After gazing at the Empress Hotel and the downtown area from the west side of the Harbour, we decided we were going to explore Victoria's next-door neighbour: Esquimalt, a much more basic area that is home to a large naval base. Esquimalt is definitely not as scenic and dressed up as Victoria, but it still appeared to be a pretty tidy place. We continued to head west on suburban roads and ended up having a beautiful nature experience at the waterfront of Albert Head Lagoon. We drove in through curvy roads in a shady forest, parked our car, and walked on the beach, besides hundreds of stranded wooden logs, to a shady corner at the west end of the lagoon where Clare and I had a beautiful chat about life, human relationships, changes in lifestyles and mentalities in the new China and other esoteric topics.

Around 5 pm we decided to head even further west and we decided to find another hidden lagoon, called Witty's Lagoon which is part of a regional park system. We found the entrance and parked our car since only a footpath takes you down to the lagoon. Sheltered from the heat by a lovely overhead forest canopy, we walked down a steep slope past the Sitting Lady Waterfall. Along the way we saw hundreds of wild blackberry bushes that were just getting ripe, and we sampled some of nature's bounty. After about 20 minutes of walking beside a marsh on the left hand side, we finally ended up on a beach at the Southern tip of Vancouver Island that offered a perfect view of the majestic Olympic Mountains range.

18 minutes of uphill hiking later and we were back at the car, ready to drive downtown where we were picking up Haishan, Clare's husband, for dinner. The perfect meeting place was the Empress Hotel, of course. We picked him up and drove back over the Inner Harbour Bridge and reached our dinner destination: the Spinnaker Brew Pub at the Western End of Victoria's Harbour. On the outdoor patio we had a gorgeous view of the Victoria Harbour, looking down at the condo buildings, ships and sea planes that were still going back and forth. It was a little chilly outside at that time, but the restaurant supplied us with blankets to protect us against the evening cold.

Having strengthened ourselves after a long day of sightseeing we arrived back at the house at about 9 pm and given the fact that I had pretty much been awake since 4 am due to jetlag, I thanked my gracious hosts for their hospitality and made my way to bed.

It's now just about 2:15 am, that means I get another 3.5 hours of sleep before I have to get up, pack my bags, eat a brief breakfast and then get dropped off by Haishan on his way to work at the Victoria Bus Terminal. From there I'll have to say goodbye to pretty Victoria and make my way back to the mainland by ferry and bus, to check out my next destination: Vancouver. I am already excited.....

About the Author

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of http://www.travelandtransitions.com. It deals with travel to foreign countries and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers, insights, cross-cultural issues, and many other features. Participate in our travel story contest http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm and win great prizes, a fabulous cruise to the Amazon. Life is a Journey - Explore New Horizons.