Victoria to Nanaimo

Saturday 19th May 

Today we are in Nanaimo on the east coast of Vancouver Island and the weather is pretty much the same as back home - some sun, some rain and there is still a chill in the air. 

Leaving Victoria we cycled to the Brentwood Ferry and then joined Highway 1. At this point Hwy 1 is a dual carriageway with a hard shoulder for cyclists. This hard shoulder is generally 2m wide though it regularly reduced to 1.5m and even 1m. Added to this, on the day we were cycling, it was raining and the spray off the vehicles was considerable. Also, nobody in this part of the world drives a small car. Every second car is a truck (pick up) with a 5 or 6 litre engine, huge nobbly tyres and the road noise on a busy busy wet highway makes cycling difficult. 

Nevertheless we reached our destination at Duncan after 52km cycling and nearly 2000ft of ascent. We didn't realise Vancouver Island was so hilly but I won't moan about the hills - I will save that for the Rockies! We were soaked through and booked into the wonderfully named Thunderbird Motor Inn where the owner Martin Buck looked after us well. Martin's mother left a farm in Uphall with her family and travelled to Canada in the 1930's. 

Although we have been in Canada for a short time, we have already met a number of people whose parents or grandparents came from Scotland. It's an great conversation opener. 

The other great conversation opener is the bike. Everyone loves the bike! It's unusual and people come to chat and stare and stare. I love the bike, particularly when we are going downhill though Susan has only allowed me up to 52km an hour - 'that's fast enough' I hear from behind me. Hopefully, once I buy her a parachute brake she will allow me to go faster. 

On the uphill with the weight from the trailer we have to pedal hard. Very hard. Long steady hills we have them beat. Big, steep, steep hills sometimes win. As I say to Susan 'this one's a pusher'! But there's a long way to go and so big, steep, steep hills might not always have it their own way. 

The following day we left Duncan in the sunshine and cycled 50km to Nanaimo. Again it was Hwy 1 with traffic but no rain. Far more pleasant. The highlight of the day was when Susan allowed :) us to go to KFC for lunch. I tried to persuade her that the chicken, deep fried in 12 secret spices, is full of protein. However, she did say to the asst. manager that she didn't know what she wanted cause she didn't like KFC chicken. Thankfully the asst. manager loved the bike and we all got on well. 

Nanaimo is also our first time camping. Our aim is to camp and stay in motels half and half. The Living Forest campsite is nice enough but it's pretty chilly. Susan didn't sleep so well last night and she puts that down to missing Graeme Dobbie's skull splitter cocktails that she had when we camped at North Berwick before we left to try out the gear.   

We have a Hilleberg Katium 2 GT tent and the best sleeping bag in the world from Feathered Friends in Seattle. It's sooooo warm.  We are also using a Trangia cooking stove that runs on methyl hydrate which is available in hardware stores. 

Tomorrow we head back across to the mainland, taking the ferry from Nanaimo to Horseshoe Bay in Vancouver.