Port Alberni

September 22nd (a Tuesday - about a month ago!)

Midmorning we motored from Parksville to Port Alberni and ended up at Harbour Quay.


It was all quite fishy with a Gray's Whales mural,


a boat mural,


and this fountain.


At first I mistook Sir Eustace Hornswoggle for another tourist. But it seems he's a resident,


as is this ferocious looking carved eagle.


It was an overcast day, but still warm enough for lunch on the patio of the Water's Edge Bistro.




Someday we'd like to come back and board one of the passenger ferries that leave from Port Alberni for Barkley Sound and the Ucluelet/Broken Islands run. As britishcolumbia.com describes it:

This passenger, mail and freight service has been a part of the West Coast for over 60 years. The Lady Rose and the Frances Barkley have a relaxed, friendly atmosphere rather reminiscent of yesteryear.

Join the crew on the Lady Rose for a day trip down the Alberni Inlet to Barkley Sound, and have a truly memorable experience. In the course of a day's trip the packet freighters drop mail, groceries, supplies and up to 100 passengers along the way at float homes and the Sechart Whaling Station - in the same manner as she did when she began her life on the B.C. Coast over 60 years ago.

The Frances Barkley spends her summers on the Port Alberni to Ucluelet/Broken Group Islands run. At times you'll definitely feel the motion of the ocean swells, but the better part of he journey through Barkley Sound is not as exposed as that experienced when you travel out of Gold River, on the MV Uchuck III. The trip makes for a pleasant outing in itself, or it can be a link for paddlers wishing to get to the Broken Group Islands.