Day 3....Port Hardy to Bella Coola

This morning was an early one since we had to be at the BC Ferries terminal at Bear Cove two hours before time to catch the Queen of Cilliwack at 10.15am. The pic above is of the passage out of the bay where we are headed.

Bear Cove is the oldest known settlement on Vancouver Island, having been occupied for over 8000years. The Queen of Chilliwack is an older ferry that runs this route in the Summer for mainly tourists and links the northern tip of Vancouver Island with the Central British Columbia coast. The ferry trip is 13 hours, first crossing the Charlotte Strait and then passing into Smith Sound, up into Burke Channel and then up North Bentinick Arm to Bella Coola. The trip over was foggy at first and once we got into the sound opened up to higher clouds with drizzle. We saw Humpback whales breaching and Pacific White Sided dolphins dashing across our bow. The views of the steep sides of the channel are breathtaking and to realise that no one lives here for as far as the eye can see  makes one appreciate the pristine nature. On the left of Burke Channel is King Island a massive island that is totally uninhabited and local legend has it that it is the home of the Northwest Pacific Sasquatch.

We arrived late at about 11.45pm and made our way to the Cumbrian Hotel downtown ....a very clean and well run place, in fact the opposite of our previous accomodations.....and fell into bed.