JULIE'S JOURNAL

You may follow along in our journey by visiting Julie's Journal page. It will include photographs, suggestions, mishap adventures and our experiences on the road and back-country trails.

If you would like to know more about the history of our adventure click here for the history page. How we planned, saved money, chose our equipment and prepared for ten months on the road.

These are some other web sites we found useful and/or have recpical links with.

Victoria, Naniamo & Vancouver, British Columbia
June 22 to June 25, & July 12, 1999

Written by Julie Hackler and Dave Fink

We decided to take the ferry from Port Angeles, WA to Vancouver Island, British Columbia. We wanted to tour what we could on the island so we took the truck without the trailer. For the two of us including the truck it cost $37 to take the ferry one way, pretty expensive. If we had taken the trailer it would have been double. The ferry ride took about 90 minutes and was quite rocky due to the weather. We were in Canada! Customs wasn't much, just make sure you have valid ID. The best advice I can give you when it comes to spending money is to use your bankcards. The best exchange rate you can get is through your Visa or MasterCard or the ATM. Your bank will automatically change the rate at the value for that day. When we were there it was about $1.41 Canadian to every $1 American.

The first place we hit was Victoria, a quaint town. It is right on the harbor and is dedicated to tourists. They have many small shops and things to see and do. The Parliament building has tours every 20 minutes or so for free. The architecture is fabulous not to mention the grounds. The roses and flowers were well maintained and looked and smelled beautifully. They added a nice touch to the dreary cloudy day we were having.

The harbor was very nice. We saw where you could take a sailboat ride for three hours for $30 each. A neat idea, just not in our price range. So we sat and watched as the passengers sailed off into the sea and waved as they set out on their voyage.

We found a great park in Victoria where we ate lunch and tool a stroll. The Beacon Hill Park is a short drive or walk from downtown. The park was beautifully landscaped, like everything else in Victoria, and had several playgrounds. The rain let up just in time for us to enjoy our picnic lunch and take a long walk along the lake.

I found some great shops along Government Street as well as Wharf Street. The shops are concentrated along the waterfront, so you don't have to do to much walking to enjoy great shopping.

From Victoria we traveled North up Route 1 toward Naniamo. We decided to call it an early evening and camp at the Bamberton Provincial Park about 30 minutes from Victoria. We paid $12 Canadian, about $8 in American, per night. It was a fantastic campsite, they supplied firewood for you for free, unlike the states where it is $5 a bundle. We were lucky that we had a small campers ax because some of the wood was in large chunks. We had a nice campfire and enjoyed a walk down to the beach. The beach did not have much sand, but the view was excellent.

The sky actually cleared when we were getting ready for bed, but when we woke up it was pouring rain. With everything soaked we tried to keep our spirits up and press on. On to Naniamo we went. The town itself is pretty small. It was nice to walk around and look in the shops, but there wasn't much to do. We stopped and got something to eat and tried to figure out what to do next. The rain wasn't due to let up all week and all our camping equipment was already soaked through.

We both wanted to see Vancouver, so we decided to hop on the ferry leaving Departure Bay in Naniamo and arriving in Horseshoe Bay, just north of Vancouver. This ferry cost us $44 Canadian and took about an hour and 45 minutes. This ferry was a lot larger than the first, complete with a dining room and a gift shop. We took a walk on the deck and watched as the islands went passing by. It was amazing to see that these small islands had homes on them with no roads connecting them to the mainland. My guess is they have to take a boat or a seaplane to get home. I could only imagine what solitude they must enjoy.

Vancouver is a great city. It was clean and beautiful. The buildings were spectacular, each one had its own unique architectural characteristic. I was very impressed with the city. We spent the day in the city just walking and driving around. We found a great park to eat dinner called Stanley Park. It was right outside the city along the inner harbor. The park is huge. It had an aquarium and a museum along with several playgrounds, picnic areas and a water park. We walked around a bit and picked a nice spot to eat close to the bay. We watched as seaplanes and a cruise ship departed as we ate hot dogs and macaroni and cheese. A local stuck up a conversation with us and told us of much more to do in Vancouver, but with little money left over and no break in the rain we decided to see what we could and head home early. When Dave's mother, Helen, arrived we wanted to hit Victoria one more time. This time we couldn't have asked for better weather. The sun was shining with not a cloud in the sky and it had to be somewhere in the 80's. We took the Port Angeles ferry again, but this time we went on foot. It only cost us $6.50 per person one way. We took a tour of the Parliament, very interesting history, enjoying all the wonderful stories and sights. The harbor was full of street entertainers playing music, drawing pictures, juggling and selling crafts. We found a great place for a beer and a bite to eat called Elephant & Castle right along Government Street. Another cool place to eat we found was right along the waterfront. Dave and I shared a margarita in a fish bowl. Their claim is "why order a second round?" It was a nice place, but I forget the name of it. It was right below the visitor's center, if that helps. I had a much better time in Victoria the second time I got to see it and would visit again if I had the chance. Canada is quite a big place, I feel lucky that I got to see just a small part.