Friday 2 October 2009

Bench of the Week (22)




These benches are located at Tofino where the Pacific Terminus of the Trans-Canada highway ends as related by the tourism department of Tofino. The sign in the photo speaks for itself. Tofino, British Columbia is well known for its whale watching activities from March through to September, when the gray whales make their migration.

Please visit RuneE of Visual Norway for this week's participants. RuneE began this informal meme of Bench of the Week.

Photo Credit: Mafue CC=sa-flickr. Click to enlarge.

NOTE: Trans-Canada Highway No. 1 ends in Victoria, B.C. Tofino is of the opinion that the highway ends there.

21 comments:

Dina said...

Great benches for the end of the road. Love the sign too.

Anonymous said...

Like the benches Barbara, thanks for visiting mine. Whale watching is fascinating. Further from Adelaide on our South Coast at Victor Harbour,is a whale watching centre,providing information about the whales which visit to the warmer waters around our Southern Coast to breed and play.Also, whale watching is a big tourism attraction in the Great Australian Bight between Western and Southern Australia.The waters around Victor Harbour are quite sheltered, whereas the photograph you've provided looks like it could be very cold and open to the elements!

Anonymous said...

...just noticed the trees on the left, and the horsesshoe-shaped bay - looks sheltered after all...duh!

Teresa said...

Beautiful benches! Magnificent orca!

Cloudia said...

Terrific Terminus, Toots! :)


Aloha, Friend-

Comfort Spiral

Leah J. Utas said...

Been there. Whale-watched. Probably saw this bench in the wild. Cool.

Mark said...

Tofino is not the western end of the Trans-Canada Highway, Victoria is. The claim dates back to about 1909 (long before my time!), when Tofino began lobbying for a highway across the country, and thereby staked an early claim. When the road was built in the 1960s, the Vancouver Island portion connected Nanaimo's ferry terminus with downtown Victoria, completely bypassing Tofino. The bench was placed there by old-timers still in denial.

See http://www.TransCanadaHighway.com for more info about the Trans-Canada Highway

Mark Ruthenberg
General Manager
FoundLocally.com Media Inc
(owner of TransCanadaHighway.com)

Barbara Martin said...

Dina, the end of the road for Tofino and it's caused some consternation with some folks.

Pam, it still gets mighty cold on the west coast in winter, what with winds sweeping across the Pacific Ocean from the northwest.

Teresa, it is a nice little place. It hasn't changed much since I was last there. Nice to see the sign is still there, too.

Hilary said...

I'd love to be able to watch whales and this sure looks like as fine a place as any to do so. Thanks for sharing. :)

Barbara Martin said...

Cloudia, it's a nice little place out of the way of commercial Victoria.

Leah, definitely the place to watch sea creatures.

Mark, too bad you have such a bone of contention about a sign in a photo. I wouldn't think benches or a sign would cause such an uproar. Do you feel better now, owner of a website?

Barbara Martin said...

Hilary, anywhere along the coastline of Vancouver Island one can whale watch. Tofino is better than most as the whales migrate past there. I have seen Orcas off the coast at Point Roberts, WA.

Stewart Sternberg (half of L.P. Styles) said...

Thank god for the internet and its ability to let us glimpse something outside our doorway. True, it would be better to see things live..but I'll be able to take a virtual tour of the Lourve long before I'll ever be able to go to France, and besides...I don't really want to go to France.

Barbara Martin said...

Stewart, I understand your sentiments perfectly.

SG said...

the benches are so close to the water!

Rune Eide said...

I feel I could have stayed at such a place for ages. Just the ocean ahead, interesting things to watch and a nice place to sit.

PS Thank you for the comment! I haven't decided yet quite what I'm going to do about benches and Fridays and so forth, but we'll see... :-)

Barbara Martin said...

Phoenix, the stone benches will stay in place during inclement weather of pounding surf during storms. I expect the water's edge is rising as all oceans on the planet are increasing.

RuneE, ports of any size are most often busy at any given time. I like to watch boats come and go, and how they dock.

Steve Malley said...

I used to live in Whangaparaoa. The name in Maori means, 'place where the whales come', and sure enough, they did. There's no feeling like sitting on the back deck and watching them break the water!

Gerald (Ackworth born) said...

Tofino may (or may not) be a terminus for the hghway but all termini are also starting points - love that blue water.

Barbara Martin said...

Steve, whales breaching are really something to see!

Gerald, being near the sea and water lapping at shoreline is a wonderful thing indeed.

EG CameraGirl said...

Another beautiful place in BC! Gotta get back there!

Barbara Martin said...

EG, most of the photos I post about western Canada make me yearn for those places too.