Houseboats with Seal
More Totem Poles
By Noah – Today was our only full day in the state capital, Victoria. Situated on the tip of the Saanich Peninsula on the west coast of British Columbia, Victoria is quieter and quainter to Vancouver. It certainly doesn’t have the huge towering apartment blocks along its coastline. Wanting to explore, we decided to take a long walk along the waterfront, past the whale watching tour boats and seaplanes to a park and eventually Fisherman’s Wharf. Along the way, we had around 8 geocaches planned ahead of us and looked forward to a very successful day. However, having already missed one geocache the previous night, we were on a losing streak that never seemed to end. Firstly, in Chinatown, the location was very busy and too risky. Secondly, market square proved to be a major tourist attraction so that failed as well. By then we had made it to the sea and were beginning our walk around the town. Finally, we found a cache but soon rejoined camp ‘Did Not Find’ outside the harbour airport. The sea wall then took us past some very large and expensive hotels before we arrived at a small park where we had lunch and happily found a lobster-shaped cache. We then continued past more luxurious hotels and apartments that overlooked the bay until we reached Fisherman’s Wharf – a collection of floating houseboats, cafés and B&Bs, all moored up. This was a neighbourhood where a seal was more likely to visit your back garden than a cat and many houses had kayaks, rather than cars, as the transport of choice (which definitely appeals to mum!). After another failed cache, we returned to the backpackers through more popular streets lined with trees and bars but not before one last look at the sea. Tomorrow we will return to Vancouver via the ferry for one more night before leaving for Vernon by bus on Thursday…
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Distance Travelled: 296km
