A hipster coffee a bit of water and a 25 mile walk later, I saw...
Quadra
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| Cinema thing |
A small village consumed by Greater Victoria with a the usual high street selection, such a vegan restaurant, Caribbean café and a cinema in what looks like a military hanger.
Cedar Hill Road
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| Church thing |
An increasingly forested road the further north you head, filled with a mixture of low lying wooden shacks and being surrounded by the colour green, everywhere! And a shit load of deer roaming around without a care in the world.
Mt Douglas Park
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| Peak thing |
Clambered up the steep side to get to the peak of this 227m mountain for a 360˚ panoramic of Victoria and neighbouring mountain ranges and coastline of Vancouver Island, very spectacular, before descending down to the beach to have a it all to myself!
Gordon Head
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| Rock thing |
Bit of a nothing residential area, but noticing on Google Maps there was a sculpture garden so I aimed for that. I arrived to someone's house and snooped around for a bit, until I arrived into the back garden and a disgruntled owner who was in “the zone” of working, turns out it was by appointment only, so I apologised and left. Oops!
Cadboro Bay
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| Beach thing |
More residential purgatory, near University of Victoria – so a student filled area and a windy beach with a few shops, a comfortable area, but not much really going on as it was summer holidays for the education system.
Uplands
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| Post thing |
Ohh, how very la-di-da! I went down Beach Drive, this road is the millionaire's mile(s) – with waterside properties of epic proportions oozing with the stench of rich people, some fantastic houses if you can see them through the big gates and thick hedges.
Oak Bay
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| Shop thing |
Over 100 years old, the sign denotes of this quaint little coastal community, that looked like it had just been plucked out of rural England, with beach hut café with machine coffee overlooking the bay, and further inland a selection of olde pubs and shops.
Gonzales
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| Chimney thing |
More millionaire's mansions clinging to the coast, but with one unusual feature, a Chinese Cemetery complete with a ceremonial alter with chimneys, used for burning incense. This site by the coast was chosen for its feng shui properties and bodies would be buried there for 7 years before being dug up and sent back to China for a proper burial, this tradition stopped in the 1930s when war put a stop to this practice and the burials stopped entirely in the 1950s
Fairfield
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| Coast thing |
Following Dallas Road to Clover Point Park, I admired my final view of mountains and ocean as the weather started to close in for the night, I wandered up Cook Street Village, a typical high street but with the busiest pizza restaurant in the history of the Earth (I imagine), not for me though as I was close to completing my full circle, so I hurried along the last few blocks not before noticing a brilliantly named terrace.
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| Sign thing |
I got back to my hostel and allowed my feet to promptly explode all over the walls, in hindsight it probably wasn't a great idea to have been wearing jeans and tennis shoes for all that, but there we, a lesson learnt for the next time I urban hike.
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