Breakfast at hotel 6:45am & boarded the bus @ 7:45am. The hotel would not allow morning classes so we stopped in a lay by overlooking Nanoose Bay adjacent to the Canadian submarine firing range where the sheriff went through his procedures. Keith joined the meeting via video call. Punishments and fines were meted out according to seriousness.
We then returned to the road and headed south to Victoria. We visited a town with murals on the wall following the loss of its mills. This brings tourists to the the town. We crossed over to the southern half of the island with 44 miles to go before we reach Victoria. Passed the largest hockey stick & puck which was originally built for expo Vancouver 98 and then moved to Vancouver Island following the end of the exhibition.
We visited Olympic point which is the most Westerly point of Canada, 5700 miles to Newfoundland. Washington State, USA is approximately 20 miles away across the sea with the Mountain ranges climbing from sea level.
We arrived at Victoria ice rink where we were treated to a delicious lunch. We then were piped onto the ice and we commenced our games. Mixed results, a couple of good wins, a near miss and a big disappointment but a positive points outcome overall. Some talk was had of shenanigans with the ice plant. No further comment.
We then checked into the Strathcona Hotel and enjoyed dinner there, compèred by the Rev Don Allen. A fairly length speech was given by Lawrence Woytowich, President of the PCMCA. The tour song was performed with gusto by the tourists but only once we managed to get the lights turned up so that the more visually challenged amongst us could still read the words from the songbook!
With formal proceedings concluded, (nearly) everybody shuffled across into Big Johns Bar, adjoined to the hotel. The bartender was delighted to finally see the bottle of Drambuie, previously untouched since March 2021, finally laid to rest. Panic set in his eyes when he began to realise that the single additional bottle left in stock was not going to survive the evening either. Thankfully further supply was sourced from somewhere or other and no shortages were endured.
Steven McClymont