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Sea Kayaking Johnstone Strait - Orca Waters Base Camp
Enjoy kayaking but despair of pitching tents every night? Looking for a more relaxing trip than our expedition series? Our established base camp on Hanson Island allows you to spend more time kayaking, exploring, relaxing and viewing wildlife.
From our central location in the heart of Johnstone Strait, you’ll paddle daily, exploring the variety of kayaking routes in the area. The Orcas regularly pass by our camp; often while we’re enjoying dinner around the campfire, and the nearby waters are thick with Bald eagles, harbour seals, dolphins, porpoises, and rich inter-tidal life. As well, we have fairly consistent sightings of Steller sea lions, humpback and Minke whales – all within easily paddling distance of our camp!
Our guides, with years of experience, are well acquainted with the local wildlife and natural history, knowledge which they are eager share with you. While the orcas are the area's big draw, we take the time to look at, and emphasize, all the other less obvious creatures that the area has to offer. It is hard to miss an orca’s 6 foot dorsal fin heading at your kayak, but when the orcas are not present our guides will help you spot the less obvious sea stars, urchins and anemones in the shallows and the smaller seals, porpoises and dolphins that also frequent these waters.
With the comforts of an established base camp, you’ll have more time for relaxing and exploring – plus, to ensure utmost utilization of your time, we make use of a water taxi for drop-off and pickup, ensuring maximum time on the water. What the base camp offers +/-
All the camping equipment at the base camp is bigger, roomier and more comfortable than what you will find on our expedition style trips. We provide very roomy 4 person tents (only 2 people per tent), thick comfortable sleeping pads, warm barrel style sleeping bags and full size pillows. The tents are situated throughout the forest with views of the ocean and are raised off the ground on wooden platforms. A large covered kitchen and dining area makes for a very comfortable camping experience.
The base camp is equipped with a permanently installed hydrophone so we can listen to orcas from camp (we also have a portable version to take with us kayaking), a re-charging station for guests cameras, an extensive library of natural history books, a propane heated shower, beach side sauna, and an outhouse with a fantastic view (we have had guests boast how they have been watching whales while doing their business!)
June is a great time to be kayaking in Johnstone Strait and there is an unbelievable assortment of wildlife. The resident (fish eating) orcas, however, do not usually return for the summer until late June or early July. They may be intermittently seen during June along with the transient (mammal eating) orcas but are not as consistent as later in the summer. You can be assured that if you join us during une you will have a great kayaking experience and see a wide variety of wildlife without all the extra people that visit mid-summer.
