5 August 2010

Summer of love

Back in the Netherlands after a month of fun in Vancouver to celebrate the finish of that thesis that seemed to last forever. After some good times in the city with friends and good beach and hike weather, Tom and I went on a 10 day camping trip to Vancouver island. Dino (Bibi's boyfriend) was so kind to let us use his car, which was needed because Vancouver Island is big! About the same size as my whole country!
First we drove up north to the amazing Buttle lake, located in a quiet Provincial Park and with a perfect lake in the middle of the mountains and forests, with our own private beach!:

Next, we drove down the east coast of the island to Hornby Island, one of the northern Gulf Islands. Which is just as pretty and hippie as all the others I've seen! We have been hanging out at all the different beaches for swimming, tanning, kayaking, walking, playing frisbee, sunset watching, and even skinny dipping in the phosphorescence (algae that lights up when you touch the water)! Unfortunately we weren't very lucky with the campsites... at first we ended up at a spot next to the playground of a too child friendly campsite.. while the next campsite we stayed at was a more teen friendly campsite, also known as "the party campsite". I don't know what was worse, the screaming kids or screeming teenagers! But for the rest, the island was amazing:

At last, we drove to the west side of Vancouver Island, to the famous tourist town Tofino. Because we didn't book anything and the campsite we wanted to go to was full, we had a very pleasant surprise when we accidentally bumped into the prettiest campsite of all times right at the oceanside! Something about bad marketing..
In Tofino, we obviously spent a lots of time on the beach, enjoyed some nice campfires with marshmallows and glasses of good wine, while looking at this amazing view: