August 29, 2014
Day 9: Pedder Bay to Saanich
The Pedder Bay Marina coffee shop has made a fortune supplying food to us hungry cyclists, but it has been a great boon to have them there, carrying stuff to us out on the patio overlooking the boats and the water. This morning I of course wanted their Egg McMuffin clone, which is my standard food any day. But Violet especially was smitten with their soup, that she has already chosen for two suppers. So - it never hurts to ask - and the kitchen agreed to produce a Thai Chicken soup, for breakfast. Violet ate this most happily.
We went down onto the floats for a final look at all the boats - noting their ID numbers in the case of rentals, and the horsepower sizes of their motors in general. We also had another look for the anemones that Avi had spotted clinging beneath the water yesterday - such as the white one we had also seen at the aquarium - but we couldn't quite remember where they were.
Of most interest by the floats was of course the seal, who we have not seen since the unfortunate situation with the seagulls who refused to give him a fair shot at fish bits we threw. Failing to spot him again, we went up on the metal bridge that connects the floats to the land, for a final photo to help remember the place. And here suddenly was the seal - not stealthily diving beneath the floats, but on the surface just looking at us. Clearly he had come to say goodbye!
We left Pedder Bay, but really did not go far, because we had earlier spotted several good patches of Evergreen Blackberries along the access road. This is the exact season for blackberries, and they are all over in this area. There are two varieties - the Himalyan and the Evergreen. Evergreen has deeply serrated leaves and, we think, thornier thorns. The flavour is subtly different. Perhaps because Evergreen is a little harder to find, some authorities (like the kids) believe it to be superior.
We spent a long time picking and eating blackberries, and also stashing quite a few in containers for later. The children were rally motivated to pluck these luscious fruits, despite the hazards of the ditch and the thorns.
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Eventually we did get around to pushing the bikes back up the hill to where the Galloping Goose continued toward Victoria. Once again, it was kms of good trail and lovely forest. There was a fair distance until the next rest stop, but the kids seemed ok with it.
Each rest stop, we have come to realize, has a bike rack and decorative metal art which are themed according to where you are.
So for example, the bike racks can be in the form of a boat, a bike, a horse, etc., and the metal art can depict a bear, a tractor, etc. We probably have photos of the kids climbing on each of the bike racks, since they came to look forward to this. Here they are on the horse, at the Luxton Fairgrounds stop:
Of course, we also needed to stop at most playgrounds, and we found a nice one on the outskirts of the city. We had only been there a while when we heard "Hello Grampies!". This was not one of those kind of random Grampies encounters, but instead was Marvin Paxman, and old family friend. Marvin had been following the blog, and had guessed where we might be. Marvin and Erika are themselves authors of a great blog, which you can see at http://erikapaxman.blogspot.com They will take you on a spin around Germany on their e-Bikes. We had not seen Marvin since he and Erika returned from Germany, so it was a very happy reunion. Marvin had come on his e-Bike, which became the main focus of our interest. Marvin and Erika's e-Bikes were purchased here, and are quite good, but Marvin has now seen the major advances in such bikes available in Europe and is hoping to upgrade. Pretty soon Erika too spotted us. She had left home later and had independently guessed where we would be. Grampies are certainly not very stealthy!
Marvin and Erika rode with us almost all the way into Saanich. They split off toward Victoria to go look for a new handlebar pattern for Erika. It had been a wonderful surprise and quick get together.
The Goose goes right by the foot of Karyn and Erhard's street, but there is a bit of a tough hill to get up to their house. Avi and I pedalled up, but the "Weaklinks" pushed. They are very fast pushers, though, and we all arrived at the house quickly. It all ended with yogurt and blackberries, safe in Karyn's kitchen. It had been about 200 km and 7 days of pure fun.
In the van on the way back to the farm, we tried to decide what had been best: the aquarium? the trains? the Bug Zoo? camping? the seal? There were a lot of candidates, and no real resolution. One thing that did not come up was the actual cycling.
Hmmm.
Today's ride: 30 km (19 miles)
Total: 249 km (155 miles)
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