British Columbia's Inside Passage- Beauty and the Beast

Wednesday, July 2, 2014

Yesterday was Day Zero for our ferry trip to British Columbia's Inside Passage. Beauty and the beast, because of the amazing beauty of the journey, and the beast because, it's a beast of a trip! Sixteen hours on the vessel sandwiched between two short nights of sleep!

We spent Monday wasting time. After showering, (who knows when we will see another shower), and doing some rig chores, we left the Quatse River Campground at the noon check-out time. We refilled our propane tank in Port Hardy and then parked along the harbor at the seawall. Greg took a few walks around town while I stayed in the rig and worked on a blogpost. I had been feeling a bit under the weather all week and wanted to rest for our ferry journey.

Several bald eagles who had nests nearby, in resident's backyards, spent the afternoon swooping above the rig and calling loudly. A fun show and appetizer for our trip. About 6 pm we drove to the marina to see if we could boondock there for the night. No dice. They had a barricade up that said no overnighting. Miffed, we drove back to Port Hardy and had dinner outside at Captain Hardy's. More fish and chips for Greg! After that, we drove to the ferry dock, checked in and paid our $22 to park in line overnight for the ferry.

The 10:30 pm ferry from Prince Rupert rolled in and took almost an hour to unload and for the dock to quiet down again. We slept until 5:30 am, then dressed, had a quick breakfast and drove on the boat by 6:30 am. Once we left the car deck we were not allowed back except for 15 minute periods three times during the trip. The announcement was made and pet owners were allowed to go below to “service” their animals.

The ferry arriving at 10:30 pm

The bow was swung up to allow loading.

Once on board we headed to the Solarium, high up in the back of the boat on Deck 6. It had a seating area covered on three sides, with sky lights, as well as open seating, and we spent most of the trip there looking for wildlife. For lunch they opened up the grills and cooked a BBQ, so we stayed there until dinner. For dinner we went below to the Canoe Cafe and had a light meal, then found some inside seating with big windows, to snooze and warm up. We went back up on deck for the last part of the journey and the spectacular sunset before we reached Prince Rupert.

One of the lighthouses along the Inside Passage

Sitting in the Solarium, protected from the wind.

We needed binoculars to see the whales, porpoise, and seals.

Meeting the Bella Coola Ferry at Bella Bella

Bella Bella

The view from one of the inside lounges where we warmed up in big comfy chairs

Trees!

The bulk of our time was spent along the open rail of Deck 6 looking for whales. One of the staff told us that they had been seeing lots of whales on this route. Early on we briefly saw a spout, but then nothing else until we saw a large group of dolphins or porpoises feeding in the distance behind the boat. We were glad we took our binoculars! Then we saw a large group of bald eagles feeding off a small peninsula along the water. At our only stop in the remote town of Bella Bella, two eagles were swooping low over the boat while everyone was looking below to watch the boat tie up. Greg and I have learned where to look, and notice who we are traveling with that knows where to spot wildlife. We pay close attention to where they are looking. Since we had no one on our boat who knew how to spot wildlife, we soon had a small following who were discretely paying attention to what we were watching. We spotted a pod of orcas feeding a ways off, and the people paying attention to what we were looking at, got to see them.
 

Looking back over the Solarium roof

 
Most people expect to see whales leaping in the air next to the boat, thanks to U-Tube and tourism brochures. If that happens to you, then you are incredibly fortunate. With the many ferries and boat tours and coastlines we have been on, we have never seen whales close up in the wild. We are starting to feel privileged to see them at all in their own environment, and feel gratified that we have now actually seen orcas in the wild.

That was it for whales for the rest of the long trip. Actually, we were surprised by the lack of wildlife. This cruise is billed as a chance to see lots of wildlife. It was Canada Day, the big Canadian holiday, and we joked that the wildlife had taken a holiday, too. Outside of the one large group, we saw only a few eagles, just a few seagulls, no bears, moose, deer, otters, a few sea lions in the distance as we left Port Hardy, and no fish. The passage is beautiful, especially as you get to the northern end, but there are only a few lighthouses, a few extremely small settlements, and several “ghost towns”. There is a very desolate and isolated feel to the coastline, especially when you sail through the narrow northern areas where the sides close in and the long distance vistas are closed off. Then you experience only miles and miles of evergreen trees along the waterline. This part of the cruise was also overcast and sprinkling, so that added to the moodiness.
 

Near the end of the journey between 10 and 11 pm, we were back on the deck with a few other diehards, and were treated to a spectacular sunset. It was hard to believe that everyone else on the ship was huddled inside, when nature was putting on an amazing display of fireworks for Canada Day! Greg and I were the last ones on deck, bundled up against the chill, and waiting until the last minute to climb down the stairs to get back in the rig as the “Northern Expedition” entered the Prince Rupert harbor.

Sunset south of Prince Rupert

This white granite mountain turned red in the sunset

Coming in to Prince Rupert

After 16 hours of cruising, most of it on deck, we drove off at 11 pm into the streets of Prince Rupert, in search of a boondocking spot at Safeway. We “circled the wagons” with two other RV'ers from Ontario and Switzerland, who spent the night before in line with us in Port Hardy. After a short night of sleep in the noisy downtown, we left this morning and drove east out of town into the wilderness of northwestern British Columbia.