Victoria Island - Canada;s best kept secret

A fairly relaxed start, and we headed south on Interstate-5 - joy-oh-joy to ride on the American interstate - millions of lanes of boring big american cars trundling along. It was not long before we turned North and headed along country highway (still 4 lane) towards Port Angeles where we would catch a ferry to Canada.

It was starting to get chilly - I guess a sign of things to come, so whilst waiting for the ferry it was a chance to zip in our thermal liners - we've been carrying these damn things for 3 months, including through 45deg heat in the Karkum desert, so it was nice to use them at last.

Whilst waiting for the ferry we met up with Pam (from Victoria) who had been biking through America for the last month, and she gave us the low down on Vancouver Island (including the location of various bike shops in Victoria)

After a pleasant 1.5 hour cruise across the rolling swell, we were welcomed to Vancouver Island by a floar plane taking off across the bow;

Arriving at the harbour at Victoria, you quickly realise how this part of Canada relies heavily on sea transport for day-to-day living - there were boats and floar planes everywhere (some photos from the rear cargo deck of the ferry);

Once in Victoria, we headed for the local bike shop SGPower.com , where the guys went beyond the call of duty to try locate spares for the bikes (these bikes are not imported into the US or Canada, so it was a case of trying to match compatible parts from other bikes).

With parts purchased, it was now getting late, we left at 4pm for the 150 mile ride to Campbell River where we were hoping to go swimming with Salmon returning up river to lay eggs.

We stopped at half way to refuel, and to phone Campbell River to try to book our places on the snorkling trip. Finally rolling in to Campbell River in the fading light, we located a riverside lodge for the night, and settled down by the river with a cold beer - perfect!!