I’ve always said that the best way to see a city is on foot and Victoria is no exception. We purposely chose a hotel in the harbour area so that we’d be able to walk to most of the things we wanted to see. Today, I’d estimate that we walked approximately 10 km (6.2 miles)!

First, we joined the David Foster Harbour Pathway across the street from our hotel and followed it along the waterfront to Fisherman’s Wharf. 

On the way, we stopped to find a couple of geocaches. For those of you who aren’t familiar with this high-tech adult treasure hunt, you can learn all about it here.

Fisherman’s Wharf is a unique destination with working fishing vessels, pleasure boats with live-aboard residents, float homes, and commercial businesses all moored at the docks. I loved the colourful float homes. Imagine living in a house that gently rocked with the movement of the water! Richard, a lifelong prairie boy, didn’t think he’d like that, but as a displaced coastal girl, I’m pretty sure I’d love it! He did have a point when he commented that there’d be no place to park our golf cart though! 

After a delicious lunch of fish and chips on the Wharf, we continued our walk eventually ending up at beautiful Beacon Hill Park, the crown jewel of Victoria’s park system. 

We found several more geocaches while exploring the park. We even had the pleasure of meeting and visiting with another couple who were also hunting for the hidden caches. In addition to the ducks and geese that make the park their home, this gorgeous peacock was just a few feet away from one of the caches and seemed completely unconcerned about our presence. He didn’t oblige us and spread his beautiful tail though. 

These turtles sunning themselves on a log on one of the park’s ponds appeared to have about as much energy as I have after our very long walk!

Eventually, we made our way all the way through the park to the oceanside where we could look across the Juan de Fuca Strait to Washington State in the distance. 

As you can see, it was a sunny, but very windy day. Perhaps that’s best illustrated by this, one of the windsurfers we saw riding the waves. 

Before beginning the long trek back to our hotel, we stopped at the monument marking Mile 0 on the Trans Canada highway that spans the country from Victoria to St. John’s, Newfoundland. Our geocaching pals offered to take our picture there and I suggested to Richard that perhaps we should visit the other end of the highway this year too. A trip to Newfoundland has been on my mind since acquaintances of ours moved there a few months ago and started posting amazing photographs and videos on Facebook!

Nearby stands a bronze and granite monument to Canadian hero, Terry Fox, as this was where his Marathon of Hope would have ended if cancer had not returned and claimed his young life before he was able to complete his cross Canada run. 

And now it’s time to go soak my weary muscles in a hot bath, but do stay tuned. I’ll be back with more of our Victoria visit soon.