Westport to South Bend (67km)

After a breakfast to die for (homemade granola, thick yoghurt and fresh berries; herb and goat cheese omelettes with a side of hashbrowns and peppers and homemade salsa; a toasted English muffin with homemade jam and their own coffee blend, freshly roasted and ground), we were treated to a sample of Rich and Tracy’s homemade granola (and recipe) to take with us (oh, and did we mention the bottled water on arrival, the robes and the chocolates in the room..)

Today’s ride was mercifully short and relaxed. We got our first real sight of the pounding surf of the Pacific Ocean. Although we will be following the coast for most of the way south, we will not grow tired of the experience! We eventually headed east for a time along the estuary of the Wallipa River to Raymond, where we had lunch in a diner complete with 50’s memorabilia and music. (We later learned that Maritia and Steve, Jade and Rhys stopped here a couple of years ago and Jade saw a sculpture of Elvis “Leslie”) It was a short ride along the river to South Bend, the “oyster capital of the world”. We had dinner in Chester Club and Oyster Bar, which included a fried oyster burger.

We are on the traditional territory of the Shoalwater Bay People. On their website we found the following, “Today the people of the Shoalwater Bay no longer freely roam the Chehalis and Columbia Rivers. Our territory has shrunk to the present day reservation and a handful of nearby properties purchased by the tribe. Our people still have deep connection to our ancestral homelands however and many of our tribal members are living within those ancestral lands from Ilwaco to Aberdeen and everywhere in between”. Unfortunately the shop on the reserve (1 sqr mile in size) was out of bannock. We learned that the building was that of the father of the present owner and the walls had many old photographs of his ancestors.