CAUTIOUS CARGO ↑ This way up ↑: ...and Back: Vancouver Island to California. September 2014.

So after a very warm welcome from Pam and Lou, we settled in to our first night in Duncan with copious amounts of food and some excellent wine poured through an aerator. I learnt that letting wine breathe makes it taste like a completely different wine. I know because I personally fastidiously studied the matter. Wendy and Kelvin joined us for dinner one evening and we ate a beautiful lemon cake that was about six inches tall.

Pam and Lou took us out into Stuart Channel on their boat, dropping crab traps and collecting them 30 minutes later for the barbecue, returning the females and small males to the water. I think we dropped anchor next to Tent Island, a tiny island Matt and I walked around in an hour. We spent the night on the boat, occasionally visited by Cassie and her boyfriend, and dogs Charlie and disabled Kenny, whose front legs were deformed. He didn't seem to notice.

After leaving Pam and Lou a day later we set off through the endless pine forests for some camping at Vancouver Island's main surf spot, Tofino. After pitching the tent we thought we'd explore the nearby forest trail. As soon as we entered, the forest had the distinct vibe of snake pit, and not more than 60 seconds later I came face to face with a snake. Not knowing that Vancouver Island's snakes are all non-venomous, we made a swift retreat to the tent for a safe game of cards.

The next day, we headed south to Victoria for our last night together; we were due to separate the following morning when my ferry would head back to Vancouver and Matt's ferry to Washington in the US. We found a campsite outside the city, picked up a nice bottle of wine and an IPA, and unpacked our last meal of carrots, peaches, peanuts, tuna and a few slices of salami. As we had our Last Supper we were passed by a deer and her offspring. The long and short of this meal together was a complete change of mind. We would not be heading in our opposite directions after all, but together, southward, back to San Diego.

We made it back in three days, camping once lakeside outside Eugene in Oregon, and staying at the fraternity house again in San Francisco. We had one last happy month together, using up every single day of my three-month US allowance, before I would eventually return to Canada.