This was a contented looking bear. Not especially big, but still with those powerful front legs. We stood, shivering slightly on the damp balcony, glued to its every movement. It meandered onto shore, and started foraging along at the edge of the trees looking for a berry dessert. This also meant it was heading round towards us.

For a good 20 minutes we watched the bear until it went out of our line of sight, and into the trees about 60 metres from the edge of the property. (The following night it was to come a lot closer - right up to the garbage bins at the bottom of the garden, where it had a good rummage). The first wildlife of the day, and we weren't even out of our dressing gowns.

Highway 4: 08:45
The car in front was from Minnesota, a long way away. It was going fairly slowly and I was half looking for a place to overtake it when it suddenly slammed on the brakes. As I did the same, another bear lumbered across the road in front of us in an ungainly manner, and disappeared into the forest. At this rate of wildlife spotting we weren't going to need a boat to see whales, they were going to come and find us!

Tofino, 4th and Campbell: 09:15
It was murky overhead, but calm and dry. The Whale Centre was open and yes, they could fit two more on the trip out to Hot Springs Cove today. We parted with our dollars (quite a lot of them - these trips ain't cheap) and grabbed something to take for lunch.

Tofino, Fisherman's Wharf : 09:30
The 28' cabin cruiser Centurion was there as was John, our guide and pilot, and two older couples travelling together. So far so good. The boat was small (to my eyes) but looked fine.

Tofino, Clayoquot Sound : 09:45
Sitting at the back of the cabin, reassuringly near the life jackets, but nausea-inducingly near the throb and smell of the engine, I steeled myself to enjoy the trip. After all, we were going to see whales - and I had never seen a wild whale before. Although the Pacific gray whales are most abundant during their migrations in spring and late autumn, some are year-round residents, so the whale watching companies (of which there are many) can virtually guarantee sightings. And then we were going to Hot Springs Cove, where the thermal sulphurous waters provide hot bathing opportunities.

Tofino, Clayoquot Sound: 09:46
John was on the radio to some of the boats already out on the open water. "What's she look like?", he asked. "Flat as a lake," came the crackled reply. Well, I thought, lakes I can handle. Dammit, I actually like lakes. I may be no water-baby, but a gentle chug across a nice calm lake is never a distressing experience. We waited respectfully for the seaplanes to take off across our path and then steered slowly out of the protection of the harbour.

Clayoquot Sound: 10:15
We had picked up speed and were bouncing along quite merrily towards the whales. There were already reports coming through on the radio that a couple were resting off a broad beach and soon enough we found them. I couldn't help but notice that the ocean did not look especially flat; indeed it was starting to resemble a lake in the way that say a dune-filled desert resembles a pleasant sandy beach. But it was still acceptable, at least from this semi-sheltered position. I had also noticed however, that as we passed rocky islands on our left, the waves smashed down onto them with considerable force. But John clearly knew what he was doing.

Clayoquot Sound: 10:30
A whale! We saw (and smelled) a gray whale. Much excitement on board as everyone clambered out of the cabin and onto the viewing deck. As we had cut the engine we were doing little more than bobbing about on the sea. I too joined my fellow passengers on deck, and then fairly quickly returned to my seat. The rail was too low for my 6'2" liking and the pitching and yawing was a little on the heavy side. I was only getting in the way of the photographers, and I could see from the windows perfectly well anyway. Oh yes, it was consideration for others that pushed me back into the boat, not that I was a wimp or anything.

There were four or five boats now clustered round the two whales. One boat was a lot smaller than ours and, I was surprised to see, was also a tour boat. Maybe it wasn't going all the way to Hot Springs, which was still a good hour away; or maybe we had chosen our operator wisely. A couple of the rigid-hulled rubber Zodiac boats were also nearby filled with tourists gawping like ourselves, except that we weren't being forced to wear Michelin man-style wetsuits to protect us from the spray.

The whales truly were impressive. They didn't do anything special, no tail flicks, no breaching, just a bit of swimming and breathing, which is what they do best. Some of the boats were getting very close. There is a 50 metre exclusion limit on the whales, but obviously it is hard to dictate that to a 30 tonne sea mammal. We spent a good half hour watching the whales, while the whales watched us - or ignored us. It was impossible to tell. John clambered back into his seat, revved the motor and we pulled away; the other boats were lingering or turning back. We seemed to be the only ones going all the way.

The Pacific Ocean 11:10
The radio crackled, "Bigger swells out here now, two metres, not choppy". Didn't mean a lot to me, other than it didn't sound like an improvement. But I liked the "not choppy" bit. It was foggy out here, not thick dense fog but enough to make it easy to lose your orientation. Also, for the first time, we were not in sight of land. This made me uneasy. I liked the comfort of the small islands. The boat was starting to rise up and crash down every twenty or thirty seconds and suddenly the image of the roast oysters the night before started coming back to haunt me. Don't think about the oysters, don't think about the oysters... The swell increased, the wind picked up, but thankfully not enough to start whipping up waves. There was just the constant up and down, the smell of the engine making me lightheaded, the motion making me feel sick. Must not be sick, must not be sick, must not think about oysters.

I took to gripping the seat in front with my left hand with some force to focus my attention and to tense my body. I closed my eyes. I was not enjoying this at all. OK, so I had seen two whales. Did I really need to go to some Hot Springs?

The conversations of other boat pilots were coming out of the radio and I didn't like what I was hearing. It seemed that those boats that had left Tofino after us were taking a different, safer, less tossing-about-on-the-pacific-ocean sort of a route. Swell at two-and-a-half metres. One of the other passengers (all of whom were taking this far better than me, and at least one of whom had, inevitably, been in the navy) asked what the most they would go out in was. John looked round and grinned - I didn't like it when he did this, although my road-oriented dictum of "looking where you were going" was obviously meaningless when the road was as wide as, well, in principle, the widest thing on earth. "Well, if it gets up to four metres, this boat starts to struggle." Suddenly our two-and-a-half metres was sounding quite a lot. I started to wonder what was going to happen if it got worse and we were stranded at the Hot Springs. There was nothing there other than the mooring dock. Talking of the Hot Springs, weren't we supposed to have been there by now?

Pacific Ocean: 11:30
My eyes were now firmly closed, and I was just counting. Counting to take my mind off it, counting to try and lull myself to sleep. Although I never believed in it, I started counting sheep - but, oh Christ no, the sheep were rapidly developing shells and... and... oh help, I was counting oysters! And up and down and up and down we went. The conditions had put us behind schedule, but actually not by that much. Carol nudged me, "We're almost there". I looked out and, sure enough, there was land. We slowed down and cruised in to the jetty. In this natural harbour - which I would have described as "flat as a lake" - was the Innchanter, the floating yacht that was the B&B destination of our fellow passengers.

I had made it. I had not been sick. I may have been the object of some amusement for the other passengers, but at this stage I didn't care very much. Everyone had been very nice, and I was back where I was happy - dry land.

Hot Springs Cove: 12:00
To reach the Hot Springs you take a half-hour boardwalked trail that goes through lush rainforest and, having already done the interpretive trails back around Long Beach, we were now showing off our knowledge to each other - nurse logs here, hemlock trees there, er, possibly.

We smelled our destination well before we came upon it. The sulphur that comes off these geothermal springs is quite strong, and the water at the top of the cove, extremely hot. The shallow gully descends about 50 metres down to the sea in a series of rock pools that act as hot-tubs. The nearer the sea, the cooler the water as it mixes with the tidal wash. There had been no other boats at the jetty - incredibly - so it looked like we had the place to ourselves. Into swimming gear and very delicately making our way over the slippy scalding rocks to the lower pools we suddenly got a shock. Two pools up from the bottom were a couple. More (or rather, less) than that, a naked couple. Had we stumbled upon the missing yeti man of Vancouver Island and his mate? No. It turned out that he was originally from Bradford in England, but now lived in mainland BC and the two of them had kayaked here. The Hot Springs are one bit of Maquinna Provincial Park, actually part of the mainland of Vancouver Island but here totally inaccessible by road. Bloody Canadians and their canoes.

Hot Springs Cove: 14:15
We had about two hours at the cove, allowing for the time to get back to the boat which would come and pick us up again. Each new set of arrivals sailed past us and then, some 30-40 minutes later, arrived at the cove. By the time we left it was packed - and this was nothing. In the height of the summer it must be unbearable. We had been lucky to have the place (almost) to ourselves for at least a short while.

Now, if truth be told, I had not been looking forward to the return journey. My sense of foreboding was not helped by some of the discussions with new arrivals at the Springs. "Which way did you come?" "Oh, we came the inland route, apparently the ocean route was too rough". "Yeah, we were told the same, it was pretty smooth between the islands though."

So the ocean route had been too much for some eh? Well, I suppose we aren't all made of seafaring stuff. But what if John was made of even more scary seafaring stuff and wanted to take us back that way too! Would I totally lose any credibility if I meekly asked if we could go back the nice route?

Hot Springs Cove jetty: 15:00
We waited for a while at the jetty for the boat to reappear. The Innchanter's previous night's guests were joining us. I couldn't ask, I just had to pray.

And my prayers were answered. I actually enjoyed the journey back. We saw a sea otter, the whales again - still performing for the crowds - and generally scudded our way back between the rocks to Tofino where the kayak schools were paddling about and all looked well with the world. This time I was sitting up front, which also made a big difference, as did the speed of the trip - without dawdling too long for the whales we were back within an hour and a half, much of which was very pleasant - and I almost wanted to do it again. Almost.

Tofino 16:45
I am sure that the tour operators like to take the punters to something a little rougher than they had expected - it makes for a memorable experience certainly, and there is a bit of bravado on the part of the guides. But, without wishing to sound too much like an advert, despite my lack of comfort on the way out, I always felt that John was in control and would know what to do if... well, if he needed to know what to do.

Wickaninnish Beach 18:30
Our last evening in the Pacific Rim National Park and the weather was glorious. We watched the sunset and then treated ourselves to dinner at the Wickaninnish Centre's restaurant with a table overlooking the rocks and beach. As we gazed out to sea, the sun vanished all too quickly over the ocean horizon and on one of the more exciting days on The Edge.