2 days onwards and we finally have our legs back.
We spent our first day back in Victoria, letting various laundry items, our bedstuff, our tent dry, and went whale watching on a small zodiac.

This was a fun, and most importantly: we were sitting. Though cold, since we spent the whole trip being strafed by cold wind. We saw a lot of sea lions from fairly close, even smelt them (slightly gone off fish), and saw a few humpback whales surface and dive again. No killer whales, though we heard a few interesting things about them: it seems they also conform to culture and traditions. You have the transient orca’s, who wander in small groups and eat sea mammals. Then you have the resident orca’s, who live together in large groups, and feed on the schools of salmon in the region. Exactly the same race, but different behaviours, habits, and even different language.

Next day, our things finally dry and clean (unlike our room, which was a sandy mess, we left a decent tip for the cleaning crew), we adjourned to Vancouver by way of bus and ferry. Again, lots of sitting (good thing).
When we arrived in Vancouver, the day was grey and pretty morose. We left our bags at the hostel, and then went wandering.

Vancouver has a homeless people problem. The winters are mild, so we’ve heard that cities more inland, like Calgary, where the mercury goes down to -40C, give their homeless tickets to Vancouver. True or not, we seemed to visit those part of town where they were in evidence, and this, combined with the bad weather, did not make a favourable first impression. Lots of aimless, crazy-looking, or just miserable people parked here and there.

We saw Gastown, which is the very seed of Vancouver, when one ‘Gassy’ Jack Deighton planted down his saloon in the middle of nowhere, and the town grew from there. Then we crossed Chinatown, and landed in Yaletown, which is one of the hip parts of town – not lacking in charm, and no homeless people here.

We ended the day by eating another high-calory comfort meal (our bodies seem to demand their weight back).

Today, beautiful day. The skies incredibly blue, the glass towers gleaming in the sunlight. We rented some bikes and took our time biking round Stanley park, one of the largest city parks in the world, along the seawall.

Then we ate one of them incredibly decadent ice creams (maple and walnut, toffee and pecan). I actually like this about North Americans – absolutely unapologetic about going mad with food. In Europe, we’re more about subtlety, balance of tastes, excess is to be disguised in exquisite ways. Here, sugar is piled on fat unashamedly, to make fairly deadly but enticing cakes and ice creams.

Anyway, I’m still wondering what I will do when An leaves back for Belgium – balancing between going to Whistler, asking around if i can hitch a ride with one of the hostel guests, or taking one of the tours to nearby natural reserves. It will be difficult to top the West Coast Trail, but that’s no reason not to try.

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