Feb 04 - Towards the end of our Canandian holiday that saw us travel through the snow covered Rockies to Banff and (a very Frozen) Lake Lousie, then down to Seattle and back to Vancouver, we took the ferry out to Vancouver Island. The ferry trip, although no doubt a mandane experience for the locals who travel back and forth every day, was one of many highlights for me...

The journey out to the island started badly... as it was near the end of our trip we were mindful of our budget, like everyone else who goes on holiday we had already spent more than we planned, and still had a 3 day stopover in Hawai to enjoy on the way back so we naturally turned our noses up at the $40 transfer fare to the ferry terminal and instead tackled the Vancouver Public Transport System...
Five hours later we had completed the hour trip, exhuasted from hauling our luggage from road to train to whatever they call those electic trams that have wheels, but at least $30 better off by my count... which we ofcourse blew on an expensive 3 course dinner out in Victoria to make up for the hardship we had suffered.

One good aspect of the delay was that the lunch time ferry ride turned into a sunset ferry trip. The picture above was taken shortly after we left Vancouver.. the islands you can see are just some of the many the fill the Strait of Georgia between the mainland and Vancouver Island.

After the sun set the ocean took on a ghostly blue haze as the dusk faded away into night. The picture above was taken as we neared the ferry terminal.

From the Island side terminal we (eventually) caught a bus to Victoria, the main city on the island. This was the third Victoria I had been to... I was born in Victoria, Australia and a couple of years before I visited Victoria in Hong Kong. According to the index in my atlas I've still got a few more to go...

Below is Victoria's parliament house, lit up opposite the towns small harbour that was full of sailboats, orca sightseeing skiffs and seaplanes.