Ireland day 0967. Wednesday 22 May 2024- Tofino 2

Today’s summary	After an alfresco breakfast, drove back down to the visitor centre at Wickaninnish. Went for a long walk north along the beach then had snacks with the family on South beach in the late afternoon. Dinner at The Inn At Wickaninnish (which isn’t at Wickaninnish) in the evening. Fabulous day again
Today’s weather	Dry with brilliant sun and blue sky all day. Strong to gale force north westerly wind which fell away by evening. Appx 14c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Wickaninnish

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

We are staying at a beach resort just outside Tofino at the moment and I have to say it’s really nice. OK there are no indoor dining facilities but as long as the weather stays dry and sunny as it is at the moment, it’s no great hardship to eat alfresco.

So alfresco breakfast it was, after a restful night lulled to sleep by the constant white noise of the Pacific surf. All very lovely.

We weren’t proceeding at breakneck pace today so it was after eleven before we had eaten and managed to get away. We decided not to go very far, and just drove back down the coast road towards Ucluelet, as far as Wickaninnish. (I should add that actually Val drove us – which was pretty good going for her as it’s one of the first times she has driven an automatic).

We’d seen how the former restaurant had become a visitor centre yesterday. But today we had more time so had a look round – it was quite interesting but a bit dated.

Then we set out to walk north along the beach – basically just to see how far we could get. We managed about 5km before we reached a river which was eminently crossable if we had been prepared to paddle thigh deep – or (more excitingly) shimmy across a log which had conveniently fallen across the creek. But commonsense sadly prevailed so we looped back on our tracks at that point and headed back to the visitor centre.

Once back, the rest of the family joined us and we enjoyed evening snacks on South Beach, which we accessed via a beautiful shady boardwalk through the rainforest.

This evening we are going to the the “new” Inn At Wickaninnish, which is in Tofino. We’re hoping that it’s as good as the original one was in 1991 – but will report back tomorrow.

Another truly amazing day in the Canadian sunshine!

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Inside the former restaurant, and now the National Park visitor centre, at Wickaninnish	Heading north on the giant beach. Just like Portmarnock, but without the people

A wading bird with a long beak – looked like a curlew but probably wasn’t	Me mid-shuffle across the fallen log crossing the river. Val less enthusiastic in the background

*A Lathyrus* (a type of pea) – one of six varieties growing in the dunes. This one complete with ladybird**	Jellyfish rapidly drying up on the back. Maybe it will be come a mud-fossil?

Heading onto South Beach for our late afternoon snacks. Perfect