We arrive late in the afternoon. We look for a park where to put the hammock. There is some green on the gps application near the river. We took all the luggage and there we see a lot of homeless people. After the good experience in Victoria, I am tempted to try here as well. Emilie suggests to speak with a small group. I refuse the gently offered pot, but they give me a good advice: run, it is dangerous there, because of narcotic people and they recommend another park, out of the center.
Il est 18h, Carrie, notre ‘chauffeur’, nous pose devant Powell books, l’institution du livre à Portland, Oregon.
Pour une fois, on a essayé d’organiser un peu notre arrivée et avons réussi à contacter quelqu’un sur couchsurfing, cependant il ne répond pas à notre dernier message.
In Port Angeles, at the tourist information, we understood that there are a lot of homeless people, so hitchhiking is difficult. The clouds looked pretty awful, so we waited for the bus to go to the West Coast to the ‘Third Beach’, in an Indian reservation. We arrived there by the free bus of the community.
At the dusk we crossed the Redwood forest to get to a paradise beach, well of the North, because it was raining. It seamed to be nobody.
We go to take the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles, Washington State, US. Crossing the border was the easiest and funniest. The customs office is on the way to the ferry, after the waiting hall. The office was so small, I took only my passport to check if there is really the customs. Since I was there, they checked the passport, got in 5 seconds the OK. Then I say, sorry, I forgot my girlfriend. I came back. We started to write some postcards. We couldn’t finish before the last person passed the customs, so they call for us. We are not under stress, but hurrying makes me forget a bag in the waiting hall … Can you imagine this scene in an American Customs Office ? At the end, Emilie asked to extended a little bit her authorization, the officer didn’t ask any question, she just said ‘how long do you want?’ and did it right away!
Victoria is the capital of British Columbia. As its name, it has a Victorian architecture: rich British houses, with a lot of parks and trees. It’s definitely a rich city. We saw a shop of Rolls Royce, of course.
