Day 16 was all about seeing a bit of Victoria before returning to the mainland and thanks to Trish’s cousins, Maureen and Sam, as well as Sam’s partner Catherine, we were able to make it happen.
We left from Port Renfrew with plans to stop at Sombrio and China Beaches on the way. We made it to Sombrio, but the Lords of Time forced us to leave a visit to China Beach for our next trip out west. Sombrio was a lovely sport, accessible by a rough dirt road (thankfully, Maureen let us park Katja before it got bad). We found people camping beach side, huge pieces of driftwood, an pebbly beach.
Not ours
After building a couple of Inukshuk, we resumed travel to Victoria where we met Sam and Catherine. Sam runs two great businesses in Victoria’s Cadboro Bay neighbourhood, Yew Tree Yoga and Gyro Beach Board Shop so if you’re ever in the area and looking to pick-up a yoga class or try your hand at paddle boarding, please look her up.
We all piled into Catherine’s Jeep who drove us around giving us a wonderful rundown of the neighbourhoods, history, and dynamics of provincial capital. It was all a bit whirlwind given the schedule we had to keep (entirely our fault), and we felt bad about being so rushed. Thanks to Sam and Catherine for making the time!
Next up was the ferry crossing. Like a couple of amateurs we hadn’t made reservations, but everyone was confident we would get on the 6pm sailing if we got to the terminal by 5PM. We made it there in time, but were told 8PM was more likely.
In the end, we ended up on the 7pm sailing, which promised some potential sunset photos. Not all of that potential was realized.
We checked into our AirBNB, put some laundry on and hit the hay as Day 17 was going to be packed with activity.