Nanaimo down to Victoria

After spending a productive few days in Nanaimo presenting to youth groups, and boys and girls clubs, we cycled down the highway to Thetis Island. Shane, Jen and Ed took the scenic route and managed to add an extra 20 kilometer to their trip which left them puffing and panting to make it to the ferry on time, but all was well. The ferry ride was windy and cold, the crew of otesherites huddled together not unlike a group of penguins. It was a lot more protected on Thetis, and it was just a short bike to the community center where we stayed, although not entirely free of incident. Sarah had a mechanical, ripping her rear derailleur from the frame as she powered up a steep incline, leaving her bike unrideable. A friendly local offered to retrieve her, and with a little careful attention all was well with her bike.

The small community of Thetis Island generously offered us the use of their community center come library in a beautiful, rural setting. It was a really cosey space with books lining the walls, couches, and a stereo! But before there could any thought of sleep there was a night of awesome food, presentations and celebrations for Kristin´s birthday. The Thetis Island community turned out in force for a pot luck dinner that Fran had previously organised. The food was all vegetarian, and quite possible the best feed of the tour. There was so much food that amazingly the Otesha crew were unable to eat it all - unheard of. Following the meal, it was time for the presentation. It was one of the most diverse audiences we presented to given that ages ranged from toddlers to the some of the more senior members of the community. Everyone present seemed to really enjoy it, there were many laughs, and great interaction from the audience for the game of jenja. After the presentation, it was
time to celebrate Kristins birthday, with the traditional no-bake cake. Then followed a bunch of games including the very entertaining Samuri Inter-gallactica!

It was a cold, clear and early start the following morning to make the early ferry back to Chemainus on Vancouver Island. The day quickly warmed up, and became a beutiful day for riding. The destination was Brentwood School at Mill Bay. Brentwood School was the first private school of its type that we had presented to on the tour, and proved to be quite interesting for the team members to notice some of the differences. We were only booked in to do one presentaion, however it was so well recieved, we were imediately invited to do another - great result! Following the presentation, the school provided us with lunch in their staff room and we enjoyed stunning veiws out over the water.

From Bentwood School it was a little backtracking to Duncan, with Jodi leading the charge (as was now customary), in her newly aquired second hand black, steelcap army boots, entirely upending the theory that spandex and army boots are not the most complementary pieces of apparel. We spent a couple of nights in Duncan, the City of Totems. Very comfortable and roomy accommodation was provided to us by Duncan´s Uniting Church, write in downtown. While in Duncan we presented to Canada World Youth, however, it was quite different to previous presentations in that our stage was the square outside the cityhall in the heart of the town. It went well, genorating some curious looks from the public. That evening we presented to the church youth group in the hall out the back of the church. Again it was a great presentation which saw the debut of the new Planet Earth combination of Nathan and Leigh, providing many laughs to both the audience and the tour members alike. A friend of Ed´s from Australia, Marty (better known as Moose), filmed the whole presentation on to VHS. The highlight of Duncan for many of the tour members was a community ´salman walk´ which brought together many members of the community and visitors to pay hommage to the town and its natural resources.

From Duncan we set out for Victoria on our last day of riding of the tour proper. Jody and Leigh ellected to take the more demanding Mallahat route to Victoria, while the rest of the crew took the ferry from Mill Bay to Brentwood Bay, and rode more serene roads into Victoria. We all met up at Recylistas, a bike shop in Victoria which keeps old bikes on the road and empowers folk by teaching bike mechanic skills, an inspiring grass roots operation. At Recyclistas we met Coast to Coast tour members Adel and Triane. We then rode as one crew along bike tracks into downtown Victoria. Once we reached the hustle and bustle of the city centre, we created a random type of crytical mass, which proved to be empowering, noisy, and a lot of fun for many of the tour members. Riding through the city streets was quite a strange feeling as we´d reached our final destination. What an amazing journey it had been, but although the touring aspect was all but over, we had a very busy few days ahead of us in Victoria.