A few weekends ago I had a kayak trip planned, unfortunately, the weather did not co-operate. There were 40+ knot winds in the ocean around Victoria, so that put the kibosh on that. Instead, a trip out to Port Renfrew was in order. It is a long drive alongside the Juan de Fuca trail. After checking out Port Renfrew we headed out to Botanical Beach. As luck would have it, Feb 24th was the second lowest tide (after the 23rd), and we hit the beach at exactly the right time. Pure coincidence.
As you can see the weather was not great, I had a good view over to Owen Point where I was on the West Coast trail, but I did not get a picture of that. Seems like it would be an easy sea kayak though. I was sadly even less impressed with Botanical Beach than the last time I had been there. It is so horribly dead compared to the tidal pools along the west coast trail. It is a shame really, as it should be one of the best.
Checking out the starting point for the west coast trail was kind of fun as it looked just like it did when I set out on it in 2005, not that it should have changed at all. But I at least look at it now with a knowledge of exactly what it is like, and what can be expected along the trail every step of the way.
On the way back, a stop at the 17 mile pub, which has Guinness on Tap, and good food was in order. Now, the bill was around $45, which was fine on my Visa. A few days later, when I checked my bill, there was the $45 charge… and another charge for $2700!!! Now, I like my Guinness, but I don’t buy it in kegs! As it turns out, there was an error made by one of the servers, which had already been corrected, but Visa was not yet aware of that change, so it was reversed. But then, Visa flagged my card, and I could not use it at the Black Bear pub in Nanaimo to buy my mother dinner either! So, I had to contact Visa again to get the flag removed. *Grumble*.
