Michael To explore the wildlife and plant life of the so-called "Broken Islands" in the bay south of Tofino, we booked a guided full-day kayak tour. Early in the morning at eight, we took a small shuttle boat with kayaks strapped on to the group of islands, where we packed provisions into the kayaks on a sandy beach, put on our gear, and started paddling.
I sat in the back of the kayak, where you paddle with your hands and control the rudder with your feet. From 10 in the morning until late in the afternoon, we traveled from island to island, sometimes in light drizzle and, when a bit of wind picked up for half an hour, through quite challenging waves.
In total, there were three boats; besides us, there was another couple from Portland in a double kayak, and the kayak guide was in his own kayak. The other participants were whitewater kayakers, and we really had to put in a lot of effort to keep up. I even had a big blister on my thumb by the evening! They supposedly call them "kayak blisters," and the kayak guide had thick calluses in the same spot.
Once, a heavy motorboat sped through the bay and created an approximately 1-meter high, leisurely wave, which I called a "tsunami," that slowly approached the kayak. We paddled quickly to turn the boat in the same direction. Fortunately, the kayak guide had warned us about this beforehand; otherwise, we might have taken a cold bath. The kayak guide said it supposedly happens about twice a year, and he always has to pull people out because, as tourists, we haven't yet mastered the Eskimo roll.
The amazing kayak guide, a globetrotter who had spent a long time in New Zealand, told stories for hours during the trip and explained every tree and every bush. We saw various animals, an eagle, a seal, a few starfish, but due to the bad weather, spectacular sightings were absent.
During a tour a few weeks earlier, a humpback whale had come too close to a kayak, and the kayak tourists had nearly capsized and fallen into the water out of fright. On the way back home in the shuttle boat, we did see some whales splashing around, including a so-called "humpback whale" and a gray whale, which we photographed routinely.