Go West Young Man

Well, I think this is as far west as I'm going to make it on this trip. Today we made it all the way to Tofino, BC, situated on the west coast of Vancouver Island on the tiny Esowista Peninsula. However, before we got there we had another full day of driving and sight seeing.

We got all the way down to Victoria and took in the sights. I was able to see the Legislature of British Columbia, which means that when we go back through Edmonton I'll have seen all the province houses with the exception of Newfoundland.

They're laws are extra removed from reality here. It's so far away from everything.

The grounds were really nice too, as with the others there were lots of statues and other things. However, with this one they had a few totem poles to represent the coastal native heritage of the Province. This one was particularly interesting.

Apparently the coastal native peoples were a fan of multiple piggy backing.

On the way back, running the tourist shop gauntlet I discovered that Victoria is one of those cities with statues than run along a theme. In this case it was leaping whales. They had a bunch of statues around town with these jumping cephalopods in a variety of designs. This one was a mosaic of stained glass and was particularly neat.

This was right before it leaped to freedom into the harbour.

Once we got out of the downtown core we made our way over to Beacon Hill, the location of Mile 0 of the Trans-Canada Highway and a nice park in it's own right. Including lots of really huge trees that BC is famous for, and a fountain/pond that was swarmed with ducks and geese, and even a petting zoo! The zoo was meant for children but it didn't mean we couldn't go and enjoy seeing the farm animals, and as with the Toronto Zoo, there were peacocks everywhere, being quite noisy.

The star(s) for the petting zoo were the two alpaca's, Donny and Osmond. They were pretty tame, but they made lots of noise.

They didn't break out into any duets, disappointingly

Finally, we made it over to the Mile Zero marker. It was a very subdued place, just a park with a nice sign. I think it was a good technical end to our roadtrip. We drove from Sydney, NS the start of the Trans-Canada on the mainland, and made our way across the country, faithfully following Highway 1 all the way into British Columbia until we got down to Victoria, the other end of the highway. Travelling over 7,700km of national highway that in points is a 3 lane divided highway, but other times is a 1 lane (each) undivided highway. While the country lacks a comprehensive national highway plan (highway construction is responsibility of the provinces) I think the Trans-Canada does the trick.

This is the end, my only friend, the end.

While Mile 0 Was the technical end of the trip, as I said we made the trek over to Tofino. If you've never made the trip, the Highway 4 you take across the Island is basically a windy ribbon of asphalt that hugs a mountain on one side and a basin of water on the other. Rocketing up elevation and back down again, and we did this all during dusk. It was fun for a while, then we were just hoping to make it into Tofino before we went careening off the road. Well we made it safe and sound, and after some hiking and beach combing tomorrow we will start heading in a new direction: East!

This was when the road was good, it got much, much worse.

We'll be back soon everyone! (At least for Rothesay and Toronto Peoples)