The next morning we were on the road by 6, and crossed in Canada and made the 10am ferry to Nanaimo without a problem.
Two hours later we were heading north to Campbell River, were we turned off onto a smaller road toward Gold River. After Gold River, we turned onto the road to Tahsis, which was 40 miles of potholes, gravel and a few stretches of actual pavement. This stretch was pretty grueling, having to really focus on the driving after many hours of traveling already.
By 5pm we pulled into Tahsis hungry, achy, and tired from a very long day. It was a long journey, but one that grew progressively more beautiful the further we traveled. The fall colors are stunning up there, creating bright yellow and orange patches and streaks along the steep side of the evergreen covered mountainsides. We passed many rivers, waterfalls, and fog laced lakes tucked away in small valleys and soaring canyon.
When we arrived we met up with the rest of group, Tom & Cindy and Calvin & Kimi, as well our hosts for the weekend, Scott & Jude from Tahtsa Dive Charters. We were led to our spacious rental house, where we unloaded some of our luggage. Then it was down to the only pub in town to have a couple cold ones and a quick dinner with the gang. On the way we saw two young bears galumphing down the road and off into the bushes as we approached.
At the pub, laughs were had and plans were hatched. We agreed that we would get a later start, to give us time to set up our gear and get to know our way around the shop and the boat. We then retired back to the house, where we all collapsed into our respective rooms and quickly passed out.
The next day was a leisurely day. We rolled out of bed, got ready, and headed down to the dock. As we were putzing around and tweaking our gear, the fog lifted from the water and the sun began peaking out above the mountain. Nootka Sound was still as glass and reflected the trees and blue sky almost perfectly.
Our gear was ready and loaded on the boat, and off we went to Mozino Point, a short ride away. We suited up as stellar sea lions and an otter swam and frolicked several yards away, all of us chatting excitedly and looking forward to seeing if the scenery below the surface was as spectacular as it was above.
The short answer is: yes, it certainly was.
I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to write up a report and I’m finding I really can’t even begin to explain how thoroughly enjoyable those 5 days were. So here’s a few short paragraphs that I hope can convey some of what we experienced.
First, I have to say that Scott and Jude really went out of their way for us. They arranged a great rental house for us that was both comfortable and amazingly inexpensive. They cooked us a terrific prawn and salmon dinner, they filled our tanks nice and full, and they were just a ton of fun to be around. I highly recommend that some or all of you reading this go out and spend some time diving with them in Tahsis.
The diving. My mind was blown within the first 10 minutes I was in the water. The viz was extraordinary, up to 80’. The amount of life was incredible and varied. The underwater topography was majestic and awe-inspiring. All 11 dives I did were rewarding in multiple ways. I really wish I had the words and the time to tell you all of the details from each dive. Hopefully our pics can convey a least a small fraction of how beautiful these dives were.
Highlights include several flybys from curious stellar sea lions, carpets of strawberry anemones, sheer walls and house sized boulders, dinner plate sized scallops everywhere, deep water Gorgonian corals, pristine cloud sponges of various sizes, absolutely massive colonies of Hooded Nudis whose heads were as big as my fist, and fearless rockfish, some of which would follow us around for large portions of the dives.
We even got to dive a virgin site that was awesome, with Giant Nudis everywhere munching tube anemones and swimming through the water. We named the site Nudi Kung Fu, since we have been watching martial arts movies all week and felt that the nudis exhibited Bruce Lee-like prowess when stalking and striking the tube anemones.
Ok, this is all I can write up for now. I’m sure that our other intrepid travelers will chime in with more info and anecdotes soon enough. I’ll post more pics and videos when I finish sorting through them all…
Go to Tahsis!
This is my favorite smiley!!
