slash fundas: Canadian Rockies - Day 10 (Victoria; Butchart Gardens)

Saturday, September 30, 2017

Canadian Rockies - Day 10 (Victoria; Butchart Gardens)

Time to embark on the solo leg of my trip and it started off with an early morning flight from Calgary to Victoria. Air travel within the US and Canada often gives us the opportunity to fly by smaller aircrafts. My Calgary - Victoria flight was on a Bombardier aircraft; a single aisle with 2x2 seating aircraft. We flew over many ice fields before we landed at Victoria. a good 45-minute to an hour ride to downtown Victoria landed me at my hotel. But since I was about four hours early, I left my baggage, freshened up and left for the Butchart gardens. That's the first thing we tourists do when we are in Victoria.

The ice fields we see from air between Calgary and Victoria

Victoria, at first impression, looks for most parts a large bunch of villages that have come together to form the city. The so-called glitz of a typical Canadian / American city is reserved for its downtown area. Rest of Victoria is very green and it looks like a hilly region, though not mountainous. There are cute cottages and homes spread across the length and breadth of Victoria, especially as I see them as drive down in my double decker bus to the Butchart gardens.

Great Eggfly butterfly

White Tree Nymph

There was a small stop to be made, en route. But the Butterfly gardens turned out to be more than just a small pitstop; it's a beautiful place to learn about- and see so many- butterflies. It's a large greenhouse that they've made it into a forest with dozens of butterfly species such as Lacewing Butterfly, Blue Morpho, Green Moss Peacock, Giant Owl Butterfly and the Giant Atlas Moth, which is so large it is seen to be believed. We saw birds like Blue & Gold Macaw (a type of a parrot, but very colourful as the name suggests) flamingo in its specially created stream, in addition to the Green Iguana, Red Footed Tortoise and Poison Dart Frogs. Several different types of insects such as Leaf Cutter ants, Malaysian Dead Leaf Mantis and spiders like the Burgundy Goliath Bird Eater were also there.

Monarch butterfly

The Butterfly garden is just 2 kms short of the Butchart gardens. Typically, take a joint ticket that enables you to get off at the Butterfly garden enroute to the Butchart gardens. Then, once you're done with the Butterfly garden, you can get out and take the same bus company's hop-on-hop-off bus to proceed towards the Butchart Gardens. Bear in mind that you must get off first at the Butterfly gardens first and then do Butchart Gardens. Do not do it the other way around because on return, the bus doesn't stop to pick up people from the Butterfly gardens.

Butchart gardens area where the original limestone quarry once stood

The Butchart gardens are beautiful. The gardens were once upon a time, a quarry that belonged to Robert Him Butchart who came here for this region's rich lime deposits , to feed the cement industry. Once the lime deposits got exhausted, Robert's wife, Jennie started to grow gardens in different corners around the home (which I believe now is the central gift shop, gallery and coffee shop) and its grounds. Eventually,

Butchart gardens

Amongst the many mini-gardens here, there's a Rose garden, Japanese garden and an Italian garden. The coffee shop is good and I had a sandwich and a delicious chocolate ice-cream. By 3 pm I am dine and I glad to catch the bus back to Victoria and relax in my lovely hotel room, overlooking the clock tower.