What a majestic arrival it was when our ferry – the M.V. Coho – entered the port in Victoria, the capital of British Columbia! The ferry terminal is located just in front of the Parliament Building and as cyclists we were among the first ones to disembark. Customs control went very smooth too (we had eaten all our fruit and vegetables on the ferry before :-)) and we were welcomed to Canada. We suddenly realized the various similarities to Europe. Victoria's ambiance felt entirely different to what we had experienced during the last weeks in the US. After a delicious (and enormous) Sushi dinner we took a stroll along the inner harbour. We also visited the Parliament Building on a free and self-guided tour. The tour was well explained and it made us realize, how strongly B.C. still feels obliged to Queen Elizabeth of England - she is everywhere referred to as the Queen of Canada. While being here, we decided to take the chance and attended a Whale Watching tour. We saw a small orca (killer whale) family, mother and calf and a bigger male. While it was impressive to see these animals in their habitat, we also thought about the controversy: there were about 20 boats following these three whales. If you consider that this is happening twice every day... but we did it too, no blaming at all! After all, we had to decide which part of the Island we wanted to visit. We opted for a round trip in the southern part: from Victoria we cycled the "Galopping Goose" bike trail (a beautifully laid trail on a former train dam) to Sooke, then continued following the Juan de Fuca trailheads to Port Renfrew and turned east passing Lake Cowichan and Duncan. From Mill Bay we took the small ferry to Brentwood from where we cycled to Sidney. On our first campground in French Beach we met Bob. Having travelled Canada and the US himself quite extensively, he could give us much useful advice on which routing to take further north. He also generously offered us half a watermelon! It was just perfect after our ride in the hot afternoon along the hilly coast – thanks again! Unfortunately, there are no well-equipped hiker/biker campsites anymore; the Provincial Parks seem to be exceptionally situated, are perfectly groomed and maintained despite having pit toilets only and no showers. Being back at the coast also accounted for fast changing weather: even if the afternoons became quite hot, the mornings were foggy and wet and the occasional rain pretty surely hit in every day at least once. Basically, we got it all in from the weather front :-). What we also noticed were the contrasts between the coastal areas of southern Vancouver Island. Whereas in the west the landscape is rough and wild – often also land of First Nations –, the eastern coast is touristy and luxuriously developed.
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Blog Archive
September 2016
CountersKilometers pedalled
Hours on the bike
Meters cycled uphill
Flat tires
Burgers eaten
Bears sighted
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