Day 49 Victoria, BC, Canada

We started our day before boarding the coach, taking a last stroll around Whistler.  It is a lovely town with a village feel and just like Sun Peaks in the winter months you can ski straight from your accomodation to the chairlifts to take you to the high ski slopes. But I love the look of Whistler in summer.

We are all on board the coach at 8.30 to commence our journey to Victoria.  Our first stop today is at Shannon Falls that are a whopping 335 metres high.  They are awesome and it is hard to get a good photo. I loved the gift shop with all its colourful umbrellas that sits on the pathway leading to the falls.  

It is not very far from Whistler to Victoria that is on Vancouver Island but to get to Vancouver Island we have to board a vehicular ferry and the journey takes around 1.5 hours.  We are fortunate to arrive the same time as the ferry so it does not take long for our driver to drive the bus straight onto the huge ferry.  There are hundreds of cars lined up to board the ferry and I wonder at how it can fit so many vehicles but it seemingly does.

Once the bus is parked on the ferry we all alight the bus and walk up to the seating area.  We are lucky enough to score front row seats but there is not a lot to see so no photos.  Once we reach Vancouver Island all guests are requested to return to their vehicles (in our case the bus) to await embarkation.  The process runs like a well oiled machine.

Once we are safely on Vancouver Island our driver starts our southerly journey towards Victoria.  On the other side of the Vancouver Island is the United States and we can see the snow capped mountains of Washington State.

Our lunch stop is at the lovely town of Chemainus.  Before we disembark the coach we have a lady called Betty come aboard and give us the history of the town that was once a thriving timber logging town.  Once logging ceased the town population decreased drastically so something had to be down to revive the town.  Murals were the answer and I have to say they are some of the best I have ever seen.  It has certainly revitalised the town with tourists coming from near and far and just about every coach that passes through, stops for a lunch break.  

Our APT bus looks quite at home here in Chemainus with its beautiful mural along the side of the bus.

We are now in Victoria where we are staying at the stately Delta Hotel on the banks of the harbour.  First impressions of Victoria are good and we can't wait to explore more tomorrow.  We have be on board the bus by 7.15 tomorrow so that we can enjoy breakfast in the very beautiful and famous Buchart Gardens.  Typical of APT we are given preferential treatment and will be able to enjoy the gardens before the hoards of tourists arrive.  We also have a horse drawn carriage tour in the afternoon so it will be a full day.