Friday June 19, 2015

I woke up really early this morning and could not get back to sleep. I got up and posted the remainder of the U.S. posts and by that time I was able to have a shower and get ready for the ride.

Alan had breakfast ready for us, and we were able to leave by 8:30. We were planning to get the 9:50 ferry from Brentwood Bay to Mill Bay and then follow the coastal Rotary Route. Alan cycled with us all the way to Brentwood, we headed down the hill to the ferry and Alan went to his barbers in Brentwood.

It was a lovely crossing that took about 25 minutes and crossed Saanich Inlet.

We stopped at the Mill Bay Shopping Centre, it was a very nice little downtown area with banks, restaurants, grocery store, clothing shops, coffee shops and a library.

We were on the TransCanada briefly before taking the “Rotary route”. In the instructions, it said there would be a three stage hill lasting for about a kilometer! It was not a hard hill to climb. Although today\’s total ascents were 729 metres, the descents were 740 meters – more down than ups!

It was more of a rural ride than a coastal ride, very nice and we did see some wildlife. As we came off the ferry we saw about four bald eagles soaring above the ferry terminal. We also saw two deer today. As we were coming down a hill I spotted what I thought was a wooden cut-out of a deer. It was a real deer, I coasted to a stop, just in case my brakes started squeaking and scared it away.

We cycled through a very pretty coastal town called Cowichan Bay. It had an artisan cheese shop and a bakery.

I suggested to Ralf that we buy some local cheese and some bread and have a picnic, instead of having the usual ready made sandwiches from a grocery store. I popped into the artisan cheese shop and came out empty handed. A small wheel of Brie was $17.00 and when I asked about the local goats cheese it was $7.00 per 100 grams. A bit over our budget. I didn’t dare go into the bread shop!

So we carried on and kept going. We missed our lunch stop again and we had to resort to stale bread and nutella, after I had another “I’m starving dickey fit again”.

We passed the second oldest lawn tennis club in the world – Wimbledon is the oldest! I wouldn’t want to be playing on centre court here – look where the tree is positioned.

This old church, which has been abandoned was known as the Butter church, because it was built with the proceeds from the sale of butter.

Our final Town that we passed was Crofton, where we picked up a sandwich and supplies for dinner – back to Menu # 1 – pasta, pesto and tuna.

Ralf spotted the second deer opposite one of the largest pulp and paper mills in BC.  Well spotted.

Crofton’s claim to fame is the huge pulp and paper mill – it is one of the largest mills in British Columbia.

We came down the hill to the Eagles Nest camp site. There wasn’t anyone at the office, just a phone number to call. We haven’t sourced a sim card yet, so we couldn’t phone. We asked a fella who looked as if he had been here for a while. He told us to pick a spot and he would let the manager know we were here.

We checked out the spots by the river, but most of them were in the shade and the others were rocky. We discovered later that the rocky spots are due to them being part of the riverbed. That area floods every winter. We opted to pick a spot closer to the shower facilities and the kids play area, it is a combination of grass and sand (the sand is from the river as well). We figured all the little rug-rats would be in bed early and wouldn’t disturb us.

The owner came around about 6:00 to collect $10.00 for the pitch. Good price, the shower is $1.00 for 5 minutes.

After I had written the blog, we ate dinner and had to use the bug spray.  I have been carrying it around since Florida and this is only the second time we have needed it!

Dinner was pasta and pesto followed by \”Gourmet\” liquorice allsorts.  Ed and Barb had given us a packet of Allsorts when we were in Seattle.  I never knew Bassets Allsorts were Gourmet.