“Victoria exudes old-world charm and fragrant and colorful flowers are everywhere. Founded in 1843 by James Douglas of the Hudson’s Bay Company, the city was first known as Fort Victoria. By 1848, Vancouver Island was a British colony and Victoria was its capital.

In 1858, Victoria was a tent city and the base for some 25,000 prospectors on their way to the Frasier River gold fields. When Vancouver Island was incorporated with mainland British Columbia in 1868, Victoria became the capital of the entire province.

Although it’s a port city, Victoria is not as industrially oriented as Vancouver. The harbors, especially Inner Harbour, are dotted with pleasure craft, ferries and floatplanes. The city is renowned for its beautiful gardens, charming houses and very British feel.”

Note to self.

Just because this……..pic below……waves her tentacles right at you, doesn’t mean you have to try everything.

I very nearly missed the Ocean Wildlife & Orca Exploration Cruise we had booked for Victoria. Due to an all night episode praying to the white porcelain goddess.

And I know, that’s far too much information. But it should be a lesson to all. Rich food, if you aren’t used to it, and it’s all there for the taking, well….have some self control.

Clearly I didn’t. The night before we had the pleasure of spending the evening with our new besties Bob, Wendy and Angela for Angela’s birthday. It was a table of ten lovely people, 5 from the U.S. the rest of us Aussies and NZ’s. We had a lovely night, but five courses, two of which were dessert, took it’s toll. I had ordered the petite fours platter. When it came out the waiter put it in the middle of the table, thinking it was for all of us, as I did. However, after everyone had some, including me, the waiter realised his mistake and bought me the same platter, just for me. I didn’t like to be rude….although hindsight is a marvellous thing and I wished I had of.

Our table of lovely peeps

Earlier that same day, MOD had booked us in for wine tasting. That was at 2pm. They took away the glasses once you had finished. Three stars for guessing which one is mine and which one is MODs. And whilst I only had one glass of Prosecco, my now very clear hindsight is telling me that was another big No! No!

But back to Victoria, British Columbia.

Canada.

After an hours uninterrupted sleep the previous night, I did get up and make my way to the Orca tour. I may have slept the whole way out, woken to look across the 200 metre ‘no go zone’ to where the Orca’s were, snapped a photo and then slept the way back. But I got there. Our cruise had found a pod of transient Orca’s. They are the ones who just blow in and blow out, so to speak. As opposed to the resident pods. The cruise took us through Victoria’s Inner Harbour and surrounding coastlines. We had ‘Certified Naturalists’ onboard (no they weren’t nude) to provide live commentary – as opposed to my half dead dribble – and to answer any questions. I had none.

Orca’s stay in their social groups and are matriarchal. The oldest female is the matriarch, teaching the whole pod how to fish, sleep, socialise, and basically live. When the males head off to mate, they always come back to mamma. Not very good dads, they won’t win any Father’s Day prizes.

Which reminds me, Happy Fathers Day to all those Aussie and NZ dads and about to be dads out there. Special HFD to new dad Chris Sheehan!

Anyho! Our naturalists were able to tell us that there are three resident pods in the harbour at the moment, named J, K and L. Each Orca is named and has a unique marking on the dorsal fin, much like a human fingerprint, hence they can tell who is who. By law, we weren’t allowed to go closer to them than 200 metres, but if they come closer to us, well weren’t we lucky. And we were. Not too close but close enough to get a photo.

Once we got back to shore and our ship, we had about an hour before we sailed back to SF. Not enough time really to go into town. I hit bed and stayed there for some time. Not sure what MOD did but periodically I awoke to find food and drink and an attentive MOD. That’s why I call him MOD!

Tomorrow is a sailing day.