Day 25 - Horne Lake Caves, Vancouver Island

Today morning I went to the bakery close by to pick up some quick breakfast as I had to rush further north on Hwy 19. Funny that while paying for my coffee and two cookies I was asked if I was the guy from Toronto. They already heard about me from the bar. Anyway, my first stop today was at Horne Lake Caves. There are two caves that you can explore by yourself and a third one is only accessible with a guide. The guided tour was fully booked so I went for the two self-guided caves on my own. On the map the caves are drawn as a pretty straight hollow so I thought you can easily walk in and out. No you can't, it's tougher than that. I found myself quickly squeezing myself through 1 feet narrow crevices and crawling on all four or on my but to push myself through small spaces I never could have imagined possible. Definitely nothing for claustrophobic people.

And then you can go multiple ways - over or under rocks - and you will find out if you chose the harder way only when it's too late. Halfway in you realize you just have one flashlight and you start praying that the batteries will last, else you are in pitch dark. It was quite and adventure I have to say and that I was alone in the cave (well, not counting the scary pairs of eyes that were following me in the dark) gave even more thrill to the adventure. Of course I recorded everything with my head camera with some entertaining narration. The walls were full of cave crystals, which is basically precipitation water but it shines like that you will think you found silver.

Once out of the cave my clothes were all dirty and ready for washing. Similarly my car as the road leading to the caves is 15km of dirt road. Didn't know that when I was washing the car the day before in Victoria. Anyway, it was just dust, so a sudden 0-100 accelaration on the highway cleaned everything off again. My next stop was Telegraph Cove, which is a 4-5 hours drive further up north on the island. I booked the whale-watching tour for tomorrow but both accomodations there were already full. Telegraph Cove is basically 1 restaurant, 1 bar, a marina for boats, a whale-watching tour operator and 2 possibilieties for staying overnight. It's a resort town with basically no residents. I went to Port McNeill to find a a place to stay. Port McNeill is nothing fancy, mainly port industry buildings, and couple of motels for the tourists that came for Telegraph Cove. And imagine rain, lot's of rain.