Tofino Winter Visitors
by Helen Clay in Tofino
Clayoquot Sound is renowned as a special place for bird watching. Each species comes to find its own habitat, both the year round residents and the migratory birds passing through.At the Whalers on the Point hostel in Tofino on West Street, migratory humans also come to roost, fluffing out their feathers and looking around the area for a day or two. Some have flown from close by, the nearest being Port Alberni, and the furthest New Zealand. Some travel only for a few days and one exceptional specimen for 20 years! I joined the flock from England, via Vancouver, and stayed for six of the best days I have ever experienced, anywhere in the world.
I came to Tofino expecting beaches, storms and rainforest, and certainly I wasn’t disappointed–but I hadn’t expected how captivated I would be by the atmosphere. I was lucky enough to walk the Meares Island trail twice, and immediately became a rainforest addict who would happily walk it every day. I had a bike, so I visited Chesterman Beach, both on a quiet evening when the glory of the clouds reflected on the damp sand, and on a stormy day when the crashing of the waves just took my breath away. I had a lovely cycle up Radar Hill – in horizontal rain. Reaching the top was exhilarating; not a view to be seen but the wind wildly whipping the treetops. I took a photo of the view board “for the folks back home”, and I know that when I do next get up there and see the sound in all its glory, I will be all the more impressed.
The natural environment of Clayoquot is stunning, and brought to mind a favourite poem by Lord Byron:
There is a pleasure in the pathless woods,
There is a rapture on the lonely shore,
There is society, where none intrudes,
By the deep sea, and music in its roar:
I love not man the less, but Nature more,
From these our interviews, in which I steal
From all I may be, or have been before,
To mingle with the Universe, and feel
What I can ne’er express, yet cannot all conceal.I was also lucky to be able to attend three excellent talks in one short week. Pat Rasmussen spoke about the World Temperate Rainforest Network, and her amazing efforts to protect rainforest, particularly in Chile. Beautiful photographs of Clayoquot Sound, and focs success in protecting it, were greeted with a rousing cheer! The key point I took home from her talk was that while bc is blessed with having 43% of its temperate rainforest intact, only 5% is protected. There’s a lot to lose. In New Zealand, where the West Coast of the South Island is home to their old growth forest, they have 28% remaining intact: all of it is now protected from logging.
Dom Repta of FOCS spoke of his run across the Moroccan desert: he came 30th out of 700 runners, but would have preferred 10th place! Such ambition goes far beyond what we mere mortals would aspire to– however we all enjoyed the gruesome pictures of runners’ feet!
Then there was R.Wayne Campbell’s book launch. He is the foremost bird expert in BC, having published over 300 scientific papers, many reports and books. The honour of his visit was equivalent to a condor touching down in Clayoquot. What amazed and delighted me was that so eminent a man could give a talk so down to earth and just plain enjoyable! My favourite detail of the evening was when he described his concerns over his impact on feeding a group of seven house finches in his garden. He started banding them, and stopped when he said “I got to 1100 birds!”
A very dear friend of mine, Michaela Palmer, was the one to recommend I visit Tofino, for which I am forever in her debt. Her thoughts on her visit were :
“ What did we love about it? The peace, serenity that you feel inside the moment you arrive—it’s like the rest of the world and all the crap has just disappeared. Everyone’s so chilled and friendly. Long Beach is just great for walking along and clearing your head of crap—the roar of the pacific ocean, all the driftwood strewn about and the forest right behind your head—there could be a million people there but you’d still feel like there was only you. Then there were the bears… and the kayaking… and the seaplanes whizzing by your head.
More than anything it was simply the most amazing feeling inside being there—so hard to describe—just feels like you’re ‘home’.”
Tofino changes you. Outwardly, I arrived dressed for cold weather with hiking boots and little gloves—I left looking resplendent in gumboots, waterproof trousers and gloves 3 sizes too big (who cares as long as they keep the rain out!). I cut a dash in the posh restaurant at Horseshoe Bay!
Inwardly, I arrived a person unsure of how and where to make a difference to this earth—I left happy in the knowledge that in Clayoquot I can do some good.
By the end of one short week I had met and made countless new friends, all fired with a passion for this amazing place and delighted to share in its beauty. I am now determined to return—for New Years, and for life.
Helen Clay visited Tofino in December 2004 and will return for volunteer work in Spring. She can be contacted at saxbird99@yahoo.com
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