HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARK T. (FROM US & LUCA)! Sorry, but this could be a BELATED Birthday greeting if we don’t have a signal from the new campground, again.
TRAVEL DAY
From: Cowichan River Provincial Park, Stoltz Pool Campground, British Columbia.
To: Little Qualicum Falls Campground, Lower Campground, British Columbia.
Day 252 – We were up early this morning, therefore we could take our time packing up. We departed Cowichan River Provincial Park at 10:20 a.m. It was 60 degrees and partly sunny. Because there were no hook-ups and no dump station, we had to drive west to Lake Cowichan to dump tanks and get fresh drinking water for the next campground, which also had no hook-ups. This extra step added an hour to our travel time.
The drive was mostly on major roads and mostly from city to city. The mountains were in the distance and we had a few glimpses of the Ocean between the mainland and Vancouver Island. There were still plenty of trees and logging trucks. We drove through the large city of Nanaimo and encountered some traffic, but for the most part there wasn’t too much stop and go.
We arrived at Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park, Lower Campground, at 12:50 p.m. It was 65 degrees and partly sunny with a nice breeze. We had reserved site #L79, sight unseen, and when we got there, we were happy to see that it was a nice site and no one was camping near us – yet. We minimally set up camp, let the girls out, and we all had lunch. Then we finished setting up and Rob put up the screened tent. We spent the rest of the afternoon in the tent. It was very quiet and very pretty with lots of birds and a few bugs. Rob took a picture of a Rhinocerous-like Beetle that was crawling up the outside of the tent. Personally, I was glad it was on the outside.
This campground is off Route 4, an east-west highway that runs from Parksville above Nanaimo on the eastern Vancouver Island side to the west side of the Island and the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve near the towns of Tofino and Ucluelet. The west side of Vancouver Island at Tofino/Ucluelet is a very popular destination for travelers on the Island. We will be going there in one week.