Victoria, Canada

Vancouver Island is a 460km stretch of land in the Pacific Ocean, along the south-west coast of Canada. We spent two nights in Victoria, a city on the southern tip of the island, easily accessible from Downtown Vancouver via a coach-ferry combination ticket. This side trip had been booked based on a recommendation from a Canadian couple that we met during a tour of the Loire Valley. They convinced us to check out the area's scenic beauty as an escape from the 'city' atmosphere of central Vancouver. This turned out to be a great tip as we loved the place. Our timing was also perfect with booking a whale watching tour - spending four hours at sea with a super-pod of killer whales.




Travelling to Vancouver Island
From our hotel in Downtown Vancouver (our adventures in the city are in a separate blog post), we caught a taxi to the Vancouver bus station (approximately 15 minute journey) and a Pacific coach delivered us to the Tsawwassen Ferry terminal. As this was the same vehicle that would transport us on the island side to Victoria, we boarded the ferry whilst still on board the coach. The driver gave us instructions to ensure that we returned to the correct coach and seat when the ferry docked at Vancouver Island.

Ferry transport to Vancouver Island

Catching some fresh air on the open deck

Each ferry accommodates a large number of vehicles and passengers for the 1 hour 35 minute sailing to Swartz Bay on Vancouver Island. Facilities on-board include a cafe, open deck and during the summer months a wildlife ranger is employed to give short presentations and offer an experienced eye at spotting whales and dolphins.

Our wildlife ranger explaining to us about sea otters

Despite the pep-talk about the abundance of local wildlife, we didn't manage to spot any creatures during the sailing journey through the narrow shipping channels.

Tight squeeze in betwen the smaller islands

For visitors seeking a faster commute, another transport option is to visit Vancouver Island by sea-plane. Although more expensive than the ferry, the scenic views of the surrounding area offered from being high in the sky may make the cost worthwhile.

Sea-plane transport option

Victoria, Vancouver Island

The expansiveness of the British Empire and the longevity of Queen Victoria's reign, have resulted in many geographic points on the globe being named 'Victoria' like our home state in Australia. Victoria in British Columbia is the capital with many historic buildings, horse drawn carriages and is also known as the 'Garden City' - coincidentally Victorians in Australia will remember the green number-plate tag line of 'Victoria-Garden State' up to the early 1990's.

Horse-drawn carriage available for a tour

After exiting the ferry at Swartz Bay, our bus drove a further 40 minutes to the terminal in central Victoria, a short 10 minute walk to our hotel - Harbour Towers. Our location was perfect for exploring the town - just a few streets away from the Inner Harbour and the Visitor's (Tourist Information) Center.

Downtown Victoria
Our first activity in Victoria was to explore the local area and find something to eat. A quick meal at the hot-dog diner 'Dog-Gone-It' near Wharf Street solved the lunch cravings. We walked along the Inner Harbour pathway, passing by the iconic Fairmont Empress hotel (famous for its afternoon tea) and the British Columbia Parliament Buildings.

Fairmont Empress Hotel

British Columbia Parliament Building

Memorial fountain on Menzies Street

Harbour Ferry
One relaxed option for exploring the harbour and learning about local history is to buy a ticket on a habour ferry tour. The small boats can accommodate about a dozen people but we were the only guests and it ended up being a private tour. Our captain took us under the Johnson St Bridge into the Upper Harbour where we spotted a seal before the famous Selkirk Trestle - a wooden bridge that is part of the Galloping Goose (recreational) Trail that follows a historic railway line.

The little harbour ferry

Johnson St Bridge

CANOE Brewpub Marina and Restaurant
The same company offers pub crawls by ferry - providing vouchers and transport to the local breweries. As a result, our captain was very knowledgeable about where we could have an afternoon snack with some local beer. The CANOE Brewpub has its own marina, making it a very convenient drop off point to end our tour. As it was a nice day we relaxed in the beer garden, ate pita bread with hummus and a bowl of olives, all washed own with handcrafted beer.

Historic Chinatown
The discovery of gold in the 1850's led to a surge in immigration to British Columbia from the Chinese miners that were working in California and from China directly. This led to the development of the second oldest Chinatown in North America. Some of the historic buildings from that era have been preserved and were in better condition than the Chinatown we had visited in Vancouver.

Main gates into Chinatown

Former merchant shop

Famous Fan Tan Alley, originally home to gambling and opium dens

The narrow width of Fan Tan Alley

Eating seafood was on Mei's mind when we passed by many Chinese restaurants with their displays of live lobsters and crabs. The dungeness crab is native to the west coast of North America and has fat legs with sweet meat. A steamed whole crab with ginger and scallions at the Don Mee Seafood Restaurant made a (messy) but tasty dinner.

Our lovely crab dinner

Victoria at Night
As it was Labor Day weekend, a music concert was in full swing in the Inner Harbour area. Some patrons had purchased tickets to be up-close to the artists. Other tourists (like us) had stumbled upon the event and made use of the nearby grassy hill to enjoy the musical atmosphere. A small number of street food vans had also taken residence in the parking-lot. Olie was excited to find the 'Mama Rosie's Food Truck with Filipino Cuisine - sadly closed for the night.

As the sun sets late in the summertime, we had a few hours of beautiful dusk seeing the lights turning on across the buildings and boats in the harbour as we walked our way back to the hotel.

Fisherman's Wharf
Fisherman's Wharf is a marine area with seafood restaurants, floating village and a number of resident harbour seals that act playful in front of tourists in the hope that someone will purchase a plate full of fish from the local shop so they can have a meal.

Curious and cute harbour seal

Floating village
The floating village consists of 33 float-homes that form a small community at Fisherman's wharf. When we arrived at the wharf, it was quite early in the morning and we tried to be as quiet as possible walking around the homes, taking pictures and hopefully not disturbing the residents.

All about the Orcas

The actual reason behind our visit to Fisherman's Wharf in the early hours of the morning was to board the boat for our killer whale (orca) watching tour. The waters bordering between Canada and the United States - Strait of Juan de Fuca, is home to large pods of resident whales, and also some smaller communities of other whales that pass through seasonally.

Whale watching is a popular tourist attraction in Victoria and there are many different providers offering competitive rates and 100% guaranteed sightings (or your money back). There are tours on different types of boats and many different brochures can be picked up from the Tourist Information Center. 

Eagle Wing Whale Tours
We chose Eagle Wing Whale Tours based on the recommendation from the wildlife ranger on board the ferry from Vancouver. She mentioned that she had recently been on a tour and had enjoyed the experience. Eagle Wing Whale Tours have their office in the center of Fishermen's Wharf, just a short walk away from our hotel.

Pre-tour Briefing
Before the tour, we were suited up with waterproof jackets, trousers, gloves and a beanie. The jacket had reflectors on in case we were to fall overboard and we needed the warm clothing due to the chill factor of being on the boat for almost four hours.

All rugged up

The captain gave us a safety briefing and used a map of the local area to point out some of the possible tour routes based on previous day's sightings and reports from local fishermen. Eagle Wing's itinerary was flexible - we would stay out longer and travel further if this meant that we would increase the possibility of a sighting.

Following the whale sightings

The Competition

As it was a beautiful clear day with calm seas, there were many whale watching tours out on the water. As the boats were co-operating with each other, as soon as one was radioed with information about a sighting, the other boats would soon create a mini flotilla as they followed the lead boat.

Seals and Sea-Lions
After racing around after a pair of transient killer whales (our first sighting of the day), the captain took us towards a lighthouse on a rocky island that was home to a colony of seals and sea-lions. The residents were making lots of noise as they tried to prove who was boss.

Lighthouse on the seal rocks

Waiting for whales
After an hour had passed, we were starting to get anxious that the short sighting was going to be the only highlight of the day. Whale watching is full of waiting and scanning the horizon for anything that moves. We saw a number of harbour seals in the water and as they are prey for the orcas, we hoped that a pod was nearby.

Waiting for the whales

A beautiful day with the sea reflecting the sky

Whales arrive

As the whale sightings slowly increased, the captain and his second in charge - a wildlife photographer soon became excited as they recognized many of the individual whales based on their tail markings and other scars. The resident killer whales had been studied for many years by scientists and family groupings and individual characteristics were well known in the whale watching community.

Lots of whale photos below

The close-up shots when the whales went under the boat and emerged on the other side

Photo of the humpback whale sighting

We later found out at the end of the tour that we had been privileged enough to experience a 'super-pod' of whales from different resident killer whale groups coming together to socialise - an extremely rare occasion. The captain declared the day to be the best of the season and in turn we were extremely happy that we had been on board to witness it.

Extremely happy at the end of the tour

The Bard and Banker
After such an amazing tour, we headed for a historic pub for a beer and to review all the photos we had taken. The Bard and Banker has a colonial era feel with ornate interior decorations.

Eating at the end of the day
Lunch was eaten at Shima Sushi - a restaurant in the quieter areas of Downtown Victoria. We originally thought that it was closed for lunch, but then saw some movement in the back window. We ate our usual Japanese restaurant favourites - sashimi, grilled squid and tempura soft shell crab.

Sashimi

Grilled whole squid

Soft-shell crab

Dinner was at the nearby Harbour House Restaurant, one that offered a cheap deal on steak and lobster that we couldn't resist. We ate baked oysters, french onion soup and the surf and turf main course - a perfect ending to our short stay in the city of Victoria.

Baked oysters

French onion soup

Steak and lobster

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