So, I'm in Halifax, NS - and its awesome.this cant be too long cause i'm a busy man as you are all busy people so:Leaving thunder came with mixed feelings, sadness because I was leaving behind all these wonderful people whom i've met over the past 5 months, and leaving Lisa, yet at the same time I was really excited to go off and start my own journey and adventure.5am upto get off to the air port and at 6:30 we were taking off into the sunrise, i'm still not sure if it was the brightness of the sunrise as we took off that did it, but my eyes were tearing up something dreadful - from memory - the way that i was biting my lip would say some other cause than the sun.flight to Toronto, gate mix up, running around, flight to Montreal, 1 hour stop, flight to Halifax - arive 1:30 local time. did you know that the halifax airport is 47km OUT SIDE of halifax?? no? well it is.there are 4 ways to get into town, walk, drive, taxi, bus - to what i said "ha! like hell" "i dont have a car...." "WHAT $60 your kidding" and "how much? $18? ok, i can do that"but it only stops off at hotells and i didnt know where i was going.a few phone calls, mexed up not having names and area codes - but all got worked out in the end and i got to 6137 pepperall st - to seph's place (a friend of a friend who plays Guitar, bouzouki and banjo.)got in, had some food and off for tunes.1st day in town - wander around the streets (this is a fantastic city and you should all check it out - much like Hobart just bigger) take some photo's and have a jolly good o'll time.that night we went out to a pub to play erin (irish flute) who plays there every tuesday for an open session. we took the cab home.2nd day walked in the other direction for a few hours and checked out a heap of parks and the like. I saw a white swan!! WOO! the houses seem mainly to be from the 1920's and must be worth hundeard's of thousands of dollars. it was impressive.that night more tunes. and today I've been packing and shoping. BECAUSE!!!!IN ABOUT 2 HOURS I HAVE A LIFT TO CAPE BRETON ISLAND!!!!!AAAAAGHHHHHH!!! WOOOOO! (etcetcetc)This is going to be a real adventure.I've been looking at the accommodation places - and seeing as the tourist season doesn't start till next month, nothing is open till next week or the week after. ha!so I went shopping - i now have 2 large tarps, and a hiking pole to sleep under. (lets hope that its not too windy/cold/wet for the nest week)the other thing about cape breton in general is that there is NO public transport.Thus i'm going to be hitch-hiking my way around. So, i have some food (bananas, loaf of bread, and some tuna) packed (no stove, no cooking equipment... Hmmmm) clothes, sleeping bag, first aid, sleeping mat, camera, minidisk recorder, tarps and pole, maps, lonly planet AND of course, my fiddle and recorder. all packed and ready for what i'm sure will turn out to be an epic adventure. I cant wait!!!!yes, mum, dad and Lisa - (the people i've been talking to)i'll be safe, and I wont get eaten by bears)till the next time - Sven.things that i'm grteatfull for:- cheap calls to Lisa and the ancestors.- good people- great music- leaves on the trees, and its such a vivid green.... nothing like back home!- a dry warm place to sleep at night.- the moose toy that lisa gave me :)- getting emails from people excited to see me when I get back home.
So , I’m sitting on the couch in our house and I’m thinking that in a week I’ll be on the flight into Halifax for 3 weeks in Nova Scotia before I leave Canada. It’s scary and I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing – mainly because the next few months are going to be super hard.
Ok, that's the next post in a few days (or tomorrow) lets just back pedal a few weeks…
I got my marks back – I passed everything with a low of 66 and high of 84 in 2 subjects. So I’m happy with that.
My computer is still dead and I’m not sure that I’ll be able to fix it – so maybe it’s not worth bringing it back home and thus I’m stuck with no way to download photo’s, contact people etc…… all of the things that you become to depend on a laptop to be able to do while your travelling.
We have been slowly getting everything together for the girl’s trans Canadian bike ride that they leave for on Tuesday next week, although at the moment Lisa hates her shoes, bike, clothes, and gloves. So I’m not sure what she’s going to do about all that, but seeing as she doesn’t have any money to get new gear… I suppose she’ll have to start liking it cause I’d hate to think that every day for the next 3 months that she wakes up doesn’t want to get up and keep riding.
Last week was exciting - the 3311 class had their white water canoeing trip (8 days) and I was able to score a ride with them to one of their sites for 2 days photography. It was a blast! It gave me some time to spend outdoors, I got to take some photo’s and it ended up turning into a bit of a job because they not only gave me a video camera as well, but asked me to come back the next day!
Last weekend was the May long weekend… (not that I, out of school and unemployed noticed.) Myself along with 4 other blokes got up super early and drove the 2 hours to Rossport on the Lake Superior north shore. By 9 we were geared up with sea kayaks, pogies (most awesome things EVER) PFD’s wetsuits and food for at least 3 days. The morning was stunning and we thought it was going to be a great time, but – in the time it took to pack the boats and get launched the wind had picked up, and a large front looked like it was about to set in. (it was then, when “The wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” started to go through by head that I should have started to walk home).
And so we set off. Now, for all of you back home, Lake Superior I’m lead to believe is the largest body of fresh water in north America, its also smack bang in the middle of the continent and if it wasn’t for the vast size of the jolly thing central Canada would have a the climate and environment of the Siberian tundra. All the same, when the shores have been frozen in several feet of ice for the past 5 months – its really REALLY cold….. as in – you go in the drink and you panic you’ll have about 5-10 min before you have severe hyperthermia. It’s really an inland sea and as such has about as much care for you as bass straight had for the 98 Sydney to Hobart yachtsmen. (and on the second day out I came across that indifference)
We rounded the first island and started to head out towards Wilson Island where we’d thought of camping, our guide (and housemate) Zack had arranged the weekend for us, had worked as guiding around the Rossport islands the previous year and “knows the area” (HA!) I feel that on a body of water this dangerous not only should you know the water but the weather, the indicators and what to do when it gets nasty (and when you have first tine sea kayakers like myself and rob)
To cut the narrative down – across the first crossing, round the island, down the channel, wind to out backs, round the point – big crossing (about 1000m) go – wind’s picking up from the right, big open water to the left, get across. More wind – turn into the wind and go along the side of Wilson island, front comes in, 3ft rollers with wind waves on top of that, rain, fast, ice cold and stinging my face and hands. Hmmm… ice cap still on that point – round the point, nearly spill, (3 times) get into camp – Oh! Sweet sweet sheltered bay with solid ground beneath my feet – I have not been that scared in a LONG time.
Camp was fantastic… the others said that there were bears out on the island…. But I didn’t see any. I took a stack of photo’s messing around with settings etc and having a good O’l time.
The next day I got up around 7 – it was raining and windy so I went back to bed.
10:00 up again, its still windy, and really cold – no rain. 11:00 breakfast and planning our attack (we had to be home tonight) 12:00 on the water – I’d have been happy to just go home because of the wind and the white caps out, but Zack and Aaron wanted to go right out to Kabanosh (KAb-An-Osh) Island to have a look see. (that’s right out on the outer north shore…
We paddle, we sail, we avoid capsizing and we make land on the island. do a few surveys for camp sites and have a look at these terraced beaches (they were really weird. Back to the boats, (cross country – if you’ve never seen 5 guys on a remote island in wet suites bashing through pine trees and under growth – it really is a sight!) 3:00 lunch… big crossing back to Wilson island (behind island, forward island right open water for 100’s of km till you hit the states, left wind and waves at about 25 knots…. Lots of white caps. Not cool!)
Around rear end of the island into steam boat channel (calm, nice paddeling) out of the channel and into the worst wind and waves yet. 4 ft waves, wind gusting so that you’re drifting backwards even as every ounce of you is aching from trying to paddle forwards…. Sacry scary scary!
There was one point that I looked at this rock, did 100 strokes as hard as I could and the rock was in front of me! AGH!!
So, the crossing back to channel island was the worst – its only about 600 meters but the wind and the waves and being exhausted (not to say that the group was a long strung out line and if I did come off I’d die!) it took me about an hour to do it, and I went through an entire range of emotions – wanting to give up, thinking about food, thirst, nearly crying, being sore, getting over being sore and thinking about the parts of my body that weren’t sore or cold…. And being really really angry because it was all taking forever. I have not been in a situation where during an outdoor recreation trip I wished that I was anywhere but there.
I did make it, and I made the last 3 crossings and I’ve just got 2 more stories to tell about the weekend.
The first is from the 2nd last crossing. It was a big one, I think it’s the biggest one that we did and it was beside open water for miles back to the mainland so the water had lots of time to get going - the sun was setting (about 9:30) and we’d been going flat out since 3:30 when we’d had lunch. There was a set of 5ish foot waves that came through – I say this because when I was between them I couldn’t see out but what I did see was awesome, the waves’ top was being blown off from the wind and hitting me in the face, and as the wave got right up the golden sunlight was shining through creating this black/blue/gold landscape that I’d ride down the back of, get hit in the face by the little drops of gold that flew off the wave crest before the kayak dove into the front of the next wave and I had a whole heap of cold water land on my for deck and skirt. I nearly lost it at one time when I wad distracted by the beauty of it all.
The second was right at the end of the trip when we were in the Rossport harbour, we’d just come around the last point and could see the big red fog light on the end of the pier (as well as the town ship and house lights) it was about 10:30 pm and the sun had been down for an hour, the wind – had both dropped off after sunset and the face that we were now behind a few smaller islands close to the mainland so it was basically flat. To the east there was a huge storm cloud group that had been blowing over us for the past 2 days and it was totally black. So, its dark, the water is black and we’re paddling across this black flat water following this big red light. Through these clouds to the east the full moon popped its head and lit up the entire bay. When this happened I looked around and it was awesome. I was between Rob and the moon and when he turned around and said something along the lines of “wow, your silhouette against the water in the moonlight, the islands and the storm… wow!” So around 11:45 when we had been going flat out since 3:30 that afternoon, totally exhausted and slightly worried about our families back home who were expecting phone calls around 8 sitting in our kayaks lit up by the full moon’s light on Lake Superior we let off a huge howl, only to be answered by the other’s somewhere out in the dark a few hundred meters behind us.
All in all, I would not do that trip again, not in those conditions, not with that group, and NOT with that level of experience (zip!) but I’m really glad that I did – it was fantastic, I returned home to a rather worried Lisa at 1:30 in the morning (I called her as soon as we got into Rossport!) sore, and exhausted after being scared and having my ass totally kicked by Lake Superior.
Those of you, who do know, know, and for those of you who don’t I’ll just say this:
As I said, I leave Thunder Bay and Lisa in less than a week and that’s going to suck big time… especially seeing as we just got engaged last month and I won’t see her for a minimum of 7 months – but that is another story for another entry.
Things that I’m thankful for:
Lisa. (of coarse!) all the fantastic people here in T’bay! Kat’s notes on Facebook Meagan N. (the Yank) and her occasional emails. long calls home planning the next few years of our lives Sunshine after a day of rain my camera. everyone coming back from that paddle trip alive and well.
Till next time, Sven.
So, Long time no chat eh? (Said "A")OK, thats about as far as my Canadian goes these days, well, that and being able to call beanies 'tooks' and jumpers 'sweaters'.The university year in Canada came to a screeching halt a week ago, my last exam was 3 hours for Nature Based Tourism, and an interesting point - I don't know how everyone else left so early! it was a 6 part exam, answer 3 out of 4 questions for each part, that's 10min a question.... (and I could have done it in more than that!) but somehow people left after an hour or so - right up until there was only myself and one other student left when the time ran out! Bizarre!Any who, it was awesome to be done, Lisa was done this Monday just gone - and that means (well, except for a trip or 2 for classes) - that she's DONE DONE! 4 years of education OVER! HA! (then she told me that I'll be done in November any way....) She was accepted into the post-grad experiential education course here at LU that she wanted, she she'll be back next year to do that. All very exciting!I realised that there is less than 2 months till i have to leave Canada, and about a month until I have to leave Lisa again for a long period of time, it's not going to be easy, and if it wasn't for uni, my visa expiring, my money running out and the fact that my mother will kill me if I don't come home - I'd totally stay here! hopefully it'll we'll see each other again in 10 months?? (I'm planning on coming over next April to work the Canadian Summer).ME: Finished uni, and that was an ordeal - i had started my final paper for NBT when my computer decided to get the BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH 4 days out form the due date (and no, I didn't get it back until AFTER everything was due!) so I spent the last 4 days freaking out trying to get a paper done on Lisa's computer (there are things to be said about having back up copies, but 2 weeks prior I'd put my thumb drive through the washing). I now have the computer back, they couldn't say what was wrong with it but I've decided that its because the fan is dead - it's not spinning, it just makes noises and the bottom of the computer now heats up to a temperature that I've been thinking I could fry an egg on it. that said, I only manage to get about 45 min use out of it before it gets too hot and I turn it off.There is a cough going around but I was feeling great, so on wednesday (when it hit 20 above!!) Lisa, Meagan, Colin and I went for a ride up to the bluffs (about 2 hours round trip) [Meagan and Lisa are biking across Canada starting in June and the house is full of bike gear, maps and other things that they are going to need]. It was an awesome time, and it was fantastic to see some more of the surrounding area of a Thunder Bay. BUT that night when I was home, I realised that I was really quite sunburnt! how did that happen! I didn't know that you could get sunburnt in Canada? well, i assumed that you COULD BUT still, it wasn't hot, it was really nice - but that sun got me, on my arms and face. Apparently I was also rather dehydrated after the ride and woke up sometime around 3am with heat stroke and the beginnings of the T'bay cough.Now 2 days later I'm out of bed but my head hurts, all my joints hurt, my neck and throat hurt, I keep having hot and cold flushes, water tastes bland and I don't feel like eating anything. and I'm only here now cause I woke around 6 and couldn't get back to sleep.Good times good times!(NOT!)It's raining today, (slightly) with a heavy fog, so another good day for sitting indoors and staying warm. (its almost like winter in Albury with the fog that hangs around till 1pm!).I'll try and get some photo's up for you to see - I have ones from winter camping, Montreal, around campus and random odds and ends that I think you'll like.Hope that your all well, See you in July!Sven.Thankful list:- Lisa!!- being finished uni!- my 'polar bear' jumper that Lisa's mum gave me (It's white and really really warm and comfy) - Long calls home to mum and dad- being able to be outside in a T shirt.- spring cleaning and fresh air in the house- random sessions playing bluegrass with the boys out the front of their house on a couch, and the cars honking as they go past!
