12 hours of travelling

Sad to leave Waters Edge, even though we didn't manage to see the northern lights last night. We had a long journey to make, back to Peachland.

I saw a bear! A small black bear, on some grass, next to the highway. So cute and cuddly. (Well perhaps not cuddly!) Couldn't get a photo though because we were driving.

We stopped briefly at Parksville. Huge beach, iced tea and delicious sugar doughnuts. Gail then drove with her fingers crossed to Departure Bay, worried that we would miss the ferry, but we didn't!

The crossing was absolutely beautiful. We sat outside on the top deck in the sunshine, admiring the view. So warm. Stunning. Hoped to see a whale but the sparkling blue sea and the mountains made up for the lack of cetaceans.

We started on Canada's longest national road called the Trans-Canada Highway (number 1) through Vancouver. I was shocked to see the skyline. Not mountains but very tall buildings. We stopped in Hope for a Korean rice bowl. On highway 3 to Princeton we saw where there'd been a terrible rockfall in the 60s (47m cubic meters of rock fell down at the time!). We then got on to highway 3a to Penticton.

The scenery along the way kept changing. We saw so many different views from the car. It was interesting and amazing. All photos are on Instagram.

Finally got back to Peachland at just gone 9pm and started looking for the northern lights. Interestingly we couldn't see with the naked eye but the camera picked up some of the colours. .

So that's the first part of my holiday over. I really loved Vancouver Island. I liked the city and the beaches and loved the lighthouse walk. I hope to visit there again one day.

Gail's just worked out that she drove 975 miles in six days! Nearly one thousand miles! This country is huge.