Ireland day 0968. Thursday 23 May 2024- Victoria 1

Today’s summary	Listened to a geology webcast first thing then drove up to Tofino to have a quick look round. Then resumed the journey south to Victoria, stopping off in Cathedral Grove to look at the massive Douglas Firs. In Victoria now for a few days, out for a quick dinner shortly.
Today’s weather	Cool overcast and dry. Light southwesterly wind. Appx 14c

Today’s overview location (The green mark shows the location of our route)		Close-up location (The orange line shows where we walked) (Click button below to download GPX of today’s walk as recorded, or see interactive map at bottom with elevations corrected): Tofino

Commentary

(Summary blog only. Last full blog was Day 0368).

Before I go any further, I should report back on last night’s dinner at the Inn at Wickaninnish. It was superb. Eye-wateringly expensive but worth every penny. It’s set over the beach, just like the old one was, with perfect views of the sunset and moonrise. We loved every minute and we’re delighted that it lived up to and possibly even exceeds the standards set by its predecessor.

But moving on to today. We started the day a little differently to usual – by dialling into a series of seminars being run by the Geological Society. All very interesting stuff.

Once we had been fully geoligised and breakfasted, we drove the short way up the road to Tofino town, and had a quick look round. Again, I think we were a bit surprised (and pleased) by how little it had changed since we were last here 33 years ago. We paused for a quick lunch at Tacofino then thought we should start what I expected to be a relatively short and leisurely drive back down to Victoria in the south of the island.

But once again I had made the mistake of drastically underestimating distances in Canada – because once I checked on Google I quickly realised it would be almost five hours down the road, rather than the couple I had sort of envisaged.

Anyway, we were soon on our way, and the journey itself was straightforward, with pauses at Tim Hortons in Port Alberni for coffee and Timbits, and then again at the Cathedral Grove to admire the massive 800 year old Douglas Firs.

We eventually pitched up at our hotel in Victoria at about 8pm, just in time to unpack and head straight out again for dinner at the Milestones Grill.

We haven’t been in Victoria since 1991 and we are both very much looking forward to having a couple of days to reacquaint ourselves with this beautiful corner of Canada’s Pacific coast.

Today’s photos (click to enlarge)


Last night – in the Inn at Wickaninnish. Superb food and superb views	I asked the driver of this gigantic 30 wheel petrol tanker how he was going to reverse himself out of the incredibly tight parking space that he had got himself into. He confessed that he actually had no idea as he had never driven this truck before. Anyway, he had gone when I passed by again half an hour later, so I assumed he must have managed to extricate himself (or else driven into the sea)

Classic Canadian food	Cathedral Grove is just off the main highway between Nanaimo and Port Alberni and is definitely worth a visit. Amazing trees

These trees are unbelievably huge	Victoria harbour this evening, with the Government building lit up beyond

By the 800-year old Douglas Fir in Cathedral Grove