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Published: September 6th 2007
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Victoria
The historical Empress Hotel in the background. We arrived into Victoria after finishing up work in Vancouver. We ended up staying almost a week to give Karl’s feet a chance to heal before embarking on our cycling tour. We did a few touristy things (with Karl hobbling along) like visiting Government Building for BC, which was pretty interesting; visited the amazing Butchart Gardens; wandered around the village like atmosphere, it’s a really pretty city. In amongst playing tourists we also had to prepare for the cycling trip by purchasing tent and camping gear, organizing bikes and finalizing our route.
We left Victoria, all loaded up, in the rain and early in the morning to beat the traffic! We headed off on the Galloping Goose, which was originally the first train network in BC, but now as no longer active has been converted into a dedicated bike network. Our first stop was Sooke Potholes we were a little unsure as to how fit we would be and whether we would make it in one piece but much to our body and in particular, butt’s delight, the trail was pretty flat and pleasant so we made it after our 44km journey and got there in time for lunch. We
Victoria
Government Building and the harbour of Victoria. spent a few days in this area and did some day trips including a massive mission out to French Beach.
We also made our way over to Salt Spring Island for a few days, a smaller island off Vancouver Island. Really beautiful place but extremely hilly, well for us novices anyway! We must have looked like we had some clue as we were invited by cyclist enthusiasts to be part of a bike rally involving a technique called critical mass where you ride into town as a group acting as a car. Quite funny and a bit of fun considering it was market day and quite busy in town (Ganges).
Made our way back on another ferry to Vancouver Island and decided to try our luck at free camping as it was late. Awoke early and were thinking it would be a cruisey day but our initial plans of where we were going to stay in the Cowichan valley changed when we decided our fitness had improved and we kept on cycling. Ended up at Bamberton Park and whilst staying there for a couple of nights met a fellow a touring cyclist but he is on a much
Butchart Gardens
Sunken Garden- one small aspect within the gardens, really amazing. BIGGER tour than ours. He started in northern Alaska two and a half months ago and is on his way to the southern tip of South America, an expected year and a half long journey. He was very inspiring and made our tour look pretty small in comparison!
After numerous funny situations we made our way back to Victoria (stopping off at a Cidery for a tour and tasting along the way) and finally found a campground with a space late at night. So we completed our tour and for the most part it was a lot of fun and we feel a bit restless to be so inactive and back in the big smoke again. Our total kms for the trip, which was just under two weeks, was a bit over 450kms.
We had no real plans of what next and due to lack of accommodation everywhere else, we ended up heading north on Vancouver Island to Nanaimo. We then spontaneously decided to hire a car for a few days and head even further north in the hope to see some wildlife (in particular we really wanted to see some bears as the locals told us they
Leaving Victoria
All loaded up reading to pedal (in the dark and wet of the early morning). see heaps up there) and get into the remote wilderness of the logging regions. Much to our disappointed we didn’t see any bears, think they must have been scared off by Karl’s attempt to drive on the other side of the road!! (He thought he was 4wding again but was in a little Toyota Yaris). It was still a really scenic drive and we did some fun things along the way including stopping and exploring some caves and making our way to Quadra Island to do a full day sea kayaking tour. Much to our surprise and delight we did no fall out and it was good to give the legs a rest and give the upper body a workout (which when you go for a full day sure can be a workout). We had a beautiful sunny day (rare) and got to kayak around lots of islands and go to some remote beaches. We saw numerous varieties of birds including eagles and vultures, and a real thrill was seeing some seals on the way home. Thankfully we had a nice tail wind to get us home. On the ferry on the way back (yet another one, we caught 7
Galloping Goose
Start of the trail. all up) we got a glimpse of an Orca whale breaching, which was pretty awesome and unexpected.
Now we are back in Vancouver for the day and will head off on the dreaded Greyhound heading east across Canada. First stop will probably be Banff (13 hours on the bus) and then we will head over to Quebec, Montreal etc- all depends on the pennies and how far they take us. We will keep you posted along the way but expect to be traveling for another few weeks and then find a new home ready for the snow season.
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david
non-member comment
hi
great photos ...thanks for the effort things just seem to get better for you as you go along best of luck....dave