We had enjoyed the breakfast at Darwin’s Café so much the day before that we decided to repeat the performance before heading off to Victoria.
The weather had significantly improved since our trip down and we got to enjoy the fabulous scenery of mountains, lakes and rivers on our way to the first stop, the Old Country Market at Coombs.
More than a million visitors arrive each year to see the goats that live on the roof of the Old Country Market. The goats first appeared approximately 40 years ago. It was the Coombs Country Fair weekend, and the grass on the sod roof of the market was higher than the owner liked. Legend has it that after a few drinks, a friend suggested they borrow some goats to mow the grass and perhaps provide some entertainment to passing cars. They proved such a success that the goats became permanent tenants of the Coombs Old Country Market that day.
While some of the visitors stop only to have a look at the permanent four-legged tenants, others stay to immerse themselves in the many unique galleries, studios and shops that share the area with the famous goats. The Coombs Old Country Market itself is a great place to shop. They carry international foods, fresh-baked goods and a superb delicatessen that specializes in a variety of international meats and cheeses.
There is also a donut shop with a very wide selection of donuts, an ice creamery that is about 20 meters long and a farmer’s fresh produce market. 
By the time we had finished browsing through the market we were well equipped for our stay in the airbnb apartment in Victoria – breakfast, lunch and dinner!
From Coombs we headed south to Chemainus. If you ever visit this quaint and quiet town, then you are in for a real treat! Chemainus is a beautiful little seaside town and well known for its outdoor gallery of murals. The town has a number of very interesting shops and gardens, which are well worth visiting. Unfortunately for us most of them were closed on Mondays so we missed out on the year round Christmas Shop
and the Hansel & Gretel’s Candy Store. 
We peered in rather wistfully, as both looked different and exciting. Behind Hansel & Gretel’s is a secret garden, which is full of carvings from fairy tales and must delight many a child.
On to Cowichan Bay, a unique and historic waterfront town famous for it’s floating homes, occupied by independent characters that live and work on or near the water.
Then it was Victoria and our downtown apartment which turned out to be a bright airy two bedroom apartment perched high above the town and with it’s own tiny balcony to witness the mayhem below.
We soon learned that downtown was not the most salubrious area and that sirens were almost a constant background. At one stage we had seven police cars and two ambulances attending a situation across the street. High above all this, we were not affected and had everything we needed – comfortable chairs, comfortable beds, a well equipped kitchen and best of all a large washing machine and dryer!
First order of the day was to unpack our purchases from the Old Country Market and settle down to wine and cheese followed by a mushroom and vegetable pasta. Over the next 12 hours we emptied our suitcases and processed them through the washing machine and dryer before repacking with Honolulu on the bottom and Alaska on the top.
We caught up with our correspondence, organised to move Suzanne into her new berth and did some reading before leaving for the Butchart Gardens about 3pm.
The Butchart Gardens covers more than 55 acres and began from an idea Jennie Butchart had to beautify the her husband’s worked-out limestone quarry. The Gardens, through the skillful mixture of rare and exotic shrubs trees and flowers collected by the Butcharts during their extensive world travels, continually expanded over the years to become the world famous gardens they are today. The Gardens are still operated by the family and are visited by over a million visitors each year.
As we had spent two days at the Butchart gardens on a previous trip, this was a chance to see a slightly different season and to see what changes had been made. We planned to have a look around the gardens, have dinner at the Dining Room, listen to the band playing on the Concert Lawn until it got dark and then revisit the Sunken Garden and Japanese Garden to see them lit up.
First stop was the Sunken Gardens. Instead of going down into the gardens we viewed them from above, skirting around the perimeter and looking down into the various garden rooms. 
We passed the Bog Gardens 
The fountain rises 21 meters and continually alters, with jets of water weaving themselves together as if dancing to a hidden orchestra. At night it is lit and is quite spectacular.
We then made our way to the Rose Carousel, a menagerie carousel with 30 hand-carved wooden animals and two chariots. The Carousel was imported from France where the Butchart’s spotted it on their travels. Each animal is different and the attention to detail in both the carving and painting makes them absolutely exquisite.
We didn’t linger at the Firework Field, the Organ Pavilion and the Dahlia Border (just coming into bloom and spectacular when it does) but spent a little time sitting in the sun at The Dragon Fountain
before wandering through the Rose Garden (though there were still some lovely roses it was past the Spring and early Summer flush and not quite into the Autumn one) and arriving at one of my favourite fountains, the bronze Sturgeon Fountain, cast in Italy and featuring three entwined sturgeons.
Situated between the Butchart’s house and the house dock at Tod Inlet, the Japanese Gardens are the oldest gardens, started by Jenni as an adjunct to the house in 1906. Through the Torii Gate you find a non-traditional garden that weaves it’s way down to the inlet through Japanese maples, bonsai trees and bamboo with lots of water features to delight the eye.
A quick walk through the Italian Garden, to my mind the least interesting of all the gardens, and it was time for our dinner.
Situated in the Butchart’s original house, The Dining Room is one of the leading restaurants and I booked several months ahead to get in and get a highly prized table on the verandah overlooking the garden.
We started with a Gin and Basil Cocktail whilst we perused the menu. After a lot of toing and froing I decided on West Coast halibut cheeks with Nettle leaf raviolo, sea asparagus, shimeji mushrooms and beurre blanc sauce as an entrée followed by a Half rack of Peace River lamb with a buckwheat celeriac blini, king mushrooms, fiddlehead ferns, northern birch syrup and cashew aioli as a main course. 
Ed was taken with the Albacore tuna with compressed cucumbers, garden radish, Gemlik olives, Meyer lemon, coriander and Gulf Island mussel vinaigrette followed by Alberta beef tenderloin with Tiger Blue cheese sourdough bread pudding, bush beans, hemp seed, kohlrabi pickle and garlic scape pistou. 
Our meals were so beautifully presented and interesting in their flavours it was hard to pick which of us had made the better choice! To finish, Ed had coffee whilst I tried the Verrine – a light and frothy combination of raspberry gelee, rose mousse, vanilla honey macaron and Italian meringue.
We could hear the music from Chris Millington and his band coming from the Concert Lawn so made our way up there. There were about a hundred people sitting on the lawn listening and thirty plus up dancing on the stage. 
There were some very good dancers up there strutting their stuff and we decided to join them for a bit of fun. We danced our way through a variety of numbers as the skies darkened and the lights came on, then it was off to see the Gardens by night.
Ed felt there should be more overall lighting rather than the lighting of individual areas but I liked the way they had done it. In any event the overall effect was stunning and well worth staying up for.
It was midnight before we got back to our apartment and fall asleep to the sounds of sirens wailing in the night.