20.7. Sleep was over for us at half past three today, because our bus was at the top of the road at four sharp and we still had to carry our things upstairs and load them. Off we went on our four and a half hour journey to Bamfield. In the classic yellow school bus, of course, in which there have been no technical innovations for 40 years. And the heating can't be turned down, but we spent most of the time sleeping anyway. We drove along a "highway" that consisted only of a gravel road, and the bridges were just wide enough for our bus or the lodge trucks (wooden trucks) that kept coming towards us. Clear-cut areas can be seen to the right and left of the road. What looked like small campfires from the plane were actually huge piles of wood, sometimes whole tree trunks. But why do you clear everything, every tree, every bush, if you're not going to use half of it? No sun, no rain, no wind - together with the right temperature, ideal conditions for paddling, especially as we had a baggage boat this time. During the lunch break in Rodgers Pass, a humpback whale suddenly dived halfway out of the water behind the canoes. It passed by us at least 5 more times to catch its breath until it could only be seen in the distance by the blowouts. A breathtaking experience and the first encounter with these majestic animals in the wild for the majority of us. We then continued through a small channel with a beautiful coastline and many caves and a tunnel in it. Our island, christened Birthday Island by the expedition before us, has a small sandy beach with silver snail shells but also many tide pools with anemones, starfish, crabs and small fish. We all pitched our tents in the sand, and for dinner our Cowichan chef, who had traveled with us, cooked a delicious soup with salmon, rice, vegetables, bull kelp (large-leaved seaweed) and wild onions. Despite the constant drizzle, everyone is happy to finally be here. Egon, Canadian Cooks More reports and pictures from the photographer team on www.reinis-blue-box.blogspot.de and http://www.samifayed.de/blog. www.facebook.com/wildernessinternational