We drove back the way we came, eventually dropping below the snow line, and eventually arrived at Horseshoe Bay. This is where we were to catch the ferry to Vancouver Island. We hadn't booked, and local advice was that we should be OK this time of year.
Upon leaving the main road, the road to the ferry terminal suddenly widens to many lanes each with its own toll booth. We swiped our credit card, and with no PIN required we received a receipt and drove down our designated lane. After only a short wait, we drove onto the ferry. This was a very impressive operation, obviously designed for many vehicles and a fast turnaround. Our ferries in Wellington could learn a lot from this.
We sat in a comfortable lounge at the bow, with nice big seats and free WiFi. The ferry trip was about 1.5 hours and was smooth and easy.
At the other end, we arrived at Nanaimo. Minutes off the ferry, our first mission was to investigate a solution to my camera problem. This took a careful mix of comparison shopping, fast research, and a little impulse buying. End result, I am a little poorer, but can now take photos again. So we didn't see much of Nanaimo apart from a few electronics retailers (and a CostCo thrown in for good measure) although from what we saw, I'm not sure there was much else to see.
Next we drove down to Victoria, this drive was on a divided highway the entire distance, and it was relatively busy. Not much to report here except consumption of fuel (the car) and chippies (us).
Arriving at Victoria, we went straight to our B&B which was absolutely lovely. An historic house which used to be located right next to Government House. Our Host was lovely and apart from a friend of hers staying, there were no other guests. So we had this large house pretty much to ourselves.
The weather was nice and calm, so we walked downtown to get some dinner and I was able to capture a few nice photos. It had been a long day with the driving and ferry, so we were happy to have comfortable beds tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment