Well, Andy persuaded me to take a 20 minute seaplane trip to Vancouver Island rather than the 3 hour bus, ferry, bus route. And once I’d got over the shock of the size of the plane (Very Small!) I quite enjoyed the flight – it was lovely to see the islands from the air that we had earlier sailed by on our cruise.
We spent 10 days on Vancouver Island after our cruise, firstly in a lovely AirBnB just outside Victoria, where we were mesmerised by tiny green Anna hummingbirds flitting around the garden every evening.
We loved just wandering the streets of Victoria, soaking up the sunshine and watching the boats and seaplanes in the harbour. Victoria has the oldest China Town in Canada and Fan Tan Alley is the narrowest! We took a bus out to Butchart Gardens one day – spectacular gardens made out of an old disused limestone quarry many years ago. The rose garden was beautiful and the scents were divine, the Japanese garden was lush, cool and calming, we were enchanted by the dancing Ross Fountain, and the whole area was just a joy to explore.
We then hired a car and made our way up the coast, first to Comox (home to Comox Air Force base and according to Andy who spent 2 hours there when I was ill, a very good air force museum) and then Campbell River (stayed in a great B&B Money Pennies, run by a lovely lady, Lorrie, with a wicked sense of humour (raising whale eggs in her garden pond – really?????) and a magic touch with blueberry pancakes) for a few days. Sadly, I wasn’t feeling well, so we didn’t explore as much as normal but did have a relaxing time. There’s a really good museum at Campbell with interesting exhibits about the First Nations of the area, the salmon and logging industries and the ripple rock explosion – the biggest non nuclear explosion at the time (1958).
We managed a short hike to Elk Falls and found another suspension bridge for Andy to jump on!!!!
We didn’t get across to Tofino due to wildfires, but we did get to stop in Coombs to see the famous goats on the roof of the old country market – yep, there really are goats on the roof!!!
We went back to Victoria for one night (to sample some fine ale in the Garrick Head pub – they have 68 beer taps on the go!) before returning the car, enjoying the sunshine and a cheeky harbour seal in the harbour and boarding the Victoria Clipper for Seattle.