Orca Waters - Base Camp (25.114)

Itinerary

• Day
  1

  Enjoy kayaking but despair of pitching tents every night? Looking for a more relaxing trip than our expedition series? Our established base camp on Hanson Island allows you to spend more time kayaking, exploring, relaxing and viewing wildlife. From our central location in the heart of Johnstone Strait, you’ll paddle daily, exploring the variety of kayaking routes in the area. The Orcas regularly pass by our camp; often while we’re enjoying dinner around the campfire, and the nearby waters are thick with Bald eagles, harbour seals, dolphins, porpoises, and rich inter-tidal life. With the comforts of an established base camp, you’ll have more time for relaxing and exploring – plus, to ensure utmost utilization of your time, we make use of a water taxi for drop-off and pickup, ensuring maximum time on the water. On Day 1 we meet in the lobby of a hotel in Port McNeill at 9:00 am to begin our trip. All your gear is taken to our awaiting water taxi by our van and a short 5 minute walk takes us to the harbour where we board the water taxi for the one hour trip to our base camp (in inclement weather our van will return to drive you to the water taxi). If necessary you will be able to store extra luggage at the hotel during your trip and leave your car parked in their lot free of charge. On arrival at our base camp your guides will give you a short camp orientation. Once everyone is set up in their tents a short introduction to kayaking will be followed up by practising in the cove outside our camp. Once everyone is comfortable in their kayaks we begin our journey.

  Meals: Lunch, Dinner

  Accomodation: Camping
• Day
  2

  After enjoying a relaxed breakfast we begin the days paddle. Our base camp is well situated on one of the orcas main travel path as well as being in an area routinely visited by humpback whales. Also close by are many islets that are home to numerous sea birds and seals and the more protected inner passages of Broughton Archipelago where evidence still survives of past first nations use. Our exact routes will vary each day depending on possible wildlife sightings, currents, tides and weather.

  Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  Accomodation: Camping
• Day
  3

  We provide an underwater hydrophone on all of our Orca Water tours and will often stop to listen to the sounds the orcas make. Our guides can often distinguish different orca clans by the sounds that they make and even identify many of the individual orcas through the shapes and markings of their dorsal fins. With the use of a photographic catalogue we can compare the orcas that we have seen over the day to identify the orcas to the families and clans they belong to.

  Meals: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner

  Accomodation: Camping
• Day
  4

  After a hearty breakfast you will have the option of going for a morning paddle or just staying back in camp and relaxing. Our water taxi picks us up shortly after lunch for the journey back to civilization. Generally we will be back at Port McNeill between 4:30 and 5:00pm. Many of our guests decide to spend one extra night in Port McNeill instead of trying to rush back that same evening. If that is the case we often all get together for a no-host farewell dinner.

  Meals: Breakfast, Lunch

  Accomodation: Accommodation by Customer