Last day in Victoria

Thursday was the warmest day of our stay, the late afternoon temperature in the garden around 20C. Chris and John took to the air again, John having an LPV approach flight-checking assignment in Penticton and Kamloops. This entailed nearly 5 hours of flying, with a stop for sandwiches at Kamloops. They climbed to 11,000ft over the snow covered mountains and used oxygen masks. Chris told us there was an awful lot of scenery on the way.

While they were away on these adventures, Jill and I walked down to Cadboro Bay, for another al fresco lunch--at Olive Olio's, popular with the locals (e.g. landscape gardeners and retired ladies groups)--and a walk on the beach. The tide was out so we could forage for oyster shells on the wet sand from which a steamy mist was rising. An old boat, that Jill guessed was being used as a house, was tied to a tree. Canoes perched in other trees, waiting for the high tide. In the bay were numerous sailing boats including a flotilla of small dinghies. The park by the beach has a playground where Caddie the long-tailed sea monster lives, children climbing in and out of its mouth and eyes and over its back.

To reach Cadboro Bay, we went through the flowery campus of UVIC and past large bungalows, their front gardens full of blooming trees and shrubs; some gardens include the rocky outcrops that are a natural feature of the landscape. Jill said she'd been warned that gardening in Victoria is a blood sport! On the way back to the house we followed a rather muddy path through a valley with a stream at its base, and tall mossy trees and ferns on its steep slopes, known as the Mystic Vale.