Rathtrevor Beach

On the second day of our weekend on Vancouver Island, Margarit and I slept in.  We were both worn out and exhausted from all the activities of the previous week... trying to keep things going at home while at the same time trying to get ready for this trip.  With the early start the morning before, and the time spent in airports and on airplanes, we had just had enough and needed to sleep in and catch up.

By around lunch time we got our act together and hit the road in our rental car.  We travelled down the coast on the scenic Seaside secondary highway.  We turned off at Rosewall Creek Provincial Park, and initially missed the driveway into the park, and ended up down on the beach.  After poking around briefly, we back tracked and found our way back to the park.  The lush coastal rain forest was so different from the barren and drab spring conditions that we had left behind back in Alberta.

 

A short time later we continued on down the scenic highway.  We found ourselves at a little seaside cafe on Qualicum Beach, and decided to stop for lunch.  I can't remember what the place was called, but we took a table out on the patio, overlooking the bay.  They served the absolute best clam chowder that I have ever had.  It was a rich, creamy broth with lots of fresh spring potatoes, carrots and celery.  And in the bowl were around a dozen fresh steamed clams.  I really enjoyed the chowder, and found it difficult to finish the prawns and chips that I had foolishly ordered to go along with it.  After finishing up that wonderful lunch we continued on down the coast to Parksville.  Here we headed over to Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park.  This is a great place with a wonderful campsite and a large day use area.  The sheltered bay is very shallow, and at low tide it leaves about a kilometer of sandy beach exposed.  Our timing was just about perfect and we arrived just as the tide had gone out.  We spent the whole afternoon poking around and exploring on the beach... collecting shells and making photographs...

As the day wound down, we packed up and made our way back to the Kingfisher resort.  We went out for a nice dinner together, and retired to our room.  We were still catching up on sleep from the week prior and with all the fresh sea air we were both exhausted.