Uclulet to Victoria driving day

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Today was mostly a travel day from Ucluelet to Victoria. After yet another sumptuous breakfast and a farewell to the owner of one of the best Guest Inns ever, we set off for the approximately 4 to 5 hours to Victoria. It is mostly a slow drive as the road on the western side of the mountains is fairly awful with slumping or broken tarmac in many places. Gradually the road is being upgraded in the most mountainous area but the coastal area needs a lot of work done to the road to match the eastern side. Until we reached the coast the scenery was mostly mountains, forests and lakes with any views to be had often blocked by trees. This country has enough trees to build houses for everyone in the world. Linds found the driving quite tiring because of the tight corners and hills for a long distance - hopefully he won't think the Whangamoas, the Spooners or Takaka Hill are so bad when he gets home.

On reaching the eastern side of the island the land opens out and there is a motorway all the way to Victoria. We even spied some paddocks and cows as well as an area of vineyards. That was an unusual sight, but still no bears or moose...............maybe they are just a myth.

We stopped in at Nanaimo for lunch and a break from driving near the port in the town. Nanaimo is the 2nd largest town on the island and has a lovely coastal area with a park, port and walkway. We continued on to Victoria using the GPS to reach our B&B near the beach in the downtown area of Victoria next to the Beacon Hill Park. After dropping off our luggage at the old Victorian house we took the rental car to the depot and walked back the 3km through Chinatown and Downtown. It seems that we will be pushed for time to fit in the things worth doing in two days but we'll see how we go. We need one day for the Garden visit and another for the city.

We walked along the coastal path to the Cook Street Village to a Greek restaurant for dinner then back around Beacon Hill Park. That was quite enough walking for one day. It wasn't the most exciting day but we did see some great mountain scenery that we missed the other day when it was raining.

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Photos

A floral whale in Victoria
The whale sculpture is made of leaves and plants and is outside the museum. I'm not sure of the significance but will find out when we visit.