Strange Fountains and Stone Bridges

 Hullo! Sooo... on my way back from Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse... we made a little detour down to the old highway around Mill Bay... I had come across a strange thing online and thought I would check it out...

It should be right up there, on the other side of the road...

Where there's water... we must be getting close...

Sooo... if anyone wants some water cress to eat... I know where to find lots!

Ta-dah!!!! It's an old roadside fountain!!

It was put here in 1924 by the Victoria Rotary Club. This used to be the route the old Malahat highway took, over the Malahat Pass... and cars would need to stop and fill their radiators... and horses would drink here too!

It replaced one that had been built in 1911 and was made out of wood. Up until a few years ago, there was water still flowing out of the fountain but... it's now disconnected due to safety issues (beaver fever anyone?).

See... in back... there's the hose but it doesn't suck water anymore.

That's too bad... Which reminds me... there is a place like this near where Gramma used to live... a pipe coming out of a tree that people still come and fill up their water jugs... Anyhow... on to our next stop!

Here we are! Our next stop is to find the mysterious "stone bridge"... we don't have a lot of stone bridges here (like... none). So this would be kind of cool.

It's not far... there's the creek...

And there's the bridge... hmmm...

Let's check it out...

Yep... it's a stone bridge (and some cement).

Pretty cool! Let's look at it from the downstream side.

Errr... q'est que c'est?

This looks mysterious!!!

A whole in the ground with some plastic conduits....

And an old concrete thingie which probably had a door at one point with more plastic conduits and wiring. 

Perhaps a water pump station??

Ah, here we go... this is a nice view...

But not quite what we are looking for...

this isn't quite it either... too far away...

Think we could hop across the stream from slick mossy rock to slick mossy rock?

Yeah. No.

We went back over the bridge and here we go... this is looking better!

Yes!! Perfect! Love it... Usually there is much more water flowing (spring and fall) so we might have to come back here and see what it looks like...

Very cute... Glad we came!

And then... one final stop!! We had read about another fountain near Oyster Bay but the directions were... messy... "On the opposite side of the road from where it used to be"... Not helpful!!! But... with a bit of sleuthing and another clue ("On the access road parallel to the highway"... we found it!

It is seriously getting covered by blackberries... but this old road fountain used to be on the other side of the highway and people would stop and fill up their containers with fresh, clean water...

Those were the days I guess... when you could just drink water from any little creek or spring or seepage... Pretty cool! We found some nifty old things today... 

The Malahat Skywalk

 Alright... we are almost at the top of the Malahat Skywalk... And just for some viewers...

***vertigo warning***

See... we made it!!!

Ummm... what is this???

It's like mesh net and... you can see straight through... all the way to the bottom!

So, yes... we did step out onto the net and... we didn't fall through. It was freaky though.

And then some kids followed...

And yes this little bear did venture out! Although... smaller stuffies might fall through the holes sooo... beware.

We learned that this fjord has a deep zone at the south end, far from the ocean, where the water only gets turned over a few times a year. The rest of the year it's anoxic and a great laboratory for studying phytoplankton booms. 

It is gorgeous...

Way up to the north (off the left end of the photo) is the place where Harry and Meghan stayed a few years ago. Very hoity-toity estate...

Has anyone seen any eagles around here??

This one is beary cool.

It is beary pretty up here... but do we really have to walk all that way down the spiral walkway?

Cause it's a long way down... or can we take the metal spiral stairs or... What? There's another way to get down!??

So we walked down a couple of spirals...

And watched people up on the cargo net...

And then... there's a metal tube slide that you can take to get down!!

It went SUPER-FAST!!! Way faster than a water slide... This little bear didn't get any photos inside!

Well, that was seriously cool.

Glad we came here!

It is a beary nice place to sit and relax.

Alright... and to head back now... we walk through the woods...

And pass a few more signs... First of Its Kind, eh? Cool.

And under the tree-top walkway...

Alright, that was cool!!! And... wait for it...

I like to collect stamps from places I've been but so many places here don't have stamps sooo...

I found something else!

A sticker!!!

Excellent adventure!