Broken Island group BC

Not long now [emoji106]

Its taken ALOT of planning and organising but only a few sleeps left.......

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Camp sites reserved several months ago. Sea kayaks booked, hours of research done, days crossed of the calendar, its almost real [emoji41]

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Plenty to fit into our bags for the flight but it will be worth it. One of the worlds great sea kayaking destinations. Bit different to the Able Tassie [emoji3]

Looking forward to the wildlife, the salmon run, the massive trees and my two boys reaction to it all.

I will try to keep you fellas updated in between the fishing !

Cheers









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Send photos, lots of photos

Funny to see Dungeness crab there.

Dungeness is in Kent England and has 2 retired nuclear power stations on its point as well as one working lighthouse and one disused one you can go up.

What an adventure!
Whats the age of your lads?

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Originally Posted by Tahr

What an adventure!
Whats the age of your lads?

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Youngest is 8. Oldest is 16.
They are both very much outdoor enthusiasts.

Will be a challange for them tho in different ways. No wifi for the oldest [emoji3][emoji3]..and the young fella will have to paddle with me [emoji41]

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Wow that chart looks sooo fishy, what an incredible adventure for you and your boys.

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Originally Posted by Happy Jack

Funny to see Dungeness crab there.

Dungeness is in Kent England and has 2 retired nuclear power stations on its point as well as one working lighthouse and one disused one you can go up.

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Yep I hope they are tasty [emoji41]
To be fair I think we are more likely to encounter the red rock crab, but you never know.

Am going to pick up a small collapsible crab pot when we get our BC tidal waters salmon licenses in Vancouver.




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Great adventure coming up, Canada is a great place to hunt and fish, you will have a great time, send plenty of photos.

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Originally Posted by Mooseman

Great adventure coming up, Canada is a great place to hunt and fish, you will have a great time, send plenty of photos.

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75 years ago my parents left England for a new life, they had a choice between NZ and Canada. They chose NZ, have always wondered what if it was Canada.

Very cool.

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Originally Posted by tetawa

75 years ago my parents left England for a new life, they had a choice between NZ and Canada. They chose NZ, have always wondered what if it was Canada.

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I had that choice as have family there who would have sponsored me but I chose here where I knew nobody and have no regrets.

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Originally Posted by Happy Jack

I had that choice as have family there who would have sponsored me but I chose here where I knew nobody and have no regrets.

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Me either, probably would never had spent so much time hunting in Canada as I have here even though they have some mighty interesting species.

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Originally Posted by tetawa

Me either, probably would never had spent so much time hunting in Canada as I have here even though they have some mighty interesting species.

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Most definitely , my son lives there and even though he was brought up with the NZ style of hunting he has adapted To the Canadian way.
He hunts elk and whitetail and Mule deer mostly and if he gets an elk and a few whitetails he has enough meat for most of the year.

Such an awesome part of the world. I spent a couple of summers just up the road, in Tofino, back in the day
We caught plenty of dungees, ling cod and salmon. Crumbed black rockfish burgers were always hands down my favourite.

Hope your boys enjoy the adventure

On the plane tomorrow [emoji106]
All super excited !!



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Originally Posted by kukuwai

On the plane tomorrow [emoji106]
All super excited !!

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I thought you were kayaking?
Don't forget the photos

Looks like an awesome time ahead :thumbsup:

My brother goes up that way a bit for skiing in Winter, and he's just been for a mountain bike race of all things a couple of weeks ago

Its not often that you get to do the same day twice. Two planes, one train, one bus and a ferry that didn't break down has us on Victoria Island [emoji106]

Arrival into vancouver.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6ddb416e36.jpg

BC ferries to Nanaimo.

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Got chatting to a couple of kiwis from christchurch on the bus. Turns out we are good friends with their daughter and son in law who only live a couple of kms from our house.

Bloody unreal NZ is. 2 degrees of separation [emoji41]





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Just had to pop in here to get our fishing licences.

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Pretty cool store, thought you guys might enjoy a few photos of the inside [emoji3]

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A few shots from today for you lads...
Pretty amazing treeshttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...9dfd028a21.jpg
Info on the big Douglas above.
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Oh and this little guy the boys found, lucky there are no poisonous snakes in BC [emoji3]

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Boat out to the Broken Island group first thing in the morning. Its going to be interesting fitting our mountain of gear in the kayaks. No fresh water out there so need to take about 100litres + 5 days food, fishing gear, crab pot and all our other crap.

Oh and a few of these [emoji3]
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What a bloody brilliant adventure. Following with interest.

Make sure you eat Halibut while there.

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Originally Posted by EmpireSafaris

Make sure you eat Halibut while there.

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Seen a couple of those getting filleted on the back of a charter boat today when we went down to the dock to check out the kayaks.

Bloody big flounder [emoji3]

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Had a stroll down the coast after tea came across these old bones. Pretty interesting.

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Also had a Bear walk across the road in front of the car on the way back to camp. Too quick for a photo but VERY exciting none the less [emoji106]

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Originally Posted by kukuwai

Seen a couple of those getting filleted on the back of a charter boat today when we went down to the dock to check out the kayaks.

Bloody big flounder [emoji3]

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Amazing Fish to catch and eat, I fished from Prince Rupert BC years ago.

Found a spot of reception so here are a few shots from yesterday.

Loading up.
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Got to watch a river otter with two kits give a raccoon a good sorting out on the channel edge while loading the boat. Real cool, the boys got some good pictures of that on the big camera.

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Bit different to the ones at home.
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Camp
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First crab.
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Tasty.
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What a adventure , fantastic

Woke to a spectacular day on Gibraltar island this morning
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Plenty of fossicking at low tide. Check this out, a moon snail and that gasket looking thing beside it is its egg sack !! Made from sand and shell bits

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Paddled to Dodd island in outstanding conditions.

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A stop on the tiny island group before making camp on dodd island.

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Then off for an afternoon paddle to Willis island to check out the huge cedar trees.

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After that it was all about catching dinner as the back side of Dodd Island is outside the finfish reserve.

Rock fish.
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And crabs. Yum!

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What a day !

I have literally done hundreds of days kayaking in the able tasman but this place is totally something else [emoji41]

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On the boat heading back to the mainland, just picked up a bit of reception again so will do an update on the next day and when I get a chance I will do the rest.

Bit sad to be leaving really, could easily do another couple of days out there !

Kayaking day 3 - Dodd island to Clarke island

Woke to another cracker.

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It gets light at 4am, sun up at about 5 so on the water early to take advantage of the calm.

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This area is renowned for heavy fog, so often the early departure is not possible. Not this week however [emoji41]

Stopped on "little hawaii" for lunch.

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Then onto Clarke for the night. Remnants of the old hotel that existed here many years ago.

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This sort of carry on is hard case for a kiwi fella [emoji3]

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Another super day[emoji106]








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Enjoying the pics, epic trip

Day 4 - Clarke Island to Willis Island.

The horns on the fog buoys started up in the night, pretty cool lying in the tent listening to them.

For the first time we woke to this.

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The system of waring buoys they have over here is pretty smart. Not only do they have fog buoys but also 'whistle buoys'. They fire up when there is any swell, each time the swell passes the buoy it lets out a loud whistle. This then tells you period between the swell, clever!

The fog didn't take long to lift so we were back on the water. First stop Benson Island.

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This island is considered the home of the Tseshaht people, archeological evidence shows habitation as much as 5000 years ago. Tseshaht translates to "people who smell like dead whales rotting on the beach".

Apparently that was a very honorable name as they were so good at whale hunting. They would paddle out and harpoon the whale (usually humpbacks) attach airbags made of seal skin and follow it until it tired. At this point the canoe chief would kill it with a spear, immediately a brave would dive in, cut a hole in its jaw and tie the mouth closed to stop it filling with water.

They would then tow the whale back to Benson Island for butchering. Not a bad effort for a canoe with no more than 8 or 10 paddlers !!

House post on Benson Island, carved posts such as this would support the main beam of their long houses.

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The paddling conditions just got better as the day went on so we enjoyed some beautiful scenery throughout the day.
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Once camp was set up the boys and I set about our evening ritual of paddling outside the fin fish reserve to catch some dinner.

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Quill back rockfish on the board, other 4 are kelp grayling. Top two female, bottom two male.

Used the frame of one fish as bait for the crab trap. Ingenious thing that worked exceptionaly well and provided hours of entertainment for the boys and more crabs than we could eat.

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Just throw it out off the rocks, it would open into a circle on the sea floor. Leave it 20-30min then a quick pull of the rope would close it up as seen above, catching any crab that had been investigating the bait [emoji3]

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The boys gave those three to some others camped at willis and in return were given some marshmallows and a couple of beers for dad. How good [emoji482]

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Day 5 - Willis Island to Turtle island.

Last day on the broken group. Ended up having the Willis island east beach camp site to our selves last night. To be honest the only island that was somewhat busy was Clarke which is considered the 'jewel in the crown' so not surprising that was where most of the kayakers were. We had hardly anyone at any of our other camps.

Willis east side camp.

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One thing that was really cool about these camps was the array of wood on the beaches. The boys had great fun dragging all the useful bits back to camp so we could use them for seats, benches and tables etc.

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Headed out to the last group of outer islands we hadn't visited. Dempster, Onion and Mullins Island.

Pretty mint conditions considering that's the open pacific ocean in front of us.

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When we hopped on the plane on the way over the pilot said "It will be a smooth flight, there is really nothing in the pacific at the moment". My ears perked up at that considering where we were headed. He was right [emoji41]

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A couple more beaches visited. The outer islands don't have many spots to land especially on their western sides, but the ones that do are primo !!

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Found an old cedar dead fall with an interesting face carved in it.

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Before reaching turtle Island to rendezvous with our transport back to Ucluelet.

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The wildlife we have seen on this trip has been insane!!

One wolf, two bears, more dear then we could count. Snakes, squirrels, chip monks, mink and martin. Raccoons, otters, seals and pups. Eagles, blue heron, humming birds. Also a massive amount of intertidal creatures such as starfish, anemone etc.

The oldest boy has been in charge of the big camera and has some unreal photos. I will revisit this thread when we get home and post some of them up for you folk.

But for now....

Wolf print.

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Juvenile black bear print (we actually saw this bear) it wasn't a cub but it was a youngish one.

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Banana slug.

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One day left on Vancouver island !

On the big bird heading home now so thought I would make use of the inflight wifi and throw up a few pictures of our last day on Vancouver island.

Easy to see why this section of west coast is known as the graveyard of the Pacific. The end for many many ships over the years.

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Stopped in at Stamp creek falls near Port Alberni to check out the Salmon run. Currently Sockeye. The concrete structure you can see the photo below is a salmon ladder. It was cool to see how that worked.

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The salmon can't get up the falls so the pool below is literally full of them.

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Threw the boys in with the goggles, it blew their socks off [emoji3]

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Wonderful views of Vancouver with Mount Baker in the background from the ferry crossing back to the mainland.

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Awesome trip memories for a life time [emoji106]


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If anyone has become inspired to check out the broken islands. We hired our kayaks from Hello Nature in Ucluelet.

https://hellonature.ca/?gad_source=1...xoCdIEQAvD_BwE

Kevin the owner was great to deal with. You do need to prove that you have sufficient experience before he will hire them to you though.

Guided trips are also offered which would definitely be a good option for some people just not what we were looking for.

The other place you can hire kayaks or do guided trips is from the broken island lodge. Only accessible by boat or float plane.

https://www.brokenislandslodge.com/

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I am always happy to answer any questions via PM if anyone is interested.

Hope you have enjoyed the photos. If there were too many blame @ROKTOY he is the one that asked for lots of photos [emoji3]

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Thanks for doing the write up and stories, i enjoyed the series and it was great to see another part of the world in detail.
If you need another son on your next voyage, look no further:thumbsup:.
would have been an awesome trip for the lads and you.

Really enjoyed following your trip , thanks for sharing

Cheers guys, glad you enjoyed the updates [emoji106]

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Short of stature, broad of shoulder...
Thanks for the photos @kukuwai, It certainly looked like a fantastic trip with some great weather to make it more enjoyable.
I'm glad I am not the jealous type.

Great times with your boys, really enjoyed this thread