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...

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Sunshine Coast

We've been on the road in our camper van for two weeks now. We haven't covered many miles, but, it's been an action-packed trip so far. This post covers the trip up the Sunshine Coast from West Vancouver to Lund BC.

The trip involved two ferry voyages, both short and enjoyable, due to the sunny skies and calm conditions. The Coast Mountains on the mainland still had snow on their tops.

The view across to Vancouver Island was stunning as well with a ridge of snow-capped mountains on the horizon.

The speck in the distance in the photo above turned out to be a most interesting sight. It looked to be some kind of fish processing plant getting towed to a new location.

The beach at Sechelt was very picturesque.

We made a special trip to Skookumchuck Narrows Provincial Park to view a phenomenal tidal race. It was a 4km hike through coastal rain forest to reach the viewing area. Each day, tides force large amounts of seawater through the narrows—200 billion US gallons of water on a 3-metre (9.8 ft) tide. The difference in water levels on either side of the rapids can exceed 2 metres (6.6 ft) in height. Current speeds can exceed 16 knots. We had to use our imagination a bit though as the tides didn't cooperate with our visit and it all looked rather benign when we were there. Photos onsite showed a very different story and it must be amazing.

Lund, at the end of the road, turned out to be an absolutely charming place. We had a lovely meal at this waterfront restaurant. As it's still early in the season, we were the only patrons and enjoyed dining al fresco overlooking the harbour bathed in the golden late afternoon sunshine. Check out those palm trees! This is Canada, there aren't many places you'll find them.

Lund is also a jumping-off point for famous Desolation Sound, a kayak and cruising boat mecca. Here, a couple of kayakers can be seen setting off on a perfect afternoon.

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Tulip Time - La Conner WA

We had to make a quick run down to Portland, Oregon to get a cargo box installed on the van prior to our upcoming departure this weekend. It's a great unit (https://www.stowaway2.com/ ) that installs on the rear of the vehicle instead of the roof and has a unique, swing away frame. It will allow us to easily carry our Bromptons (folding bicycles) and a couple of camp chairs with us on the road trip. Unfortunately, we couldn't find a unit like it Canada, so, we had to drive down to the USA to get one.

Portland is only a six hour drive from Vancouver and it would have all gone very smoothly except for a two hour border crossing delay into the USA. We brought it on ourselves when we truthfully declared we had two bananas aboard. Well, that did it, we were sent to secondary inspection and had to endure a vehicle search and a personal interview along with close passport scrutiny. The bananas passed muster because they had a sticker showing their source was Ecuador and they let them and us into the USA. Only one banana had a sticker though, but, they graciously let us keep the other one, as, they made sure to tell us, they assumed it had come from the same bunch.

Upon arrival at the box factory, the unit was installed for us in just a few minutes and we were back on our way north. To ensure we could bring the cargo box into Canada tax and duty-free we needed to stay over the border for forty-eight hours. This wasn't a hardship as we knew we'd be passing through the scenic Skagit Valley on our way back. We'd take a side trip to see the area around La Conner and Anacortes and also visit the Skagit Tulip Festival. We knew we were about two weeks too late (seems to be a familiar refrain for us recently) to see the best display of tulips in the fields, but, we hoped they hadn't cut all the heads off yet. They do this to create strong growth in the bulb and the bulb is mainly what they sell, the flower display is just a side show really. We got there to find that, unfortunately, all the tulips had been decapitated just a few days earlier. As a consolation, there are two permanent display gardens in the area. We visited one and were delighted with the still beautiful displays and the lack of crowds (over a million people come to view the tulips annually). So, the detour wasn't wasted. La Conner itself also turned out to be a scenic delight and we enjoyed a late lunch on a warm, sunny, outdoor patio overlooking the waterfront. We spent the night in a campground directly on the shores of Puget Sound. Very nice. Here are a few pictures of the wonderful tulip display we enjoyed at the Roozengaarde Tulip Farm http://www.tulips.com/

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April This and That

Now that spring is here our pace of life is stepping up quickly again. Even though we've been busy cleaning, servicing and packing our camper van for its upcoming lengthy road trip, we've had a few interesting things happen this month and we've been to a few new places as well.  Here's a sampling of what we've been up to during April....

1. Kettle Valley Rail Trail
Early in the month, the weather forecast called for sunny skies and temperatures of 24C in the BC interior. We were eager to take advantage of the beautiful weather and decided to take our Bromptons (UK folding bicycles) out for a spring spin on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail. This section of the Trans-Canada trail is built on the old railbed of the abandoned Kettle Valley Railway. A great feature is the gentle grade which makes it fantastic for easy hiking and biking through spectacular scenery. The best scenery is near Kelowna, along the section through Myra Canyon, which has eighteen trestles and two tunnels spread along a 12km stretch.

Imagine these wooden trestles with a steam train puffing along them...

The view down to the city of Kelowna and Lake Okanagan spread across the valley floor was amazing.

We hoped that by going early in the season we'd avoid the crowds. Unfortunately it turned out that we were a little too early as large parts of the trail were still snow-covered and thus we were only able to do about one-third of the Myra Canyon section before we had to turn back as we were carrying the bikes through knee-deep snow. Just sitting in the mountain air, with warm sun and a bluebird sky overhead wasn't too hard to take though and we hope to maybe return later in the year to complete the rest of the tour.

We weren't the only creatures out enjoying the sunshine that day...

2. Kelowna and Kamloops
After completing our tour of the Kettle Valley Railway we drove through Kelowna and down the west shore of Lake Okanagan through places with such evocative place names as Peachland and Summerland. The fruit trees were in blossom, but, the dozens of fruit stands which lined the highway were, of course, still closed up. Fresh fruit: peaches, cherries, apricots, apples and more will be on sale from June through September and we can hardly wait to return later in the season to sample just-picked, tree-fresh, BC fruit. There are many wineries in this area and the regimented vineyard fields were already turning green.

After the lush and verdant Okanagan Valley we drove the scenic route back to Vancouver along the Fraser River Valley and through the semi-arid, almost desert-like landscape around Kamloops.

For some scale to this picture, look closely at the very long train running along the shoreline of Kamloops Lake...

Closer to Vancouver the agricultural area around Abbotsford was also a visual delight including this colourful tulip field.

3. Canada Over the Edge
Our winter rental apartment included cable tv which we haven't had for years and we watched way too much of it over the winter. Although it was hard to find anything decent on the 100+ plus channels available, we did enjoy the programming on the local public television station, Knowledge TV. In particular, there was a lengthy series running every week called 'Canada Over the Edge'. This was an ambitious, four year undertaking to document, from the air, Canada's borders along all three oceans and our 49th parallel land border with the USA. It was lovingly shot although it has a weird, dream-like, ethereal quality to it as both visuals, narration and background music seem to be in slow-motion. The landscape takes centre stage, but, occasionally there were sections with land-based touring and interviews. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but, we enjoyed it. We were most interested in the aerial views of the Arctic coastline having just sailed the entire length of it ourselves. The episode with the section of coastline between Gjoa Haven and Cambridge Bay was beautiful. Of course, there was the usual 'money shot' of a lone sailboat, sailing peacefully across a flat, blue sea with white sails flying. The camera zoomed in a little closer and we thought, wow, that's a really nice-looking boat. It got in a little closer and surprise, it was us in Gjoa! We remember that particular day in 2014 well. It was one of the very, very few where the sun shone and the water was flat, blue and ice-free. We know where they filmed us, but, we had no idea we'd been filmed and don't remember getting buzzed by any planes or helicopters. They must have had a really good zoom lens. Anyway, it was just a brief moment in the episode, but, it did liven up the program for us. The series can be purchased on dvd from:

http://www.canadaovertheedge.com/


4. A Sad Sight
Living right on the water has been a treat, but, some days the sea brings bad news as well as beauty. Walking back to our apartment along the sea wall one morning we came across crime scene tape blocking off the area in front of our building. We detoured around and once inside the apartment had a birds-eye of a body being retrieved from the shoreline by the Vancouver Police marine unit. In this photo, two divers have just entered the water with a floating stretcher.

The divers swam to shore where they respectfully retrieved the body which had washed ashore against a log. The operation was efficient and quickly dealt with. It appeared to be a well-dressed young man. Nothing was mentioned on the evening news as to who it was, or, what happened. It's probably not that unusual an event in a big waterfront city, but, it still brought home how easily life can be taken away.


5. Follow by Email
Some of you may have noticed a new box just above the Profile on the right side column of the blog labelled 'Follow by Email'. If you put your email address in here and click 'Submit' you should automatically receive an email every time there is something new posted on the blog without having to check.

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Tofino BC - Part II

The day after our whale watching and hot springs tour, we enjoyed a few more sights around Tofino and Ucluelet before heading back to Vancouver.

An old ice house converted to an oyster bar and restaurant...

Downtown Tofino sculpture...

An early morning walk on Long Beach, Tofino

Surfers heading out on Long Beach.

We hiked the Lighthouse Loop, part of the West Pacific Trail in Ucluelet and had super views of the Broken Islands group.

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Tofino BC - Part I

We are in the last few weeks of our winter stay here in Vancouver and will be hitting the road again at the end of April. We'll head first to the Sunshine Coast and then on to Vancouver Island for a few weeks while waiting for the snow to melt up north. However, when we heard that the best time for viewing the Gray Whale migration off the west coast of Vancouver Island was March and April, we decided to make a separate trip just for that even though it might mean covering some of the same ground later. So, we booked ourselves on a Hot Springs and Whale Watching tour and headed off to Tofino at the end of March. We booked well in advance and weren't really hopeful that we'd get a good weather window, but, to our delight, the heavens aligned and our three day trip was spectacularly warm, clear and dry. It felt like summer and conditions were absolutely perfect for heading out on the water.

During the Pacific Gray Whale migration 22,000! whales travel from Mexico along the West Coast of Vancouver Island on the way to their northern summer quarters. We did see about six whales, just a km offshore, but, unfortunately no pictures for you as whales are notoriously hard to photograph. You tend to just see their breath, followed by their back and if you're lucky their tail as they dive. There was other wildlife as well which was more photogenic. The boat skipper took us to places that we'd never have dared to go in our own boat, very close to the rocks, local knowledge at work. It was nice for once to leave the driving to someone else who knew where they were going which allowed us to just enjoy the scenery.

A sea lion colony on the point in the foreground with a cormorant colony on the next point...

We were close enough to hear the sea lions barking...

at least the ones that weren't fast asleep in the warm sunshine...

The highlight of the trip was our visit to Maquinna Provincial Park and the hot springs there. I'd been disappointed with hot spring visits in the past as usually the naturally heated water is just pumped into concrete pools and you get to sit there in a stew with 500 other people. I'd vowed to see the real thing and this time it was. The Maquinna springs are a totally natural hotspring that bubbles out of the ground, down a steaming stream, over a waterfall and into a series of rock basins that drop down to the ocean's edge. It's true that we had to share with others, no avoiding that with many tour companies offering this trip, but, it was still less crowded than in season, we enjoyed a lovely soak and it was hot!

It was a two km walk along a boardwalk through the rain forest to get to the springs. Many passing sailboats and other visitors had left their mark...

This pretty stream is steaming hot....

The hot springs run out through a cleft in the rocks to the ocean...

I don't know where these dogs came from, but, they seemed to be well-looked after locals out for a stroll and were soaking up the sun alongside the bathers. One walked with us along the boardwalk.

We also spotted our first Steller's Jay at the springs. This is BC's official bird and it's a beauty.

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Signs - Part I

I don't know about you, but, I really enjoy seeing signs where the message is given with humour, or, wit. It makes being told what to do a little bit more palatable somehow when it puts a smile on your face. I'm also partial to an inventive marketing gimmick and even an occasional typo that results in laughter. Here are a few we've encountered in our travels recently. I hope to add to the collection over time. Hope you enjoy them as much as we did...

A typo in this boat ad made me laugh out loud because it perfectly describes our current lifestyle!

"She has proved an excellent performer in all weather, and a perfect live aboard for extended expiration off the beaten path."

How about this on a portable sign outside a tanning salon in Kelowna:

"White buns only look good on hotdogs"

From Steveston BC:

From Deep Cove BC:

There's a fleet of these cars with an Orca fin on top driving around West Vancouver, I always smile when I see one.

From Bowen Island BC (guess you wouldn't see many places in the world today where tourists are encouraged to hitchhike?):

And last but not least, this sign, which is from near Cranbrook BC. I didn't take the photo, somebody emailed it to me, but, it will be apropos for us as we'll be heading into bear country this summer. The text is long, but, you must read all the way to the end!

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A Day Trip to Bowen Island

Just fifteen minutes on the local bus and twenty minutes on the ferry dropped us into another world, Bowen Island, a  six km x twelve km slice of island life just three km offshore from Horseshoe Bay in West Vancouver.

It's a tranquil spot, considering its proximity to Vancouver. It was Good Friday, the first sunny, warm day in weeks and we joined the rest of the holidaymakers heading for a quiet atmosphere in which to soak up some rays and enjoy the island's charming ambience. We left on an early ferry, glad we didn't have to join the Easter weekend crush waiting for the Nanaimo ferry.

Historically, Bowen Island was famous in the 1920's as a resort operated by the Union Steamship Company. Steamers delivered hundreds of people from bustling downtown Vancouver to holiday heaven where they could enjoy a dance pavilion big enough for eight hundred dancers, rent holiday cottages, picnic by the water and swim on the many beaches.

A small village-like commercial centre still exists.

Later, after its 1920's heyday, it became an artists' colony described in this quote from Wikipedia:

"In the 1940s and 1950s, the artists' colony called Lieben was a retreat for many famous Canadian authors, artists, and intellectuals including Earle Birney, Alice Munro, Dorothy Livesay, Margaret Laurence, A.J.M. Smith, Jack Shadbolt, Eric Nicol and Malcolm Lowry, who finished his last book, October Ferry to Gabriola, there. "

Today, many of the island residents commute to jobs in Vancouver, but, the charm is still visible in the old buildings. This is the United Church.

We chose to hike the Killarney Lake Loop Trail. It was a nice loop on a beautiful day with a few interesting sights.

The wooden structure shown on the far side of this waterfall is a fish ladder. It helps spawning fish to more easily climb up the waterfall so they can reach their spawning grounds.

Spring marsh flowers were just starting to bloom.

Returning to Horseshoe Bay in late afternoon, we enjoyed the best fish and chips we've ever had, eaten outside on a park bench underneath cherry trees in full blossom. What a day!

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