Camping in Victoria

Nearly two months ago now, I took a day trip to Victoria with a friend. We managed to get up early to catch the second ferry out, in spite of working a midnight shift the night before.  We visited book stores, coffee shops, ate good food, and mostly wandered around and down to the coast, where you could look across the way to Washington state and off to the southeast, where a narrow strip of open ocean was visible.

Unfortunately, we neglected to check ferry times back to the island, and so, ended up arriving back at the terminal an hour after the last ferry had left for the night.  The security guard was very helpful and concerned and offered to pick us up from Denny’s, one of the few places open twenty-four hours, once he finished his shift and bring us back to the terminal to catch the first ferry out.  Instead, we figured that we would see some more of Victoria and not spend so much time camping out at Denny’s and the ferry terminal a few hours before it opened, so we headed back on the bus to downtown.  We caught some live music at one of the pubs near the waterfront, and tried to take advantage of any open businesses, where we could keep warm before settling down for the night, since we had decided to try sleeping in Beacon Hill Park.

It was a quiet night and quite chilly for August.  After about two hours of trying to sleep in the park, it became too cold to stay asleep any longer, particularly since we had not come prepared.  At that point in the night, all I could think about how my ex could have possibly spent an entire winter in New England like this and I could not even last one night of August in Canada.  He gained some more respect from me in that aspect.  So we started walking and came upon a seven eleven, where we warmed up, bought cereal, and got direction to the closest Tim Horton’s, which seems to be Canada’s version of Dunkin’ Donuts and is often open twenty-four hours.  The walk only took about half an hour and we spent another two hours in the doughnut shop sipping warm beverages and trying to not fall asleep.

We made it early to the bus stop and were incredibly relieved once the bus was in sight, as we knew that our ordeal was drawing to a close.  I managed to stay awake on the hour long bus ride, but passed out on the ferry, which felt like a longer travel time than it really was.  We were quite grateful to set foot again on Salt Spring Island, and once we got home, I went straight to bed, before working that afternoon.