Friday 18th March
Have rental car will travel. Another day, another park, another pretty waterfall.
What is this?
Here’s the explanation.
Wow, that’s worse than you get for manslaughter.
Saturday 19th March
It’s getting positively warm some-days.
Sunday 20th March
A visit with Phil and Chris’s place where we get fed.
Monday 21st March
Hangin’ on a cloudy day.
Tuesday 22nd March
The truck is apparently ‘fixed’, so we got it back.
Movie of the day: The Danish Girl – Alicia Vikander rocks – she did get a deserved Oscar for this.
Wednesday 23rd March
Jan and Ray, people we met in Pedder Bay are leaving tomorrow so we had them over for drinks
Thursday 24th March
The day started with heavy rain but we went for a walk in Frances King Park with Robin and Jill after dropping off the rental. A pretty golf course next to the park.
Friday 25th March
Phil and Chris had promised us a tour of Victoria, so after driving to their place, Chris drove first to this hill which has stunning views that unfortunately don’t photograph that well, at least not with a point and click camera..
Then it was down to Fisherman’s Wharf to sample the cuisine.
The prawn tacos I had were truly wonderful.
The area round Victoria Harbour is serviced by these water taxis.
After lunch we walked down to the breakwater.
At the end of the breakwater, one of the the tourists said “Oh look, a seal.” I took one look “that’s not a seal, it’s an otter.” Twenty feet below the parapet he/she was just sunning itself.
Chris and Carol walked back along the breakwater while Phil and I took the more adventurous route along the massive stones that follow the breakwater down at the water’s edge.
This is typical BC artwork on the breakwater wall.
After collecting the car, next stop a popular beach near where Phil and Chris live.
If that were a palm tree?
The Royal Roads mansion was built by the son of the fella who built this place: 'Craig Darroch', another famous Victoria landmark.
By this time we were all ready to call it a day, so we headed back to pick up the truck and head back to Weir’s Beach.
Saturday 26th March
Hangin’ in WB.
Sunday 27th March
Rainy, windy day food shopping.
A short bike ride for me.
Monday 28th March
Easter Monday and we’ve been invited to Robin and Jill’s for a meal with daughter Tara, son-in-law Ray and grandson Isaac.
For the first time since Marathon we played dominoes.
Tuesday 29th March
Although we’re not that crazy about the ‘Divergent’ series, we had seen the two previous ones and since there’s absolutely nothing else worth watching we went to see “Allegiant” - nonsense but kinda fun.
For supper I made spaghetti carbonara with smoked tofu instead of bacon – not a huge success. (I thought it was pretty good!!! Carol)
Wednesday 30th March
Climbing on the roof to clean it I dropped the cleaner and the bottle split, so that’s a job for another day.
Thursday 31st March
Witty's Lagoon with Robin and Jill and this time did the full hike out to the sea – or more accurately the Juan De Fuca Straits with the Washington Olympic Mountains in the distance.
A rest spot in the sun.
Pretty (but shy) flower.
Some strange structure we couldn’t collectively figure out the purpose for.
Friday 1st April
Cleaning the RV roof.
Saturday 2nd April
Finish cleaning the roof.
Sunday 3rd April
Weekly shopping.
Monday 4th April
Playing with a cheap strip of LEDs.
Tuesday 5th April
Attempting (unsuccessfully as it turns out) to replace the dining area light with LEDs.
Wednesday 6th April
Gave the truck a rare treat.
Hairdresser for Carol while I did some errands.
Left front brake binding and smoking on the way home – not good and that’ll teach me to clean it.
Thursday 7th April
Robin and Jill came for a visit and walk down to the beach with Lucy.
Afterwards they gave us a ride to the car rental place after dropping the truck off for brake repair.
Friday 8th April
We now have a Kia Soul for a week and since Port Renfrew is supposedly a place to visit, we set off in the morning. There really isn’t much there other than a marina where all the docks are out of the water for the season and a hotel where we had a pretty decent lunch.
And a (almost) human sized totem pole.
The restaurant waiter said that Botanical Beach was a good place to go to hike, so we did that.
It’s a little wilder and more ragged as we’re nearer the Pacific.
Not unattractive though,
And one weird tree.
Instead of retracing our steps back to the RV we headed up north to Lake Cowachin, the road notable for the endless views of clear cut hillsides.
While stopped in Duncan on the way back we got a call from the garage with bad news. Not only do we need replacement callipers and rotors but our ball joints are shot. So there goes a few grand. Nothing on these trucks is cheap.
Saturday 9th April
Got an inexpensive dashcam from Amazon, so playing with that.
Sunday 10th April
Weekly shopping.
Monday 11th April
A grooming for Buddy at Petsmart.
A second go at Mill Hill for us while we wait for him to be clipped.
Found this (tiny – about 9” long) fella on the path on the way up.
While stopped in Duncan on the way back we got a call from the garage with bad news. Not only do we need replacement callipers and rotors but our ball joints are shot. So there goes a few grand. Nothing on these trucks is cheap.
Saturday 9th April
Got an inexpensive dashcam from Amazon, so playing with that.
Sunday 10th April
Weekly shopping.
Monday 11th April
A grooming for Buddy at Petsmart.
A second go at Mill Hill for us while we wait for him to be clipped.
Found this (tiny – about 9” long) fella on the path on the way up.
The Arbutus on the top is now covered in leaves.
The Transcanada rolls to Victoria.
A clear view of Esquimalt navy base.
Pretty flowers everywhere.
Tuesday 12th April
To the Cineplex in downtown Victoria, with remarkably cheap parking, to see Eye in the Sky. How good was it? Well there was this incredibly noisy person eating behind us but we didn’t want to stop watching long enough to sit somewhere else.
Wednesday 13th April
Heavy rain and loss of Internet.
A good day to shop.
Thursday 14th April
Met Robin and Jill at daughter Tara’s and I drove our rental to Todd Inlet.
Ontario’s official flower growing here.
Interesting model of the area’s topography.
This is the closest we ever got to the famous Buchart Gardens (they’re behind the fence).
We had our packed lunch in nearby Grant Park and then took a walk around.
The truck smoked on the way home – sigh!
Friday 15th April
RV work.
Saturday 16th April
Weekly shopping.
Sunday 17th April
Our turn to host Phil and Chris. They came over for a midday meal and then a walk along the beach.
Monday 18th April
RV repairs.
Tuesday 19th April
Silver City for The Jungle Book in Imax 3-D – Wow! Wow! Wow!
Wednesday 20th April
RV work.
Thursday 21st April
Met Jill and Robin at Tara's. Bear Hill is the hike of the day.
According to Robin the little Island out there used to be a leper colony.
Friday 22nd April
The big Seven Oh for me. I decided for this one we’d just stay in and have good food.
Sushi for lunch and moules et frites for supper with French fizzy.
Saturday 23rd April
Pumped up the RV’s tires with a borrowed compressor and started on cleaning the sides.
Sunday 24th April
Weekly shopping.
Monday 25th April
Finished cleaning the RV and fixed an electrical problem where the trailer lights didn’t work properly.
Tuesday 26th April
Ever since the first time we walked around part of Matheson Lake I’ve wanted to complete the trek. Carol preferred not to so I did it alone. On the way back I stopped in for some eggs and was introduced to their pig population.
Ginger and friend.
This one is star of the show though.
He’s one ugly little pig.
But at the same time ... cute and very friendly.
Wednesday 27th April
Re-organized the RV basement ready for travel.
Thursday 28th April.
Our last hike with Robin and Jill before departing. Tour guide Jill took us somewhere close – Esquimalt Gorge which is a walk alongside the long, long inlet from the sea.
One of the high spots is the Japanese garden.
Lunch was in an excellent Thai restaurant. We had cup of tea on their patio before saying our sad farewells.
Friday 29th April.
The truck’s turn to be internally re-organized.
Saturday 30th April.
Last Langford shopping.
Over the two months we’ve been here we’ve got quite friendly with our neighbours Luc and Dianne. We had drink outside with them on a beautiful sunny afternoon and then sat around their campfire after they ate their hot dogs and we had our last crab cakes and mushy peas supper.
