Where Solitude Meets the Ocean

Remember my post about the road to Cape Scott? So, here we are in the parking lot at the end of the 63 km long gravel road. We put on our hiking boots, take some water, our cameras and whatever else we need with us and walk 2.5 km through the rain forest to get to this deserted, empty and wide beach at San Josef Bay in the very north of Vancouver Island.

It's as if you have stepped into another world. Except for a few other people there is no one there, it is absolutely quiet with the exception of the wind and the sound of the relatively small waves crashing onshore. A tame Pacific, enclosed by the beautiful bay with its hilly forests.

The beach is not all sand - there are quite some plants that peek through as well as some driftwood.

please notice the flip flops...

Each of us enjoyed this heavenly place in his or her own way. Kaefer sat in the sand, drawing the bay and some little animal that she had discovered in the sand.

All of us at some point or other took pictures - each of us with their very own point of view. Kaefer was fascinated by the little waves, the Geek by some pattern in the sand and I just took pictures of both of them (beside all the other photos, of course).

I loved the solitude at this beach. You can actually camp here if you bring everything you need and are willing to carry it through the rain forest. There is a pit toilet here, but no drinking water; however, there is a waterfall at the far end of the beach which you can use if you bring a water filter. The Geek and I are already talking of coming here again and staying for two nights in our tent. There were just a few people camping here, it's not for everyone hauling all your stuff out here. The price is quietness and peacefulness amongst natural beauty.

If you want to know what the hike through the rain forest was like - that will be a future post.

Faces of Egypt

I had planned to publish my second post about Cape Scott today, but the recent events in Egypt have changed my mind.

Coptic Christian

You all have heard about what is currently happening in Egypt. This country is close to my heart. I visited it twice in the nineties - the first time I went there from Israel, just to climb Mount Sinai to enjoy the sunset from there (that, by the way, would be a lovely blog post on its own); the second time I stayed again in the Sinai, Cairo, Alexandria and enjoyed a Nile cruise that was kind of out of this world.

Doing laundry - and waving at us rich tourists passing by on a luxurious boat

Egypt is a fascinating country - some of you might remember my post about Aswan. And while I enjoyed seeing all its old temples and getting more knowledgeable about its history, what really fascinated me was the unforgiving landscape of the Nile, and I fell in love with the people.

The people of Egypt - such a colorful crowd. I saw everything, from educated women in western clothes heading to their classes at University to women in beautiful gowns doing the laundry in the waters of the Nile to covered women both in the big cities and in rural areas. Men who work the fields and in tourism - "maids" in hotels, waiters in bars and restaurants, staff on the cruise ships. Educated men in suits who work in Cairo, students who work as tour guides. Men who just hang out in the old temples, sell souvenirs to the tourists, follow you everywhere in the hope of selling you some trinket or other. Children who guard the goats or work in small factories, weaving rugs and beautiful carpets (this made me sick to my stomach). I remember how often I felt guilty to have so much money (compared to what they have) that enabled me to travel the world; often I felt like a voyeur and I wasn't always happy with myself taking all these pictures. People were so incredibly kind and friendly. What they always asked for was a "stylo" - a pen. Good thing I had tons of them as I was also journaling furiously at that time.

Bedouins

This is a poor country. And it doesn't look that this is going to change anytime soon. I remember how safe I felt there - well, that certainly is a thing of the past. Egypt will lose big time in its tourism industry, and that means the country's economy will suffer since tourism has been so important for it. I feel blessed that I could visit this beautiful and somehow magical country and I am tremendously saddened by its development over the past months.

I took these pictures of the people in Egypt 17 years ago. Many of them will still be there, some of them will have passed away. I wonder what has happened to them, what is happening to them right now. How they make ends meet. How they survive.

The Road to Cape Scott

During our trip to British Columbia we also visited beautiful Vancouver Island, the very north in particular. We had read about Cape Scott Provincial Park and had planned to hike out to San Josef Bay (that will be another post). But first you actually have to get close to Cape Scott which is only possible via a 63 km long gravel road from Port Hardy. It is a road through complete wilderness - a lumber road in the first place.

The shoe tree is what we first saw after we had started out.

It's right at the side of the road and marks all the hikers through Cape Scott. There is a trail through the park, mainly along its coast on the north side, that takes several days to hike.

The next we saw was this - it set the tone for the drive!

Yellow signs warned us of the dangers of the road - with an optimistic "Good luck" which I appreciated.

Friendly signs reminded us to share the road with whoever was out there - unfortunately we didn't meet any dwarfs or elves or fairies.

But we came upon this "little" guy whom you have already seen in an earlier post.

That was quite exciting. However, the bear wasn't too impressed with our presence and jumped quickly into the bushes and disappeared.

At the end of the road we arrived in the Cape Scott parking lot where all the other cars were just as dirty as ours. From here, it is another 2.5 km hike through the rain forest - but as I mentioned above, that will be a post for another time.

Shot Through the Window

Last week when I just looked out of my window, waiting for some inspiration, I saw a young oriole at the hummingbird feeder in my photinia. Eager to take a few quick snapshots - I don't dare to use the term "take photos" here - before s/he flies off again, I grabbed my Canon PowerShot SX40 HS with its amazing super zoom and snapped through my window - the only way not to scare the heck out of this little bird. Of course the shots turned out crabby, I don't even care to post them here.

However, while standing at the window, hoping for the return of the little guy, I noticed my sunflower and how beautiful it looked in the late afternoon sun that was illuminating it from the back. Before thinking any further I took a photo of it through the window. When I looked at it on my computer I liked how it had turned out and posted it to flickr as my photo of the day - and forgot about it.

photo of the week

Can you imagine my surprise the following morning when I opened my email inbox and it was overflowing with flickr mail?

What had happened? Well, the photo had made it into the "explore" gallery, something I have to admit I was unaware about until that moment. Apparently there is an "explore" gallery on flickr every day, but I don't know how the photos are chosen for the gallery. What I do know is that the photos in this gallery are exceptional (I felt very small when I looked at them) and get tons of views. I can't tell you in words how much I feel honored that my photo made it into this gallery. I still don't understand how this happened and it still amazes and astonishes me.

As of today, my sunflower has had more than 5000 views and my flickr circle has grown significantly. I still get notifications about people who favorite this photo. Every time I kind of shake my head over it in disbelief - and I am super happy, especially since this happened at a time when I felt totally uncreative and had those infamous doubts of not being good enough. This was a wonderful boost for me!

Vancouver Marina

This was the first time that we went to the marina in Vancouver - we didn't do that when we visited this city back in 2010.

It wasn't planned that we go here. We were still exploring our favorite art gallery in Gastown when the Geek asked one of the sales associates whether she has a good recommendation for a place to eat seafood. She mentioned "Go fish", not more than a shack at the Vancouver marina which serves the best fish and chips in town. Since we love fish and chips - and the bus heading to the marina stops right in front of this art gallery - we went to this place. There was a long line at the blue shack, but gosh! the fish and chips were deliriously good and worth every minute of waiting.

While we waited I walked around and took random pictures of the place.

Loading the fresh catch of the day:

You can buy super fresh salmon right here - and there were quite some people who did. I bet they had a lovely Sunday dinner.

Canadians are outdoor people - this is one way to spend an afternoon in Vancouver:

I loved the "organic ocean" - organic is a big thing in Vancouver (my kind of place):

These are apartment buildings right at the marina - I would love to have one of those apartments on top of the building! It must be gorgeous to live there.

Vancouver Window Art

One thing that fascinated me in Vancouver were the high glass buildings - stunning architecture with beautiful reflections made for gorgeous eye candy. It was something I remembered from my first visit to Vancouver after the Winter Olympic Games in 2010, and it hasn't lost any of its attraction to me.

Talking about the Olympic Games - the Olympic flame (or is the term 'torch'?) is located at the waterfront and reflected in one of the buildings nearby. Even this construction is made of glass!

Look at all the different reflections - isn't it fantastic? There was so much to see and I couldn't decide which ones I should photograph. I could have taken pictures of every single one, but then I would probably still be there!

I thought this was interesting. It took me a while to read the words. They say "The clouds looked no nearer than when I was lying on the street".

I love this building - the blocks can appear differently depending how you look at them.

This reflection I discovered when I looked at one of my photos more closely - it was only one small part in the building, but I cropped it down to this gorgeous red reflection.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is my favorite - just see for yourself!