Butchart Gardens - Victoria

After enjoying travels along the Sunshine Coast we headed for Powell River to catch yet another ferry, this time to Comox on Vancouver Island. We enjoyed the visit to Powell River even though it was the only day of rain in the entire two weeks since we set out from Vancouver. Surprisingly, for a paper mill town, it's an interesting place. We took the historic walking tour of the old town, known as TownSite, one of very few National Historic Districts in Western Canada. The town is remarkably intact with over 400 original buildings contained within the borders of the 1910 town plan.

After arriving at Comox we headed down island towards Victoria. We've visited Victoria a few times already, but, we wanted to do the Sooke/Cowichan loop up the west coast before heading inland again which we hadn't done before. We did a few touristy things around Victoria, one really good one, the Royal BC museum and one not so good, Butchart Gardens. We had fond memories of a visit there many years ago and thought we'd enjoy another visit. Maybe we would have if we hadn't arrived at the same time as a convoy of huge tour buses. The $31 entry fee (each!) was another hint of disappointment to come. The first sitting available for afternoon tea was after 3 p.m. It was now only 11 a.m., so, that was out. The other restaurant was closed for a private function, so, we queued up for an expensive sandwich in the cafe and then headed out to the gardens. The spring flowers were 'done' and the summer flowers weren't yet in bloom. The display was disappointing, not really the Garden's fault, but, disappointing nonetheless. These photos show the care and attention lavished here and it's probably a stunning place early in the a.m. before the hordes arrive and when the season is right for the blooms.

There were still a few patches of colour, like this one.

Almost everything else was mostly green...