by island hopping, days 4-6
After a very full and fascinating day of exploring Sointula and Alert Bay, the next morning we had to leave Port McNeill and head south to our next destination, Victoria. It was a pleasant drive of about 450 km. (5 to 6 hours) including stops for a picnic lunch and in Chemainus to see some of their famous murals. Our German visitors kept commenting on how many trees there are, especially in the northern portion of Vancouver Island with its lesser population. As we approach the south, the populations increase, with ever more towns and farms.
The town of Chemainus is famous for its murals, and this one is my favourite.
The venerable old Empress Hotel by the Inner Harbour
We checked into a nice hotel (not the above) in downtown Victoria near the Parliament Buildings and the Inner Harbour, a unique and pleasant experience for my husband and I, for we’ve always stayed, quite happily too, with family or friends when here. We had wonderful visits with everyone and our German visitors were given the grand tour by a niece and her husband.
On Cordova Bay, a temporary ‘beach hut’ installation with all manner of humourous found objects, apparantly made every summer by the family living above it.
Our last afternoon was spent celebrating daughter Elisa‘s birthday with family and friends at their home by a charming little lake with lily pads.
Goodbyes, then one more ferry ride back home to Vancouver! The next day our German visitors headed for the airport to catch a flight to the US for the next leg of their holiday.
So, that concludes the saga of our island hopping holiday. Total ferry trips: eight in six days!
Should you have missed some of the island hopping posts, here they all are in their confusion (along with ferry counts, heh):
Day 1 – ferry Vancouver to Nanaimo, drive to Campbell River
Day 2 morning, and more – ferry to Quadra Island, ferry back, then drive to Port McNeill
Day 3 morning – ferry from Port McNeill to Sointula on Malcolm Island, with more about Sointula, then ferry back
Day 3 afternoon – ferry to Alert Bay on Cormorant Island with several posts:
more Alert Bay,
colourful Alert Bay,
Alert Bay history,
the residential school and
the seaside
then the ferry back to Port McNeill.
And lastly this post of course as
Day 4 – drive to Victoria
Day 5 – in Victoria
Day 6 – ferry from Victoria to Vancouver
November 8, 2013 in Canada and BC, Travel by Marja-Leena
It appears I’m going to be the first to leave a comment this time too (^^) – not too many new posts that show up on my rss feed most evenings but yours are always so very welcome.
I love the mural and the sculpture (Portland has many similar) and all the other pictures too. It’s nice to know they haven’t replaced the Empress Hotel with something more modern. I went there for high tea with a friend long ago.
After all those ferry rides did your sea legs give you trouble on land?
Susan, I am always happy to see your comments. It’s fun to know that you are familiar with some of the places I mention. It’s been years since I went inside the Empress… hmm, was high tea in the Bengal Room?
The ferry rides were all wonderful with the good weather, only fog on the first crossing to Nanaimo. I especially enjoyed the smaller ferries on the short crossings to Quadra, Malcolm and Cormorant Islands. No problems with sea legs!
I must confess that some of these posts have been exhausting work and I’m so glad I finally finished them, weeks after getting home! I really wanted to do them for the trip was so very meaningful in many ways.
Marja-Leena
I’m very happy to know that there is still original inhabitation in the islands. In general, it’s fine that they ARE inhabited. Here in Vaasa most of the fishermen have stopped, salmon run is weaker and weaker, because of overfishing around Åland and Selkämeri – and of course because the rivers have been built with those confounded power dams.
But of course this is more North too. And the population is so much smaller.
So: you have lived around Vancouver for 40 years now, or did I understood it right? When you were younger, were the people going island hopping then as well and there was all these ferries?
I see that your homeland trip was really fine. The photo’s are great. You live in a very beautiful place. I’m happy that you managed to tell the tale to us!
One note, that doesn’t have to do with the recent postings: I have your blog-address in my computer, but it seems to only say: RSS-feed, the titles don’t run like in other WordPress blogs. So this is a hint to your daughter: is some lock on in the machine room? It doesn’t matter very much in precise, because I click your blog regularly, but it might catch an eye better, if I saw that you’ve written more.
As you have. It did feel like I was traveling part of the way with you!
Ripsa, you ask some excellent questions. I’m not an expert here, mind, but the islands we visited certainly are inhabited by both First Nations and whites. There may be some that are not inhabited, or barely so in the further wilds of the northern coast. Haida Gwaii is a well-known large group of islands in the north, west of Prince Rupert which is managed by the natives and is a popular tourist destination. Many of the Gulf Islands in the south and central areas also have summer homes for city folk and wealthy foreigners, plus docks for sailing vessels.
Fishing is one of the major sources of income for the natives along the coast, I believe, but they too are struggling because of fewer fish, especially salmon. This year the sockeye salmon fisheries were closed to allow them to lay their eggs and rebuild future stocks. Fish farming is also another source of employment for them, but that is now controversial because of diseases from the farmed fish spreading to the wild ones. (I think we’ve discussed this before?)
Yes, forty years here! We lived in northeast BC for the first four years of our marriage because of jobs. Then a job change brought us here.
Regarding island hopping forty years ago, I had to do some research! Previous to 1960, there were some private services to some islands, until in 1960 the province decided to start our own ferry company called BC Ferries. The first time I was on a ferry to Vancouver island was in 1964 on a holiday with my parents and an aunt visiting from Finland. There was good ferry service between the mainland and Vancouver Island starting in 1960 but it took a while for services to the more distant islands. If interested you may read about that history at Wikipedia.
About the RSS feed, Erika did fix the setting, but it seems blogspot users are still having problems. If you click on my RSS feed link, you should get this message:
Due to this site switching to WordPress, the RSS feed has changed. Please update your RSS readers and Blogspot widgets to: http://www.marja-leena-rathje.info/feed/.
It might help to first delete the one you currently have, then resubscribe. Please email me if you still have problems.
Oh my, that shot of the charming birthday lake brings Monet to mind! How is the light there? It seems brilliant in the photos, but how is it in person?
The light was gorgeous, sunny and very warm on that special day! We were lucky to have excellent weather during the whole holiday. The day after our German visitors left, we had rain.