Off To Haida Gwaii - Packed, but not ready...

After hugs and kisses goodbye to Chelsey, Randy, and Mr. Finningan, I left Nanaimo, B.C. on the bus to Port Hardy at 10:33 sharp and headed out with great expectations as to what the day was to bring. I was not to be disappointed. The bus trip was fairly uneventful, but we did make pit stops in Parksville, Campbell River, and Port McNeil on the way north. We saw two bears about 50km outside of Port Hardy and a truck that was on fire somewhere in the same vicinity. Cool.

We stopped for nothing and no one - hot on the trail to catch the 6:00 o’clock ferry. With the exception of a very chatty lady who kept trying to get my attention with questions that might hopefully engage me: unfortunately my eyes were on the road ahead and was not to be easily engaged lol.

I didn’t actually make it into Port Hardy itself as the bus takes you right into the ferry terminal which is about 10 minutes south of the township. I took a couple of great pictures of the ferry prior to getting on and afterwards. What a fantastic ferry. It’s new and and from what I can tell a great place to spend the next 18 or so hours. Once aboard I headed to the purser’s office who kindly took my pack and then made my way to an outdoor sitting area to get some video footage and pictures. (Note: I will be posting some video footage, but have to figure out how to first ... so stay posted.)

It's 7:00 p.m. and I’m currently sitting in the cafeteria/lounge area and just to give you an idea of the prices: coffee $2.26; wine $10.06. I am drinking the coffee lol. I’m going to take some more pictures in a while. I want to catch the early evening and sunset so the light is better. It’s really too bright to get good photos right now. The afternoon has come and gone and I’ve managed to stake out a small space for myself in the Aurora Lounge.

There are about 10 people sleeping in this area tonight and much to my delight the guy right across from me snores. Argh, my worst pet peeve of all time. Not that he can do anything about it, but my instinct is to stuff a big old sock in his mouth. To top that off, he left his computer movie on full blast. So I shall pass the rest of the evening away listening to the gentleman snore to the beat of his boring movie. Thank gawd I brought earplugs and I can still here him ha ha.

Ah well, the upside is that there was an awesome sunset tonight and I took some wonderful photographs. You would be proud of me as it was dreadfully cold and the wind was battering against the west side of the ferry, but I hung in to the bitter end much to my delight now that I’m warm and comfy in my public state room. Things is just different on a ferry; you wander about, get the lay of things, stake

out some space and join all the other souls trying to get some sleep with no mattress. Oh right, the snoring guy brought along his own full size air mattress so he could sleep more deeply. Argh.

It’s been a fabulous day and please drop a note if you are curious about something in particular that I’m doing as I make my way northward. Always nice to hear from people.

Kelly