Vancouver Island – August 23rd to 26th

From Whistler we drove back down the mountain highway, in slightly less spectacular weather, to the ferry terminal at Horseshoe Bay, to catch a ferry to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. It’s cheaper to get the ferry without making a reservation, and we only had to wait a couple of hours (in the car mind you, but that’s pretty convenient when you have a bed in the back as well as a computer to waste time on!).

We had beautiful views, if slightly windy (ie. Sit inside if you don’t want to blow overboard!), and it took us about an hour and a half to get to Nanaimo. Lawrie was for some reason very surprised to see things like McDonalds, then shopping malls, petrol the same price as in Vancouver, and lots of people – apparently he was expecting a quiet little deserted island… The state capital, Victoria, is on the island however, and there are a few cities…

View from the ferry - Horseshoe Bay to Departure Bay (Nanaimo)

Haircut, anyone? Lawrie in the wind on the ferry

Lawrie on the ferry after getting sick of the main deck

After getting to Nanaimo mid afternoon, we drove about 3 hours to Tofino, where Lawrie had been wanting to visit ever since finding out it’s pretty much the only spot to surf in western Canada (as everywhere else is either surrounded by islands or flat water in the sounds, landlocked by Alaska, or pretty much at the North Pole). The water here, needless to say, is freezing. There weren’t a whole lot of people who didn’t have thick wetsuits and booties, as well as gloves, and some with hoods – at the end of summer when the water is getting to it’s warmest for the year… So strangely enough I decided not to go for a swim at the beach, and left it to Lawrie to go surfing! There were LOTS of people with long boards at the beach we went to, and a few surf schools – I guess it’s the spot to learn in Canada, as it’s pretty much the only spot…

Lawrie had a fantastic surf for a few hours in Tofino, and wanted to stay for much much longer, except he couldn’t feel his feet (even with booties…) – so after almost landing an air, and having lots and lots of fun surfing, he managed to sell his cheap surfboard even more cheaply, and we headed off back towards the east of the island (Tofino is on the south end of the west coast). We didn’t get very far, as Lawrie was pretty keen to have a sleep! We couldn’t get onto the contacts we had for the meeting the next morning, so after trying a couple more times we decided to stay somewhere closer, and sleep in instead…

Views of the inland islands from Tofino

Do not disturb... Checking out the beaches in Tofino, to see which is worthy of surfing

Cox Bay beach in Tofino

Sun shining on the mountains on the way back to the east coast of the island

Then we drove to the BC state (well provincial actually…) capital, Victoria. This is a beautiful and mainly very old style (Victorian actually I do believe…) city which is pretty touristy. There are heaps of whale watching tours advertised, and although it would have been super cool to see some orcas/killer whales in the wild, we didn’t have a whole lot of time (or inclination to spent that much money each!) so had to give it a miss. We did however wander around the Victoria Inner Harbour and the little markets that were there, buying more yummy food than we should have – but who can walk past the smell of fresh Belgian waffles?? We went on a free tour of the Parliament House, which is in a very awesome building from the late 1800s, and admired the almost as impressive looking Empress Hotel (designed by the same architect). We walked to the Fisherman’s Wharf area a couple of km away, and watched a friendly little seal battle it out with the local seagulls (so much bigger than the ones at home) for fish that people bought specifically to feed it.

Lawrie chilling out on the Parliament House lawn

The awesome building of Parliament House

Where Parliament is held

Victoria Inner Harbour, with 'Welcome to Victoria' in flowers

The Empress Hotel

Cute little flowerpots on the light poles in Victoria

Reflections from Victoria Fisherman's Wharf

Friendly seal in the harbour

Sea plane in Victoria

We had lots of blackberries from the side of the track :)

Then we drove further up to Sidney, past the famous Butchart Gardens that we just didn’t have time to see (next time?!), and had some delicious wood fired pizza for dinner (and for breakfast…) before managing to find a hidden little campsite all of a 2 minute drive from the ferry terminal line for in the morning!

Although we’d thought about watching for whales from the ferry (not all that rare to see, but still unlikely knowing our luck!), we ended up sleeping in the back of the van while waiting in the line of cars at the terminal, as well as while on the ferry – the trip went pretty fast, and before we knew it we were back in Vancouver, feeling much better for sleeping!

View from our car window on the ferry back to the mainland