Notes on the Geography of Canada (B.C.): Victoria's Waterfront 2

The peregrination continues.

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Whale-back rock, just west of the Oak Bay Golf Club.

Oak Bay has blocked off more of its waterfront than Victoria; much is held in grand estates.

Commercial developments along the waterfront are sparse: here, a beach hotel--subsequently demolished and replaced by something bigger.

More common are apartments, even a few high-rise ones, like the one here. In the foreground, Willows Beach, crowded on summer days but otherwise very quiet.

Apartments began creeping into Oak Bay sometime around World War II.

Through the 1960s, pedestrian apartment blocks replaced houses.

Pack 'em in. Stack 'em up.

Lest anyone think that such things were done only in Oak Bay, we backtrack to Beacon Hill Park, just west of which this baby stands.

Back to the Oak Bay coast: the view is east, toward Mt. Baker in the Cascades. The dawn was bright.

Occasionally, a homeowner decides to declare war on historic styles. Or perhaps the owner was suffering from light deprivation, common enough in the long, dark winters.

Gordon Head still had bits of open headland and beach in 2000. The headland is a house now.

The beach and the headland beyond was set aside as a park once the land behind it was carved into tiny lots.

A summer morning: what could it be?

Perhaps you can make out the spray; it was certainly audible as the whale rose and sank, minute by minute.

A little sharper.

Looking back from the same beach toward the new housing development, an edge of which can be seen.

A closer view of what had been a raw headland, occupied only by cormorants and eagles.

Farther back, homes cluster on what had been the property attached to a large house from the 1930s.  It was removed.