Seaplanes, coaches, ferries

Monday 26th

It's been about 4 days since my last post so I have a lot to catch up on..here's Monday's....

Today was the first of my organised trips... My destination.... Victoria over on Vancouver Island. 

My journey there was via seaplane, this was a great experience,  taking off in the harbour and flying out over the city offered some awesome views. The inflight safety video demo being shown on the pilots iPad whilst he was navigating out the dock was a little surreal.

On my way to the port for my flight and saw the most bizarre looking bird... From a distance I thought 'My god,  that seagull has a beard!' as I got closer I realised it actually had a mouthful of starfish! This bird clearly wasn't letting go but it was quite clear it was impossible to swallow!

Just a short 35 min trip, (nothing compared to the arduous 4 hour return trip by coach and ferry!) and we came to 'land' in Victoria harbour. What I didn't realise was quite how large Vancouver Island actually is! It's the largest Pacific island east of New Zealand and Victoria is the capital of British Colombia.

It's an odd place with the feel of a small retirement village! Considering it's a capital it feels tiny in comparison to Vancouver itself.

Anyway,  once I arrived and found my bearings I walked around for a bit and realised how quiet and small the place is. Some shops where closed and others just looked a bit tired.  Those that were open and busiest where the tourist tat shops! As the morning progressed life seemed to appear but still plodding along at a leisurely pace.  I lunched at a place on the dock called The Flying Otter. It had been recommended to me as a good place for fish and chips.  Deep fried halibut was divine and hit the spot!

In the afternoon I took the opportunity to go on a Whale watching cruise.  I was really lucky and was on a boat with only 11 others which meant we had plenty of room to move without getting in anyone's way.

We headed way out into the gulf in search of Orcas (or killer whales as we commonly know them)  there are quite a few resident ones in the gulf but the sightings that day were of a male and female transient orca.  Our captain kept speeding up and changing course as news of the sightings changed until eventually we found them... Moving along the coast close to their main foods source... Seals

They kept appearing above the water, their dorsal fins breaking the water and rising up.  They were so quick that by the time you'd found them through the view finder on the camera, they'd gone again! I think I've managed to get a few shots though.  Just as we were settling and waiting for them,  the boat suddenly flipped around,  engine full and we shot off leaving the whales and all the other tour boats behind.  Our guide told us we'd just had reports of a humpback in the area so we were off to find it,  passing on the way a whole mass of smelly noisy sealions! We approached the area along with one other boat,  just as the humpback appeared! We heard it first as it blew out through its blowhole! It kept appearing and diving and then suddenly rose higher out the water for a deep dive, flipping it's tail fins out the water.  It was amazing to see business the orcas,  was so quick! Hopefully the few pics I did get will be good!

Back on land and it was time to make my way back to Vancouver, a long coach journey with 1.5hr ferry sailing.  I wish now I'd paid the extra to go both ways via seaplane!