INTO THE WILD
Into The Wild - Luxury Travel Magazine
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Into the Wild | |||||
| By: Rob McFarland, Issue 39 – Winter 2009 | |||||
| (Clayoquot Wilderness Resort, Sooke Harbour House, Sonora Resort – Canada) | |||||
| HIGH-END RESORTS ARE APPEARING IN CANADA’S MOST REMOTE LOCATIONS, BRINGING LUXURY TO THE WILDERNESS. | |||||
| Nowadays, a wilderness adventure doesn’t have to involve an Into the Wild-style journey of hardship and denial. High-end resorts are appearing in some of the world’s most remote locations while still offering all the comforts of home. Direct flights to Vancouver from Australia and New Zealand have made the spectacular scenery and wildlife around Vancouver Island even more accessible. Here are three Canadian resorts that have brought luxury to the wilderness. | |||||
| Clayoquot Wilderness Resort | |||||
| You know you’re staying somewhere a little different when your hotel room comes equipped with an air horn. We’ve been told it’s for scaring off black bears – apparently there is a population of 30 living within a three-kilometre radius of the camp and we’ll probably see at least one during our stay. What’s more worrying is that my room is actually a tent. Can bears operate zips? Let’s hope not. Situated on a 14-kilometre long fjord in a UNESCO designated reserve on the west coast of Vancouver Island, Clayoquot enjoys a stunning wilderness location. There are no roads to the resort, access is by a 60-minute boat ride from Tofino or float plane from Vancouver. The 20 guest and family tents are built on raised wooden platforms overlooking the Bedwell River and are connected by cedar boardwalks that run under a lush rainforest canopy. To call the rooms tents doesn’t really do them justice given they’re beautifully furnished with huge wooden-framed beds, antique furniture, oil burning lamps and Persian rugs. Facilities are what a real estate agent would call rustic – no running water, an outside composting toilet and a communal shower block nearby. A small price to pay for the incredible views of the river and snow-capped mountains you get each morning. All meals are taken in the cookhouse, a large timberframed building with an imposing double-sided fieldstone fireplace, and the food is sensational. It’s easy to forget that you’re miles away from the nearest supermarket when you’re feasting on poached local Dungeness crab with herb garlic drawn butter and sautéed asparagus. While many guests come to Clayoquot simply to relax and enjoy the scenery, wildlife and on-site spa, the resort also offers a wide range of activities. There is fresh and saltwater fishing, river and ocean kayaking, horse riding, bear watching, hiking, biking and skeet shooting. My favourite is an eco-tour through the eerie early morning mist in the resort’s Zodiac inflatable. We spot bald eagles, get within metres of black bears searching for shellfish on the shoreline and see grey whales arching through the inky black waters. It’s a magical start to another day in the wild. | |||||
| Sooke Harbour House | |||||
| Sooke Harbour House’s head gardener, Byron, is trying to persuade me to eat a flower. After glancing around to check I’m not being filmed for Australia’s Funniest Home Videos, I take a tentative nibble and to my surprise discover fresh begonia is really rather good. We’re on a tour of Sooke’s extensive organic garden which contains more than 200 different edible flowers, herbs and plants. Byron supervises a whole team of gardeners but the produce is not available for sale – it is used solely in the hotel’s onsite restaurant. It’s an indication of how seriously Sooke’s owners, husband and wife team Sinclair and Frederique Philip, regard the use of fresh, local produce. Located an hour from Victoria on Vancouver Island, Sooke Harbour House has been a labour of love for Sinclair and Frederique for the last 25 years. It is now one of the world’s leading boutique hotels with an award-winning wine cellar. Each of the property’s 28 guest rooms has stunning views out across the Strait of Juan de Fuca towards the Olympic Mountains in Washington State. While every room has a wood-burning fireplace, deep spa bath and either a balcony or terrace, it’s the quirky features that set them apart. One has a towering five-metre-tall wooden tree headboard while another has a shower made out of stained glass. They are the sort of spacious, homely suites that you could disappear into for days. If you do want to get active, the hotel’s location means you’re only footsteps away from fantastic fishing, hiking and cycling. Kayaking and whale watching trips can be arranged and there’s an extensive menu of spa treatments that can be enjoyed in the privacy of your room. One particularly entertaining option is a walking tour of the shoreline with Diane Bernard – known locally as ‘The Seaweed Lady’. She hand harvests seaweed and sells it to local restaurants (including Sooke’s). Dinner at Sooke is a culinary extravaganza. We enjoy a sensational seven-course degustation menu that includes crispy squid in a soy hazelnut glaze and a fish cream soup with smoked tuna and the very same scarlet begonias I tasted earlier. Add to this selections from a 15,000 bottle wine cellar that has won a Wine Spectator Grand Award for the last seven years and you’re in for a gastronomic treat. | |||||
| Sonora Resort | |||||
| “Go, go, go,” shouts Jeff and I rush towards the fishing rod at the back of the boat. The line is twitching and I excitedly imagine an hour-long struggle that will culminate in me landing a 40lb chinook salmon. For ten seconds I struggle admirably with a formidable foe – prising the rod out of its holder. Instead the line goes slack and Jeff, our patient guide, tactfully suggests that maybe it’s time to try different bait. Sonora Resort began life as a basic 20-room fishing lodge but has expanded over the years into a luxurious 88-room sprawling complex that includes an indoor tennis court, 9-hole golf course, movie theatre and spa & wellness centre. Fishing is still one of the resort’s biggest drawcards and people fly in from all over the world to fish for chinook, coho, pink and sockeye salmon. The resort has a fleet of nine purposebuilt Grady White fishing boats and an extensive range of processing and shipping options for those that wish to send their catches home. The resort is located on the 165-square-kilometre Sonora Island, which is part of the Discovery Islands archipelago between Vancouver Island and the Canadian mainland. It’s a notoriously dangerous stretch of water as the surging tides cause swirling whirlpools and eddies. The strong currents force hake to the surface, and one particular morning we watch the amazing natural spectacle of hundreds of bald eagles circling and diving to feed in the channel. Over the last few years Sonora has expanded its range of activities to include hiking, kayaking, white-water rafting and ATV tours. They’ve even introduced an Edible Journeys walking tour of the surrounding forest and once again I find myself sampling an intriguing range of berries, flowers and leaves while learning about their nutritional and medicinal properties. Like Clayoquot, Sonora also offers a wilderness eco-tour in an inflatable Zodiac and again this is the highlight of our stay. Speeding between the nearby islands while eagles soar high above us, black bears forage on the shoreline and porpoises surf on our wake feels like an enormous privilege. | |||||
| Details: | |||||
Clayoquot Wilderness Resort | |||||
| Sooke Harbour House | |||||
| Sonora Resort | |||||
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