Hi all,
Hope everything's going well at home. We're all good - a bit sick of the rain, but if that's our worst complaint I guess we're not doing too bad huh :)

Wednesday 22.05.13:
This morning we woke to nice weather so we bummed around home and had a slow start to the day. There's a path that goes from here at the RV park/marina along the waterfront all the way into downtown Victoria so today we're taking that. The girl on reception told us it usually takes around 30-40mins but with us stopping to take photos it was closer to an hour. Victoria is a very beautiful city, full of historic brick buildings and so much to see. We had a bit of an explore around the streets then stopped off for some lunch. Just a tip - if it's not peak lunchtime hour I wouldn't advise having Chinese from the food court ha, I'm not sure what we were thinking!! I'm sure it had been sitting in the hot box since lunchtime... Not very yum ha.. Afterwards we ran a few errands and then walked back home. It was meant to be raining today but it actually turned out to be a pleasant day - there was a slightly cold wind but it was still a nice day for walking.

Thursday 23.05.13:
So the forecast rain did arrive last night and brought the wind with it. It was really blowy for most of the night and then this morning so we put the awning back down before we left today. Poor Tobes was getting blown all over the shop! We stopped at reception on our way out & booked a whale watching tour for Saturday. The girl we spoke to also works part time for the whale watching company we picked and had nothing but great things to say about them. Fingers crossed we see some orcas!! Then we caught the bus to downtown and just strolled around - Ben wasn't keen on walking again after yesterday's big hike haha. We had lunch at the Sticky Wicket Pub which was nice but a bit of a random experience. We arrived and waited while the hostess seated the couple in front of us - they were taken out to the front restaurant section. Then she came back, looked at us and led us out the back to the bar area. We were there for about an hour having lunch and no-one else got seated out there. Not too sure what to think of that! Out the back thanks you lot haha :) After lunch we strolled around some more, there are so many beautiful historic buildings to see. It's very easy to just wander and look! There's also another cruise ship in town today so there's lots of activity and plenty of people around. Every shop we go into we get asked "Are you off the cruise ship?" lol.

Friday 24.05.13:
When we arrived at Westbay we had asked at reception about public transport and the girl told us to walk up the street and catch either the number 6 or the number 10 bus to downtown. We caught the 6 yesterday and it was a 5min trip and dropped us off right in the centre of downtown which was fantastic. This morning the 10 arrived first so we jumped on.... What she didn't clarify is that the 6 winds it's way through downtown but the 10 actually totally bypasses downtown and only really takes you sort of in that general direction. We discovered that it goes out to the hospital and does a loop back - so we took the scenic route haha. We jumped off close to downtown on the return trip and walked - arriving about 40mins after we first got on the bus lol. I went and got an eyebrow thread (my first once since you last did them Haylz, are you impressed!) and then we had lunch in Chinatown which was yummy. All fuelled up we strolled around town again, looking at the sights and taking lots of photos. We had a walk though Parliament House which was pretty neat. Then we were off to the IMAX theatre - Ben had seen a brochure earlier in the week and told me that he'd never been to IMAX - we had to fix that! After the film finished they announced that we could also see the next one for half price so in we went again. I guess he really liked it eh. Once we got home we had a Skype chat with mum and Alarna which was great but spoiled by a sketchy connection that kept cutting us off. Frustrating.

Saturday 25.05.13:
Happy birthday Lynnie, wish we could be there to celebrate your day with you xxxx
Whale watching day!! I'm so excited!!! We started the day off right with a yummy brekky at the cafe on site here - Princess Mary Cafe - then waited for our shuttle to pick us up. When the car arrived our driver hopped out and said hi while we jumped in. I actually didn't even notice his Aussie accent till we were in the car and he asked where we were from. We said Oz and he says "Oh yeah? Which part? I'm a Gladstone boy myself". I'm like "No way, we're from Tannum" and he says "Get out, I'M from Tannum". Ha what a spin out - what are the odds of coming to the other side of the world and meeting someone from your little town!! He was really nice and we chatted the whole way to the marina. Once we arrived we had to get all geared up in our weatherproof suits. Ha they were so funny, I felt like the Michelin Man in mine (it's all insulated plus has your life jacket incorporated into it as well) and it was so hard to move once it was on. To look sideways at Ben I had to shuffle my whole body around in my seat, I couldn't just turn my head, ha so funny!!! BUT once we got out on the water it was rainy and freezing which made me grateful for being kitted up! Our boat was pretty cool, it was a zodiac and supposedly the fastest whale watching boat in Victoria - it was pretty fun. We drove around looking for whales without finding anything for about 2 hours - so disappointing, by then I was cold, miserable and just ready to get off. I was thinking "I don't even care about seeing whales anymore, I'm beyond cold, I just want to be in a nice warm coffee shop somewhere right now" haha. But then we got word of a whale sighting and we were off. We got to "the spot" in about 10mins along with all of the other whale watching boats, then it was a waiting game to see who could spot them first. Next minute up popped a group of orcas in the distance and I forgot all about being cold, tired etc - it was magical and just so worth it. It turned out to be a pod of 4 orcas just cruising around - they were so beautiful. We ended up watching them for almost an hour and it went by way too quickly. There was one really cool moment where we pulled up to watch them and they started heading towards our boat. We're only allowed to take the boat so close to them but if they approach us then its ok - you just switch off the engine and let them move away when they're ready. So we were sitting there and they turned towards us and started heading right at us. They got to about 3 metres away and then dove down and one of them swam right UNDER OUR BOAT! It was amazing, we saw what he was going to do and could lean over and see him through the water going right underneath us. That moment alone was worth the previous 2hrs of windburn lol. Talking to our captain Russ afterwards we learned that we ended up travelling 80 miles on the water only to spot whales basically just outside Victoria harbour haha. However we learned our lesson that day - never take the first whale boat of the day because no-one actually knows where the whales are! All the different companies split up and go searching and they keep in contact via radio till someone spots some whales. The next boat after us would've headed right out to where we were and seen them straight up! Nevermind though, we still had fun! :) Ahh, can't believe we saw orcas, it was so amazing!!! Afterwards we stopped off for lunch and then wandered around town some more. Once we got home we had a Skype session with Benny's parents and then also with Dan & Aleisha - thanks for taking us shopping guys hehe.

Sunday 26.05.13:
Happy birthday Cat, hope you have an amazing day xxxx
We heard rain all through the night last night and when we got up this morning it was still going strong. Rather than be travelling in the rain we decided to stay another night here and leave tomorrow instead. The rain hung around all day so we stayed in planning stops for our USA trip and doing some laundry. Another cruise ship was docked in the harbour today - next minute we hear the "Disney Song" come blasting out from the ship - you know the little bit of music at the beginning of a Disney DVD? That song. We both heard it from inside Toby, sat up and went "It's a Disney ship" haha.

Monday 27.05.13:
We got up this morning to an overcast sky and by the time we were ready to go the rain had started - so much for not travelling in the rain ha. Nevermind, I guess we should be used to it by now huh. At least it keeps everything pretty and green :) We checked out of Westbay Marine Village around 10am and hit the road to go and see the Kinsol Trestle (50km north). Basically it's a wooden railway trestle north of Shaw****n Lake that crosses the Koksilah River. It was completed in 1920 and it's 44m high and 188m long which makes it the largest wooden trestle in the Commonwealth and one of the highest railway trestles in the world. Yes I read the info board & took notice! :) It rained the whole way there and was still going strong when we arrived. Because it was a couple of kilometres walk from the carpark in to the trestle we debated about going and getting soaked, but in the end we donned our snowjackets (the only waterproof jackets we had lol) and took off. I'm so glad we did because it was well worth it. Very impressive!! Once we were done we drove back to Langford for lunch (Nandos) and to grab a few supplies, then checked in at Goldstream Provincial Park for one night. There are 173 campsites there but most of the park is still blocked off so it's not too busy. It continued to rain all night so we had a quiet night in working on the blog.

Tuesday 28.05.13:
Today we're going to do whats called the "Pacific Marine Circle Route". We had originally wanted to do it when we left Ian & Rhonda's in Nanaimo but Ian had told us that the road was pretty terrible and he wouldn't recommend doing it in Toby. We said we'd done the road to Tofino and asked him how this road compared. According to him it was much worse so that really put us off going & we had scrapped the idea. But the other day we were talking to Captain Russ on our whale watching tour coz he lives out that way and said we'd have no problems at all with the road, so we're going for it today! We left Goldstream around 9am and it was another rainy & miserable day! We grabbed fuel & coffee, then hit the road. First up we came through Sooke and there wasn't really too much to see because of the weather. Down the road a bit further we stopped in at French Beach which was really pretty, even on a ****** day. It would be super popular on a nice sunny day!! The road from here into Port Renfrew was curvy, narrow and bumpy in places but nothing we couldn't handle. The fog was still pretty thick at times too - real nice day for driving huh! We arrived at Port Renfrew around midday and stopped for lunch at the Port Renfrew Hotel. The waitress seated us out the back, said she'd be back to take our order soon and then went out to the front bar & promptly forgot about us. We were just about to go find her when she came back & said "Oh my goodness I'm so sorry, someone else came in front and I just forgot about you guys". Ha at least she was honest right! Lunch was really yum though! The road from Port Renfrew back to Lake Cowichan is an old logging road that's only been paved in recent years so we passed plenty of logging trucks. On the way we stopped off at "the big tree" a huge ancient tree in the forest - it was pretty cool. Down a bit further we came across another RV pulled up & a couple who were out taking photos of something. Always keen for another wildlife encounter we pulled up to see what was going on. There was a big group (herd?) of elk grazing by the river - plus just one big guy with antlers. I'm not too sure I think maybe the male have the antlers and the female don't? I'll have to find out for sure... When we walked back to take some pics the big one with antlers had gone but the rest of them came traipsing across the road in front of us. Geez they were big hey - about the size of a horse. I wouldn't like to be cruising along and have them step out in front of the car! Bit scary - I was on super wildlife watch for the rest of the trip after that lol. Most of the time the speed limit was only 60km/hr so we didn't arrive at Gordon Bay Provincial Park till around 3pm. There are only 2 other groups camped here at the moment so it's super quiet!!! Now that we've done the circle tour I have to say I still think the road to Tofino was worse - I'm so glad that we ended up doing it & didn't miss out! :)

Much love to everyone at home & chat soon xxxxx