Hello family and friends! I’ve now been in Bamfield, BC for 4 days (even though it feels like 4 weeks as they keep us super busy) and its one of the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen! I’ll be spending the entire fall semester here at the Bamfield Marine Sciences Center (until December 18). Take a look at what I’ve done so far:

Sep 6:

Traveled to Bamfield via 1 hour 45 minute ferry and 3 hour bus ride. The bus ride is 1 hour on paved road and 2 hours on an 80 km gravel logging road full of pot holes – so as you can imagine – very bumpy!

My room!

Sep 7:

Walked into the town of Bamfield (15 minutes) and saw the view from the marina

In the evening went to Pachena Bay with the whole class of 24 students – beautiful sandy beach with bioluminescent plankton! Also when the sun went down there was an amazing view of the stars

Had a campfire at Pachena Bay – the campfire ban was lifted today! The fire was made out of driftwood found on the beach and some skilled people who built it 🙂

Sep 8:

At BMSC they have long lines of rope into the ocean that have all types of cool stuff on them – tube worms, crabs and a whole lot of this orange slime called tunicates

Me pulling some of these lines out of the water – they were pretty heavy!

Taking a whirl in the row boats, went to the West side of Bamfield which is water access only! They have a cute store over there that sells food, rain gear and liquor – everything a local needs to survive in Bamfield.

Mysterious fog and row boat oars

Sep 9:

Cold water snorkelling! We got our wet suits on today and hopped into the water with our snorkels. I wish I had some underwater photos as it was spectacular. Notably, I saw tons of starfish (some bigger than a dinner plate), normal fish, crabs, and colourful sea cucumbers. We were also able to snorkel through kelp beds which feels like you are flying over over a forest of tall kelp trees. Water was surprisingly clear and there was a lot to see, plus the wetsuits kept us warm and super buoyant.

Looking through tide pools

Sep 10:

Guided tour of the ancinet Kiixin Village and Fortress National Historic Site which is now home to the Huu-ay-aht First Nations peoples. Our guide (pictured in blue vest) was lovely, and told us her about the history of the Huu-ay-aht First Nations and their struggles with the Canadian government and trauma inflicted through residential schools.

After walking on the board walk through the forest, we came out into this beautiful beach called “second beach” that our guide called her hidden oasis.

Someone else has been on this beach! Bear print in the sand

Walked along coastline for a bit – the brown dots on the water (left) are bull kelp, and some cool rock formations (right)

Me in my new rain gear

After a 30 minute beach trek we arrived at the historical site – which is illegal to enter without a guide (pictured on sign)

Archway of a house (left) which is many many years old. There was around 8 massive houses in the village and around 25-30 people lived in each house. Incredible building techniques were used to haul these heavy beams up. Pictured on the right is another beam dating at least back to the 1880s. the houses had a dug down floor – and for chiefs, the lower their house was dug down, the more respected they were.

Whale bones from a humpback whale (pictured left, three brown bones behind the ferns) that are still left in the historical site. They actually still smelled kind of fishy too! The first nations people would harpoon around 1-2 humpback whales per year. Pictured right is the hike back up to the head of the trail.

This was located right in front of the houses. These rocks were used as defensive lookout points, and on a clear day you can see every island around you and very far up the coast.

Van ride back to campus

In the afternoon they ferried us over to the water access only West side of Bamfield. Pictured is a view of the BMSC campus from the west side docks. It only takes around 3 minutes by boat across the small inlet, which is inhabited by seals and sea lions.

Cute shell succulants at the Bamfield art gallery, which is a small art shop attached to a resident’s house. The man who lived there was super friendly and said he was glad to see students again after covid.

Taking a stroll along the board walk that stretches the whole west side of Bamfield. Apparently back in the day, a random barge of wood showed up in Bamfield – nobody claimed it and none of the residents could figure out who’s it was. So after 5 years of it sitting there, they decided to build a board walk out of the wood! Turns out, a few years later, the government came in wondering where their wood went – and at that point had to accept the fact that it had already been whipped into a board walk! To justify it in their books, they designated it as a highway, meaning that this cute boardwalk in Bamfield is the sole walking-only highway in Canada!

A view of Bamfield – the dock on the right is the ‘parking lot’ for the store and the red roof on the left is the small grocery market

That’s all for now, cheers!