CYCLE SOOKE POT HOLES TO VICTORIA

It's another 'on yer bike' day for us so we set off walking to the seaplane harbour to get fitted up for our bikes at Seawall Cycles and were transported, again by Roger, to Sooke Pot Holes. Today we were joined on the bus by Kathleen from Australia but she was on a speed run as she had to complete the 50 km of the Galloping Goose Trail and be back by 3 pm to catch a ferry for Seattle.

The pot holes were very impressive and it was interesting to read the signboard at the potholes which explained about the large chimney and part complete building, apparently a business man had purchased the land with the vision of building a luxury vacation lodge on the river but he ran out of money and the part build structure has just been fenced off and left.

We had a slight problem at the beginning of the trail as one of the bridges had been closed and the suggested alternative route was really only for walkers and horse riders, we pushed the bike up the first very steep hill but didn't like the look of the very steep mountain bike type downhill so doubled back to the little but undulating road that ran along the river. We joined the proper trail again, which is another disused railway line, and it was an extremely pleasant, rural track through forest and along lakes. We saw several deer and one snake, the only thing missing was a coffee stop so we were very pleased we had bought a picnic. In mid afternoon, as we were getting closer to Victoria, we did come to an area where they are building a lot of new housing and there was a shopping plaza with a bar that served coffee. From 4.30 pm onwards our very quiet track with few other riders turned into the bike commuter route out of Victoria with a continuous stream of riders coming in the opposite direction. It was still a very good path over rivers and parks and a great commute.

We returned our bikes and returned 'home' to pack our bags for tomorrow's bus and BC Ferry journey to Vancouver.Okumaya devam et