Victoria

It was pretty dark, but I got him on camera, yeah.


From Hornby Island it was a 3 days trip to Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, where I'm taking a day off.
As it gets dark at half past 8 pm, I start early to use the daylight of the morning hours. I wanted to cycle to Nanaimo today, to have a shorter ride the next day, and stopped at a Visitors Center on the way to find out if the hostel there had vacancies. The people of the tourist information were extremly generous and I could use their internet and phone to find out what I needed (imagine this in Germany: 'Also nein, wo kaemen wir denn da hin wenn hier jeder das Internet benutzen wuerde' 'Wir sind doch keine Telefonzentrale' etc.). In this respect, it's like in Norway, a lot of these small gestures are no problem at all. Anyway, there was no vacant bed in Nanaimo's hostel. But the alternative was not bad either, I arrived at Rathtrevor Provincial Park campground in the early afternoon and got one of the 10 walk-in sites that don't require reservation. The campsite was pretty busy. Cycled 70 km and had the rest of the afternoon for drying clothes and relaxing.

The next day was horrible. I knew from my book 'Cycling the Pacific Coast' (which is a great help) that a 4 lane highway is waiting for me. Due to the very wide shoulder it was not even dangerous and I had enough space, but still, it was kind of stressful. Loud trucks and very loud motorcycles passing, the sun burning. I was glad to reach the ferry to the idyllic Salt Spring Island, where I camped at Ruckle Provincial Park. Had to climb some nasty hills on the last kilometers. The Park has 80 walk-in sites and was completely full! It didn't seem crowded though, because the area was large. Cycled 105 km.

The next day was great. After yesterdays highway and hills, a beautiful bike path led the way to Victoria, after a scenic ferry ride from Salt Spring Island back to Vancouver Island. No hills and no cars passing! Cycled relaxing 45 km and took another day to explore the city.

One more information about the picture above... well, to be honest ... I visited the local British Columbia Museum in Victoria today ... And they had great exhibits of all kinds of animals in their natural surroundings, it was very realistic. I luckily DIDN'T see a bear in real life, and I'm not really keen on seeing one that close ...



Walk-in campsite in Rathtrevor Provincial Park

Denman and Hornby Island

From the northernmost point of the trip, Powell River, I took a ferry to Vancouver Island and since then I'm heading south. I took a side trip to the beautiful Islands Denman and Hornby. I knew that they, especially Hornby, are also known as Hippie islands, as lots of artists etc. have settled there. I also heard that it is probably not a problem to ask a local if I can pitch my tent on their meadow next to some trailers. So I came to the islands, knowing that there were also campsites as a backup, but secretly I was hoping to be invited for camping by some Hippies. So I cruised across the first island, Denman, watching out for Hippies, but they were not standing on the sidewalk waving to me, as I had imagined. Actually, nobody seemed to be there, after all cars had vanished from the ferry dock. I entered some private drives, also those that had signs pointing to 'Art Galleries', 'Pottery', 'organic food' and so on, nobody there. I constantly watched out for potential sites for wild camping (no bears on these islands!), but there was not much that couldn't be seen from the road. And all these private meadows looked so great!
I tried it on the second island, Hornby (I still had the option to take the last ferry back to Denman, to the Provincial Park campsite without drinking water or showers...). Hornby was pretty much like Denman, it was really idyllic, but I could not enjoy it before having solved this accommodation problem. Not far from the ferry I discovered a private campground (of which I didn't know before). I entered, just to ask how much it is for a night. The man was friendly, but the price was 32 $ (22 Euro). He saw me hesitating and asked "Too expensive?" "Hmm, well, yeees, aehm,...." And then a miracle happened: He told me, that he couldn't give me a site for free (now I thought he would make a discount), "... but we have a backyard here ...". He showed me the backyard and told me that he lets people camp here from time to time if they are stuck on Hornby Island when they have missed the last ferry and all the campsites are full. And he offered me this place for free! Blackberries included. The place was perfect. Enough space for the tent and privacy because of the surrounding fence and bushes. He saved my day.
The rest of the afternoon I explored the island without heavy luggage. Even saw some Hippies eventually. It is beautifully quiet and idyllic.


Beach on Hornby Island


The backyard

Out of Vancouver

I left Vancouver some days ago via Stanley Park northwest of the city and headed north to see something of Canada before going south. The campsites are beautiful, primitive and horribly expensive. There are campgrounds belonging to Provincial Parks, with pit toilets and just free spaces in the wood, no shower. And bearproof garbage cans with lid. These sites are about 11 to 21 $ per party (unfortunately, one person is a party as well...). Today I'm on one of many 'private' campsites, near Comox on Vancouver Island) for only 23 $, and they have showers (of course not included). In terms of camp site prices, I can't wait to reach the US - people say, it's better there.
But regardless of these conditions, I met two friendly canadian women on the forest campsite yesterday who invited me to their fire. And that was only one of several encounters with friendly people. Not too many cyclists though.

Cycling is challenging as it goes up and down steep hills. They are not very long, but steeper than the winding roads in Norway, they just go straigt up. And down again. And up, and down, and so on. But it's ok, the occasional views through the trees are amazing.

Some points of the route so far: Vancouver - Porpoise Bay - Saltery Bay - Powell River - Comox


Saltery Bay Provincial Park Campground

Vancouver II

I continued to explore the city and to gear up. They have a really cool bikeshop here - not only one, tons of. But this one (Our Community Bikes) is special. It's rather a garagre than a shop. If there's anything wrong with your bike, you go there, can use all their tools and fix it yourself, but you get help by the people working there. My rear derailleur made some strange sounds since I attached it again, after having removed it before the flight. The woman who helped me saw my mistake immediately, explained how to do it properly, it was easily fixed, and now I know for the next time. This is a great place.

Vancouver

Yesterday, my day had 33 hours. I used this opportunity to take 2 nights after each other. The first night I had after switching planes in Ottowa, but didn't get much sleep. The second part of the night started in Vancouver, when my endogenous clock told me it was 9 am the next day. I got up together with my couchsurfing hosts the next morning and started to explore the city by bike when they had to go to work. Ira gave me directions to some outdoor equipment stores where I spent about half of the day, getting stuff and looking around.
I realized that this is my first time in an english speaking country since I can speak the language. In every other country I have been so far, speaking english is the indication of being a stranger to that place, not speaking the local language. For a moment I was hesitating when someone in a shop asked in english "can I help you?". How does he know that I'm not ... oh, of course, I'm in an english-speaking country. Then I said a short sentence, and he asked "Are you from Germany?" Damn, I have to get rid of this accent. I'll start by writing this blog in english, maybe that helps.
So far, Vancouver is great, it's a cyclers paradise. Even though there are many 4-lane roads, there's always place for cyclists, although it feels a bit strange on the really big roads. If such a road has an extra bike lane, this is indicated on the street sign. Besides that, there are bypass signs for cyclists, leading the way around the big avenues, but going the same direction, only on calmer streets. For example, a big street is called Broadway, and the signs for cyclists say "Off Broadway". Like if Toengesgasse would be called "Off Zeil", for the Frankfurters.
I'm curious about when I'll get tired again, but the sun seems to convince my european rhythm quite fast.