After a very full and fascinating day of exploring Sointula and Alert Bay, the next morning we had to leave Port McNeill and head south to our next destination, Victoria. It was a pleasant drive of about 450 km. (5 to 6 hours) including stops for a picnic lunch and in Chemainus to see some of their famous murals. Our German visitors kept commenting on how many trees there are, especially in the northern portion of Vancouver Island with its lesser population. As we approach the south, the populations increase, with ever more towns and farms.

The town of Chemainus is famous for its murals, and this one is my favourite.

The venerable old Empress Hotel by the Inner Harbour

We checked into a nice hotel (not the above) in downtown Victoria near the Parliament Buildings and the Inner Harbour, a unique and pleasant experience for my husband and I, for we’ve always stayed, quite happily too, with family or friends when here. We had wonderful visits with everyone and our German visitors were given the grand tour by a niece and her husband.

On Cordova Bay, a temporary ‘beach hut’ installation with all manner of humourous found objects, apparantly made every summer by the family living above it.

Our last afternoon was spent celebrating daughter Elisa‘s birthday with family and friends at their home by a charming little lake with lily pads.

Goodbyes, then one more ferry ride back home to Vancouver! The next day our German visitors headed for the airport to catch a flight to the US for the next leg of their holiday.

So, that concludes the saga of our island hopping holiday. Total ferry trips: eight in six days!

Should you have missed some of the island hopping posts, here they all are in their confusion (along with ferry counts, heh):

Day 1 – ferry Vancouver to Nanaimo, drive to Campbell River

Day 2 morning, and more – ferry to Quadra Island, ferry back, then drive to Port McNeill

Day 3 morning – ferry from Port McNeill to Sointula on Malcolm Island, with more about Sointula, then ferry back

Day 3 afternoon – ferry to Alert Bay on Cormorant Island with several posts:
more Alert Bay,
colourful Alert Bay,
Alert Bay history,
the residential school and
the seaside
then the ferry back to Port McNeill.

And lastly this post of course as
Day 4 – drive to Victoria
Day 5 – in Victoria
Day 6 – ferry from Victoria to Vancouver

As I mentioned in my previous post, husband’s cousin Walter and his wife Elisabeth from Munich were with us for a visit for about ten days. They had first driven from Calgary over the Rockies to Vancouver, a very popular trip for European visitors. In Vancouver, we showed them around for a few days, then we headed out for an island hopping tour focusing mostly on the northern part of Vancouver Island and some smaller islands east of them, areas that we ourselves had not explored before.

Day One had us on the morning ferry from Horsehoe Bay to Nanaimo. We had dense fog all morning until about Buckley Bay where we stopped for refueling. This was a familiar spot where we have many times taken the two little ferries to Hornby Island. It was the only day, really a half day, on this journey that the sun did not shine which was quite incredible. We had only once, over 40 years ago, driven north of this point, in a rush to catch the overnight ferry to the northern port of Prince Rupert on our way home to Fort St. John where we lived at the time.

Our destination for the night was the town of Campbell River. We had heard how much it is thriving, attracting young families to jobs and affordable homes, and it certainly is an attractive, clean and pretty town. Our bed & breakfast place is in a nice quiet neighbourhood with lovely gardens. Inside we were astounded by the amazing art collection in the home, mostly prints, some paintings, sculpture and pottery, mostly by German artists. Elisabeth is very knowledgeable about art and was most surprised to learn that the owners, also German, had an art gallery in Munich before they came to Canada. Too bad they had to be away, leaving a friend to take care of us. (Sorry no photos since they weren’t there to be asked permission.)

We had a lovely dinner by the pier where we noted numerous fishing ships, mostly owned by the First Nations. Breakfast next morning was a visual and gastronomic feast! Husband and I have said we’ll be back!

Day Two was a highlight… report coming soon.

As some readers may have suspected, we’ve been away on a week’s getaway to a couple of islands. The day after our disastrous federal election, we took a ferry from Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island, then a small ferry over to nearby Gabriola, one of the Gulf Islands. This was our first visit to this island, one that has been on my wish list for some time because of its noted rock formations and petroglyphs. We stayed in a wonderful bed and breakfast for three nights and were lucky with perfect weather in which to explore and take numerous photos.

I’ll write more later, including about the rest of our trip on Vancouver Island itself. We made it home Monday evening, happy and pleasantly tired. Amazing how much there is back home to catch up on, I could just turn around and go back to the lazy life on ‘island time’. With hundreds of photos to still sort to post here and many blogs to catch up on, I will just leave a couple of scenic shots here to say I’m home.