Water Water Everywhere

It is my belief that I was very lucky as a child. My parents always took us away for fabulous holidays and days out near to water. By the sea on Anglesey where we had family on my Dad's side, down to a river such as the Ribble in Ribchester where we had family on Mum's side, or a lake such as Pickmere, and on and around the canals of Cheshire, Shropshire and Lancashire. We even spent many years on boats from inflatables to canal narrowboats. So ever since being a young boy I've loved being by the water, looking at water, listening to water, be it the sea with howling winds that steal your breath away and crashing waves like at the roughest coast in Cornwall, or throwing and skimming pebbles into the ocean at Molfre which entertained me for hours when I was young (and still does!), or walking along the canal towpath or around a lake or in fact anything to do with water.


One day I hope to live somewhere that I can draw back the curtains, and see water (no, not the rain in Burscough!). I just love it! And that's just as well... because in Canada, there's loads of it!!

The first thing one notices about the water in the Rocky Mountains is the colour. It's an amazing colour caused by glacial erosion. You know... suspensions of Rock Flour... where the glacial ice moves and rubs against the rocks in the mountains, and as it melts it takes some of the sediment with it downstream and it gets so concentrated that only certain light colours are capable of
reflecting through it... I knew you'd understand.

It really is awesome to see and at times you can be forgiven for thinking for a moment that it just can't be real or that there must be something wrong with it. Well... there isn't! It's some of the most natural, freshest, cleanest, coldest and life sustaining water on the planet, and it stops you in your tracks.

The Athabasca river originates as a trickle at the toe of the Athabasca Glacier in the Columbia Ice Field (more of that in the next blog). From there it winds its way across more than 700 miles crossing plains, falling through rocks and forming gorges, channelling into lakes and out again, and gathering tributaries and momentum, and power.

One afternoon we visited Sunwapta Falls falls which have a total drop of about 18 metres and they're very impressive. Sunwapta is a native word meaning turbulent water and I can see why.

Sunwapta also has a great restaurant where we had a bowl of the local Chilli and made one or two purchases from the gift shop.

Athabasca Falls drop more than 23 meters and the noise is fabulous. You get the cold spray from time to time in your face and it's such a naturally refreshing sensation.

There is a gorge you can walk through which in previous years was in fact a water channel, carved over thousands of years by the force of the river.

As you come out of the other side of the channel it's hard to believe that this is the same place, only a few feet away and yet it's all so calm and so quiet. You can still see the power from the turbulent water coming out from the gorge on the right but it's completely silent and all rather
beautiful.

Some of the calmer waters we saw were Waterfowl Lake...

and Honeymoon lake which is wonderfully romantic.

Lake Edith was a quiet spot where we saw a Coyote. It's a small lake with residential dwellings around it and we came accross this cencus marker in the ground.

The Dominion Land Survey is effectively a grid system which is used to identify townships in Canada. This marker would be one corner of a square mile which would be used for agricultural and other purposes in identifying boundaries.

Sarah and Katie wanted a closer look.

You can see from the outfits that despite the sunshine, it was a little bit crisp on that day.

Pyramid lake is one of the most peaceful places that I have ever been to. It sits up in the mountains above Jasper town, in the shadow of Pyramid Mountain. We'd been for dinner one night at The Pines restaurant on the lake, I'd eaten Elk! I know! How could I? But hey... it was delicious :-)

Then we had a stroll to walk off a little of the excess that we'd consumed and we were fortunate enough to witness the sun setting over Mount Edith Cavell as we strolled quietly around Pyramid Island, watching the fish jumping. It was so calm that evening, there was barely a ripple on the lake. The water is around half a square mile in the shape of a kidney dish.

It has a sister lake called Patricia about a mile and a half lower down the mountain towards the town. These two and Edith are some of the waters in which swimming is recommended.

The girls really enjoyed the walk and the sunset and remembered that our bus driver from the raft trip (later post!) had told us that he'd been up to Edith Cavell the previous night and had witnessed an avalanche. We watched for a while in the distance but nothing moved... thankfully.

Maligne Canyon was by far my favourite water experience. What you can't tell from this picture is that the water has dug its way down through 50m of rock. SO at this point, one could hear the water but barely see it.

The noise was unbelievable, like a jet engine, or a Motorhead concert, SO loud that it's disturbing and yet so fascinating that I just couldn't move away, I just wanted to stay and listen and watch the water gushing through the narrow openings in the rock and watch it swirl around in the whirlpools that it forms.

Maligne (mah-leen) is from a French word meaning sick or malicious. That's because the early
French / Canadian fur traders considered the whole Maligne river system and the 'Medicine' lake to be a little odd, or even evil... The river enters Maligne lake in great torrents and in great volumes.

However, it never appears to go anywhere else, there is no obvious 'exits' from the lake. Then in the summer, Medicine Lake actually disappears completely and doesn't come back until the autumn. Now I'm not talking about a small pond here, this is a HUGE great lake which just goes, and nobody to this day understands exactly where, how, or why.

Katie suddenly found the urge to pray at Maligne Lake and we couldn't explain that either...

The Maligne Valley is riddled by the most extensive "karst" system in the world. A karst system is a geological formation of caves above and below ground level. Scientists have tried for years to trace the Maligne karst system but failed or been stumped. They experimented with tracing dyes. But it has taken anywhere from half a day to a week for the water to make the trip from Medicine Lake to Maligne Canyon, a distance of about ten miles. Sometimes, the dyes didn't show up at all! Even more bizarre, in some experiments, the dyes turned up in Lac Beauvert which is just by Jasper Park Lodge and in other lakes around the area... Wierd!!

Peyto Lake was named after Ebenezer William Peyto, an early trail guide and trapper in the Banff area.

The colour of the lake set amongst the mountains is so startling, Turquoise, that it is very often featured in art, postcards, books, films, etc... It truly is a wonder and I could happily stand for weeks on end and not tire of looking at it.

The walk up there is challenging, but beautiful with many wild flowers, chipmunks, butterflies and dragonflies.

I asked Linda to take a nice shot of us with the lake in the background... Oh well, nice picture anyway!

And this is Beauvert.

We had a lovely walk around the shores of Lac Beauvert which coincidentally is also the route of the golf course at the Jasper Park Lodge.

Fabulous wildlife along the way in close up and then an excellent meal in the JPL hotel.

Linda even had her first ever Bellini :-)

Then there is Lake Louise...

Lake Louise is favourite for many people and was named after the Princess Louise Caroline Albert, the fourth daughter of our very own Queen Victoria. Princess Louise married Sir John Campbell who was the Governor General of Canada from 1878 to 1883.

This is a very impressive place both in terms of natural beauty and the stunning hotel, Chateau Lake Louise which has seen many important guests over the years from British royalty, to
American Presidents, to Geoff and Hazel Clarke who just happen to be there at the very moment I am writing this!

The locals (below) were very friendly to us and we thoroughly enjoyed our afternoon here en route to Banff.

Desire is the starting point of all achievement

The weekend before last Linda decided that things had been far too serious and heavy since we returned from our summer vacation and that my head was starting to go 'down'. She was right of course, it's a girl thing.., and her intuition had picked up on the fact that demands were taking over, frustrations mounting, challenges challenging, and that a breath of fresh air was needed. So on returning home from working in the South on the Friday I was 'told' not to bother unpacking my bag, just to refresh the essential contents, grab my camera bag, because we were going for a short break. Just the two of us...

Linda had booked a hotel in the pretty village of Coniston just for the Saturday night and no sooner had we done the weekly chores, been horse riding with Katie and then dropped off the girls at their Mum's house, than we were heading north up the M6. I do like heading north, it somehow always manages to lift my spirits when I see the hills and then turn off at junction 36.

We had dinner and drinkies in the hotel (which was a little bit, well actually, a lot like something from out of Royston Vasey (you'll either understand that reference or you won't, sorry), but hey... it was last minute and all!) whilst we decided what to do the following morning.
So these two shots above are from the beautiful morning that greeted us on Sunday, right behind the hotel on Coniston. So peaceful and so relaxing...

Now, ever since Linda and I met she's told me about a boat in the Lake District that she would "so LOVE to go and see and take a trip on it!"

The Steam Yacht Gondola.

Originally built and used as a passenger 'train' in the 1850's it was scuppered and lay derelict for many many years in the depths of Coniston Water. Until that is in the early 1970's when The National Trust decided that Gondola should be saved for the benefit of the nation. She was faithfully rescued, repaired and fully restored and then in aroud 1980, she was re-born.

Linda remembers seeing the news stories of the boats' plight on TV and in the local news at the time but had never realised her desire to actually go and see it. Well it was far too good an opportunity to miss out on so we did the decent thing and made this little girl's wish come true.

It was quite a nostalgic journey. To sit there and think that the Victorians had ridden along on this very same vessel, all turned out in their bowler hats, bonnets and petticoats was truly thought provoking and the grace of the boat was really surprising and uplifting. I expected a rough ride with smoke, steam, chugging and chuffing. Nothing like it! The ride was unbelievably quiet and so smooth, it was such a joy. What a genuinely stunning piece of our national history and so unexpected that we'd get to enjoy in on that day.

After the sailing we headed east and further north to Muncaster Castle on the River Esk. Home to the Pennington family for over 800 years and also home to the World Owl Centre. So now it was my turn for realising ambitions...

One day I hope to take 'that' picture... the 'one' that everybody recognises, admires, copies, talks about... one day! This Robin though, would be the one and only true wildlife shot of the day.

I love the thought that one day I could have a piece of my work published for other people to share and enjoy. A piece of music that I've written, some words that I've penned, a theory that my industry recognises or a photograph that makes people go 'wow!'. I think it's so good to have those desires... it keeps the spirit alive and keeps one aiming at something. It has to be just like the feeling one gets when somebody genuinely appreciates a gift from us, or getting clean plates from a meal that we've worked hard to prepare. Only this evening I've been chatting to Sarah, so ebullient about which university she would like to attend and how she is going to share a flat with her friend Jenny. They've agreed between themselves today that they need to save up so much each month so that they have a backup fund and that they'll go and research certain towns during the next year or so and that they'll both have to work really hard for their A-levels to get there.... You see.. Ambitions and desires are so healthy!

As much as I hope to take that one shot in the wild I realise that first of all I need to learn how to do so. An ideal opportunity for me to do some of that learning was the Birds Of Prey demonstration at Muncaster by the World Owl Trust; the world’s premier owl conservation organisation which promotes scientific research, habitat creation and restoration, a UK national nest-box scheme, together with breeding programmes for these wonderful creatures.

The day was really enjoyable, the birds are very regal and beautiful and the house and gardens very interesting with audio commentary, narrated by Patrick Gordon-Duff-Pennington, the present owner, describing what can be seen (and felt!) in the Great Hall, the Library, the Dining Room, the Drawing Room and the Bedrooms.

This is Rollo, a European Eagle Owl. The Common Buzzard earlier is Mortimer.

I learned a great lesson one this day... even in captivity and under controlled conditions, one has to have the patience of a saint to photograph living creatures. Photographing wildlife is something for which you need patience, steady breathing, perseverance.... I took around 200 shots during the afternoon, you are looking at the only ones that I think are worth sharing!

This is Sparky, a rescued Barn owl. It was such a privilege to hold this bird. He was so trusting and unassuming of these two lunatics that were SO overwhelmed by his presence.


This time next year Rodney... this time next year...