21 June Vancouver to Vancouver Island

Had a bit of asleep in this morning.  The car ferries (run by BC Ferries) run on the hour from Vancouver (Tsawwassen) to Vancouver Island (Swartz Bay).  We got to the ferry terminal just in time to see the 11am ferry leave, so we wandered into the ferry food-court area for some early lunch (at least we were first in line for the 12pm departure J).  The trip over took 90 minutes and was quite pretty as the ferry weaved through islands (with more finesse than an Italian cruise liner J) passing other ferries along the way.  The ferries are quite well decked out.  They have cafes, snack bars, business work stations, extra comfort areas (extra fee to sit in a more comfortable exclusive area), plus staterooms for those who need to have a nap for 90 minutes (?).  We docked at the other end with only a couple of minor bumps and we were off quite quickly.

Our first stop was a visitor info station to get some brochures on what was about etc. on Vancouver Isle.  We decided to go to the well known Butchart Gardens, on advice from Norm & Wendy.  The decision was well and truly worth it as the gardens were more than spectacular and words really do not adequately described the area and photos do not really do the place justice (but we certainly tried J).  The gardens cover a 22 hectare (55 acres) site that was formally a limestone quarry that supplied the nearby cement factory.  The gardens are product of Jennie Buchart’s life-long ambition to create a beautiful area out of the quarry.  The most impressive sections of the gardens are the sunken gardens and the rose garden.  Now we have a vision for our place LOL.

After enjoying ourselves at Buchart Gardens, we travelled onto Victoria (the island’s capital) and found ourselves an RV park right on the water front only a 5 minute scoot from the city.  Although we don’t quite overlook the bay (a couple of larger ‘A’ classes in the way) it’s really quite pretty.  There are these lovely little floating houses that are privately owned just nearby.  They are 3 stories high and some have sun/BBQ decks on top.  The seaplanes come overhead to land and take off from in front in the bay.

We went to a nearby café and shared a seafood platter.  Afterwards we went for a walk along a boardwalk for a short distance.  Along the way we saw a sea otter that looked to be eating some sort of mussel from a shell.  On the way back (nearly in front of our van) we saw a fellow feeding some Canada Geese with a bunch of goslings.