On the Monday night, Sister Janet and Ted left to go to
Syracuse, New York, and at 6 am on Tuesday morning Janet and I were up and
heading down to line up for the ferry to Vancouver Island – We had to be in
line by 7 am even though the ferry didn’t leave till 8.30 am. Despite spending the last couple of weeks
sorting the van out, I still had a hard time getting everything in its rightful
place. It is easy to pack a car when you
are going to unload it once at the end of a journey, but completely different
when you are camping and need to have access to everything every night while
you are on the road. Anyway, we
eventually got everything in, and drove all of 500 yards to the ferry car park
!! (It is right below my sister’s house
!!). The girl in the booth where we
checked in wanted to know all about our trip, and got upset when she saw how
many cars were behind us that prevented her from talking to us longer !! Sorry Cassie !!! Once we were down in the car park, and had explored
the coffee shop, and Janet had bought a jacket (where am I supposed to store
that ???), we soon got chatting to the people around us. Tim and his dog who were on the way out to
Friday Harbour where he worked, and then Conrad and Lee from (believe it or
not) Brisbane ! He is in the RAAF and
been sent over to Anacortes for 3 years, and was taking his visiting parents
over to Friday Harbour on San Juan Island for a couple of days.
Then it was loading time – At last I truly felt that we
were “off” on our adventure ! We drove
onto the boat for the 3 hour ride to Sidney, Vancouver Island, via Friday
Harbour, and enjoyed the trip even though it was bitterly cold in the wind on
the ferry, despite the sun shining. We
watched all the people get off in Friday Harbour, and then we continued on to
Sidney. Janet met a mother and daughter
couple from Texas who were doing the trip together in their SUV, and having a
great time. Ruby and ? Sorry girls – I must start writing names down
as I am finding it harder and harder to remember everyone !! But great chatting with you – And if you do
go ziplining, I want to know about it !!
Off the ferry and into Canadian Customs – Absolutely no
problem at all, just like two years ago. All the lady wanted to know was all
about our trip !!! Then it was off into
Sidney. We drove around a little, but
weren’t overly impressed, so decided to head south to Butchart Gardens which
several people had told us to go and see – Not least our friends Jos and Tony,
as well as our Benowa neighbours Gordon and Naomi. And they were right – What a stunning display. The Butchart family had mined the area for
lime for cement at the turn of the century, and once the mine was played out,
the wife supervised turning it into the most magnificent gardens over a period
of many years. In many cases there are
boards showing photos of what it looked
like when it was a quarry, and you then looked up and could see the
cliffs and formations of the quarry, but now formed into the most magnificent
gardens. All year round they are on
display, and it just happened that at the time we were there it was primarily
tulips that were in bloom, while the rose gardens were just starting to sprout,
and other areas were dormant. I won’t
try to talk about it – Just see the photos – Even I who have the un-greenest
thumb ever was amazed by the gardens.
Strongly recommend a visit from anyone visiting the area.
One we had had the most delicious hot dog at the bistro,
we headed off to find a camp site, and following our noses, and with the help
of a camping book we had, we suddenly went down this steep hill to a camp site
right on the beach overlooking the Juan de Fuca Strait. After a short discussion persuading the
manager (Darlene) that we really were an RV with shower and toilet etc, we were
allowed to camp there (different licences for different types of campsites, I
understand – In this case no “tenting” allowed as there were no “facilities”,
so you have to have all your own. But a
stunning place, driftwood everywhere, and it turns out they are shooting a TV
show there, and we were warned it would get busy in the morning ! Anyway, we went for a walk along the beach,
watched a Great Blue Heron fishing on the water’s edge, found lots of dead
crabs washed up on the beach, and looked
at the filming location which even
included fake toilets – A front, but nothing behind the facade !!
No comments:
Post a Comment