Way Out West - Vancouver Island's Pacific Coast

- Images from the Pacific coast of Vancouver Island -

These pictures were taken on 35 mm slides between 1976 and 1993. Way Out West  is an excerpt from a longer slide/sound show on Western Canada that I presented as a lunchhour program at the Technical University and in some Gothenburg schools in the 90s. At that time I used several carousel projectors, dissolve controls and a special cassette recorder playing sound and providing synch pulses. The visual impact of such big-screen shows has yet to be matched with purely digital technique!

Already my first contact with the open Pacific at the Wickaninnish Beach campsite made quite an impression on me. It was during an Easter break in Vancouver when three fellow students and I made it over to the island in two Volvo PV 544s. At that time the only access to the untamed West Coast included 60 km of dirt track used by logging trucks. This road of sorts tested it all: your driving skills, your vehicle's condition and your patience with the slow progress. Without signs, guide posts or protective side rails the track took us steeply up the mountainsides, into deep snow, rewarding us with unforgettable outlooks. I remember a panorama with Sproat Lake way below, partially smothered by a tight string of clouds shaped like a dragon. As to be expected, everything generally greyed out as we came closer to the coast, the steady drizzle soon turning into a merciless downpour. But what a vista through the gaps between mighty cedars and Douglas firs: never ending rows of white-crested surf, emerging from the dark grey wash, advancing gracefully through the shrouds of rain! I never took a picture of this (I didn't have a camera then!), but that sight ingrained itself firmly in my inner image bank.

It rained for two days without interruption. We had a tough time starting a fire, but once we got it going we never let it go out. Further down the campsite was an enormous deposit of coarse (and drenched) firewood. We hauled it to our site, building up a pile fairly close to the fire, at least partially protected from the rain by a large tarp we had managed to string up. The firewood was quite useless without being dried first. We found space to sit down under the tarp as well. And while it was pouring all around, we were getting warmer and drier all the time. We were comfortable! Miraculously the inside of our tents kept reasonably dry throughout the ordeal.

On the third day the grey slowly broke up, leaving widening cracks of blue sky with high-up white clouds rushing through them. Finally the sun broke forth, drying the land within a few hours. We headed for the beach, walking, playing with "Ritter", a black retriever. Eventually we sought shelter from the breeze behind huge driftwood logs, dozing, reading and sunbathing! After two days of straight sunshine we started the trip home with suntans! Amazing. Unforgettable.

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