Ibike USA/Canada Program
Rolling the Islands of the Salish Sea
   
 

 

Photo essay: Rolling the Islands of the Salish Sea: Victoria, BC
   

Chimainus to VICTORIA (80km, 50mi).  Explore historic settlements of southern Vancouver Is.
Points of interest: Chemainus (town of murals), Duncan (City of Totems), Quw’utsun’ Cultural Center, Lockside Trail, Ross Bay Cemetery, Chinese Cemetery
  Endangered Gerry Oak ecosystem
Endangered Gerry Oak		 The endangered Gerry Oak ecosystem is valued for its biodiversity.  Because of habitat destructions (clearing for agriculture and residential), perhaps exacerbated by climate, it is now becoming rare. This 12 hectare Cowichan Gerry Oak Reserve, that we visited, is one of the largest remaining stand
  Bicycle art, Chimacum Bay
Bicycle art, Chimacum Bay, BC		 Unfortunately, quaint Chimacum Bay projects a bit of the message that, "We are hear to separate the tourist from his money."  One of the stand out shops was a combination bakery and cheese shop.  The bakery has a selection of hearty bread and would would need advance degrees to understand every thing available in the cheese shop.  But what really stood out was the bicycle art on the front steps (left)!
  The roadside views alternate between farmland and forest.  The farmland offers bigger vistas, but the forest seem more comforting and calm.  They are also cooler and pleasant places to stop, relax and regroup.
 
Butchart Gardens

Butchart Gardens

 Up the Saanich Peninsula from Victoria is Butchart Gardens.  It is 55 acres of carefully landscaped, meticulously weeded and prunes, and generally over indulged gardens of a half dozen styles  (Bagonia, sucken, rose, Japanese, Italian, and wooded).  In its former life, until 1904, it was a limestone quarry for a cement plant and the estate of the owners,
Robert P and Jennie Butchart.  The other gardens were added over the century, after the initial development of the sunken garden.
 
Sunken rock garden		 Sunken rock garden is the original bleak limestone pit.  To refurnish it Mrs. Butchart had tons of top soil hauled in from local farms by horse cart and line the floor of the pit with.  From there she started designing and planting her garden.
  multicolored hydrangea Purple tulips, Butchart GardensSpring colors Flowering cherry tree in bloom, Butchart Gardensinclude; heavily manipulated hydrangea (far left) and not your so ordinary purple tulips (right), and ever showy flowering cherry trees (left).
  Japanese Garden, Butchart Gardens Italian Garden, Butchart GardensThe ethnic theme gardens include a Japanese Garden (left) and formal Italian Garden.  There is also the Star Pond (right), which was originally designed for Mr. Butchart's collection of ornamental ducks.
  Lockside Trail, Victoria to Sydney
Lockside Trail		 We approached Victoria on the Lockside Trail, which links Sydney and Victoria, and in Victoria it connections with the equally wonderful Galloping Goose.  The Galloping Goose trail snake you into and through Victoria by such a beautiful and serene route that you hardly know that are piercing through residential sprawl and urbanization.
  Victoria's Inner Harbor
Inner Harbor		 The trails lead you to Victoria's Inner Harbor.  In 1842, James Douglas selected Camosack, as it was then known, as the site for the Hudson Bay Company trading post, Fort Victoria.  In 1858, gold found in the Fraser River on the main land and Victoria grew as supply depot. The HBC also lost it monopoly and commerce became more lively for a few years.
  Inner Harbour promenade
More Inner Harbor		 To build the fort, Douglas' men has to negotiate a muddy shore and clear a dense forest.  A large part of the bay has now been filled and much of the rest dredged.  The southeast corner of the bay is now boarded by a promenade, which on sunny days is traversed by tourists and lined with craft merchants.
  Heritage building in Victoria
Heritage building		 Victoria's old City HallAfter the provincial capital of British Columbia was moved to Victoria in 1868, its long term survival was pretty well assured, but for most the next century it was on a slow growth program. That, in fact, might have been to its benefit because no there are about 15 square blocks of heritage building, most dating from 1880 to 1900.
  Bastion Square, Victoria
Bastion Square		 Bastion Square was initially the center of Fort Victoria.  After the destruction of the fort, the land was sold off in lots.  Commercial development floundered for 50 years .  It took a hundred year, but the area is again a fashion address for office space and on sunny days the square is an ongoing street fair packed with merchants, entertainers and hopefully tourist.. 
  The Gate of Harmonious Interest announces Victoria's Chinatown
Gate of Harmonious Interest		 The Gate of Harmonious Interest announces Victoria's Chinatown, though it is more in the center than at any entrance. Gold-rush era Chinese from San Francisco & China established Canada's first Chinatown; with shops & rooms, gambling and opium dens, bars & brothels, employment agencies and family associations..
 
Thunderbird Park		 One of the gems of Victoria is the Royal British Columbia Museum and Thunderbird (totem pole) Park.  The museum has superb galleries on the material culture of the First Peoples (Native Americans) of Vancouver Island and northeast Pacific Coast, and the natural history of the region.  Thunderbird Park has bigger than life displays carvings of poles, artifacts and building elements from the same cultural traditions.
  World's tallest totem pole, Beacon Hill Park, Victoria
World's tallest totem pole, Beacon Hill Park, Victoria		 The world's tallest totem pole is in Beacon Hill Park.  It took six month to carve using Adzes and hand knifes.  It is associated with the Gee-eksem clan of the Kwa-kiutl people of the coast Indians, from Fort Rupert, BC.  The most important figure on a totem pole is at the bottom because they are holding up all the rest.  Ironically, Europeans liked to see themselves at the top of the totem pole.  Indian carvers were happy to oblige because to them it meant that they were weak.  On this pole the bottom figure is the Gee-eksem legendary "First Man", said to have been created at Gold Beach on the north end of Vancouver Island. Next is the cannibal bird, then orca, the seal lion, eagle, sea otter, with halibut in his mouth, then whale with man on his back, then beaver, then servant man, then seal, the black wolf, then the potlatch record keeper.  It is the first pole of the clan to include all of the ancestral figures.
  Chinese cemetery, Ross Bay, Victoria
Chinese cemetery, Ross Bay, Victoria		 Bought by the Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association in 1903, to replace a low lying plot along Ross Bay. The Chinese cemetery site was chosen using the principles of Feng Shui (literally, wind and water).  The cemetery site is flanked by the "Azure Dragon (Qinglong) on its left and by the "White Tiger" (Baihu) on its right, and backed with a "Pillow Mountain" (Zhenshan, Gonzales Hill), where the two cosmic forces of Dragon and Tiger converse.  It is embraces by the "Living Water" (McNeil Bay) (Shengshui, symbol of wealth)  There is a giant incense burner in the middle.
   
 

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