Another day, another ferry, this time to Haida Gwaii

Today’s ferry wasn’t as early, or nearly as long as the last one, but it wasn’t such nice scenery either. The journey was fine, but there wasn’t much to look at most of the way, which I suppose was good in a way, as it gave us both a chance to catch up with some of our tasks, including getting a few more blog posts written. And this time, we did a better job of sticking to our meal plan too.

We arrived in Skidegate, collected our bags, and went to queue for a taxi, only to be met by a rather grumpy man, who told us that we should have booked a taxi, that he was waiting for someone who had booked, and various other unhelpful comments. We were trying to establish whether we could book a cab now, or put our name on a list or something, but he really wasn’t listening, so we were getting nowhere. Then just as we were considering going off to try to hitch our way to Queen Charlotte – hitching is apparently a vey common mode of transport here – he suddenly said, “OK, get in”. I have no idea what changed, but we didn’t argue, and hopped in.

I wish I could say that this was the end of his grumpiness, but no, it continued for the entirety of the journey. It wasn’t directed so much at us, but he grumbled his way about various other people. He also reckoned that the address we were going to didn’t exist. Now, Queen Charlotte isn’t a big place. We only stayed there six days, and by the end of that we were giving other new arrivals directions, so given that he reckons he’s been driving a cab here for 25 years, I just don’t believe that he didn’t know where it was.

But we went on a little mystery tour nonetheless, before suddenly and miraculously, he worked out where to find it. It wasn’t even a ploy to get more money, as he charged us the standard fare, so I can only assume that he just likes being cantankerous. We spoke to a local about him later, and they knew exactly who we were talking about and confirmed that this was his usual jolly self.

Anyhow, we arrived at our Airbnb, and were made very welcome by our host and her longer-term guest. We got ourselves settled in, and then tottered our way down the short but rather steep hill down towards the visitors’ centre, and to take a look around, before heading back to the house to make ourselves our dinner.

On the subject of food, if you do come here and plan to self cater, then if you have the opportunity, bring a few groceries with you. We had a bit of trouble getting to the supermarket around our day tours, and when you do get there, they don't have a great deal of choice and prices are fairly high. Thankfully, we had bought the first day's dinner with us. Of course, if you are happy to eat out, there are a few decent places around, which I will mention as we get to them later on.

Up The Inside Passage!

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

I don’t like early mornings, so I can’t say that I was overly impressed that our 5am shuttle didn’t actually turn up until half an hour later, as I could have had an extra half hour in bed. We got to the ferry the required two hours before departure; quite why we had to be there that early, just to then sit in the harbour for a couple of hours, I really don’t know. OK, OK, I know, I’m grumpy about early mornings!  Enough of that, onto the post.

We had opted to take the daytime ferry, despite the early start, because it travels up the Inside Passage, which we understood was a rather lovely journey. And it was indeed good scenery, albeit a lot of it quite similar, with lots of rugged, tree lined shorelines.

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

Clearly though, I wasn't nearly as impressed as the man sitting at the next table, who was telling his younger companion, probably his son, that “You can’t get scenery like this anywhere else in the world.” I can only assume that he doesn't travel much, and has never seen images of Norway, for just one example. I resisted pointing this out to him though, and contented myself with just rolling my eyes and muttering to Nic instead. Thinking about it afterwards, I can't decide whether to feel happy for the guy because he believes that he (thinks that he) lives in a uniquely beautiful place, sorry for him because he obviously hasn't seen the other similarly beautiful places, or frustrated by him appearing to be so ignorant that they exist!

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

Despite all our good intentions with food, by the time the ferry actually set sail, we had long since eaten our allocated portion of healthy cereal, skimmed milk and fruit, so when the restaurant opened for breakfast, we decided to give it a try. Nic was thrilled, as he has harboured the desire to be an honorary hobbit, ever since he discovered that they have a second breakfast!

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

In fact, we weren’t too badly behaved with our breakfast, so it wasn’t the end of the world. And we were OK for lunch, as we had our healthy salad. The problem came at dinner, when having been told by a regular user of this ferry that the restaurant buffet is excellent, we decided to give it a go. This was a mistake on so many levels.

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

The food selection really wasn’t good for me, so my choice was limited to some pretty tasteless and very fatty slices of beef, some very dried out rice, and a combination of over and undercooked vegetables. I did have a cup of soup which wasn’t bad, but of course I added a slice of bread to that, which was naughty. Nic was happier with his meal – he had more choice, and he assures me that his food was better quality, but it wasn’t very diet friendly.

The problem was, the one part of the buffet that genuinely did look rather inviting, was the desserts. By which time, I was still hungry, and now I was grumpy too, so I threw the diet out of the window (or should that be porthole), and filled my plate with apple crumble, chocolate cake, chocolate mints, a lemon cakey thing, and goodness knows what else. Nic was no better, and we both ended up stuffed and feeling rather guilty! Oh well.

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

Food aside, it was a long journey, but it was at least a pleasant one, and I spent quite a bit of time out on deck watching for whales. There were quite a few along the way, mostly too far away to get any decent view of anything other than the jet from the blowhole, but there were a few that were close enough to see the fin and the tail fluke.

We arrived in Prince Rupert at about midnight, and shared a taxi to our hostel with two others who were also staying there.

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

The Inside Passage, British Columbia

Crossing the Bay of Biscay (Throwback posts)

Once I managed to pry myself away from the food at Cordoba's La Siesta, it was time to head back to the UK. We had decided to try to reduce our carbon footprint, and take the train and ferry back from Santander.

We stayed overnight in Santander and then got a later afternoon ferry from Santander to Portsmouth, which takes about 24 hours. En route to the ferry, we heard from our estate agents that we had agreed the sale of our flat, so our plan was to hit the bar to celebrate. This would have been fine, except that before we had even managed to get fully out of the harbour, Nic was struck down with seasickness. He wanted to be able to just sleep (or not) in peace in the cabin, so I was forced to sit in the bar and celebrate on my own!

Thankfully, his sickness settled down during the night, and he was OK for the next day. We only arrived in Portsmouth in the late afternoon, so didn't really worry too much about trying to see any of it. And the next morning we set straight off to get back to Kent.

Although we were now to be back in the UK for quite a while, so see through the sale of the old flat, the purchase of the new one, and to move in to the new flat for a while, we actually managed to do very little that was especially blog worthy, but I'll pick up a few things with you over the coming posts. And we have one short trip coming up ... to see polar bears.