Walking in the River

Today, we drove out of town for another adventure in the British Columbia outdoors, this one to the Trent River, but rather than taking a trail that followed the river, this time we actually walked in the river. This trail was not an established, well maintained trail, there was a narrow twisting trail that led quickly down to the river bed and then we walked directly along he edge of the river or in the river itself. 

The Trent River runs through a deep river gorge but the river itself runs over the bedrocks and is shallow enough that you can actually walk back and forth across the river on rocks or high points in the river bed. Although I was lent a pair of “water shoes”, I did not have to actually use them until late in the walk; I was usually able to find ways to jump from dry spots to dry spots without wetting my sneakers. There were areas where the river bank was too steep too rocky or too slippery, but then you just found a path across the river to the opposite bank. 

Apparently the eroded banks of the river contain many prehistoric fossils and the area is popular with fossil hunters and my sister located a couple to show us, but we mostly just enjoyed the hike in the river. 

I suspect that with heavy rain or in the early spring this hike might not be possible due to higher water levels, but on this day, it was a very pleasant walk along the river. 

Walking in the river

Riverbank Ferns

Flowers along the river

Lots of rocks

An old rusted water pipe

Walking in the river

OK, now where did this engine & transmission come from?

On the loose in Toulouse

Toulouse Train Station (At last)

I had heard that trains in France were slightly unreliable due to strikes, and we discovered that it is true. On Thursday, we bought tickets to go to Toulouse, and when we got to the train station (Gare de Narbonne - practicing my French), the departure board had our train flashing with “supprime” beside the train number. My first reaction was “Supreme”, we must have gotten an upgrade, but Google Translate disappointed me by translating to “deleted” which we figured out meant it was cancelled. Apparently the workers in the one stop before Toulouse were striking so the train could not get through. 

The wheels on the Bus . . . .

Plan “B” was to go on Saturday instead, and this time the trains were running, so after a relaxing ride through the French countryside we did get to the city of Toulouse. The train ride was interesting, because the change in scenery was striking; around Narbonne and the surrounding areas, the only crops we saw growing were grapes for wine, and the vegetables & fruit in the market all come from Spain, so I wondered if France only grew wine grapes (Not that  would be a bad thing!), but once we got closer to Toulouse I started seeing all sorts of other crops including large fields of sunflowers and no grapes. Interesting if not really fully understood . . .

Walking the City (It did not really rain)

Toulouse is a bigger city than Narbonne and was much busier with large crowds on its many pedestrian streets. It is an extremely well designed city with many large wide boulevards with well designated bike lanes, parks, gardens and wide pedestrian areas. There are still the typical narrow alley and streets I love in these old European cities, but when a serious fire destroyed a large area of the city, they added these open boulevards and pedestrian areas for safety. They also redesigned the riverfront, so that it is mostly public friendly parks and walkways rather than industrial. I saw this in Glasgow, Scotland as well and it is a pleasant way to make these areas more attractive to people. It also reminded me of the very tourist friendly Halifax waterfront. 

Lunch in Toulouse

We took a city tour and saw most of the highlights through the bus window, and then went out exploring on foot to see the things we saw that interested us. After a stop for lunch, we visited markets, the “capital”, three churches, the riverfront and the Canal de Midi. By then my phone had decided it had done enough and ran out of power with the Pedometer reading 16 km walked, so we found a friendly bartender and sat with drinks while we watched the citizens of Toulouse enjoying their Saturday and waited for our train back to Narbonne. 

And now some photos from around Toulouse.

Chess match - one against eight

The Canal de Midi

The red apple-head man?

La Garonne

Its been a long day - time for a drink!

On The Road Again

It has been a while since I've written anything here, but then it has been a while since I've done any travel and the posts are mostly written around travel. Now, since the “Atlantic Bubble” has opened up, we decided to spend the government's $300.00 Senior COVID-19 gift supporting some local destinations. Originally I planned to go to Saint Andrews By The Sea, a location I have wanted to visit for a while, but we decided instead to keep our contributions to the economy really local and stay within Nova Scotia. Regis set out to organize a “Staycation” within the province. She decided upon a night in Wolfville, then on to Annapolis Royal, an evening in Pubnico and finally Summerville Centre. A four day trip around the South Shore of Nova Scotia was a great opportunity to get away without actually going away.

A leisurely drive down to Wolfville only took us two hours, driving all on the secondary roads and allowed us to stop at a couple of our favourite wineries, and finally getting to see what was in the Hops House just off the highway at Grand Pre. We have stopped in three times previously only to always find it closed; now when many businesses are closed due to the Pandemic this place was open. I picked up some of their local craft beer to bring home.

After visiting Gaspereau Winery, one of my favourite in the province, we made our way to Wolfville. The road we took made me sorry I had decided to bring the Toyota rather than the Alfa Romeo because the road had enough twists and turns to “break the back of a snake”, but the impending rain and thunder storms had kept the Spider in the garage.

In Wolfville, we stayed at Micro Boutique Living where we had a delightful little suite overlooking the amazing tides of the Minas Basin, and we finally got to sample the fare and brews at Church Brewing which had always been overflowing with collage students prior to the virus sending them all home.

Day two was traveling to Annapolis Royal along the old highway Route 1, through towns we normally only know as signposts at the exits on highway 101.

Our accommodations in Annapolis Royal was an exercise in differences from Wolfville. Where we had six texts and e-mails making sure we knew our check-in time was not before 3:00 PM and we MUST be out by 11:00 AM, the “Just-B” (Just a bed, no Breakfast), sent us a greeting that said check-in was 3:00 and check-out was 11:00, but they would have everything ready plenty early and they were in no hurry to clean up after us, so come and leave when convenient. As well, the Just-B was quaint and old fashioned with an artsy feel where the Micro Boutique was trendy and modern. Interesting contrast, but both places were comfortable and I would recommend them both.

While in Annapolis Royal, we hiked the French Basin Trail, a nice walking trail on old dykes around a marsh. This allowed us to work up an appetite for Take-out fish & chips delivered by the cook to the Brewery down the street – that's small town hospitality and co-operation for you.

And now that I have gotten back into writing, I hope you get to read a few more of these posts from this trip around the province.

Regis walking the French Basin Trail

A comfortable bed for the night

Dinner at the Church

The Amazing tides of Minas Basin

Love Locks

Yea I know, it’s a really terrible play on words, but I couldn’t resist.

Beautiful View out our window

We have seen the locks of the Panama Canal twice, gone in from the Caribbean side once, and done a complete transit from the Pacific side. On those voyages the locks are the big attraction, and they are up front and center in the brochures and advertisements for these cruises. I developed an interest and respect for locks on the English Narrow Boat trip where I actually had to work the locks to get the boat through, and the town I call home used to have a lock system on its canals. I do not however recall Viking even mentioning the locks on this trip.

A Tight Fit

There are in fact over 60 locks the boat has to traverse during the 14 day journey. There are locks that slow the boat down through every section of our journey, but most are in the middle section and there are only a few during the last section on the Danube. The trip is however very well planned and many of the locks are scheduled during the night. The boat is amazingly smooth, so when I felt it hit something I investigated and looked out the window.  What I saw was a concrete wall inches from our cabin window. I could reach out and touch it (Although covered in green and brown river slime, this was not a real interesting option). A rare occurrence, the captain had nudged the side of one of the locks he has to go through. We went through ten locks that night, and they continued every 10 to 20 miles from then on. Expressing an interest in the locks, I was given a map showing the location of all of the  locks. Around Nuremberg they are spaced only a few miles apart. I wondered why at times we were dropped in one town and then picked up at another only 20 klm away. The reason is that it can take hours to get through the locks, so the captain goes through the locks while we tour interesting towns on foot or by bus. At one point we were gone all day, and the boat was still late picking us up 30 Klm away because of traffic through the locks.

For those unfamiliar with this use of the word lock, it is a section of a canal or a special enclosed section of a river where doors can be closed in front of and behind the ship and water can be pumped into or allowed to flow into the lock to float the boat to a higher level. In reverse, the ship enters the full lock on the high side, the water is allowed to drain out, thus lowering the boat to a lower level.

Bonus . . . A Castle and a Lock . . .

On a Panama Canal cruise the famous locks are the reason for the cruise so a lot is made of them; on this trip the locks are a necessary nuisance slowing us down, so they are basically ignored. Me I have an appreciation of the locks and how they work, and love watching the power of the water transfer the huge ship meters up or down to continue at a new level. I was surprised at how many people knew nothing about them, and the teacher in me momentarily came out of retirement and I happily gave lock lessons when questions were asked.

April in Ottawa

Ottawa, our nation’s capital, is usually a beautiful city. Our tax dollars are used to ensure the city looks it’s best for visitors and guests. However like some great beauties she is not the best after just waking up from a sleep. It has been a hard cold winter, and in April the city is not quite ready to receive visitors.

The Ottawa River

We have experienced winter in Ottawa, and the civic workers who maintain the city have their hands full during the winter months just keeping the snow off the streets, so the daily debris from Ottawa’s busy inhabitants simply gets pushed around with the snow rather than picked up, and as the snowbanks disappear in April, months of neglect start to appear. Not only the public areas, but the little private patches of gardens and green in front of the houses are littered with winter’s debris.

Yesterday was a warm sunny April day, and fresh air and exercise was just what my stubborn cold needed, so I set off on a leisurely stroll around Ottawa, down through Centertown, Chinatown and down to the Ottawa river where I walked along the pedway below parliament to the Rideau which I followed to Summerset and finally cutting through

Tire Garden needing weeding

Elgin & Bank to get back to Ryan’s house. My walk showed me that Ottawa really is not at it’s best in April.

The Ottawa River was carrying the last of the melting river ice from upstream, but the ducks and Canada geese were dodging not only ice, but chunks of Styrofoam, logs, campfire remains and all other unsorted debris. The Rideau Canal looked no better, drained to a minimum water lever (for Spring cleaning?) with melting ice chunks still remaining, the skate changing houses sitting at awkward angles at the edges, and showing the castoff from a busy winter season of skating on the longest outdoor rink in Canada.

The River's Load

The normally pristine public walkways look the worse. Stairways corners are filled with leaves and garbage, and the grass alongside paths show the scars of snow plows and other Winter damage. I was surprised to see the amount of animal damage along the river. Many trees and shrubs were stripped of bark by hungry animals and one large tree was gnawed through and toppled by what I suspect was the good old Canadian symbol, the beaver.  The Rideau Canal walkways showed it’s use by winter skaters and the number of wet, lonely and muddy single woolen socks, mittens and hats was amazing.

A Garden?

Don’t worry, it’s only April, and on my walk I saw many little private gardens raked and cleaned with Springs flowers already poking through, and sawdust and piles of branches are evidence that the work crews have started the annual Spring cleanup. I’m sure that by the time the Canadian Tulip Festival in May rolls around, the city will be looking her usual best.