Our Travels Start

Once again, we are on the road leaving the cold and snow far behind.

In October, we pulled our trailer out to Victoria, BC, and parked at Fort Victoria RV Park.  There are quite a few rainy days, but when the sun comes out, the days are wonderful.  There are still some flowers in bloom in the planters and pots.  There is very little snow except in Victoria's higher elevations.

                                                     

One of our favorite places for walking is the Esquimalt Lagoon.  On one side of the road is the ocean fed lagoon, and on the other side of the road is the Juan de Fuca Strait.  The lagoon is a migratory bird sanctuary so we have seen Trumpeter swans, Mallard ducks, Eurasian widgeons, American widgeons, bufflehead ducks, gold eye ducks, geese, gulls, and sandpipers.  When walking on the ocean beach, we sometimes watch the Canadian Navy doing exercises as there is a naval base across from the lagoon.   Other times, we enjoy walking along listening to the waves.

gold eye duck

                                                             
We visited Fort Rodd Hill Park which was an army base until about 1960 when the base was decommissioned.   The base was used to protect the harbour against foreign warships, and submarines.  We explored the light house museum.   We have also hiked around a couple of other parks we found near Victoria.

                     
                                                             

Hadley Castle       



                                                                 

We spent a day visiting craft sales looking for Christmas gifts. Later, we stopped in Sidney to watch the Christmas parade at night, and then the sail by (A parade of sailboats and motor boats all decorated for Christmas).

                                                                     
On another day, we drove the back road to Butchart Gardens.  Once there, we started out with high tea--drinking tea and eating a selection of dainty sandwiches, and cakes and pastries.

                                                                         

We then walked around the gardens.  The Japanese Gardens were peaceful.  It was starting to get dark, and as a result, the Christmas lights were getting brighter.  The gardens were very beautiful with all the Christmas lights, especially the quarry gardens.  That night we had a very good supper at Butchart Gardens listening to a pianist playing Christmas songs.

We rented the big house at the Blackfish Bed and Breakfast for a family Christmas.  Most of our family was able to join us.  According to the reports, everyone enjoyed themselves, and the consensus was that we should try that again.

Next we celebrated the New Year, and got ready to leave for Egypt.  We took  Victoria Transit to the ferry terminal with our luggage, then crossed over to Vancouver on the ferry as walk­-on passengers.  After travelling by shuttle, and a little bit of walking in the rain, we finally got to our hotel.  The next morning we were up early and left for the airport.  After about 17 hours of flying and waiting, and wondering if our luggage was coming with us, we finally arrive in Cairo, Egypt.  With regards to the visa, we read two different advisories.  Some of the books advised you to get it before leaving Canada, and others advised that  you could pick it up at the Cairo airport.  If we don't get our visa in Egypt, we will miss our tour.
Were we right not to get our Egyptian visa before we left?