-- From Vancouver to Lake Cowichan
The road tracklog
from Vancouver to Lake Cowichan
from 2011/05/04 to 2011/05/08
Border crossing
USA-Canada
Look at the border crossing
I unloaded in the early afternoon in Vancouver where I took the usual steps at the entry a new country. The HF antenna base on vehicle roof was broken. I found on Internet the address of ICOM in Seattle where I went while leaving for the border. Alas it did not sell to the private one. The person met gave me two dealer addresses in Vancouver from which one of it did not exist any more and the other was closed at 3 p.m., to follow. At the end of the day I was heading to stay in the adjacent street at Walmart where I went shopping.
The following day was a long day to solve the replacement of the HF antenna. As of 8 am I was at Burnaby Radio to buy a new antenna ICOM AH-2B. I knew that ICOM-Canada had one and only one. My unconscious says to me to go to seek it myself at ICOM. Very obligingly Burnaby Radio published the map and the way where I arrived without difficulty. I controlled the parts, but the antenna bracket did not correspond to my equipment. The person met looked at my installation and told me that it was not necessary to change the antenna but only the bracket and he gave me the address of a shop in Richmond with the map and the way where I always arrived without difficulty. I took a bracket and went up on the roof of my truck to check the adequacy of the new part. Alas it was not good. After several attempt with other models the conclusion was essential I will not find an identical bracket. I thus took a model close to the old one. I returned to Burnaby to cancel my payment of antenna AH-2B by credit card and to ask for an address of a workshop to do the work of adaptation. The colleague of the owner of the shop accompanied me to a truck workshop where the work of fixing of the new part was carried out. The day finished about 6 pm and 122km in Vancouver and its suburbs. Consequently I went back to the adjacent street to Walmart. Tomorrow will be another day.
Leaving Vancouver I took a ferry at 9:00 am in Tsawwassen for the Vancouver Island. The way lasted approximately 90 minutes. In Sidney I made an abundant harvest of booklets in Visitor Center, the person met spoke French. Then I lunched downtown in Fish'n Chips pointing out to me my first Fish'n Chips in Cornwall years ago. We had taken a Britanny Ferry in St Malo for the festivals of end of the year… Sidney is a village on seashore sprinkled by a cold drizzle. A small museum exhibits old-fashioned things of which a newspaper cutting of the Great War with a photograph of General Foch. I bivouacked on a carpark.
Ferry to Vancouver Island
on the move
06/05/2011
Museum
Sidney
06/05/2011
General Foch
Sidney
06/05/2011
Waterfront
Sidney
06/05/2011
At 30 km southwards away from Sidney, Victoria, the capital of British Columbia, is as North America's most English city, dixit Lonely Planet. Admittedly buildings in the 19th century are very characteristic of the Victorian style. Of course on the port the statue of the Captain James Cook is in majesty. From Australia I do not count any more the number of statues set up in the honor of the famous navigator without whom British colonies would certainly not exist.
Who is he?
Capt James Cook
Victoria
07/05/2011
Totem Pole
Victoria
07/05/2011
The Royal BC Museum has as a subtitle: “Where the past lives” the visit of the museum starts on the second floor with a temporary exhibit devoted to local glory, Emily Carr, painter and writer of world fame. Then the permanent rooms present natural history in the BC since the origin of times: “Living Land, Living Sea”.
Emily Carr
Victoria
07/05/2011
Woolly Mammoth
Victoria
07/05/2011
The third floor is dedicated to the First Nations with a remarkable exphibit of masks. Modern times are shown with much humor, British. Many dioramas recall the life of the first settlers in the 19th century.
Mask
Victoria
07/05/2011
Masks
Victoria
07/05/2011
Devil's Mask
Victoria
07/05/2011
Miners
Victoria
07/05/2011
As the majority of the cities on the West coast, Victoria has a China Town with an inevitable monumental entrance gate. I left the city in the afternoon to find a bivouac at the seaside towards Sooke on a peninsula where a penitentiary is located! I hope to spend a peaceful night.
China Town
Victoria
07/05/2011
China Town
Victoria
07/05/2011
The night was peaceful at Weir Beach. Hwy 14 curves in rolling hills in an alpine landscape sparse by wood cuts. At Sooke the only attraction mentioned by the Lp is consisted by potholes dug by Sooke River, not to burst.
One lane road
Hwy 14
08/05/2011
Potholes
Sooke
08/05/2011
"Economy" of the English language
Hwy 14
08/05/2011
Hwy 14 continuous along the Pacific Ocean by twisting according to the British tradition, alas the roadway was very degraded by the heavy trucks transporting logs. Port Renfrew is located at the end of road on a small peninsula, some houses occupy the accesses.
Le port
Port Renfrew
08/05/2011
Totem pole
Port Renfrew
08/05/2011
Pacific Marine Road, name of the loop from Victoria to Sooke, Renfrew Port, Lake Cowichan, Duncan and back to Victoria has a great number of bridges with one lane announced by a panel. For the weekend I found a campground at Lake Cowichan.
One lane bridge
Pacific Marine Rd
08/05/2011
Signpost
Pacific Marine Rd
08/05/2011
Alpine landscape
Pacific Marine Rd
08/05/2011
