I have my own B&B/holiday business, White Horse Walking Holidays. Our home is open to guests for the purpose of walking in beautiful Wiltshire. Take a look here.
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9th July Our good sleep was ruined when the clock alarm went off at 3.15 am. Adding insult to injury, a second alarm sounded at 6am. Some joker must have thought it a hilarious prank to play on the next unsuspecting guest. At least the weather was warm and sunny. You can guess what was the first thing I did in every hotel room from that point on. After an excellent breakfast, we went off to book a whale watching trip with Prince of Whales. There are three resident pods in the area, but one had gone off to Vancouver and two had gone missing but we hoped at least one would be back, or we'd come across a lone whale. Sadly, it was not to be and we had to content ourselves with bald eagles, an elephant seal and lots of harbour seals. But we were very disappointed, although we did enjoy the trip and found it very informative. We could have had a free trip another time, but were leaving the next morning so were unable to do so.
After a light consolation lunch, we went to Chinatown, very small, not very interesting, and then a craft market which was very busy and with much more to see. The weather was gorgeous and there were lots of people out and about, lending the place a lovely atmosphere. Next we walked up to and around Beacon Hill Park, which is very pretty with a lake and many trees and flowers.
Then back to the hotel where we were picked up for our night out at the Butchart Gardens. We'd booked a tour which included dinner on the way and the Butchart Saturday night firework show at the end of the evening. We ate outside at The Fireside Grill, which made a very good start to the evening. Then on to Butchart Gardens, which are very beautiful - but extremely busy. The crowds are rather too large for one to fully appreciate the place but apparently it is busy at any time in the summer, although even more so on firework nights - around 20,000 a time! And it's not a very big place. The fireworks were scheduled for 10pm so we had found a spot in good time. It was rather like a music festival, with people picnicking, armed with chairs and blankets, but we settled for damp grass. The fireworks were incredible, by far the best display I've ever seen, be it 'live' or on TV. Accompanied by music, the display was continuous for half an hour and was truly spectacular, both at ground level and in the sky. There were dancing shapes, moving elephants, reflections in the lake, to mention just a few. The photos below are all from the evening spent there - not too many of the flowers due to the crowds.
10th July No rogue alarms this time - we were instead kept awake by noisy revellers for a couple of hours from around 4am so I wasn't in the best of moods at having to get up at 8am. In the morning we went off to collect our rental car as we were to spend the next few days driving around part of the island. We'd planned to drive it back to the hotel top collect our luggage, but hadn't realised there was a vintage car rally, which meant many of the roads were closed. We didn't have time to stop & admire them but they were a lovely, colourful sight. Reunited with our luggage, we set off in our Mitsubishi Outlander, heading for the small resort of Tofino, 300 km away on the west coast. It was a long drive, made slow by low speed limits and traffic lights for the duration of Highway 1 and then by the road itself as we crossed from east to west. We finally arrived at the Tin Wis Resort (run by local First Nations People), a few kms south of Tofino and were rewarded by the loveliest environment we could have hoped for: a spacious and comfortable room overlooking the Pacific Ocean. We went for a walk along the beach and followed a walking trail for a while, happy to be away from the cities and crowds. We had a wonderful dinner in the hotel restaurant and an early night.
11th July Slept extremely well; it's very peaceful here. The weather wasn't too good - lots of rain - so we drove into Tofino to see what's there. It's a small town mainly servicing tourists: bear and whale watching. kayaking etc., art galleries and shops. It has a bit of an alternative, new-age feel about it, which we liked. After making a few purchases and having coffee and sharing a 'power biscuit' (very healthy, full of nuts and seeds) we drove to the Long Beach part of the Pacific Rim National Park and walked the rainforest trails. The walks are lovely, with boardwalks going through the forest. You'd get lost if you strayed from them. The rain added to the atmosphere: after all, what's a rainforest without rain?
The rain didn't let up so we returned to Tin Wis a little earlier than anticipated and had an early dinner. The food here was extremely good.
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