Sooke Day Three

On our last day we cycled part of the Galloping Goose Trail.  Being a former railway line, it was fairly flat, except when it dipped down to a bridge over a stream, and back up again.  The last time we'd been on the trail it was Autumn, with colourful leaves on the trees, and crunchy leaves on the trail.  This time everything was so green: the moss on the rocks, the grass, and the new leaves on the trees.

The trail in Spring  (Flickr photo by Brian)

The trail goes by Sooke Basin, the East end of the harbour

Some of the many wildflowers

At the Roche Cove picnic spot we met two serious cyclists with heavily loaded touring bikes - four panniers on each bike.  From London, England, they've been cycling for 15 months!  They started in Patagonia, Argentina, and except for a boat between Colombia and Panama, have cycled all the way up to British Columbia!  We didn't get a photo of them and their bikes, but you can see their pictures on Instagram .  They are @cycleforthesoul on Instagram.

We carried on to Matheson Lake and found a bench high above the sparkling lake, and ate our lunch.

I took my old bike, not the ebike, as the trail was fairly flat

Then it was time to head back to the car and hightail it to the ferry.  It was a great mini vacation, with good weather, great hiking and fun cycling.  It left us wishing we could stay longer as there are so many places in the area to explore.  Next time!

Sooke Day Two

It was a bit overcast when we set off to go hiking.  We had to stop first though, at a renowned bakery cafe called Shirley Delicious - it lived up to its name!  The delicious part I mean.  The cafe wasn't named after the baker, it was the area.  I thought maybe the community was named after a person named Shirley, but no - it was named after a town named Shirley in England, in 1894, when they needed a name for the first post office.

The I in Shirley on the sign is meant to be the nearby lighthouse

It was hard to decide what to have with our coffee, there were so many yummy looking choices!

We had to try one of these muffins!

I had the chocolate hazelnut croissant and Brad had the almond - fabulous!

And we had to get these to go

While we were there, a woman with a camera was busy taking all kinds of photos.  I asked her if it was for a magazine.  No, she said, it was for her blog on niche places, and gave me the address.  Have a look to see her much more professional photos!  See if you can spot me in one of her pictures.

Suitably fuelled up, we drove on to the Mystic Beach trail parking lot.  There we chatted with a couple heading off with their large white dog - a retriever / lab cross.  The trail was through the forest, with many exposed roots, some boggy areas, boardwalks, and downed trees, so slow going.  Soon though we caught up to the couple with the dog - he was lying down refusing to cross the metal suspension bridge.  Later on, from other hikers, we learned that they turned back, unable to coax the dog to walk onto the bridge.

The metal walkway was hard on dogs paws...

Our first glimpse of the water

The waterfall at the south end of the beach

Walking towards the north end of the beach, we saw an otter running down to the water; it was so fast we didn't have a chance to get a photo.  We watched him swimming, coming up for air, and diving down again.

The crows were gathering bits of cedar bark for nesting material

The cave at the north end had many balanced rocks, and also a swing!

Of course we had to construct our own...

We both tried out the swing

Sooke Day One

We caught the ferry to Vancouver Island to start our three day getaway to Sooke.

Flickr photo by William Davies 

It was a beautiful sunny day, and once there, it was time to get on our bikes and go for a ride.  I'd always wanted to see the luxury hotel Sooke Harbour House, so we set off, with that as our destination.

Much to our surprise a movie was being filmed there, and everywhere you looked there were cables, black curtains, ladders and equipment.

The entrance to the hotel

When we went around to the side, we could see that they were filming a scene on the water side of the hotel.  We were told the film was The Last Bridesmaid, and we could see the actors on the lawn.  As we watched, the bride and her wedding photographer walked from a tree to the hotel, over and over.

We watched the filming, then went inside

Inside, we admired the art on the walls, the original wood floors, and read a short hotel history.  It was built as a small hotel in 1926, and subsequent owners added on more rooms.  From the photos we saw, it looks like a favourite spot for weddings these days.

At the entrance to the elegant dining room, with a wall of windows overlooking the ocean, we were stopped by a movie person, and told that if they started filming while we were in the room we would have to exit.  But we were on the far side of the room when filming started, so we were told to stay put as yet again the actors strolled from the tree to the hotel, and we couldn't move until we heard "CUT"!

The elegant dining room overlooks the lawn and the ocean (photo by Rachel Black on Flickr)