Between Woods and Whales

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Between Woods and Whales Off the grid dive resort that provides some of the best cold water diving in the world!

When nature puts on a show... you can have a disco in the Browning Pass!
11/05/2024

When nature puts on a show... you can have a disco in the Browning Pass!

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to our little one! We hope you had as much fun making costumes as we did :-)
02/11/2022

Happy Halloween and Happy Birthday to our little one! We hope you had as much fun making costumes as we did :-)

Our third cabin is coming along nicely! Apart from ocean view it looks out over our stream. It will also feature a loft ...
06/09/2022

Our third cabin is coming along nicely! Apart from ocean view it looks out over our stream. It will also feature a loft with two skylights so you can either sleep downstairs in the bedroom or upstairs so you can watch the trees sway in the wind :-)

So excited to find this stauromedusa (stalked jellyfish) during a night dive on our housereef last night! It had been on...
04/09/2022

So excited to find this stauromedusa (stalked jellyfish) during a night dive on our housereef last night! It had been on my wishlist for a while and was even more dreamy and mesmerising than I could have hoped for...

This Haliclystus species is living a sedentary life instead of swimming around in the blue like most other jellyfish. It was attached to a piece of seaweed at about 10 meter depth. So cool!

Hooray for my dive buddy Bart Braun for finding me Knorretje, the cutest grunt sculpin ever!
30/07/2022

Hooray for my dive buddy Bart Braun for finding me Knorretje, the cutest grunt sculpin ever!

So happy to dive the Browning Wall with ! The colourful soft corals and abundant marine life made us move to the Brownin...
23/07/2022

So happy to dive the Browning Wall with ! The colourful soft corals and abundant marine life made us move to the Browning Passage and it is definitely special to be able to share it with friends while building the next cabin :-)

We must have seen a hundred opalescent nudibranchs today, which is great because they're one of our favourites! Let's no...
08/07/2022

We must have seen a hundred opalescent nudibranchs today, which is great because they're one of our favourites! Let's not focus on the fact that a giant humpback whale apparently passed me at a 10 meter distance underwater...

Don't be prickly, it will soon be the weekend again :-). Did you go diving this long weekend?
04/07/2022

Don't be prickly, it will soon be the weekend again :-). Did you go diving this long weekend?

After discovering a lot of octopuses on our Southern housereef, we decided to name it Te****le Bay. This guy is living j...
28/05/2022

After discovering a lot of octopuses on our Southern housereef, we decided to name it Te****le Bay. This guy is living just a few meters from our dock!

We survived the storms, so it was time to go diving! The day before yesterday, wind gusts of more than 70 mph were recor...
21/05/2022

We survived the storms, so it was time to go diving! The day before yesterday, wind gusts of more than 70 mph were recorded just north from us. It was quite the experience, we're definitely embracing the calm and sunny days ahead of us :-)

16/05/2022

Do you ever have the feeling you're not alone underwater and something is creeping up on you while you're focussing on the tiniest nudibranch with your camera on macro? I did... Went for a dive off our dock yesterday and got divebombed by two sealions, welcoming me to the Browning Pass. I might or might not have s**t my pants and behaved like a DSD...

Happy Sunday from underneath our dock :-)
15/05/2022

Happy Sunday from underneath our dock :-)

While we were building our first raised garden bed, fairy slippers appeared everywhere in our forest :-). These wild Cal...
15/05/2022

While we were building our first raised garden bed, fairy slippers appeared everywhere in our forest :-). These wild Calypso orchids add little pops of colour in the middle of all the green and we love it!

04/05/2022

Today is the day Andy is pouring concrete...

Petra: A pink tub??? Really? (Last year we had a blue one)
Andy: It was green or pink.
Petra: Definitely green.
Andy: See, I took pink so I would know for sure you wouldn't want me to clean all the concrete out afterwards to put flowers in it or something.

*sigh...* he knows me so well...

29/04/2022

A gift from the spring rains: morel mushrooms! Just in time to save them from the evil snail :-)

Back on Balaklava and what a blast we had! So special to share this wonderful place with friends and family last week. T...
24/04/2022

Back on Balaklava and what a blast we had! So special to share this wonderful place with friends and family last week. Thank you so much guys!!! To many more camping trips, sunset cruises, campfires and forest walks :-)

13/02/2022

Eight more weeks and we'll hopefully move back to the island. Have a look at the footage from our last trip, when it was only a raw piece of land with a dock. This time we still won't have water or electricity, but we can skip the tent :-)

29/07/2021

Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time. We saw orcas that looked like they might swim into the pass, so while they were still very far away, we decided to turn off the boat engine and wait in silence.

As the big fins came closer and closer, I started to get a bit nervous. They did not at all behave like the humpback whales we see almost every day, who after a few breaths dive down and show up minutes later in a completely different place. These killerwhales came directly towards us!!! Would they know our boat was there without an engine running? What to do? Turn the engine on and move away? But the whole point of turning the engine off, was to not disturb them.

Closer and closer they came, and the nerves quickly disappeared and made room for deep appreciation for these wonderful animals. To answer the question, yes, they seem to know the boat is there (well, nobody bumped into us, but we obviously would have preferred a greater distance). What an incredible experience!

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Do you ever have the feeling you're not alone underwater and something is creeping up on you while you're focussing on the tiniest nudibranch with your camera on macro? I did... Went for a dive off our dock yesterday and got divebombed by two sealions, welcoming me to the Browning Pass. I might or might not have sh*t my pants and behaved like a DSD... . . . . . . . . . #Happyhousewarming #BWAW #sealions #sealiondive #coldwaterdiving #browningpass #vancouverisland #vancouverislanddiving #divingbc #bctourism #porthardydiving #paditv

Today is the day Andy is pouring concrete... Petra: A pink tub??? Really? (Last year we had a blue one) Andy: It was green or pink. Petra: Definitely green. Andy: See, I took pink so I would know for sure you wouldn't want me to clean all the concrete out afterwards to put flowers in it or something. *sigh...* he knows me so well... . . . . . . . #offgridbuilding #livingoffgrid #offthegridliving #offgridresort #BWAW #vancouverislandtourism #vancouverislandbc #heknowsmetoowell

Morel mushrooms!
Morel mushrooms!

A gift from the spring rains: morel mushrooms! Just in time to save them from the evil snail :-)

Building the shell of the first offgrid cabin
Building the shell of the first offgrid cabin

Eight more weeks and we'll hopefully move back to the island. Have a look at the footage from our last trip, when it was only a raw piece of land with a dock. This time we still won't have water or electricity, but we can skip the tent :-)

Close encounter with orcas!
Close encounter with orcas!

Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time. We saw orcas that looked like they might swim into the pass, so while they were still very far away, we decided to turn off the boat engine and wait in silence. As the big fins came closer and closer, I started to get a bit nervous. They did not at all behave like the humpback whales we see almost every day, who after a few breaths dive down and show up minutes later in a completely different place. These killerwhales came directly towards us!!! Would they know our boat was there without an engine running? What to do? Turn the engine on and move away? But the whole point of turning the engine off, was to not disturb them. Closer and closer they came, and the nerves quickly disappeared and made room for deep appreciation for these wonderful animals. To answer the question, yes, they seem to know the boat is there (well, nobody bumped into us, but we obviously would have preferred a greater distance). What an incredible experience!

Cutting a 65ft tree!
Cutting a 65ft tree!

Cutting some 65ft trees to make space for our first cabin :-). And these are just the little ones... (we're trying to keep the bigger ones of course!). Days on the island are flying by, there is so much work to do. But we are loving every minute of it and we saw the first humpback whale passing by last night!

Removal boat engine
Removal boat engine

Old boat engine is out thanks to Kevin and his backhoe. This baby is almost ready for BC!

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