A weekend in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

March 2020. That is when the lockdowns started in Canada in response to the pandemic. There was a brief lull in the months of June July August before the cases increased again. 

Me and my friend Suyog managed to do a trip in the month of July which, in retrospect, we are glad that we did. It proved to be a refreshing holiday after months of strictly following the social and physical distancing rules imposed by the authorities.  We went to visit Vancouver Island, simply called 'The Island' by the locals, for a 2 day 2 night holiday. Owing to the delay in writing this account of the trip (its almost 8 months) unlike my usual style I will be writing very brief notes and mostly posting pics.  

Our plan was simple. For the first day explore the capital city of Victoria, then second day go on a hike in the nearby provincial park and on the third day leave for Vancouver. We pretty much stuck to this plan.

Day 1

The journey to Victoria is in itself worthy of a trip. There is a ferry service between Vancouver and Victoria managed by BC Ferries. Its a 90 minute ride across the strait of Georgia. The sea, the wind, the ferry itself and sometimes if you are lucky, a whale spotting makes the whole journey interesting. We reached Victoria in the afternoon and immediately after checking in the hostel we started exploring the downtown. 

One of the highlights of the day was when we stumbled upon a cricket ground. Even though Canada was a British colony, cricket did not catch on here as much as it did in many other former colonies. So finding a cricket ground was a pleasant surprise. The ground was well maintained and even had a small pavilion displaying the scores of the last match played there. We saw a few players practicing there and Suyog initiated a conversation with them. We found that there was an active cricket scene on the Island and they even had tournaments going on. This intrigued me and I dug out the history of Cricket in Canada. To my surprise I found out that the first national sport of Canada was Cricket. In 1867, John A. MacDonald (the same person who is on the 10 dollar bill) declared cricket as Canada's first National sport. In fact the first ever International Cricket match was between Canada and United States played in 1844.

Day 2

On day 2 we went to the Goldstream Provincial Park and did a short 5 hour hike. We came across a railway trestle while hiking which was a new experience for us. Later in the day we visited the famous Hartley Castle which is also known as the X-Men castle having been used the location of the famous Prof Xavier's School for the Gifted in the X-Men franchise movies. 

Day 3

On day 3 we made our way back to Vancouver taking the ferry again and witnessing some more spectacular views including a lucky whale spotting. We were back home by the afternoon and thus ended a much needed break from the tiring pandemic months. Little did we know the worst was yet to come.