Vancouver to Victoria

Today saw us journey from the lovely centre of Vancouver using all forms of transport with the exception of plane or hover vehicle! As much as I hate public transport back at home, it seems whenever we go travelling we end up using it so much – time is just not as much of an issue when you are cruising on holidays.

BC Ferry

After taking a bus, a train and another bus, we jumped (as much as is possible with our big backpacks and all our gear ) onto one of the massive BC Ferries from the suburb of Tsawassen; these are multi story vehicle and pedestrian ferries which are closer to the size of a cruise ship than one of the little city cats we are used to back home! In the entire journey began at 9am and finished at 3pm in the hostel at Victoria, a full 6 hours of travel!

After dumping our gear in our new (tiny) room and stopping for a coffee (and a jar of water) in the nearby cafe (with the free wifi's) we headed on an exploration walk which took us downtown, past the museum and parliament buildings, up through Beacon Hill (one of the famous parks) and down by the sea side. 

Coffee and water from a mason jar!

Beacon Hill Park

Dancing in the rain

The weather wasn't favourable but this is where we had our first sighting of the local native animals; the squirrel. There were even lots of peacocks and peahens, apparently they like to hide in the tops of the trees when it rains! We even saw a bunch of raccoons crossing the road but they were too quick for us to get a photo!

Our first squirrel sighting

My 3 new girlfriends!

Unfortunately my natural sense of direction was somewhat out of whack and Em's failure to look at the map and trust my judgement, had us walking in completely the wrong direction at one point .. more walking for us!

We were getting used to the rain being around fairly consistently by now, with our trusty coats and umbrellas. The weather doesn’t seem to effect the locals around here as much in comparison with us back at home. They are all out running, playing in the park with their dogs and making the most of the coastal atmosphere, whereas we would all be waiting inside until the rain passes! What a great perspective to have.

The beach! Very different to beaches at home.. sand is replaced by pebbles and  shells and the water looks freezing cold

It was time to rest the legs (and feet), as the following day was to be another massive day of walking and sightseeing.