Victoria to Nanaimo

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It is time to move on again, so after breakfast, we checked out of our lovely suite and were soon leaving the outskirts of Victoria behind us. We only had about 111kms to drive today to Namaimo, but had several planned stops on the way.

Our first stop was at Goldstream Provincial Park and although we hadn't travelled far out of Victoria, we were in another world. We walked along pathways surrounded by huge
Douglas Fir trees and western Red Cedars, saw baby salmon swimming in the river and watched the water cascade over very high rocks at Niagra falls.( yes it was called that).

We continued our drive along the Malahat highway stopping at two viewpoints for, yes that's right, really beautiful views. At the second stop we saw our first wildlife when a large Bald Eagle flew over us. Next stop was the town of Duncan, the city of totem poles. There are 80 poles situated around the city mainly erected in the late 1980's to help boost tourism. During the week there are guided tours, but being a Sunday not even the museum was open. So we had to conduct a self-guided tour by following the trail of yellow footprints painted on the pavements. It was very quiet as we walked along, as most shops and cafes seemed to be closed. Luckily we spotted a restaurant that was open and dived in - who knew that totem pole spotting was such hungry work!

Suitably replenished and with totem pole fatigue, we moved on to our next stop - the town of Chemainus. This town is famous for it's 39 murals painted on many of it's buildings. This again is a means of boosting tourism in a town which suffered when it's large sawmill was replaced by a much smaller efficient mill. Here again the tourist office was shut, but we were able to follow the yellow footprints to see the impressive murals. It was very hot by now so we were pleased to return to the air - conditioning of dodgy dora.

We headed to our next B&B and as I write this I am lying on the bed in our room looking out of the balcony window over the Straits of Georgia to the British Columbian mountains beyond. It is a quirky B&B, very chintzy with quite a few stuffed bears around. We ate our picnic tea just down from the house on the stoney shoreline and marvelled how lucky we have been so far with the weather. That will spell rain for tomorrow!

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