Moss Rock Park

February 18, 2024 saucee192 Comments

Today’s walk is based off of walk #10 from John Crouch’s Walk Victoria. The walk we (Ryuu-chan, Dragon-Kun, and I) did was a bit longer (4.64km).

The walk Crouch suggested goes in a clockwise direction, making the walker go down a very rocky and steep hill. Going down said hill is not a problem. The problem is going down safely. For those who have bad knees/ankles, I suggest going in the opposite directions or using an alternative route (such as turning around from the view point of Moss Rock and heading East on Fairfield and heading down Memorial to Dallas Rd)

Entrance to Moss Rock Park. Ryuu-chan said she is a rare and endangered species

From Moss Rock we headed down to Dallas Rd.

Ryuu-chan found an ancient relative in someone’s garden

We had a great view of the Olympic Mountains. I think they are called that because they often look like they are floating in clouds… but that is just my guess.

View from Victoria to the Olympic Mountains in Washington State

At clover point Ryuu-kun posed by a stone carving in the dog park.

We walked along the coast to the world’s largest totem pole (according to the sign) in Beacon Hill Park. My father says he remembers watching the pole being carved when he was a very young boy.

Sign saying that it is the world’s tallest totem pole

We then walked to the Children’s Farm where there are goats (with their creepy eyes), llamas, and chickens.

We then walked toward the cricket pavilion , tennis courts, bowling green, and croquet lawns.

Dragon-kun posing in front of a plum tree in blossom

Ryu-chan wanted to stay and play Croquet… but it was going on 2pm and Dragon-kun and I didn’t have lunch yet and were getting hungry.

If you want to do this walk there is parking beside and in front of the Children’s Farm in the park.

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Butchart Gardens

February 11, 2024February 11, 2024 saucee19Leave a comment

Today’s adventure is a little different. It is the start of travels with Ryuu-chan, and Dragon-kun.

Usagi-chan may make a few appearances, but she said she will definitely be back in 12 years.

I was so excited about Ryuu and Dragon joining me on my walk around Butchart Gardens that I forgot to set my Fitbit to record the walk…so I’m not sure the distance.

Butchart Gardens is wheelchair and family friendly, there are lots of places to sit and enjoy the gardens… although today being rainy… maybe not so much with the sitting.

Ryuu-chan and Dragon-kun posing in front of the Butchart Gardens sign

The Gardens was a limestone quarry which supplied limestone to the Portland cement plant. (Both quarry and cement plant were owned by the Butchart family). The garden was the idea of Jennie Butchart (wife of cement and quarry owner -Robert Pim Butchart)

In 1904, Jennie Butchart took the abandoned quarry and started turning it into the Sunken Garden. (The Sunken Gardens is signature garden – it is on all the postcards for the Gardens).

Ross Fountain Lookout was a smaller quarry and turned into the fountains in 1964.

The Bog Garden usually has giant ferns in the summer months and it looks prehistoric. Ryuu and Dragon were disappointed not to see the ferns as it reminds them of their dinosaur ancestry, but they were happy to see the moss.

Ryuu and Dragon on the Carousel sculpture

Ryuu-chan and Dragon-kun liked watching the Carousel but didn’t want to ride on something that went round in circles, so opted for a photo on the sculpture of the carousel horse at the base of the building that houses the Carousel.

Ryuu-chan and Dragon-Kun posing informally front of the Dragon Fountain

The Dragon Fountain is a gift from the People’s Republic of China and Victoria’s sister City, Suzhou to Butchart Gardens.

If you read last week’s post you’ll see that Victoria has many sister cities…well okay… maybe just two… I am finding out about these sister cities as I walk.

We walked through the rose garden…again wrong time of year.

The Japanese garden was started in 1906 and designed by the Japanese landscape artist, Isaburo Kishida.

Italian Garden (Ryuu and Dragon are looking toward the part of the building where it is rumoured to have a bowling alley)

Tacos Boar -people rub the snout for good luck

The last bunch of photos are in what is usually the Blue Poppy Restaurant, but at the moment is the Spring Prelude exhibit.

If you are think of visiting the gardens here is some information:

Ticket price: $30.70 (Adult)

22K from downtown Victoria (BC Transit does have buses that go to the Gardens)

Butchart Gardens

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James Bay

February 4, 2024 saucee19Leave a comment

Today’s walk is based on walk #9 of John Crouch’s ‘Walk Victoria’ (according to my local independent bookshop this book is out of print and the author is in the process of getting it republished…hopefully with distances in Km or miles instead of hours). This walk is 5.13k .

Apparently, I didn’t learn the basics in kindergarten: always use a pencil first. The thicker red line is the route we took.

If doing this route and you need a place to park, there are parking spaces on Douglas and in Beacon Hill Park.

According to John Crouch’s book, James Bay was made into a fashionable suburb in the 1800s. The rich land owners then decided that the Rockland area was better and moved their houses there and subdivided their properties in James Bay allowing smaller houses to be built. And there are a lot of cute little cottage-like houses in the James Bay Area…. Did I photograph any of them?Nope.

But I did take a photo of an interesting fence.

The walk took R. and I to the main tourist area of the city: in front of the B.C. Parliament Buildings (also known as ‘The Birdcage’ – I might do a blog about it in the future)

As we were passing the cenotaph, a woman was changing the wreaths. R., who is braver than me, asked the woman about it. The woman said she is from the Legion, and every Memorial Day they get more wreaths than they can display, so they spread the wreaths out throughout the year.

Cenotaph in front of the B. C. Parliament

Statue of Queen Victoria (whom the city is named after)

The Knowledge Totem Pole carved by Cicero August, a costal Salish artist, and his sons Darrell and Doug August.

From the Parliament building one can see the Empress Hotel. (Apparently, they have a good tea service.)

Continuing our walk along the water there is a path that leads behind Laurel Point Hotel. At the beginning of the path there are two commemorative plaques from Victoria’s sister City: Morioka.

A little further along and there is another tribute to the City of Victoria from the Lebanese community.

Walking around the point, past Fisherman’s Wharf, and the Canadian Coast Guard there was a pole covered in masks. one of the masks looked like another relative to Usagi-chan, but the lighting was wrong and the picture did not turn out. (Usagi-chan was tired today, so stayed at home).

We finished our walk by walking up Government, but along the way there were little signs of spring everywhere.

Walks and Hikes

Return to walking

January 21, 2024 saucee192 Comments

After my pilgrimage in Japan, I took a bit of an hiatus from walking.

Today with the aid of my friend R. I started walking again.

I hope to continue this trend of weekly walks throughout the year. I will be using different walking/hiking books I have to plan out my walks.

Today’s walk is #5 “Fairfield/Oak Bay” from Walk Victoria by John Crouch. My one criticism of this book is that the hikes are measured in the time it took John Crouch to walk the route and not in actual kilometres. Mr. Crouch wrote that it is a 3 hour walk… it took us 4.5 hours… of course we did stop to have tea and snacks at the coffee shop at Oak Bay Marina… but still.