We left Victoria this morning to head for the wilderness. Or at least Englishman River Falls provincial park. it's a very pretty campground with some very, very large trees and on this day it's almost completely empty. We had our choice of nearly 125 sites before we settled on #87.
We stopped in Nanaimo for some of the most expensive groceries ever and tried to stop for lunch too. After an hour of driving around we just moved on. It seems downtown is completely derelict (they're building a big casino to spruce things up I assume) and the outer ring is the same fast food chains you'd find in any other town. Not a local diner to be found, unless you count the one with three drunks slumped in front of the door. That's not exactly "family dining"...
At the campground we met a fellow with two of the biggest dogs we've ever seen. A Great Dane and Italian Mastiff. Small horses, actually. The mastiff was originally bread to battle lions in the roman colesium. I believe it.
UPDATE: Tratz comments that we missed the good bits and North Nanaimo is quite nice. We'll check it out on the return leg!
UPDATE #2: OK, I stand corrected. Once you park and start walking around, it turns out that Nanaimo is a wonderful place. Thanks to the Jeff, Tratz and Mindi for commenting. I wouldn't have tried it without you!