Tofino and Ucluelet

Tonquin Beach, Tofino

When we were first in Victoria, and indeed ever since, we have had people extolling the virtues of Tofino to us, so we figured we had to come and see for ourselves what all the fuss is about.

Tofino

In retrospect, I’m not sure we really gave ourselves enough time here, as we didn’t have long enough to fully explore the rainforest trails and beaches that people like so much, but then if we had stayed longer, we would undoubtedly have eaten even more bad things than we did, so perhaps that’s for the best.

Pedestrian crossing in Tofino

The town is quite tiny, with the main centre being basically just four blocks in each direction, and a few roads leading out. The resident population is about 2,000, but in summer, they are way outnumbered by the arrival of around 20,000 visitors at peak times.

Tonquin Beach, Tofino

Surprisingly, the town doesn’t feel all that crowded most of the time. It helps that people don’t really come here to spend time in town, they come to walk the trails, swim and surf, so most of the time they aren’t clogging the place up. The restaurants, and one or two pubs can get busy in the evenings though; it’s best to make reservations at the most popular ones if you want to avoid a long wait for a table.

The town is very much a resort, with lots of gift shops, tour operators and surf shacks, but it feels remarkably laid back and not tacky. Mind you, we certainly experienced a sample of that less pleasant side of a ‘small town’ mindset with one man that we met in his shop. We were talking, and he asked us where we were going to eat. When we said we were going to Wolf in the Fog – a place that gets excellent reviews, he railed against it quite vehemently.

Tonquin Beach, Tofino

It was one of those tirades that had little to no facts or justifications involved, just a lot of very negative opinions. We were already mentally dismissing him as having some kind of grudge, just based on his attitude, when he confirmed our suspicions by complaining about how the owner was a newcomer who wanted to open later at night, and how he didn’t want those people walking back past his house in the evenings.

We went to the restaurant regardless, and thought the food was excellent, and more interesting than most. Nic especially enjoyed his octopus and pork cheek main course. We also went to SOBO, which did have the ranting man’s seal of approval, but while we enjoyed it, we thought Wolf in the Fog was better, and it had the better wines too. One place that we did resist trying, but we heard very good comments about from our fellow hostellers, was Big Daddy’s Fish Fry.

Tonquin Beach, Tofino

We’re not beachy people, but we felt that being in Tofino, we should at least make it to one, so we wandered up to the closest one, Tonquin Beach. It’s only small, reached via a short walk through the woods, but it is lovely. The woods come right down to a pretty little sandy cove, and there are rocky outcrops at either end. These were the best bit for us, as although the tide was coming in, we just about had enough time to poke about amongst them and check out the multitude of life clinging onto the rocks.

Barnacles were the main inhabitants, but there were other molluscs and a number of sea anemones too. We rather enjoyed peering at them, even though we did have to be wary of getting wet feet from a stray big wave coming in, or from our trainers sinking into the wet sand and ending up in a pool of water.

Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet

On another day, we drove over to nearby Ucluelet, for lunch and a walk around the Wild Pacific Trail. We took the Lighthouse Loop, a 2.6km walk around part of the headland. We had hoped that we might just spot a bit of wildlife in the water, watching out in particular, for the elusive sea otter, perhaps snacking on its favourite sea urchin, but alas there was none to be seen.

Spot the deer to the left of the white ramp, Ucluelet

Again though, this was a nice little walk, and while we were always either passing people or being passed ourselves, it didn’t feel crowded.

We did spot one bit of wildlife that day though, a deer wandering around one of the properties in town.

Tonquin Beach, Tofino

Tonquin Beach, Tofino

Tonquin Beach, Tofino

Sea anemone, Tonquin Beach, Tofino

Sea anemone, Tonquin Beach, Tofino

Skunk Cabbage, which the bears use as a laxative when they wake up from hibernation, Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet

Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet

Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet

Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet

Wild Pacific Trail, Ucluelet

Pärnu, Estonia

Pärnu

From Tartu, it was just a few hours on the bus, with free wifi, to our last destination in Estonia - Pärnu.



We had a basic but reasonable little hostel, just moments from the bus stop and, as Pärnu is pretty small, also only moments from the main street in town.

one of the nice balconies in Pärnu

There really isn't a lot to do in the town of Pärnu, as it is predominantly a summer resort, where many Estonians - and quite a few Finns and Russians - come to enjoy the nearby beach.

The city - I think technically it is a city - is the fourth largest in the country, despite having a population of less than 40,000. These days it is referred to as Estonia's summer capital.

Pärnu

Although small, the city is a nice place to stroll around, as there is a lot of well preserved architecture from the different centuries. Given all of the various periods of occupation that Pärnu, like the most of Estonia, has been through, it makes for some quite varied styles.

After a very late lunch and drinks in Mama's, which had a slightly clubby feel but was a bit above average quality, we just strolled about a bit, doing nothing in particular.

Pärnu beach

The next day we did get out feet into gear though, and walked over to check out the beach. We had no plans to actually spend time on the beach, just to take a wander around and see why it is so popular.

Neither of us can claim to be a connoisseur of beaches, as we so rarely spend any time on them, but this one looked pleasant enough to me.

Pärnu

The grasses that grew up to the edge of the sand gave it a slightly wilder, more natural feel than some places, which I rather liked. I also thought it was great that they had installed some of the tracking, to make it easier for people with mobility issues to get on and off the beach.


I also liked the little signs that they had around the place that urged people to Ole Viisakas!, or Be Polite! They showed nice little pictures of what you should and should not be doing.

Pärnu

There were certainly lots of things to do here, including kitesurfing and beach volleyball. And there was no shortage of things that you could rent to ride around on, from bikes and tandems, to little cart things, and even a futuristic looking thing with big round wheels at the side.

It was a pretty windy day, which was clearly good news for the kite surfers, but not so good for strolling in the sand, so we diverted away from the beach itself.

Kuursaal, Pärnu

There were a couple of interesting looking hotels and spas, one of which was a great art deco place, ad the other rather more modern in design.

We were tempted to stop at the latter, but instead opted for the Kuursaal, a nineteenth century dancehall turned beerhall, that was supposedly very popular with visitors and locals. To be fair, it was busy, but we certainly weren't overly impressed with the quality.

Tallinn Gate, Pärnu

We walked back into town via the park, which didn't hold much interest, although we did at least pass through the Tallinn Gate, which is apparently the only 17th century city gate that is still surviving in the Baltics. It is a nice baroque style pink gate, but I can't say we were overly excited by it.

St Catherine's Church, Pärnu

Back in town, the Russian Orthodox St Catherine's church is an impressive looking building. It was built in 1764, and named after Catherine the Great, following her visit to the city. This isn't the only Orthodox Church in town though, there is also the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Transformation of Our Lord Church. This was built in 1904, when the congregation became to big for St Catherine's, and the churchgoers split - the Russians staying at St Catherine's, and the Estonians coming here.

The last church to mention is the Lutheran, Eliisabet's Church, which was built in 1750, and apparently has a great organ inside, though we didn't get to see it!

Pärnu

The problem with Pärnu, is that while it is pleasant to see, it is pretty much just places to eat and drink, and some mostly touristy gift shops. I can see why it is popular as a beach resort - even if it seems a bit in the windy side - and it was interesting to visit the place that Estonians have traditionally come to for their beach holiday, but it is a bit of a one trick pony.

Pärnu

Hotel in Pärnu

Pärnu beach

Hotel in Pärnu

 

Pärnu

Pärnu

 

Pärnu, and the Eliisabet Church, Pärnu

Church of Our Lord, Pärnu

Gates of the Church of Our Lord, Pärnu

Art Deco in Miami

Not being people to spend time on beaches, the main attraction of Miami for us was the abundance of art deco buildings along the South Beach area.  And we had been pleased to find that we could coincide our stay with the annual Art Deco Weekend.


When we worked out the bus systems and got our two buses into SoBe, we certainly saw a lot of great art deco architecture.  Some of it was the classic white style that you often see along beach fronts in the UK, which I have to  admit to being my own preferred type, while some had gone for more colour.

Art Deco gets its name from the 1925 Paris Exhibition of 'Arts Decoratifs', which focused on displays of modern art of the period.  As this was one of the biggest viewings of these new styles, the abbreviated name of the fair was adopted as an easy description of this post WW1 modern style.

Some of the art deco style uses a lot of Egyptian inspired imagery and colouring.  This came out of the rise in popularity of all things egyptian following the 1922 discovery of King Tutankhamen's tomb.

There is a lot of this more ornate style here in Miami, as well as the simpler, more common influence of the pyramid in the stepped levels of building structure and decorative lines.

So we enjoyed looking at the buildings.

We didn't do the Art Deco tour though, preferring instead to do the 'underworld' tour, which promised stories of crime and mafia that happened in these parts.

Sadly the tour was a bit disappointing.  For a city that was - and possibly still is - so steeped in mafia connections, it was a bit thin on underworld stuff.

 

He did tell us that the decorative lines and arrows built into the flooring of some hotels probably pointed to the direction of the prohibition era speakeasies.

He also said that when the speakeasy got a tip off that they were about to be raided by the police, they would take most of their stuff to the Wolfsonian, which at that time was a storage company, to hide it until after the raid was over and they could get back to business.

 

Aside from those two points, and showing us the spot where Versace was shot, the only things we got were film and TV references, such as the fact that the neon work inside Club Deuc, the oldest pub in Miami, was brought in when they filmed some of Miami Vice there.

He did repeatedly tell us that everyone was corrupt during those mafia days, which was probably rather unnecessary for a group on an underground tour.  But if you were in the market for an expensive property, he did tell us that the house that Al Capone retired to in Miami is up for sale.

 

And unfortunately the market was a bit of a let down too.  As markets go, it wasn't bad.  There were some nice antiquey bits, some jewellery, and lots of other things, but it wasn't really art deco.

 

We had expected that there would be a lot of art deco related stuff here.  Obviously not all original, but we had thought we would see some good reproduction bits and other things that were clearly inspired by the art deco period.  There was a little bit of this, but not much.  The vast majority was what you would expect to find at any flea market.

 

We went along to the Art Deco Welcome Centre to see the 'bounty of Art Deco furniture' and saw about ten pieces.  Though admittedly one was a rather large and elaborate light which I though was pretty amazing.  Still, not much of a bounty, more of a smattering.

 

The parade of vintage cars was interesting to a point.  There were some nice old classics.  But even then, they were stretching the idea of vintage.  It was bad enough that they included cars from the eighties, but some of the cars being driven must have been from within the last ten years; I think a couple towards the end were just showing off their latest acquisition!

 

We had hoped for a bit of canine amusement with the Arf Deco parade of dressed up dogs, but they were a bit thin on the ground and very few really dressed for the occasion.

 

So overall we weren't especially impressed with the Art Deco Weekend.  A bit like Miami as a whole really.  It was alright, there was some stuff to see and do, but it wasn't as good as we'd expected and we not really sure what all the fuss is about.  Perhaps it really is just all about the beach here.

But hey, we had a couple of huge cocktails at a bargain happy hour price, so we were contented enough!

Pebble Island

From Sea Lions, we took another FIGAS flight to Pebble Island. The Sea Lion Lodge manager was particularly pleased with the arrival of the plane as it brought with it her new fridge.

Pebble Island settlement

Because the planes go around the islands we had a number of stops along the way. We stopped at Bleaker Island to drop off one of our fellow Sea Lion guests, then Port Stephens and Fox Bay, where we picked up one person at each. This was good as we got to see a bit more of the scenery of the islands. Most of the landscape we had seen before was fairly flat and bleak, with grasses and sheep but not much variation. Here we saw some beautiful cliffs and coastlines of the archipelago and some of the hillier parts of the west island. There were still a lot of sheep though. We also got to hear the chat between pilot and the locals manning the airstrip, which in one instance included the important breaking news that they had got the first of their home grown sweetcorn the night before.

After about an hour and a half, we landed on Pebble Island, which is named after the many semi-precious stones that could be found on the beach here. Sadly they are now only rarely to be seen as they have mostly been collected. We were met by Jackie who owns and runs the lodge with her husband Alan. They are two of the only five people who live on the island all year around, the others being the people who farm it.
Pebble is somewhat larger than Sea Lions, and we had arranged with Jackie that we would
take a full day tour of the west of the island with her the next day, so this afternoon we just took a walk nearby. We decided to make it a fairly short walk as it was incredibly windy. So we set off with our lunch and a map and made for the big ponds and the beach. This wasn’t a wildlife day really, as the only things we could expect to encounter were sheep and birds that we wouldn’t recognize, but we figured we needed to go for a walk if only to exercise off some of the huge English breakfasts we’d been eating.

Remains of a sheep

Our first challenges were the gates. It wasn’t so much our having to chase the sheep away from them, as much as they are all different, and so it took a while to work out how some of them worked. But we figured them all out and made sure to close them properly behind us so that we didn’t get into trouble with the farmer. We saw a few dead sheep as we walked around. Occasionally it was hard to spot them until you were nearly standing on them, as they had disintegrated to no more than a flat white outline.

Having eaten our lunch sheltering amongst some huge sand dunes and tussac grass, we walked through the mostly dry bed of an overflow river from the pond to the beach. We had to make a quick dash for it across the dry sand as the wind was blowing it high into our faces. Once we hit the wet shoreline we were safe from the sandblasting, but the wind was even stronger than it had been.

Long Beach, Pebble Island

It was hard to appreciate the completely deserted stretch of white beach when we were struggling to breathe against the wind, let alone to fight our way through it. We could have got off the beach part way down, but that would have meant battling our way up and through the sand dunes and tussac grass, which was equally tricky, so we held our hats on our heads and eventually reached the end of the beach.

Of course as soon as we had clambered up the bank to the fields, we found a fence in our way, and no evidence of a gate for some distance. So we cheated and climbed over it. We were soon able to see where we had to go next and that there was a gate we could aim for, but the next problem was that between us and the gate was a stream that was about four foot wide. Definitely too far to just jump across given that there was a bank on either side.
Wandering along the edge, we reached a spot where the stream was covered in a thick surface of some kind of plant. After a bit of hesitant testing, I figured that this grassy stuff was probably just about strong enough to allow us to step across, so I gave it a go. I made it over OK, though I could feel the surface giving way beneath me and knew I was lucky to have stayed dry. Nic was slightly less lucky. He made it over, but got a wet boot on the way. Thankfully we were wearing our hiking boots and they kept his foot from getting an early bath.

SAS memorial cairn, Pebble Island

On the home straight now, we got safely through the next gate and over a stile and were out onto the airstrip. We were fairly sure that no more planes were due today, but still kept an eye out as we walked across it. We also passed the cairn that was built to commemorate the landing site of the Special Air Service units that arrived on 15 May 1982 to begin the retaking of the Falklands by taking out the Argentine aircraft on the landing strip here.

Back down at the lodge we were very pleased to be out of the wind and enjoying a cup of tea.