Day 3: Via Butchard Gardens to Victoria

14.7.24

Day 2: Off to Victoria!

After our first breakfast outside the RV by the sea, we drive to Butchart Gardens. We are among the first visitors this morning. The RV/bus parking lot is almost empty. Great, let's go! The toilet block at the entrance is a real eye-catcher with its greenery and flower decorations. We follow the circular path through the sea of flowers of the Sunken Gardens with its water lily pads and Ross Fountain, then to the open-air stage, past more fountains, through the rose garden into the Japanese Garden, which ends at the Butchart Cove lookout point. Here you have a beautiful view of the bay before passing the Star Pond through the Italian Garden back to the entrance/exit. We spend about 2 hours here, stop by the souvenir shop again and then drive on towards the coast. The park has now filled up quite a bit and the sometimes narrow paths are clogged with selfie tourists and visitors. It's a good thing we were here so early. On the way to the coast we make a stop at Walmart. Unfortunately, we don't find Walmart straight away and get lost - much to my husband's delight 😵‍💫🙈 - on a super narrow parking deck with a height restriction. We carefully do our rounds and drive back down, everything is full and we can't park in half of the spaces because of the clearance height 😵‍💫. We drive around the mall once. According to Google Maps, a Walmart Supercenter is hidden here.... But where???? After driving around the outside once, we park across the street at Savo-on-Foods in the parking lot and don't even walk over to the mall. In fact, the entrance to Walmart is hidden in a plaza in the basement. OK, this is the first Walmart WITHOUT a parking lot. There is only one parking garage - we can't get in with an RV. We quickly walk through - here too, all the small gas grills are sold out 🙈 - buy some drinks and then eat quesadillas from the Mexican food truck. Then we continue to the coast in Beacon Hill Park. We walk to the Totem Poles (huge thing), then up to the Beacon Hill Lookout, where the Canadian flag is hoisted. We continue a bit along the sea and back, taking a quick photo of the Mile 0 memorial. On the way to the camper we see three deer (Rike with 2 fawns) on the other side of the road in the park, which decide several times to cross the main road.... Luckily the cars stop and let the deer pass. We continue by camper across Victoria along the waterfront to the other side to our campground for the next 2 nights, the Salish Seaside RV Park. Cool location right by the sea. The first CG with a clubhouse 😅, super clean and large showers and constant action in the air - the seaplanes take off and land like on an assembly line - and we seem to be in the flight path 😂

Unfortunately, I didn't manage to get an oceanfront site when I booked 8 months ago (!), but from the clubhouse balcony you have a beautiful view of the harbor, which we enjoy before we take a shower and end the evening with burgers from the pan (Fire Ban) and a glass of wine. Before we go to sleep, my husband and I walk a few streets further to McLoughlin Point and watch the ferry to Port Angeles pass by and the cruise ship "Carnival Spirit" anchor behind it. The cruise tourists will now be making Victoria unsafe for 3 hours in the evening and, according to the timetable, will set off at midnight to go to Seattle, where their Alaska cruise ends. Well then...

For statistics:

Campground: Salish Seaside RV Resort & Marina

89,50 €; Site "Raven 30" (no waterview site)

Distance travelled: 37 km

Walked: 13 km

Weather: sunny, 21 degrees