Sooke Harbour.

This little statue of a fisherman by the pathway down to the harbour and boardwalk.

 

You walk by this house with the fancy balcony, I wondered wether taking this pic. was the right thing to do, then I thought the owner wouldn't go to all the trouble building such a fancy balcony if he didn't want people to admire it.

 

Going down the steps to reach the Rotary Pier.

 

Getting to the bottom of the steps a short trail leads to the pier.            Looking back to the bottom of the steps down, its quite a descent down, coming back up was ok we followed a different route.

 

The first part of the boardwalk, its quite a complex of piers and boardwalks on stilts.

 

Looking over towards the walkway from the pier, thats the way we will go eventually arriving at Ed Macgregor Park.

 

From the walkway looking towards the opening from Sooke Harbour and Sound into the Juan de Fuca Strait?  Unusual cloud formation.

 

Spanish Moss hanging off this dead tree on the bank.

 

Looking the other way again, the fishing harbour and more strange cloud formations.

 

The gently sloping boardwalk taking us back to the top, a real easy walk.  

The Ed Macgregor Park.

 

A great mornings walk, off to have lunch in Sooke and afterwards we visited Whiffin Spit Park , that will be tomorrows blog.

Matheson Lake & The Galloping Goose Trail.

 

Yesterday we went a little further afield towards Sooke to walk around Matheson Lake.

 

To begin with the trail was the usual well made track running by the side of the lake.

 A view of the lake from the trail, easy going.

Unusual tree growing here.

 

The tail swings back to the lake and we see this island, wonderful reflections in the water.

The trail starting to get a little more difficult going uphill.      








Interesting collections of logs, the colours are just amazing.

The trail getting very difficult, uphill, loose gravel and stone huge rocks, a real obstacle course.

 

Eventually the trail evens out a bit and we reach The Galloping Goose Trail

 

This an old railway right of way, now a trail from downtown Victoria about 80km long to the pacific rim, we have walked parts of it when we first arrived in Victoria but decided to give it amiss in the future because of all the cyclist, they seam to treat walkers the way they are treated by motorist. We live in France and cyclist own the roads there,

beware motorist who forget that fact. On this section we had it all to ourselves excepting a couple of other walkers and their dogs. the first part of the hike because thats what it was took us 45 minuets 10/15 for the first part and the other half hour, real heavy going over the rocks and tree roots, it was a welcome relief to reach this flat trail.  We had a pleasant 20 minuet stroll back to the Parking lot.

 

It must be getting close to Christmas a Holly bush full of berries.

Langford Lake

Today we went for a walk along side Langford Lake, an easy trail mostly flat and just short of 2km before turning round and heading back to the car park. The interesting thing about this walk is the ducks on the lake, not as many as on Esquimalt Lagoon but all different.

 

The first part of the trail is on boardwalk and bridges.

 

End of the bridge/boardwalk and into the forest.

 

The trail in the forest on the south side of the lake, easy to walk, we followed this until we reached a boat launching place just before the end off the lake.

 

The trail carried on for awhile before ending on reaching private property, all the north side of the lake has homes with their own waterfronts.

 

Lake on one side this old railway line on the other, now disused The Esquimalt & Nanaimo Railway, I understand it only stopped running a couple of years ago but nature is taking it back.

 

And now for the birdy bit.  All these pics. were taken off the boardwalk, some of them at the very limit of my camera, but they are birds we haven't seen before.  The ones above are Common Mergansers.

 Male and female Ringed Neck Duck.

 Hooded Mergansers, we have seen these before but they are always along ways off, hopefully we will be able to see them a little closer.  and get some better photos.

Santa's Parade, Victoria.

 Saturday evening and Santa's Light Parade. Photo of the Parliament Building all lit up for the festive season.

 

A 1925 fire engine, just love seeing these old machines.

 

This one from 1962. Both made by Le France.

 

A more modern engine.

These people led the parade after the fire engines had passed.

 

Fun times.

 

Trolly bus all decorated and below a normal bus.

 

And to finish off the buses a school bus.

Not sure what this is, maybe a chicken house, the reason for the parade is to collect food for the less fortunenet.  The kids lining the street get all sorts of sweats and treats which seams a bit strange, Mum and Dad put food in the collection bags and the kids are given goody's. 

 

Lovely old cop car. 

 

Thrifty Food truck, just a mass of lights.

 

I think this was the star float, don't know where the driver is.

 

Again don't know what this represents but its pretty.

 

Mobile Home?  Grand Prix drivers hangout? Travelling office?