she looked at us and gently silently walked away, she seemed to vanish magically into the forest. Deer have always been my favourite animal but I have had to love them from afar as there are no deer in Australia! This was the Canada we had been hoping for.