Dreamscapes Travel & Lifestyle Magazine
Issue link: http://read.dreamscapes.ca/i/725964
FALL 2016 DREAMSCAPES 13 MAJESTIC FORESTS It's a cool day in early June as we tour the forest. There's a trace of rain, and the water is pitter-pattering through the tall stands of trees and forming small rivulets and even a baby waterfall. I'm grinning from ear to ear as I take in the soft sounds of the falling water, the purity of what's all around me and the multiple shades of mind-bending green. Volunteers have built a small viewing platform in the Avatar forest and have helped blaze a series of trails and steps to make it easier to navigate the thick undergrowth. The majestic trees seem safe from the buzzing action of chainsaws today, but Watt's group is trying to make sure future generations can visit and marvel at one of the most overpowering and inspiring sights in Canada. On another day I take a similar hike with a guide from Rain Forest Tours. She guides us through a thick forest to Mystic Beach, between Sooke and Port Renfrew, where a waterfall cascades over a towering slab of exposed rock, sending sheets of fresh water to grateful campers on the beach below. TAKE THE SCENIC ROUTE I'm enjoying a four-day sojourn on what's called the Pacific Marine Circle Route around lower Vancouver Island, an easy but scenic route that slices along the south coast from Victoria to Sooke and then up the west coast to Port Ren- frew. From there the road bends inward and curves through pretty valleys before depositing drivers in the Cowichan Valley, just north of Victoria. Scenic beauty and rainforests are far from the only things you'll find on the circuit. In Sooke, we dine at one of Canada's top restaurants, the Sooke Harbour House. Dinner includes a perfect tart with local asparagus (the restaurant was focusing on local food years before the phrase "farm to table" was invented), luscious salmon, wild mussels with pasta and unusual local wines. On the beach near the Harbour House, we listen as Diane Bernard, known as "the Seaweed Lady," shows off various types of seaweed and explains the benefits. Bernard makes a series of health and beauty products under the name Seaflora Skincare and has a small production centre in Sooke.