We returned to the car and sat at the bottom of the hill looking up. It seemed we were a rather long way from the top. We started creeping up the hill in first and second gear only to have our tires start slipping. We backed up and had a running start. We went higher but not all the way to the top. Change in strategy, get Jo-Ce and myself out of the car and pushing while Gen eases the car up the hill. After a great deal of tire spinning which threw up a massive cloud of dust, Jo-Ce and I provided the power to get the car to the top. Gen kept going until she reached a level spot.
The next challenge was a switchback with a mix of rock and terrible gravel. I took a run, honking I charged around the switchback only to find myself stuck halfway up the next hill. At this point people started to pass us, they would roll down their window and ask if we were okay. I kept saying “Well, we may need a push”. At the end of it we had seven people, who were consumed in a cloud of dust, after pushing our car up the hill. Many thanks were given, and we were back on the road slightly worried about the beating our tires just took.
We now had to start driving, we visited Port Renfrew. The entrance to Port Renfrew is a rather significant downhill. As we were travelling around a curve, our trailer door which had not been fully locked popped open, the door is dragging along the ground and some of the cans we had stacked near the door went spilling out into the concrete barrier. This is Jo-Ce’s first full day on the trip; what a start! We cleaned up and carried on, nothing terribly worse for wear; one or two cans even survived the collision with the barrier.
We had seen the south-west of the island and now we were heading north to Tofino. The drive takes a rather serious long cut by going across the island to Nanaimo, north, then back across the island to Pacific Rim National Park. We made most of the drive and settled in a church campground in Port Alberni, well set up for the next day’s drive to Tofino.
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