Traveling again... finally!
2020 was truly a Shit-Show in every way, especially when it came to traveling. When Covid-19 hit, it hit the entire world hard, and any thoughts of traveling outside of our own little bubble were quashed. A planned trip to Antarctica was postponed for who knows how long, and any hopes we had of jumping on a flight deal and traveling somewhere new was out of the question.
Finally in July of 2021, the doors were opened partway, the Canadian government and British Columbia Health officials said we could travel within our own province. We made plans to take the BC Ferries and pop over to Vancouver Island, visit some family and put in a little sight-seeing. It was a mini vacation, a little Victorian getaway!
With an online reservation on our phone, we headed to Tsawassen Ferry terminal and boarded the Queen of New Westminster for the crossing which takes a little over 2 hours. One of the big controversies was Federal regulations which required passengers to leave their cars and go to the main decks of the ship for the duration of the sailing. "Hey, I know it's Covid, but if you all could just gather up on the decks and use the same doors, stairs and railings, that would be great". Luckily we were on the top deck which doesn't have that requirement, but we still went onto the open deck areas to enjoy the scenery and grab a quick bite to take back to the car... then Purell our hands.
On a blue sky day, the scenery always sets the stage for Beautiful British Columbia.
We rolled off the ferry and headed towards our capital city of Victoria. Did you know? The lowest portion of Vancouver Island is actually well below the 49th parallel that separates most of Canada from the USA. It's not quite an hours drive to our B 'n' B for the next 3 days.
After settling in for a bit, we headed out and picked up some NoodleBox to go. We were led to a locally known ocean overlook at Royal Beach Park (aka the Sand Pit), then capped the evening off sitting on the patio with quality family visiting time, and Birthday Cake... hard to top that!
Part of my birthday gift was a couple passes to a new island attraction called the Malahat Skywalk and a list of other nearby attractions we could check out. So Saturday morning was spent exploring areas of the Island we hadn't seen before.
The Malahat Sykywalk is a new attraction about 30 minutes out of Victoria, it starts with a short walk through an Arbutus and Fir forest area. Everybody is jockeying for the front of the line to get to the main attraction as fast as they can, and when the gate is opened, they all rush through the forest to get there first.
Most of them probably don't even notice the unique wood carvings, and certainly don't appreciate the raised TreeWalk through a beautiful arbutus forest. Arbutus trees are a unique piece of the west coast, growing on rocky areas near the ocean, and shedding their bark yearly to display uniquely red trunk and branches.
We took our time along the trail, and let the "tourists" rush to the 32 Meter high gentle spiral ramp that takes you up to a 250 Meter above Sea Level lookout. When we got there, we didn't have to fight with everyone to get a glimpse of the views.
As you rise higher and higher, the view keeps getting better, looking out across Finlayson Arm, Saanich Peninsula, Mount Baker and the distant Coast Mountains.Basically you can see from the USA to Canada.
At the top of the Spiral is what they refer to as an Adventure Net, basically a giant mesh suspended across a big drop. We safely made it across, but one of us didn't look down the entire time.
It's a really gradual climb as you wind your way to the top, and going back down wouldn't be hard, but they made it even easier... they hand you a grey mat, and you can slide down a giant corkscrew slide. It was a fun and very short trip, but slides are hard, I tipped over and rubbed a quarter sized piece of flesh off my elbow from the friction on the aluminum sides. Later I would find out that it happens to a lot of people. Still, it was a fun way to get back down!
A nice little walk back through the forest and it was getting close to lunch time, so we met up with our family, and headed to the nearby Shawnigan Lake for some quality patio time... and drinks.
A short distance from the Shawnigan Lakehouse is the Kinsol Trestle, one of eight trestles along the Cowichan Valley Trail route and by far the largest. The Kinsol Trestle is one of the tallest free-standing timber rail trestle structures in the world. At 187 metres in length and standing 44 metres above the Koksilah River,
The bridge was started in 1914, but after a delay due to World War I, wasn't completed until 1920. For many years it was a key transportation route for both logging and the Galloping Goose passenger train.
When the forestry industry slowed down on Southern Vancouver Island (probably because of over logging), the route was abandoned, and eventually shutdown in 1979. After 4 years of restoration and preservation work, the trestle was re-opened as a public trail in 2011.
After a fun day of hiking and exploring in the fresh air, a night of Sushi and drinks on the patio were in order.
Sunday would be an old fashioned walking tour of downtown Victoria and the surrounding beaches.
It's a nice walk through the parks and neighborhoods to the downtown waterfront area of Victoria.
Downtown Victoria isn't quite what it was a few years back, there is still the Royal Museum, The Parliament buildings and the world famous Empress Hotel. But, the Undersea Gardens, wax museum and other tourist traps are gone.
There's still a few variations of transportation around the harbour, the little pickle boat taxi's, the high speed ferry that can take you to downtown Vancouver, and of course 1 tourist trap remains... the horse-drawn carriage rides.
After a great meal of Fish Tacos overlooking the harbour on a patio, we continued our walking tour.The transportation on the way was quite varied.
The next stop on our route was the quaint little Fisherman's Wharf area, a mix of colourful houseboats and unique shops mixed into a functioning dock area.
Around the peninsula we wandered, along James Bay towards Beacon Hill Park.
Beacon Hill park is home to 2 very impressive monuments, the worlds tallest Totem Pole at almost 39 meters (127 feet and 7 inches), and the Terry Fox memorial statue. If you don't know who that is, you need to look up his story, a true Canadian hero.
We got back to our cars just as the paid parking was expiring, and took a break with some local coffee and Ice Cream treats. From there we would continue along the shore line to the Oak Bay area for some more scenic viewpoints.
It really is a beautiful part of the country, blue skies and blue water along a rocky shore, a really nice way to spend a day. Now, if Victoria could spend a little money coming up with a better sewer solution this would be a truly great part of the world.
After another day of fresh air and a lot of walking, we wrapped up our weekend hanging on the patio, eating good food, having some drinks and chatting the night away.
A leisurely morning and we left our cute little BnB, and headed to catch the ferry back to Vancouver. We were surprised to find out that you could pre-order food from the parking lot while waiting to board, and because we were on the top deck again, we only had to enter the packed ship to grab our food, take a pee and enjoy our meals in the comfort and covid safety of our own vehicle.
This Victorian getaway was a long time coming as Covid really put a delay on traveling (even if it was fairly local) and especially catching up with family and friends. A special thanks to Dr. Bonny Henry and the inventors of the Covid vaccines in making it possible to travel again.