GO WEST, YOUNG MAN, GO WEST: The voices in my head seemed more impatient than usual. They were talking to me in my dreams, whenever I closed my eyes, whenever I looked in the mirror- go west they whispered- go west.
At first I didn't know how to react, this hadn't happened in months, not since I signed the final form for my flight over here.
We're already on the other side of the planet I said what more do you want?
I figured the west coast of North America was already quite far West enough. The voices disagreed.
Go further West. They said. Over the water.
Now I was starting to get annoyed. I already left home for no good reason to come over here, now they wanted more! Well this time I wasn't gonna take it.
No, no more travel! I'm gonna sit right here and play Street Fighter! You want to go west, get there yourself!
If you go west, we will give you ice cream...
Damn. These voices know me too well. Fortunately, Simon told me of a road trip to Vancouver Island, so once again I packed my bag and set out on a vague but ultimately rewarding trip for no good reason, other than the voices in my head told me to. That and I thought it might be quite interesting.

As it turns out, my voices were right again. Vancouver Island was pretty cool. Although we spent most of the time in the car (we being Me , Simon, Gavin, Paul Smith and his workmate Becca) we saw a lot of stuff- although a lot of it was in the dark, thanks to our group ineptitude for direction finding. While we got to our first destination, Tofino, easily enough (there really aren't that many roads to get lost on) once we got there, we decided to go see long beach. As the name suggests Long beach is quite long. The problem was everyone (except me) in the car was convinced that the beach was on the left when in fact it was on the right. Bearing in mind the beach was in the Pacific Ocean, largest body of water on the planet, this really was a major oversight. It also meant that we spend about an hour in the dark driving down random side roads, lined with trees a la Evil Dead, even after the mistake was realized . Once the sun eventually rose however (glorious warm sunlight!) We managed to find our way a little easier. First we went down to Uculet(?) and had a wonder around the coast there, complete with lighthouse and amazing view, after a little more diriving aimlessly before we finally cracked and asked for directions. Then we visited the near-mythical Long Beach. It turned out to be worth it , because even overcast it looked great. Gavin and I somehow managed to resist the urge to go for a paddle in the freezing cold ocean whereas Simon, Becca and Paul were weak of spirit and jumped in (some for longer than others). After this we all jumped back in the car for a quick look at Victoria. It turned out to be a quicker look than we all expected, as although I'm sure Victoria is a wonderful place, it didn't really inspire us. Although we did stop for afternoon tea there, which was perhaps the most surreal experience of my whole trip to date and only increased my urge to leave. I think I sholud listen to the voices in my head more often...