Every year we talk about going camping and somehow it hasn't happened since 2005. It was a shock to realize how long it's been. Our camping equipment is also our earthquake/emergency supply so it's not like we ever thought of getting rid of it nor has it been stuffed away somewhere inaccessible. If we have a big earthquake we don't want to have to dig through too much rubble to get tent, tarps, food, camp stove, sleeping bags, and all that survival stuff, so the gear lives in the garage. Which means we see it every day and eventually it called to us loudly enough that we answered.
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| not obvious here but the campsite in the background was below us by 6 or 7 feet |
We've only ever camped at provincial parks, basically because they are beautiful and because Rathtrevor and Miracle Beach have forest as well as beach. Rathtrevor is about 2 hours from Victoria and always busy; it was sold out by the time we settled on dates. Miracle Beach is almost 4 hours away and was available. We didn't want to drive that far so I looked online for an alternative and came across The Living Forest, just south of Nanaimo. On the "no guts no glory" theme we gave it a whirl and liked it very much. The campground sits on a hillside overlooking the Nanaimo River estuary, the sites are relatively spacious and well looked after, there is actual security so campers seem to behave well (ask us about Englishman River Falls someday!), lots of staff on site, FLUSH toilets, and good showers.
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| view from the cafe which has wi-fi that we didn't use |
What can I say? An unserviced site is $28.00, $1.00 less than the Provincial campgrounds. And you can have a 2nd car on the site for which the Province charges another $12.00. We had electricity (which we didn't use) and water on our site, and a view of the estuary for $35.00 per night. Except we only paid $91.00 so I'm not sure what happened.
Price isn't the story. The story is that we spent 3 nights in a tent, unplugged from electronic crap except our e-readers, ate and drank well and enjoyed the complete disconnect.
A bonus was that Jim's cousin Gary O'Brien lives in Nanaimo and he and his wife Marisol came for a smoky campfire visit. Nice people and fun to be with.
We may go back this summer but if we do it will have to be soon because, inevitably on Vancouver Island, there will be a burn ban prohibiting campfires. Already it hasn't rained for weeks, there is none in the next week's forecast, and the forest fire hazard is up to High. There is some high cloud today but it's 30C, the humidity is 22%, and it's breezy; perfect forest fire conditions.
