Queen Victoria

Today we met the queen. The Queen of Saanick. She carried us from Tsawwassen in Vancouver, across the Georgia Straits, through the Trincomall channel and into Swartz Bay. She dropped us just North of Victoria on Vancouver Island.

Victoria is depicted in brochures and magazines as a picturesque town reflecting quaint British tradition. We found it brimming with people and traffic jams and the outskirts loaded with tourist attractions and the ever present WalMart.

Downtown was chock-full of restaurants and specialty stores all vying for your money. Our first purchase was seventy-five cents which bought us 36 minutes on a parking meter. Long enough to race to a photo lab where we could drop off our film.

When it was 5:00, my watch chimed, the parking meter clicked over and we set off to find a home. Normally we would begin our quest much earlier (around 3:00 p.m.), pulling out the maps and travel books and locating the AAA tepee signs. But at 3:00 p.m. today we were on board the ferry ignoring our chores and perusing the books in the gift shop. Perhaps we imagined the daylight would last forever. Of course it didn't, and by 6:00 we were watching both the needle on the gas gauge and the sun sink behind the horizon.

Earlier we had discovered the secret of free camp sites - local forestry maps. Old logging roads often lead to cozy sites and the maps tell you where. But unfortunately we didn't have any forestry maps. But why not take a guess and pick a road. So we did and bumped down a gravel road toward Shawnigan Lake. But after 5 km, it didn't look promising so we turned around. The excursion to a free camping site would have to wait. By 7:00 p.m. our stomachs were talking to us. We turned back to the highway and headed for campground #15 on the local map. Destination, Bamberton.

The provincial parks here are gorgeous. We should have nixed the scavenger hunt and come here to start. Oh well, that's what this trip is all about - adventure.

P.S. - We have now acquired three forestry maps for the island which neatly outline all the forestry camp sites. We're in business.