today we were woken up at around 01:00 o'clock, as at that time the power went back on again, and the lights in our room were switched on. yay, electricity was back again. that means a hot shower in the morning, a breakfast at the near-by bakery, and working washing and drying machines at the local laundry, which was really really necessary as we both ran out of fresh clothes. once this necessity was done, we were heading to port hardy, where our ferry back to the main land will leave tomorrow, earliest in the morning. on our way to port hardy we hardly made any stops, if we did, i was ordered to park the car in a way that nina does not have to get out of the car for taking pictures[02]. while this was usually the way most tourists (read: american tourists) did take their pictures, i granted her wish, as a special exception, as she was still handicapped with her ankle. hehe, naaah, just kidding, nina was simply just lazy, and i shouldn't support that. so, i took a picture to let everyone know how lazy she was that day. we arrived near port hardy in the afternoon, and went to see the quatse loop trail[03-47], before checking in at our hostel for the night. the loop trail led us through another wonderful wood. oh man, i love those trees and woods. then we spotted another eagle[13-15,17] from a bridge. we actually surprised the bird when walking over the bridge, as he was sitting right under it. so he flew a few metres to safety and landed on the nearby tree next to the pretty dried out river. remember the picture with the droppings from day_08? i caught another one doing it, see slide [41]. eagles are really graceful, and awe-inspiring animals (besides the droppings stuff). we really like to watch them. then we drove to the stories beach road[48-78] in port hardy, because we read about it in our guide books and it was nearby and easy to access. oh, and we saw a rainbow[51-54] there - aaaaaaaaw, how beautiful. then we found a restaurant right at the beach in the centre of port hardy, where we had sushi[79-81], as this would be our last chance for fresh caught fish directly from the coast, and our last day so close to the sea. ownoez, we will miss the salty breeze, the seagulls, the driftwood, the sound of the waves, the corpses of various sea creatures, algae, bull kelp... and all the rest. ah, and then it started to rain[82-85] - according to the locals this was the first time since july. glad we brought rain with us as there are fire hazard signs everywhere, with a five level dial ranging from green (no hazard) to red (no open fires allowed), and whenever we spotted one, it was set to red, so no BBQ or any open campfires allowed. also all the meadows, the woods, moss, and lichen, though lush, were extremely dried out - so rain, even if it's just a little, will be good. also it is our last day in the area with the highest bear population in canada, and we haven't even seen one so far. we were also told there's a mother bear with two cubs running around. latest sighting of them was yesterday. why haven't we seen them? poor, unfortunate us. we soon went to bed at the "C&N back packers hostel", as our ferry will be - as already mentioned - leaving early in the morning. early, as in really early. we have to get up at 04:30. brrrr.... track for day 11.