Vancouver Island – Part 1

We caught the Coho Ferry across the Straight of Juan De Fuca to Victoria on the 31st of May/17, this was 3 weeks ahead of when we had originally planed, but plans change. At this point in our journey we have travelled approximately 6760km (4200miles) upon arriving in Victoria. We can now slow down as we have approximately a month to travel 495km (308miles).
Upon arriving in Victoria, we parked just up the street from the ferry/customs terminal and took a walk along the waterfront to Red Fish, Blue Fish where we had fresh fish & chips for lunch.

 

Back Home In Canada

From there we headed over to the British Columbia Legislature Building for a tour.

From Victoria, we were going to stay out in Sooke but the campground there did not have any laundry facilities and the weather was not being totally nice at this time. We used our friend Google to find a campsite at Osborne Bay Resort which had laundry which is located in Crofton up Island, which was in the direction we were heading. The campsite backed right onto the inside passage where we stayed for two nights, there was a local pub walking distance which served good food and Heather was our amazing server, interesting stories.

The View From Our Rear Dinette

After laying low for the first few days in Crofton we went up to Parksville to stay with Catherine’s best friends’ parents Ron & Joanne who had a gravel pad suitable for an RV. We stayed here instead of our friend Gini & Paul’s as it was Gini’s birthday and she did not know we would be there for the celebration.  What a great surprise, arriving for dinner and not being expected.

Gini’s birthday celebration.

Catherine, Gini & Joanne catching-up over a glass or two of Prosecco.  The YaYa Sisters.

We then stayed out at French Creek boon docking for a couple nights:

 

We went for a walk in Englishman River Falls Provincial Park.

 

We then called in at the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre:

The last photo is of the resident bear which has never lived in the wild.
From here we went to stay with Paul and Gini for a few days catching up and generally having a good time. While there we were invited over to Colin & Brenda’s, friends from back in the day when we all lived in Edmonton, for dinner where they prepared some good old Sheppard’s Pie and to catch up on things as it’s been a number of years since we have seen each other.

While on the island visiting and catching up with friends, another friend, Peter from our Edmonton days called to say he was also on the island, so he and his buddy Tony, who was vacationing from the UK joined us for fish and chips……..Catherine was the only one without an accent in the crowd.

Next: Vancouver Island – Part 2

1 thought on “Vancouver Island – Part 1”

  1. While we know this island today as “Vancouver Island”, the English explorer had not intentionally meant to name such a large body of land solely after himself.

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