I managed to stay awake until about eight last evening, following a fine dinner of home made Dungeness crab cakes washed down with lots of wine. After that it was all a bit of a blur; KOd by the need to sleep, which I did royally until about 04:30 this morning; lunch time at home.
Since then I’ve caught up with e-mail and happenings in the world. The house I’m a guest in has a ‘net connection that I guess is running somewhere north of 15mbytes/sec, so fast the pages arrive almost before you’ve clicked the button. Damn you and your idle ways, Telkom.
The city is also the home of daily rain, grunge, Nirvana and Pearl Jam. Just outside the city is Redmond, home of the Beast, although their loom in the IT industry has been somewhat blunted by recent techno non-events like the Surface tablet, Windows Phone and Windows 8.
Wednesday – Sunday. Forks, WA
The reason for being here; a gathering of photographers with landscapes on their mind. Run by Ian Plant and Kurt Budliger, the workshop is focussed on the Olympia National Park (ONP), about three hours west of Seattle.
It’s Sunday as I write, catching my breath after a hectic week of sunrises and sunsets, rain forests, sea mounts, waterfalls, rivers and streams and just about everything in between. It’s been great, but my six and a bit decade old knees and ankles have been acting-up and opted me out of a couple of beach sunset evenings – the long and uneven staircases that provide access to these spectacular areas proved way more than they were prepared to countenance. It’s as though they have their own trade union.
The photographs making-up this entry were all shot in the ONP, which abounds with streams, rivers, waterfalls and moss-drenched rain forests. If you’re a nature lover, the Park really should be on your bucket list.
Anyway, it’s been really great and I’ve had a chance to stretch out my photo capabilities in preparation for what’s to come. I’ve also had a chance to meet some new photo buddies and learn a few new tricks. Now, all I need is a bit more sleep.
Monday – Seattle
Back in Seattle en route to Vancouver on the train at sparrow’s in the morning. Mrs P arrives from Cape Town and Amsterdam about the same time as me, so we’ll meet at the hotel which will be our home for the next three days and compare notes.
In the meantime, I’m going to spend a bit more time trying to beat this morning’s photographs into submission – I’ve failed miserably so far – and join my hosts for a pizza end to my really enjoyable stay here.
For those of you who haven’t been here, Seattle and the Pacific north west is well worth a visit; a magnificent coastline, bustling city, verdant forests and friendly, helpful people everywhere. The weather in the last couple of days has been unseasonably warm, which has made everything just that much easier than the single digit (celsius) temperatures at the beginning of the week.
I like America – what’s not to like? It’s clean and in the main, everything works. It’s very sanitary, everything and everywhere exuding a fresh scent of something nice. Perhaps that’s it. It’s just nice.
My sole issue is not the nation’s eating habits, but the expectation of those who provide sustenance as to the volume of food one human being can consume. Buy a ham sandwich in London, or Sydney and you’ll get decent bread, maybe a little lettuce and a slice (two at the most) of cold meat. Here, you’ll find eight or nine slices, doubled over in your sarnie, plus a similar amount of cheese, tomato, lettuce and possibly a sachet of mustard, or mayo.
Nothing wrong with that, surely? Nope, but most Americans don’t eat it all. They seem to leave as much as a third, which goes in the trash. Ditto, restaurant food. Order a burger and you’ll get a great meal, accompanied by fries bought to your table in a wheelbarrow. More waste.
Eating in the US is no more expensive than elsewhere, aside from the ludicrous expectation of 20% to 25% tip. Sensible portion sizes could achieve two things; reduced eating costs across the board and a drop in food waste that would keep many small nations well fed for decades.
Tuesday – training for Vancouver
The 7:40 for Vancouver left on time and is currently wobbling its way north along Puget Sound. The ride is unpleasant, unexpected and due (I suspect) to a not completely round wheel which is further compounded by the elevation of the upper deck on which we all sit. Great views, but I really could do without the constant micro-joggling of my internal organs.
Talking of trains and of considerable note is the preponderance of rail crossings on our route. They are all automatic, unmanned and our train’s driver uses his extremely loud set of horns to warn of our approach. He starts hooting several hundred metres before every crossing and as we pass, there are the cars, all lined up at the barriers, drivers patiently waiting for the train to pass. No-one risks a last second dart across. I’m ashamed that my conversation with a fellow passenger deliberately omitted the South Africans’ willingness to take those risks daily, preferably with 20 or so schoolchildren on board.
More discipline would solve the problem, but then so might decent horns on our trains. Why is it our commuter trains are only equipped with pathetic hear-bugger-all air sirens?
Whatever. I’m en route to Canada and what I am led to believe is a spectacular city, where sometime this afternoon, Mrs P will appear and life will return (largely) to normal.
On the home front, I have been watching the Gupta wedding story unfold and wondering how much longer the ANC, reeling from crisis to crisis, can hold itself together. When Gwede the gnome breaks ranks and makes a statement so openly critical and damning of the activities of our (other) leaders, you have to wonder how long it will be before the big play comes into focus – it’s hard to imagine there isn’t a plan to rid us all of Jake-the-Jizz before he destroys what is left of the ANC and South Africa’s reputation(s).
Vancouver and a couple of things I forgot
Street scene
Forgot stuff first.
The flight over with Air France was pretty uneventful. Cape Town to Paris was just like any flight south to north, but the Atlantic hop was a real drag and seemed to go on for ever. Fortunately, Air France’s code share with Delta Airlines meant that the seat back video was chock full of interesting watching. I started with Cirque de Soleil’s Worlds Away.
Did you know CdS had made a movie? I didn’t and this one really rocked me on my heels – like a 21st century Fantasia, full of people floating through the air, extraordinary visuals, costumes and fantasy characters. It was brilliant and I’ve just managed to track it down on Amazon and will be buying the DVD. For a reason I don’t understand, it doesn’t seem to be on iTunes
Senses reeling, I then watched Dave Grohl’s (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) semi-documentary called Sound City, the story of the LA recording studio of the same name. It’s chock full of historic footage, names and faces from the 60s, 70s and 80s, plus way too many household names to mention here. Suffice to say, an electric Bo Diddly-style mandolin-playing Paul McCartney plays the closing song with Grohl – and it’s a blast. Definitely a must watch.
Something else I forgot. The US now has a law which prohibits a dawdling driver from accumulating more than five cars in his wake. Five followers and you are required to pull over and let them pass before resuming the road. If you’ve driven the R44 from Gordon’s Bay to Rooi Els, you’ll know how badly we need similar legislation – and cops who give enough of a flying fuck to enforce it, of course.
So, there you have it.
Continues…
Downtown Vancuver
Downtown Vancuver
Vancouver? Loved it.
It’s easy to see why. Vancouver is a small city – probably not much bigger than Jozi – snuggled against mountains on one side and the huge Strait of Georgia inlet on the other. Ferries prevail and moment by moment, we were reminded of Auckland, Perth and the Jersey side of the Hudson opposite the old WTC.
Light, clean and easy to get round, the city and it’s inhabitants made us entirely welcome and I feasted on smoked chicken wings, while Mrs P got all excited about a plate of polenta battered prawns in Gastown (the re-made turn of the century suburb). The following evening, we re-mortgaged the house to a restaurateur in Yaletown and ploughed our way through an extraordinary dinner of oysters, prawns in a citrus and garlic broth for me and crab cakes with a thai dressing for Di.
Oh yes, we discovered poutine too. I don’t think it’s very French, but seems to have had its genesis in Canada’s French population.
What is it? Sublime is what it is; take a plate of freshly fried chips – made with real potato and not the reconstituted starch most places serve. To your steaming pile of spud love, add a large handful of curd cheese, cut into (appx.) 10mm cubes and then a large ladle brimming with rich, unguent brown meaty gravy. Eat immediately.
We didn’t expect to find a new food staple on this trip, but poutine it is.
Continues…
Dinner date
Rodney’s seafood restaurant
Rodney’s seafood restaurant
And that was Vancouver. Aside from an unusually high number of (seemingly) harmless odd-bods, lurchers, people with blue hair and public dope smokers, it’s a pretty standard city and if it isn’t on your bucket list, it should be, it’s great.
Continues…
Appropriate entrance
Just two hours drive – we are in a Fiat 500 after all – north of Vancouver is Pendleton and 6km beyond that, Mount Currie. Here we find the Hitching Post Motel, run by a hugely helpful Asian gentleman. Our room is big, clean, self catering, has a massive air conditioner. Just as well, it’s 29C outside.
The Internet doesn’t work though and our host has no crue how fix. Oh well, it’s been a slow kind of day, but I was hoping to stream some Super 14 action and maybe the F1 qualifying in the morning. Watching the Cheetahs win again would have been most entertaining – they didn’t
Oh well, back to mountain, waterfall and stream watching.
Continues…
Pemberton morning
Pemberton morning
Which we did and on our return to the Hitching Post, left the door open to air out our room while domesticity reigned. Washing and various other tasks complete, we settled to watch the most recent season of Justified on our notebook TV.
Note to self: if you leave the door open and the temperature outside is 29C, don’t be surprised when your room fills with huge mosquitoes.
Watching TV and becoming increasingly aware of insects flying in front of the screen, we realise our folly and slam the door. Too late and my always carry reserve of Tabard stick shrunk by another few millimetres. By then there were lots of the buggers and it took a while to find and euthanise them all.
Continues…
Pemberton morning
Pemberton morning
The next day we leave for Kamloops, a city that has sprung up around the local mining community, in rather the same way that Welkom got started. And, that’s all there is to say. It was an overnight stop, clean and full of friendly people.
Next stop Revelstoke, a small town chosen to make our daily drive comfortable at around 240km.
In fact, Revelstoke turns out to be a major railway junction, with its own museum. The rail line is Canada’s main west-east artery and the gateway to the Kicking Horse Pass, site of the extraordinary spiral tunnels. I’d heard of this geological wonder and seen pictures, but never imagined we’d be driving right past the observation platform. That’s for tomorrow however.
Today, we visit the museum and gawk as trains that must measure more than a kilometre in length inching past, hauled by twin diesel 4400HP locomotives, strengthened by another mid-train and a pusher at the rear. The trains seem to be hauling either Canada’s agricultural wealth to the ocean, or it’s imports into the hinterland. Either way, they are huge, many times the size of freight trains in South Africa.
As the day dwindles, we dine on prawns, a burger and fine local dark amber ale in a local bar and once back in our room, catch a couple more episodes of Justified before a weary lights-out.
Monday – on the road
En route to Lake Louise, we surmount Kicking Horse Pass and discover Canadian Railways spiral tunnels. Intended to overcome rail’s inability to climb a gradient greater than 1:40 and the space limitations imposed by the Rocky mountains, the spiral tunnels form an extended figure eight and present a fascinating view of trains looping over and under themselves.
Continues…
Kicking Horse Pass and CN’s spiral tunnels
Kicking Horse Pass and CN’s spiral tunnels
There are any number of images and information on the ‘net, but these pics show the train emerging from the distant portal, while the rest of the consist (below) is still being hauled into the tunnel. The second shot shows how the line snakes back again, with the locomotive(s) just visible through the trees at the bottom, while its train is clearly visible in two other places. The diagramme probably explains it better than I do. The whole thing seems to suspend the possible in favour of the surrreal.
Continues…
Over the pass and down into Lake Louise. More about that tomorrow.
Comment, Landscape, Opinion, Photograph, Photography, Post, Travel
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May 16, 2013
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