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Day 4 - Canada - Vancouver Island

I was very expectant for today, as we were going whale watching.

When we arrived in the harbour of Victoria, it started to rain but thankfully it cleared up and the ocean, for the most part, was quite calm.

Everything worked out just alright, as the catamaran we were on was only half full, so we had plenty of space to move around and to see the sights, although at the time we had no idea if we were going to be lucky enough.

We had our initial safety briefing from Captain Francois and then a totally bonkers safety briefing from the lovely Algebra, a young lady with a crazy name and loving every minute of it.

There had been reports of orcas working their way up the coast, so that’s where we headed first.  We hit the jackpot, we saw a pod of orcas, a male, a mother and a cub.  We had to keep our distance with orcas, as per the rules, but we had fantastic views of them.  It then got really interesting when the three of them got back together and suddenly went on the hunt.  We don’t know what they killed but it was definitely something, as they took a while with it.  We spent about 45 minutes watching them and I even managed to get some great photos on my mobile.

We then heard a whisper of humpback whales in the bay, so we quickly headed back out to see if we could find them.  And find them we did; we saw about four or five with some great views of them.  Algebra got some great shots.

We got back in the evening then for a takeaway curry before our next adventure.  Whilst we were having our curry the photos from the whale watching came through, so we had a look at them.

We then headed back out to Butchart Gardens.  Butchart Gardens were created from an old limestone quarry, and they are just incredible.  We got there whilst it was still light to see the flowers in natural light and had a good walk around.  Once it goes dark the gardens are then lit up and it completely changes everything.  The thought that has gone into this, the location of the lights, the colour of the lights, it enhances little features you don’t see in the daylight.  I took over 200 photos alone just wandering around the gardens.

It has been one epic day!

Today I am thankful for:

1. Seeing Orcas and Humpback Whales close up
2. Seeing the amazing Butchart Gardens.  Outstanding!
3. The whale watching company providing free professional photographs of our trip
4. An epic day!