Since Allan was driving us through this whole trip, I thought I should let him get a word in edgewise. Here's his description of the road in to Port Renfrew:
Decisions, decisions, decisions. All we had heard about the route from Duncan on the east cost of Vancouver Island to the west coast of the island was that it had to be done through Victoria. Highway 18 to Port Renfrew was a gravel logging road. Logging trucks I can do without. And gravel…the motorhome would take a pounding. Fraserway, where we rented ‘Dreamboat’ (which I named after the motorhome in ‘The Last Canadian’) had made it quite clear they did not want their motorhomes ‘off road’. All the maps I looked at were clear: ‘gravel’. All but one. ‘PAVED’!
We decided we would head out after breakfast to Lake Cowichan where Highway 18 turned due west and lit out through the mountains for the ocean. The ominous sign: ‘Caution - POTHOLES AHEAD FOR 56KM’ did not make me feel I had made the right decision but on we went. There was the odd pothole but the road was beautiful…and PAVED!
There was much to see and photograph on this part of the journey to the sea.
Beautiful streams and canyons with waterfalls and endless clear cut. Clear cut! Did I tell you about the logging trucks? Fortunately we drove this ‘logging road’ on Easter Monday when all the loggers were sleeping off the holiday weekend.
The twisty and often narrow road with one lane bridges led to the paradise of Port Renfrew. Back to Angela with the difficult duty of describing the beauties of this area that neither of us wanted to leave.