RV Camping in Nanaimo, BC in our Roadtrek Zion Campervan

So it's the first weekend in March and we're going to be heading over to Vancouver Island. We're in the ferry line up and we're going to be staying at the Living Forest Campground in Nanaimo this time. Back on the road finally! I never get tired of the awesome views in BC. Music We've arrived at Nanaimo and we're actually going to head over to Parksville now to go visit Gordon's sister. We were a little bit worried about this trip because last time we took the ferry to Nanaimo our dashboard lit up. We'll link that video here. It's just the last time we were here we had the issue with the electronic module. That just left us nervous but we just had to get past that and we're good. So it's nice to come back and have everything working well, crossing fingers. It's just after four o'clock and we had a great visit with Gordon's sister in Parksville. Now we're headed over back to Nanaimo again to the Living Forest Campground. This is Ben who's actually got a home built. Yeah, a home built. Excellent. He's just going to let me film a little bit as he shows me it. It's under construction. Obviously my storage. This is all my electrical. Still doing cutting. Is that an inverter? Yeah, an inverter. 3,000 watt? Yeah, 3,000 watt inverter. Charger. I have the little wizard down here so that boosts the battery level a bit. We may have to get you to work on our van now that the warranty's expired. I'm still doing detailing here. You've got the bed built up which gives you that nice amount of storage. Yeah, lots of storage. So there's two full totes and then two smaller. Cool. You've got a nice vent up top there. Yeah, yeah. Lights on there. Okay, take a look inside. Yeah, thanks. So you did it all by yourself. Wow. Oh, what's this? That's my camp chef suit. Cool. And it's got like a little toaster. No, it's a full oven. It's a full oven. Wow, lots of great storage too. Yeah. Amazing. And you've got a Mr. Heater. Well, I've got a different heater coming up there. It's going to be a wall mount. Oh, okay. So this is your temporary. Yeah. Some storage, sink. Yeah. Propane mounted. You're going to have your own little oven. Yeah, little oven buddy heater. Wow. Cool. That's amazing. But it still costs me about 20 to do it. 20? Yeah, on top of the van. Yeah, on top of the cost of the van. 45 or 50. And obviously still working on my plumbing. And the wine. How long have you been working on it? And the wine. How long have you been working on it? Three months. Nice. Three months. That's not bad for three months. No, I think you've done a great job. And you've already got the natural privacy curtain already built in. Yeah, there you go. That's great. Is it the same chassis as ours? Yeah, it's a 3500. And actually, I like your awning. It's nice and simple. Yeah, and I was on a deal too. Even better. It was regular $550. You gave it to me for $300 because nobody was buying it. Buying it? Wow. Nice. Well, yeah, you've got it mounted, so you could actually put something down here too and have a second board or anything. Yeah. Yeah, that's great. I think we've got a very good spot. There's our campsite. Electrical hookups, etc. And you can kind of see our view. This is the campground map. We're at 134, where it's circled right there. They do have a cafe, but they're closed for the season. But they do have washrooms and showers. Full service campground. Over 50 acres. And over 300 sites. So this is a tiny little lookout trail. Yeah, we just missed the sun. It's probably about 5.30, so the sun's gone down. Mountains across from Vancouver. Nanaimo, the city of Nanaimo, is just off to our left, probably about 5 kilometers. There's also actually a sawmill probably about 3 kilometers away that we can hear the noise from. Not too bad, but you can hear it in the background. Not open until May. One of the shower and washroom buildings here. So this section is very nice. Sites, the tea section, but appear to be closed for the season. I think they may be fixing some of these up, because farther up here you can tell they've done a lot of construction. And these sites here aren't fully wired. They have not 30 or 50 amp, but you can plug in 110. A little bit of beer. What's the beer, Mickey? Sapporo. Yes, it's Japanese. Japanese with... This is the French side of the Japanese beer, I think. Isn't it? The French side? Oh, the beer premium. Terrible French. Don't worry about that. The rest of Canada. That's kind of funny, actually. We have Japanese beer, but it actually has French on the other side. And Japanese. That would make sense. It's not the most sunny morning, but still pretty nice. Morning, everybody. So we had a really good night. It was a little bit cold. I think the heater had trouble keeping up. It was probably about minus 4 degrees. But I had a really good night. I think Gordon woke up a few times. And it's not as sunny and beautiful as we had hoped, but it's still pretty good. A little breezy today. We're just going to go head out for a walk on some of the trails around the campground. So these look like the tenting sites. Pretty nice, right on the water. You can probably go for a nice long walk if you wanted to. Along here. Along the river. So this is the other trail that's on the other side of the campground. Secret Cliff Walk. And we're just going to go along over here. Deep stairs. Hi. This is impressive. Meow. Yes. I had a great shower at the facilities here. And I came back, and now Gordon's gone for his shower. And I was just blow drying my hair. And I tripped the breaker. And being completely electrically and mechanically challenged, I actually, first of all, went to the road trek manual. Which didn't really tell me anything. So I went on YouTube. And I googled or I searched how to reset a GFCI breaker. And I was able to fix it. So, yes. I was a little worried about Gordon coming back and going, Oh, no, we can't turn the heaters back on. Yikes. So this is how I did it. This breaker right here, the GFCI, was in the middle position just now. And I was trying to turn it back on, but it wouldn't go back on. It wouldn't stay. So one of the YouTube videos said was to press this button here for test first. And then turn this breaker right off in this left position. So this is the on position right now, and the left position. And when I opened the panel, it was actually in the middle. So I turned it off first. And then I turned it back on. And now everything's working. Thanks to YouTube and to Ellie Laverdere, who actually made this video. How to reset a GFCI breaker. So it's happy hour. Having some wine, some olives, some cheese and crackers. And it was a pretty lazy day. We went for a walk in the morning, as you saw. But in the afternoon, we just kind of relaxed. Gordon had a nap. I watched some YouTube videos. And we both had showers and went for another short walk around the campground. And that was pretty much it for the day. Now we're just relaxing, enjoying the view. And pretty soon, we'll start making dinner. So cheers! Good morning, everyone. So we're just leaving the Living Forest Campground in Nanaimo. And we had a good stay. A couple of nights. It was a really nice campground. I think the spot that we were in, it was a little bit more crowded than some of the other back spots near the forest. Which had a little bit more room. But, of course, we had the nice views. Apparently, some of the ones you'll see some more video down closer to the water were really some nice spots. Most of them aren't serviced, which would be fine other than in the wintertime, I think, at least for us. The spot we had, unfortunately, during the winter months, you get a lot of people here who are staying for several months at a time. So a lot of big trailers or big Class As. And the big Class A that was next to us, beautiful big Class A. But his furnace was constantly going off and on. We'll show you a video of just some of the smoke that was coming from it. Inside, we wouldn't hear it. We're sitting out by the picnic table, enjoying our view. We could hear this furnace come off and on quite regularly. That was a little bit disconcerting. Yeah, it didn't make for the most peaceful morning coffee. Or the evening happy hour when it wasn't absolutely quiet. And it did smell a little bit, the exhaust. So that wasn't particularly nice either. So we ended up moving our picnic table a little bit away from the rig. And also to take advantage of the view. If we were unlucky and the wind blew in the direction, then, yes, we got a little bit of the exhaust from the person's furnace. But other than that, it would be great if we had been, I think, at 138 or 136, which were just a couple of spots over. I think it would have been even a nicer view because there was less forest in front of us and just a little bit more sense of privacy. So some nice spots there. We're just getting into Nanaimo downtown area now. And I think we have a little time before our 1 o'clock ferry. So we're just going to sort of drive around, maybe walk around and show you some sights. Walkway goes all the way along. Seawall, beautiful park, really nice. Millstone River Estuary self-guided walk. You're standing at the outflow of the Millstone River. This is the farthest point into the bay where freshwater and saltwater mix, creating a rich and specialized environment that supports both river and marine life. It takes a lot longer by ferry. It's only a 20 minute flight. Yeah, the ferry ride is about an hour and 30 minutes. Wharf to wharf. But you've still got the time before and after when you're waiting. Yeah, that's about a half hour. Or before and not after. Back to the van. We managed to get it to fit in a regular parking spot. Oh, nice and warm and fresh. Hi. You have a good sleep? Yeah? Hi, how are you? Good, how are you? We do. It's on this card, if that's helpful. And I'm just going to go check for any propane gas cans. Yes, it's turned off, but I haven't got my sticker on. Thanks for watching our video. And if you enjoy our videos, please don't forget to subscribe. See you next time. Bye.