Travelling in the North of the Province

Here is a photographic record of a trip we made into Northern British Columbia in October.  We drove up the island to the ferry terminal at Bear Cove, close to Port Hardy.  This is the route that lost the Queen of the North a few years ago when it ran into Gill Island in the dark.  Some of the crew lost their jobs as a result. The Northern Expedition has replaced it on the route.  This is a very beautiful ship indeed.  We left at 6.00 p.m. so we had a few hours in daylight before reaching Prince Rupert at 4.00.pm. the next day.  A lovely trip.

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Northern Expedition

In the Inside passage

We stayed two nights in Prince Rupert and on the second day we went to an old canning factory on the River Skeena.  Fishing is still important but the canning industry has collapsed in the face of ships with freezer capability.

The River Skeena

A bit worse for ware

The old cannery, now a museum but closed that day

The Museum

After Prince Rupert we drove toward Terrace and visited the First Nations Nisga'a reserve north of Terrace.  The reserve contains a number of villages and we visited Gitwinksihlkw
on the River Skeena

Footbridge over the Skeena

The River Skeena in full flow, very muddy

Totem Poles guarding the Skeena Bridge entry

Gitwinksihlkw

A significant feature on the reserve lands are the Nisga'a Lava beds which stretch for quite  distance down to the river.  The volcano cone can be visited but it was bit off the beaten track .

The NIsga'a lava beds

The Big House at Gitlaxt'aamiks:(formerly New
New Aiyansh)

Totam Poles at Gitlaxt'aamiks

Close up

A small waterfall along the way

A glacial river

We stayed two nights in Terrace and on the second day we drove down to Kitimat.  This is a company town developed by Alcan Canada now Rio Tinto Alcan that was placed at the top end of a deep fjord linking to the Pacific Ocean.  The reason the town is there is that there is an aluminium smelter that required a large supply of electricity and that was provided by a hydro electric scheme in the mountains near by.  The aluminium ore comes in from Jamaica!  While in Kitimat we called into a couple from Comox - Jim and Kathryn.  Jim is a carpenter who moved to Kitimat on a temporary basis to find work on the redevelopment of the Rio Tinto Alcan Plant and his wife had joined him there.

An old ferry used as accommodation, mainly for management staff.  The Silja Festival was used in the Baltic

An ore carrier at the plant

Our travels took us to the east and then north towards Stewart on the Alaska border where we were to spend two nights.  On the way we passed by the Usk Pioneer Chapel.  The chapel was originally the Marsh Memorial Church in Usk across the Skeena River and it was placed it Highway 16 as a wayside chapel.

The Usk Pioneer Chapel

The route took up the Cassiar Highway past the First Nations village of Kitwanga that has over 50 totem poles within a short distance.  There were plenty to see in the village itself.

About the totem poles

A fine bird atop a pole

Not a happy chap

On the way into Stewart you pass the Bear Glacier, right by the road.

The toe of the Bear Glacier

Stewart lies on the Alaska border and nearby is the Salmon Glacier.  To reach this you cross into Alaska and then cross bck into Canada.  The road starts off paved but becomes gravel as you climb up beside the glacier, a drive well worth doing.

The toe of the Salmon Galcier

Further up the glacier

The river valley running out of the glacier

Not a lot of wild life while we were there

An old snowmobile in Stewart, not going anywhere

Our home for two nights

This has seen better days - a bum boat for moving logs around

We had mixed weather, this day had low cloud as we left Stewart

On our way back to the Yellowhead Highway on the way to Smithers we visited the First Nations Museum site at Hazelton

A small totem pole at Hazelton

The Museum buildings - closed at this time of the year

Totem Pole detail

The top of another pole

Bridge at Hazelton over the River Bulkley

The River Bulkley Gorge

We spent two nights in  Smithers, the second day was pretty wet.

Fish Ladders

We stayed the night at a lovely B and B on Clucunx Lake near Prince George.  We visited Prince George and met up with an old Brandon friend for dinner.  The next day we drove a long day to Kamloops to see Tim and Aileen and the boys and then drove the last leg to Comox.

ENGLAND AND IRELAND 2014

We started this trip attending a wedding and visiting family and friends in England, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland.   We flew out from Comox to Vancouver and then to London Gatwick.  We collected a car and our first night was in Ripley in Surrey which was convenient to Windsor where we were going the next day to be at Martin Berwick's wedding to Trudie.  The wedding was held a Oakley Court a very splendid hotel on the banks of the River Thames.  This was a good chance to catch up with the Berwick family who were present in force apart from Peter and Pik Yee who were unable to make it across the ocean from New York.

The wedding and reception went off very well and a good time was had by all. 

Making it legal

Megan, Dan, Osian and Thomas

Megan the flower girl

The next day we took off for Balsall Common where we spent part of the afternoon with Valerie, Ella and Toby before moving on to Stourport where we stayed one night at a local B and B and were able to spend time with Don and Jean. Next stop was a couple of nights with Anthony and Carol in Derby.  Making our way North we stopped in at Bradbourne where by chance Hilary Strudwick was spending a week with some of her family in a lovely cottage.  Continuing on we spent one night in Glossop near Manchester where we met up with Barbara and Derry Webb who were moving to that area from Abingdon. 

This move had been a long drawn out process that began before Christmas but for many and sundry reasons had all been held up and whereas we were going to stay in their new home all we managed to do was see it from the outside but at least we know where they will be in the future.  They moved in a few days after our visit.  

Derry and Barbara in Marple

 On to Manchester Airport and a flight to Belfast were we were met by Paddy and John Wallace who were our near neighbours in Dunmurry many years earlier.  They live in an older house in Randalstown with a really beautiful and large garden. We spent the night with them and the next day met up with John and Jane Logan who came in from Ballymena. We had lunch with them in Antrim before we caught the train to Belfast where we were spending one night. 

Robin, John Wallace, Jane Logan, Ruth and Paddy       John Logan took the photo

We had arranged to set up two meetings with old Belfast friends, the Halls and the Robinsons on the afternoon and the Duncans, the Blairs and Rosemary Simpson in the evening.  This turned out to be an efficient way to meet a number of folk without needing to travel around at all, a blessing because we are now on public transport only.  Next day took us to Dublin on the Enterprise and we stayed the one night with Bennie and Kay Neill, who we had first met in Dunmurry all those years ago.  Bennie retired relatively recently and had moved into a very pleasant house with attractive garden in Killiney close to Bono, Eddie Irvine and Enya!. 

The Enterprise to Dublin

That saw the end of friend and relative visiting and we were ready for our time in the West of Ireland.

WALKING THE WESTERN WAY

DAY 1 and DAY 2 - GALWAY CITY TO INISHMORE

We went on a self guided walking holiday in County Galway and County Mayo.  The holiday was arranged through Hillwalk Tours based in Dublin, Ireland.  They arrange the overnight accommodation, necessary transportation and most importantly arrange for the main luggage to be transferred ahead to the next accommodation address.  This means that during the day all you need to carry is a small backpack with necessary items like some food and wet weather gear, remember we were in Western Ireland. 

We took the train to Galway on the West coast.   Before catching the train we had arranged to leave one suitcase near the station so we had less to travel with on the walk and so we were left with just two small backpacks and one large backpack.  The last time we had used the train in Ireland was in 1960 when we went to the same West coast after Anthony and Carol's wedding.  We were retracing some old steps.  The trains have changed markedly as instead of good old fashioned steam were on a nearly new diesel train (made by Hyundai).  Our walk took us to one of the Aran Islands and then onto the mainland where we started out on the long distance path, the Western Way.

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Dublin to Galway

Arriving in Galway we collected ferry tickets to get us to the largest of the Aran Islands, Inishmore where we were to stay two nights and walk on two separate parts of the island.  Hillwalk had made excellent arrangements for us and we took the bus from Galway Town out to the ferry terminal at Rossaveel.

The ferry ride took about an hour and our instructions suggested we phone the B and B ahead of our arrival so that they could collect us.  We had bought a cheap cell phone for use in Ireland and made the call from the ferry.  It turned out the lady owner was on the same ferry! and we made contact then and there.  Her husband was going to meet her at the ferry terminal so we were all set up.

Inishmore ferry

The B and B was not a great distance from the terminal but we appreciated the ride anyway.  The B and B was excellent and we were made very welcome and looked after well.  The room was large by Irish B and B standards, en suite, as they all were.  We had great full breakfasts and they couldn't have done more to make our stay enjoyable.

Ti Catherine B and B

On our first walking day we went to the Western end of Inishmore.  We had been provided with detailed walking instructions and a complete set of maps for the entire time.  This made finding our way quite easy and we never got lost.

Inishmore

The large red cross marks the location of the B and B.  Our walk took us around the North coast, you will need to click on the map to show enough detail.  We reached the little settlement of Cill Mhuirbhigh (Kilmurvey) where we took a lunch break at Nan Phaddy's cafe.

Along the North Shore

Nan Phaddy's cafe

The principal attraction in this area is the Dun Aengus Fort.  This impressive 3,000 years old fort sits 100 m above the Atlantic Ocean and its massive walls run right up to the cliff edge.  No fences guard the sheer drop.  The fort is protected by three concentric walls.  This was one place where we met many other tourists otherwise we were nearly always alone on our walk.

Dun Aengus Fort

The coast at Dun Aengus

Along the path between the stone walls

We came across a sculpture garden that was dedicated to Liam O'Flaithearta (1896 - 1984) who was born in the remote village of Gort na gCapall through which we had just passed. Liam was a significant Irish novelist and short story writer and a major figure in the Irish literary renaissance.

The Scuplture Garden at Gort na gCapall

Detail of one of the sculptures in the garden

The walls use large amount of loose rock and stone which are readily available.

The whole region back was basically large flat slabs of rock and this is the same rock formation that you find on the Burren on the mainland as the Aran Islands are just a continuation of that region.

The Aran Islands are a popular area for the tourist. Each day a whole hoard of folk arrive on the morning ferry from Rossaveal and spend the day on the island returning later in the afternoon.  Most get out to Dun Aengus and many use a pony and trap to cover the eight or so kilometres which we had walked.  

The lazy man's way to get around Inishmore

All together on our first day out we covered about 17 kilometres, which was going to be one the longest distances we covered in a day.  A good start to the adventure.

The weather was wonderful, only one rain shower that we managed to miss, just.  We felt ourselves lucky as it rains two days out of three in that part of the world.