Monday 3rd October, 2005
Drove down into Claresholm at about 8am this morning for breakfast and stopped at Ron’s Diner. Plunked down in the corner at a table next door to a whole bunch of good natured cowboys playing liar dice.
It was a bizarre place; mothers and kids coming in for breakfast, various travellers and seemingly local regulars … including best of all a guy in a Village People outfit, complete with shiny leather short jacket AND a shiny leather cap with the chain around the peak. The old camera finger was twitching at this oddments and variety but I’d left it in the car so no luck!
It was a really ‘happening’ little diner and for the next hour we had bottomless coffees for $1.50 and a couple of eggs and a mountain potato waffles for $3.95.
It’s a clear, flat road and as we left it started snowing ... that fine icy snow … winter is just around the corner I these parts (and as I write this the television news has just announced that there was a foot of Snow in Pincher Creek last night … just north of Waterton – so we got out just in time !)
We arrived Calgary in good time and had a remarkably easy entry to the airport and car-dump … sorted our bags and checked the trip meter on the car –1250km driven on this leg.
No problems with the flight to Victoria; a friendly Air Canada service, which arrived well on time. We only caught the odd glimpse of the Rockies on the way … and of the islands around Vancouver as we approached; the rest of the country was covered in cloud.
Victoria basked in sunshine – quite unexpectedly and after we’d collected the car we decided to have a look around Sidney which is just along the coast from Victoria. There were three second hand bookshops and a really cool gallery called the Peninsula Gallery which had Robert Bateman’s paintings and some huge carvings of whales, done in maple.
We checked out a couple of possibilities for B&Bs locally .. and there were some superb options with end-of-season deals which brought their prices down to a simlar level as what we now know to be the rather expensive hostel option at Waterton (which was nonetheless, the cheapest option there.)
Anne has hankered after the Buttchart Gardens since she was young and so we decided to take advantage of the weather which is forecast not to hold at all, and arrived at 4pm with just an hour and a half to have a look round. The light was perhaps a little bit low … but the colours were superb. The maples are pretty well cooked to perfection all yellow and red, but some of the other bushes seem a little bit slow.
I took a quick swing round the Japanese garden which was tucked away in deep shad but which was nonetheless spectacular and then headed for the sunny parts of the garden to catch the light. I kept hearing these odd thumping noises nearby as I was photographing but wan’t really alerted to what it was until a lady hurried past me and commented that you really needed a crash-hat with these crows around! Eh? But on investigation there were about 30 crows who were systematically working their way through the windfall apples (quite small and hard probably some form of crab apple and were flying up in the air and dropping them on to the concrete stage of the open-air theatre, on the concrete paths and frequently dropping them on the tin roof of a shed nearby … which was the noise.
Headed into downtown Victoria and found the Helms Inn which is ideal; big room, kitchenette, chairs and WiFi on a good deal; its also really close to the Inner Harbour so convenient for Anne to explore the town.
Finally got contact with Eric at the University and arranged for a morning meeting at 11.30 up at UVic. Also got a contact with one of his masters students and arranged to meet Lisa for a pint or two at a local bar the next evening.
Took dinner at Chandlers a restaurant along the Inner Harbour which has been awarded best seafood restaurant for what seems like ever since time began; anyway it was good and pretty reasonably priced ... we had a shared seafood platter which included seared lobster tails, salmon, crab and stuffed mushrooms. Back along the front past the Empress hotel and the Government building … both monuments to colonial rule and nonetheless impressive.
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