Smoke on the water (Vancouver - Victoria)

A flashback to my childhood and Deep Purple, although every budding guitarist knows the riff. And after a late night we had a slow commencement to the most dreaded day of all ... a transit day. We are leaving Van today for Victoria on Vancouver Island, a cool, relaxing 3 hour catamaran trip away.

The smoke haze (as we would say in Sydney) is low and heavy again today, hence today's title. When we arrived at the wharf the most obvious sight was the number of seaplanes tethered to the dock. The haze is so thick that there is little point doing a flyover of the area because there would be nothing to see. It must be having a major impact on tourist activities.

OK, it's yellow, but I've never seen anything like this ... since yesterday.

We checked our bags and had an hour to kill. A dawdle down the pier discovered a nice place to rest in the filtered sun. After almost an hour there, I was glad the sun was filtered otherwise I would have melted onto the pavement. It would be seriously hot here if the smoke haze disappeared. We settled in for an early lunch, which was cool because we didn't eat breakfast. Some calamari and chicken tenders and a bottle of a Pinot Grigio from the Okanagan area. Very pleasant. Really, this is what holidays are about. We ate, we people watched, we whiled away time. Then it was time to board.

The sea today is very calm, but we are travelling between the island and the open sea. I know it isn't always this way. The heavy smoke from the wild fires is shrouding the land and water and visibility is very poor. It is not dissimilar to a bad back-burn day in Sydney, or most days in Shijiazhuang. While I can appreciate the vista, it is disappointing, as the smoke has blurred what would have been stunning as we moved down the harbour.

Is that the Marie Celeste?

I was told to keep my eyes open on the trip out to the island because I could see whales. From nowhere in the grey gloom a fin rises out of the water and disappears quickly before I could alert Jayne. We were past the spot before it resurfaced. If it existed at all. I kept waiting for a sighting of the Marie Celeste.

A random thought, although I'm sure I've speculated on this before dear reader. No matter how wealthy you are, you can't buy youth or hair. There is a man on our ferry who is clearly in uniform, trophy wife, a navy jacket, particular shoes and a pretty average toupee. Ditch the trophy wife, hang with people your own age and spend your left over cash on a decent hair piece. It's all about priorities people and Peter Pan is a Disney story.

The awesome view from our room. The other side has harbour views.

Anyway, where was I? The trip across would be quite beautiful on an average day. We just happened to be travelling on a well below average day weather-wise. Still, with some photoshop work the pictures look OK.

Victoria was a surprise after the relative calm of Vancouver. To continue the analogy my dedicated reader, Victoria is the new kid in town. Everything about them is interesting. We thought we'd walk (with luggage) to our hotel. Despite dragging the bags behind us it was an interesting walk through a really cool, vibey area. Suddenly it was, who is Vancouver? How cool is Victoria?  Well, we will see.

Until next time