#expedition

Sep 28, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 26

The beach was covered in a thick fog when we woke this morning. We had a chill 18km paddle from Vargas island to Tofino with the crew and we were all excited to get on the water. For breakfast we had hot apple and cinnamon oats topped with dark chocolate and peanut butter, (I pretty much had a mountain of Peanut butter and not much oats..) Packing up took longer than usual as we were a group of 8 by now. We packed the kayaks and got onto the water just as the fog cleared out

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 27, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 25

We woke up knowing the day ahead was going to be shorter than the last few! It was such a relief and we were so excited to meet up with Coextinction! It would have been nice if we could have gone back for another soak in the hot spring but we needed to get paddling early to meet our friends. As the first sea plane came in, the locals left the hot springs to make way for the tourists, and we paddled away from the cove. Our original plan was to paddle behind Flores island, it w

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 26, 2018
3 min

Vancouver Island - Day 24

It was a lovely morning in our bay, the sun was shining, the tide was out and the waves were looking a little smaller. We had a hot breakfast as it was a much cooler morning than we’ve been having. A sure sign that is now autumn not summer. The waves were small but breaking quite far off the shore, this meant I was going to have a wet start. I launched Ngaio through the whitewash and she paddled out past the breaking waves. I got my timing slightly wrong and got a face full o

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 25, 2018
3 min

Vancouver Island - Day 23

10am Monday morning... Wow it felt bloody good to have a sleep in! After paddling more than 70 kilometres yesterday over , it felt much deserved and obviously needed. We decided last night that waking at 3am again was not going to happen, it would have meant 5 hours sleep after 17 hours on the water. We were so tired and our bodies were exhausted! After a quick weather check with my trusty weather man (my dad via sat phone) with our bellies full of Radix (I had mixed berry br

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 24, 2018
3 min

Vancouver Island - Day 22

It felt like the alarm went off as soon as I closed my eyes to sleep. It was 3am and the moon was shining brightly into the tent. We had had a last minute change of plan. Originally we were going to paddle around the coast of Nootka Island. It is an exposed area and requires good conditions to kayak safely. Our latest weather report told us the winds were going to be getting up to 25 knots, too windy for us. We had to go behind Nootka island instead, it meant a longer day on

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 23, 2018
3 min

Vancouver Island - Day 21

Today was the first of three early mornings. The alarm went off at 3am, it was pitch black and we could hear a light rain on the roof. We packed breakfast into the front of our PFDs and headed down to the boats. We set off with Ngaio wearing a head torch and I had a navigational light strapped to the top of my boat. Ngaio was finding it disorienting not being able to see where we were going or what the ocean was doing but I was using the GPS to navigate through the reefs so I

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 20, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 18

Our island was so beautiful this morning. There were sun rays coming through the clouds and the tide was creeping it’s way up the rocks. We planned to paddle to Walters Cove to stay at the small town of Kyuquot. We had perfect paddling conditions once again, with the beautiful coast on our left and lots of islands to our right it almost felt like the east coast back home in NZ. I could see a huge pile of kelp up ahead, I was about to tell Ngaio to avoid paddling through the m

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 19, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 17

I got up early this morning to get the fire going, fish for breakfast! There was a pretty sunrise and the weather was looking fine. There were however, some large waves breaking in our bay. The waves were similar to the waves at Hahei, a dumpy shore break. We got our camp packed up and made a plan for a surf launch. We decided to do what’s called a ‘seal launch’, where we use the steep beach to our advantage to slide us into the water. I waited for Ngaio to go first just inca

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 18, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 16

We got up before the sun to get the nice calm morning on the ocean. I wasn’t quite ready to leave our awesome camp spot, but it was time to find the next one! We made good time paddling the northern length of the peninsula. We came around the point to the west side and I decided to take a break and try my luck at fishing. I’ve made a kind of hand line with the nylon wrapped around a piece of wood. I dropped my huge hook down and let it run to the bottom where I jigged and pla

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 17, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 15

Ngaio had set the alarm for 5am, she claims I kept telling her I wanted to sleep longer, she managed to get me up at 7am. We were heading out early this morning in the hope of missing the wind that was supposed to reach 15 kts by 11am. We had about a 20km paddle to a beach directly opposite us on Brooks Peninsula. We were on the water by 8am, the conditions were good with a flat sea and light wind behind us. This picked up and by 0930 we had a choppy swell and strong wind. Wh

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 17, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 12

It was a beautiful quiet morning in Grant Bay. Ngaio woke me up again early so we could leave on the outgoing tide and catch the incoming tide later in the day. The ocean had a steady swell and the water was glassy. We paddled out into the bay, heading for winter harbour. We were only looking at a 15km paddle so we were able to take our time. We stopped in the kelp and watched the otters, they were so curious and we had one friendly fella come so close to the kayaks, poking h

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 16, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 14

Today we said goodbye to the tiny town of winter harbour and headed back into the wild. It was a perfect day on the water, no swell a light wind and the sun was shining. We had about 30km to cover today, we wanted to get in the best position to start Brooks Peninsula the following day. We passed plenty of otters to Ngaios delight (every time we pass one she stops paddling, waves at them and calls out ‘hi little friend’) and we had a cool encounter with some porpoises. There

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 15, 2018
1 min

Vancouver Island - Day 13

I woke up in winter harbour feeling awesome, a hot shower and a comfy bed can work wonders! Today was a chill day for us, backing up memory cards and charging all of our devices. It feels so good to have all my images and content backed up and organised. I even managed to get a load of washing done! We checked the weather for the upcoming weeks, it looks great with light winds and small swell. Just the conditions we need before we take on the next big challenge, Brooks Penin

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 13, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 11

Ngaio woke me early this morning so we could leave on low tide and before the wind picked up. I climbed out of the tent and started to get the fire going, in the nude (because that’s what you do when you’re camping in the wild right...right!?), I was crouching over my little fire when a black bear cruised around the corner, about 10 steps away from me! I don’t know who got a bigger fright, me or the bear, he scrambled back around the rocks and I zoomed to the tent. It was my

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 12, 2018
3 min

Vancouver Island - Day 10

A cheeky squirrel woke me up this morning. It was in the tree above our tent doing it’s crazy little chatter/squeal (I don’t know how to describe it really). Ngaio was already awake as per usual, we went for a morning walk on the beach and we were stoked to see the waves had dropped so much over night. We were looking out to sea trying to assess the swell, when Ngaio spotted a coastal wolf trotting along the tide line. It was so awesome to see a wolf in its natural environmen

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 11, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 9

The storm is still very much right on us with another wet and wild night on the west coast of Vancouver island! We woke in the early hours of the morning, it was pouring with rain so we went back to sleep. We slept well into the morning until my stomach got the better of me and I got up to make food. Radix Mixed berry breakfast this morning, one of my favourite breakfasts we have, Ngaio is currently leaning towards the hot apple and cinnamon breakfast. The rain kept us tent b

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 10, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 8

It was a wild night on the west coast. The wind did it’s very best to pull apart our camp site and the rain was thundering down in the early hours of the morning. The tarp worked wonders and kept us and our tent dry, it was pretty cool listening to the storm rage while we were dry and warm inside. The sun was out when we got up so we hiked into the Forrest to a nearby lake. It was like a little oasis at the lake, no wind and just me and Ngaio. We had our first proper fresh wa

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 9, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 7

We had our first real day rest day today. The paddling conditions were made too bad by the high winds and big swell, and it was predicted to be getting worse. It was a rainy windy day so we headed into the forrest and walked along the trails, picking my favourite berries to make fresh berry ginger tea. These berries are also black bears favourite berries, you can tell because when you come across a bear poop it is purple and full of the berry seeds, usually very near a bush o

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 8, 2018
3 min

Vancouver Island - Day 6

We woke early after a night of wind and rain. We were sheltered in our camp spot, but we had to move today as we had run out of fresh water. San Josef Bay was where we were headed as it was only 5km away and there was a river there. I had spent the evening on the marine radio, listening to the weather, I also got messages from my dad in NZ. We had a small window in the morning to make the paddle before the winds and swell picked up any more! We were packed and on the water at

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Brando Yelavich - wildboy adventures

Sep 8, 2018
2 min

Vancouver Island - Day 5

The sound of crashing waves roused us from our sleep. Waking up to the sound of waves is the best ... unless you are kayaking! Today was the first day of paddling on the west coast. Vancouver Islands west coast has a reputation similar to NZs west coast, wild, rugged and unpredictable. We jumped up to check the swell, it didn’t look as bad as it had sounded. We decided to do a portage across to the bay opposite us, this meant we were dragging our kayaks, full of all our gear,

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