After a few days of waking up early, we were all ready for a nice long sleep and waking up late. Typically we woke up early. Tracy’s ankle was getting worse so it was straight into the hot tub to see if that helped. The boys also had a quick splash when they woke up and then it was time for breakfast. As we left the restaurant one of the waiters suggested we should go down to the clinic in Tofino to see what they had to say about the ankle.
I went and got the car and after a bit of protesting from the patient off we went to the clinic. The clinic was fully booked but for a modest fee of $65 we could have a walk-up patient appointment. We hadn’t thought about getting travel insurance for this holiday, what a silly mistake that was turning into! After waiting a while I took the boys to a nearby park to play on the swings as the waiting room wasn’t the most child friendly place!
The wait was probably about 90 minutes and then Tracy was seen by the Doctor, who happened to be English, working out here for the summer. After a bit of prodding, it was a trip over the road to Tofino general hospital for an x-ray. The x-ray was taken care of pretty quickly but then the real waiting began. First it was for the Doctor to come over the road from the clinic to the hospital (they work in both apparently), then for the radiologist to review the x-ray and finally for the computer system to reboot because it all crashed!
The upshot of all the waiting is that Tracy had fractured a bone in her ankle. The first stage of treatment was to put the foot in an air support shoe and have a pair of crutches – little did we know that there were plenty more weeks and stages in the recovery process to follow. The already expensive surfing lesson was was slowly but surely getting even more expensive – with the first round of costs racking up another one thousand dollars! Ah well, at least Harry had a good time!
With the clock now ticking close to 3pm and the children thoroughly bored, we got back in the car and went back to the lodge. They jumped into their wetsuits and we all went down to the beach. Tracy plonked herself in a chair and I took the boys body boarding. The tide was still quite high and the waves were fun. The sun was shining and the water was freezing but we thought we ought to make the most of it as it will probably be our last body boarding for some time.
As the fog rolled in once more it was time to head back to the lodge for a hot tub and shower before getting dressed for dinner. Tracy was starting to come out of her trauma and stress of the day and chose a top that matched her new boot! We drove down to Tofino and decided to eat at a waterside restaurant called Jacks. It was a beautiful setting with a lovely view, and if that wasn’t enough we saw two eagles as we ate! The first one flew straight past our window and I think counts as our closest ever encounter with the bald eagle – needless to say I didn’t have my camera to hand. The second sighting was another eagle swooping down into the water, catching a fish and then flying off to the top of a tree to eat it. Once again, my camera was still in its case and there were no photos! Will I ever get “that” eagle shot!?
After dinner it was back to the lodge and time to start packing. Tomorrow we leave the lodge and say farewell to beautiful Tofino. Hopefully we will be back again but probably without the surfing next time!