I woke up at 6am in my compartment. It was not the best sleep I’ve ever had, due to being used to a larger mattress, however it was pretty good. At 8am, I went into the dining car for breakfast.

It consisted of a bread and butter pudding and sausages with berry jam and maple syrup. Along with a couple of cups of coffee. Very well cooked. Then I then headed back to my compartment and packed up for detraining in Montreal at 10am.

I ended up catching a taxi to my hotel even though it was only 6 blocks, due to the difficulty in managing all my bags in the snow. I’m staying in the Hotel Espresso on downtown Montreal.

After checking in I went for a walk with the intention of purchasing a UV filter for one of my camera lenses. A gentleman asked me if I would like to buy a ticket for the hockey. Then another did. By the time I got one block, I had been offered tickets from 4 men. So I looked around to see where I thought the hockey stadium would be and headed over. It was the Bell Centre, the home of the Montreal Canadiennes. One of the staff advised me that there was a women’s hockey game on during the day and it wasn’t too expensive. So I found the box office and bought myself a ticket. There was a men’s hockey game on in the evening so I bought one for that game too. For the men’s game, I had a choice of a front row seat for $440 or one about 20 rows up for $140. I bought the cheaper seat. For the women’s game, all tickets were $15.I bought a lunch of hot dog, fries and lemonade and headed in to prepare for the game. The hot dog was about half the size of the ones we have, but the rest was normal.

Cameras are banned from the stadium, but smart phones with cameras aren’t. This is a photograph of the stadium’s ice rink from my seat. This photo shows a bunch of ankle biters who skated over any then sat with the women on their bench when they came out a few minutes later.

The game of ice hockey plays for 3 periods of 20 minutes each, but the clock stops for various infringements, penalties and dropping of the puck by the referee / umpire (there are 4 of them), with a 17 minute break between each of the periods. Just enough time to head out, grab a beer, and get back to your seat. There are 5 field players and one goalie on each team on the ice at any one time, and they change over any time there is a stoppage. Herewith a photo of the crowd for the women’s game. Great to see so many people (and kids especially) attending the game.

Here’s a photo of the game itself.

Les Canadiennes ended up defeating the Calgary Infernos 1-0. It was a great game, especially since it was my first. Interestingly enough, there was no goalie on the ice for the visiting team for around the last 20 seconds of the game. So they had 6 playing on the ice. Interesting.

It was pretty cold and windy when I left the stadium, so I rested a while in my hotel room, then rugged up with my gloves, scarf and woollen hat, and headed back to the stadium for the men’s game.

For the men’s game, Les (Montreal) Canadiennes were playing the Colorado Avalanche. The ceremony started at 7pm with everyone standing for the USA National Anthem followed by the Canadian Anthem (with flags projected onto the ice).

The game started off strongly for the Montreal team, getting 5 goals in the first 9 minutes of the game. Two of the goals were propelled from behind the rear of the net and flicked into the goals by another player. This is difficult for the goalie to see and set up for The other goals (there were 6 in the first period) seemed to be due to the goalie for the Colorado not getting into position and dropping down early enough. I know little about the game, but was really impressed with both goalies from the women’s game, and think they were the best players in the game, constantly deflecting and stopping the puck from many angles.

In the second period, the Montreal team scored three goals and the Avalanche one goal. The final goal for Montreal in that period was scored with 0.1 of a second left in the period, and so had to go for review. The crowd were very animated when the screen showed the final second in slow motion. In the third period, Montreal scored one goal and the Avalanche nil, so the game ended 10-1. It was a great game overall, except there was one big brawl with about three minutes to go, after a Montreal play pushed over a Colorado player against the wall.

When there is a serious incident / penalty in the game, it seems that the offending player gets 2 minutes off the ice, meaning that there are 4 field players against 5. So the team with the lesser players goes directly into defence mode.

In all, it was a great game and I was glad I had stumbled onto it. Although I still have to buy my filter for my camera! Anyway, I headed home and had a Pumpkin Spice Kahlua before I went to bed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Got up and had breakfast. Packed my bags. Read half of the last story of my Kathy Reichs novella. Then it was check out and head on down to the railway station to catch the “Ocean” train from Halifax to Montreal. I would recommend the Halliburton House Inn to anyone wishing to spend any time in Halifax. It’s a small boutique hotel with staff who work hard to provide you with an enjoyable stay. And the beds are comfortable.

I have two suitcases, a large backpack (Mindshift 40 Litre) for my camera gear, a small carry bag of my Surface Pro and accessories, with my iPad added, and a small backpack of the gear I needed on the train (sudoku and crosswords, books including on the train ride across Canada, medications, electrical recharge gear, etc.). I got to Via Rail and checked in my suitcases and sat down to read the rest of my book. It was 11am and the train wasn’t leaving until 1pm.

So at 12.30pm they started boarding the train. The train ride was going to be for 22 hours from 1pm Friday to 10am Saturday (we were to be adding an hour on the way West), so I booked a 2 person sleeper compartment (there are no 1 person compartments on the “Ocean” train. I am travelling from Halifax on the East Coast to Vancouver on the West Coast completely by train. Part of my budget is to have a sleeper compartment for any trip longer than 19 hours. Even though the seats in the front carriages (for sit up passengers) recline for the night, I have no great desire to sit in one seat for that whole time, apart from using the shared carriage or being one of those passengers going to the dining room carriage. It’s a big part of the treat of this holiday for me.

I went up to the sleeper compartment check in and got my “Sleeper Plus” wristband and directions where to get on and which compartment I was in. I was in 38-10, being carriage 38 compartment 10. I also set the time for my lunch slot before heading out to the train. The compartment was set up for seating once I got on. Here it is.

Just as I was settling in, a Via Rail employee, Britney, came to introduce herself. She said she was allocated to carriage 38 to assist in making my journey comfortable, and proceeded to show me the lights etc. She agreed to pop in at 7pm to change the seating into the bedding arrangement. She was quite pleasant and I did see her a few times during the trip. After packing a few things I continued reading a book until it was time to head off.

For passengers with compartments (about 3 couples and 1 single person per carriage for the 4 carriages that were being used), we also had a lounge car on both sides of the dining car, each of which had a little shop selling food and drinks including alcohol during the day hours, as well as access to the final car on the train, the dome car. It was 2 storey, with the lower half consisting of a tea and coffee, biscuits and fruit zone, an enclosed seating area with what felt like soundproofing, seats around the walls in the back half, and access to the back window for photographs. The upper half was two columns of double seating looking forward outside and over the train in front, with the windows in a dome and giving 360 visuals. On the times I visited (I got some good sets of 2 minute videos out the back window) there were usually 4-5 people in dome, and no more than two at any time in one of the lounges.

At 1.15pm I headed off to the dining car. I had soup of the day (minestrone style – spiral pasta with beans, carrots and onions) and spaghetti bolognese, washed down with two stubbies of Garrison Irish Red (Garrison being the brewery in Halifax that I visited).

I followed up with a thin slice of tart and cream and a pot of tea. For Sleeper Plus passengers, meals are all free, so of course I had to have each course.

Then I headed back to my compartment and mostly spent the rest of the afternoon looking out of the window, taking photos out of the window, spending a little time in the lounges updating messages etc (the lounge and dining cars had Wifi for guests). I couldn’t concentrate on reading due to the rocking of the car, but I did have an audio book I listened to. It’s hard to take decent photos out of the train (the trees along the side of the track both hide interesting features), but here are a couple I thought were interesting.

The photo above shows a small lake that is mostly iced up, and has already been used by locals for ice skating, however has not fully frozen over (see .he mid-left side which is till water) and so has some risks for skaters.

At 6.30pm, I headed back to the dining car for dinner. I had a small tart for entrée with a piece of salmon for main meal. Again washed down with Irish Red, followed by dessert and tea. I had a chat with Britney, and she said that on the “Canadian” train – which are the legs between Toronto and Vancouver – there is a full kitchen, unlike the “Ocean” which is this trip, and so there will be fuller meals. She has been on those legs as part of her role, and believes I’ll get to see some great parts of the country including the prairies.

I then headed back to my compartment, she came along after about 20 minutes to change the lounge into the bedding format, and I changed and went to bed. The bed was not as comfortable as a hotel room, but it was fine for one night.

Well I didn’t get to do too much today. It’s my last day in Halifax, so just mopping up before I head off to Montreal for a week tomorrow.

After breakfast, I chilled out for a couple of hours reading in my room, and then I headed back to the Museum of Immigration. I went into the short term exhibit on the impact that the decision by Benito Mussolini to enter World War II on the side of Germany had on the lives of Italian Canadians. Various members of the public, including business partners, some clergy, neighbours, colleagues etc. reported on others to the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police), causing a range of people to be incarcerated whilst investigations took place. Herewith a small number of story board photos. There were also many recorded stories that I got to hear. Listening to the various stories was quite fascinating.

dscovered

I then headed over to the overall Canadian Immigration gallery. This told of the various stages /times in detail of the time from the mid 1500s where Canada started to be discovered by the non-indigenous peoples, and the various periods from then to the present time that immigration impacted that Canadian people. The stories were generally more about the migration events and settling in of the new arrivals, rather than the economic and social benefits of the migration – although there was some of this near the end.

There was also a large screen demonstrating the number of migrants through the whole period to date (it shows a map of the world and a line from those countries where the migrants came each year. A thin line for a (relatively) few migrants, and a thick line for many. Herewith a shot of 1990 (years being on the bottom of the screen, numbers to the right.

It was interesting to learn that the highest migration numbers came from the period 1896 to 1914, when the then Prime Minister, Sir Wilfred Laurier, implemented a push to settle the Western part of Canada as a high priority. This peaked at a migration level of 400,000 in 1913, with the reduction in free movement at the outbreak of WWII leading to a significant reduction in migration.

Migration to Canada has continued such that the annual intake is around 200,000 per year since 2000 or so. The drivers are many, including war, as well as the discrimination felt by people in other countries, including women especially where there are no education options, gay people especially in Islamic countries where it is crime, and so many areas of unrest in the world.

The stories recorded either verbally or in writing demonstrate the happiness of those migrants to be allowed to stay and contribute to their new country.  Some of the issues they are confronted with include:

• How to achieve a sense of belonging
• When does a person stop feeling like a migrant
• What des it mean to be Canadian

So not much different from Australia and other countries with migration programs.

Whilst I was in the museum, I took a short citizenship test to see if I could pass to become a Canadian. I obviously had to make most of the answers up given I don’t know much about it. I ended up only getting 3 out of 8, I needed 6 out of 8 to pass. 😦 One thing I did learn was that Lacrosse was invented in Canada.

One final photo from inside the Museum is one of a number of message boards that made me think about contributions to society.

Outside the museum is a little garden contained within 7 or 8 granite message boards relating to Nation Building (which reminded me of Utopia, the ABC Comedy series, but these ones were successful). Here is the central message board and one with a short story.

After leaving the museum, I took a stroll down the Boardwalk to the Ferry terminal, a couple of kilometres away. I took one of the ferries across the rived to take a few little photos of Halifax City as the sun was going down. However whilst I was in the museum, the weather (0 degrees C), turned from sunny to cloudy, and it had rained. Which it decided to do again when I arrived across the rived – and there were no undercover spots to take photos. The rain really more sprinkled, and it came and went, so I got a bunch of photos. I have a number to stitch together to make panoramas when I et home. Anyway, here are a couple of photos.

The second photo was opened for 10 seconds shutter speed, hence the parallel lines being a ferry in the middle of the water and one at the back left.

After that, I headed back to my hotel for dinner. I had checked my food and drink budget for the trip, and was $550 under budget as of this morning, so I could afford to blow out on a good meal. The various prosciuttos in the entrée (along with the duck pate) were delicious and complemented the Gewurztraminer. The salmon, from the West Coast, was delicious, as good as an Aussie salmon. Interestingly there is a ban on salmon fishing on the east coast, but not the west. The berry tart (with icecream made on the premises) for dessert was very tasty – the icecream did have a strong condensed milk flavour. The only negative thing from the meal was that the sherry tasted more sour than sweet. All in all a good evening, and then up to my room to pack.

I have had a couple of people ask me about all my eating and my weight / whether I am feeling okay – since I did spend a lot of time in Alaska tasting a lot of different American foods, Luckily I have 8 weeks to sample Canadian food. Anyway, don’t worry, I feel perfectly health and my weight is fine. I bought a set of digital scales from Walmart that I am just getting used to. I haven’t read the manual for them yet, but I’m pretty sure they are weighing about 3-4 kilograms on the heavy side of accurate. So the scales probably just need to be calibrated properly and I’ll do that in the next day or so.

After breakfast, I headed off to catch Bus 9 to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery. This is where the majority of the 150 bodies recovered from the sinking of the Titanic in 1912 and not claimed at the time by others were buried. It was also where a number of the unidentified remains of victims of the Harbour Explosion in 1917 were buried, and has a monument to them. Without wishing to be morbid, I was unaware of the harbour explosion, or the burying of Titanic survivors in Halifax, when I planned to visit the city. Having heard so much about Titanic growing up, it just makes sense to make a respectful visit to the site.

Here are the two plaques which provide some information on the burials, the design, as well as the relatively recent identifying of the “unknown child” through DNA testing. So I have also included a photo of the overall Titanic cemetery stones and the specific stone of the former unknown child.

Going back to my visit yesterday to the Maritime museum, herewith a few other photos from the Titanic exhibit. A couple are photos of small-scale models of the ship going down and the shipwreck itself (camera up close to increase the size). Others are informational about the construction and design of the ship and living quarters, as well as an artist’s impression of the impact of the waters on the “great staircase”.

Regarding the model of the row boat in the front with the Titanic in the background, I took a number of photos of the display, with different parts in focus. So I hope to use some focus-stacking software to try to stitch together the whole scene (it also includes the iceberg) all in focus.

Herewith also a photo of the memorial to the Unidentified Dead from the Halifax Harbour Explosion, and one of the sign next to it.

After this I walked a couple of kilometres to the Halifax Shopping Centre to buy a couple of items I could not get downtime. As part of this I saw a couple of police officers escorting a young child through the shops. Lost child I assumed. Then I saw another police officer and another young child. Two lost children – I suppose that happens. Then after another minute I walked into Walmart and saw another 3 or 4 police officers with young kids. Then they were in every aisle. Bring your kid to the shops day? So I asked one of the staff and they said that every year on this day, police officers take underprivileged children out to buy them and their families gifts, and take them to get something to eat as well. I saw one police officer and a child being pushed on a trolley by another officer. So they were having fun too. It seems to be such a nice gesture.

After I got back to the hotel, I rested my feet for a half hour, had a coffee and then headed off to the Canadian Museum of Immigration. The Museum is at Pier 21, which is the building that was opened in 1928 and used to process around 1 million immigrants before it closed in 1971 (with more immigrants not coming by aircraft there was no longer the need for this particular facility). Halifax was the one site in Canada used for processing immigrants in this time that was on the ocean, and was also the city closest to Europe from where most of these migrants emigrated.

The display starts from a small model of the inside of the facility, from when they come off the boat, wait to be processed, and all the different sections such as where their belongings are checked and certain items confiscated (such as food and drink, certain knives, offensive literature (for the time), etc. – see below).

There was also a mock up of the shop that the migrants purchased food from to replace that which was confiscated, or if they needed to stay more that the day for various reasons – medical issues needing resolving, documentation not in order, etc. – plus food for their onward journeys.

There was also another short film and photos of the time, in the mock up interview room.

There was significantly more set up, including full size cabins the migrants travelled in, full sized train carriages including cooking implements (70 per carriage) that the migrants then travelled to their final destination in, information and models of doctors and nurses, and many other exhibits. All demonstrating the Canadian support for immigration during this period. We have some of these museums in Australia too, which the presenter hopes to one day visit.

After seeing this area, I sat down to watch a 20 minute film on stories from a number of migrants covering the past 30 years or so, although one was a Vietnam draft dodger from the USA so some of the stories stared earlier. But all were up to the last 5 years or so. They were will intertwined and the stories showed their sheer happiness for being allowed to move to and seek work / contribute to their new country. They all had different reasons for coming here, civil war being a common one, as well as one man from Pakistan who was gay, and one from Russia who was given a week to leave the country or be murdered. So an interesting sample. Although these all seemed to be success stories (which are generally the significant majority) and there was no real negative stuff.

After the film I left as the museum was closing. So I took a wander down along the Boardwalk and took some photos. I also took a ferry across the river just to see some of the basic sights of the city.

I’ll wander back out tomorrow with a tripod and a couple of different lenses to see how I go.

After that I walked back to the hotel, poured a glass of Kahlua I bought today (Pumpkin Spice flavoured), added some liquid coffeemate – I had no milk – and it tasted pretty good. Now it’s bedtime.

Well today was a busy day.

Today was the 99^th anniversary of the Halifax Harbour Explosion. On 6 December 1917, Halifax was in the middle of war efforts as part of World War I. It had a deep harbour and was used as a staging post and meeting point for the various Allied navies. Two of the ships in the harbour that day were the SS Mont Blanc, a French cargo ship loaded with munitions (around 2600 tons worth) that was coming into the harbour (the pilot had boarded the night before), and the SS Imo, a Norwegian ship being used to bring supplies to Europe that was leaving the harbour.

At around 8.30am, the SS Mont Blanc noticed that the SS Imo was heading for it, through the Narrows, being the narrowest part of the harbour, and sent signals confirming it had right of way, to be returned by the SS Imo that it would not yield. The captain cut his own engines and depending on who you believe either angled slightly to starboard earlier or did so late in the piece (not really much time in between) to try to protect his dangerous cargo. By this time there was no way out of a collision although both ships had cut their engines. Sailors on other ships stopped to watch. At 8.45am, the SS IMO ran into the SS Mont Blanc, causing ammunition barrels to fall over and leak, and a fire broke out on the munitions ship. The locals in and around the harbour stopped to watch. The crew of the SS Mont Blanc jumped into life rafts, apparently trying to indicate to others that the ship would explode. Apparently this didn’t work so they rowed hard to shore and ran into the trees. As no other parties were aware of the danger, some rowed out to tie a line to the ship and tow it out.

At 9.05am, the ship exploded. The explosion was the largest man made explosion of its time, until Hiroshima. Over 2000 people died, 9000 were injured, with many of those who didn’t die being blinded by the explosion, blocks of buildings were blown down including mostly all of the northern side of Halifax, and windows shattered as far as 100 miles away. Many other ships were totalled, and their crew deceased from the explosion. Only one crew member of SS Mont Blanc died. The explosion also caused a significant tsunami that transferred a significant amount of water from the harbour to the streets, drowning many members of the public.

There was a significant amount of loss from this tragedy. But the war effort continued, including sending a convoy from Halifax only a few days later. And many medically trained people came from miles away to help out, set up a hospital (the hospital ship in the harbour was damaged and the usual building used was also damaged beyond repair) and a morgue.

XOX

My first action for the day was to head over to the Atlantic superstore for some provisions. On the way, I walked through Cornwallis Park. In pride of place in the centre of the park, it has a statue of Edward Cornwallis, “Founder of Halifax” in 1749, and its first Governor. Founder being listed on the statue which was unveiled in 1931, and in inverted commas (by me) because as with many historical events, there are disputes as to the facts and there was a native people already residing there.

 

An interesting thing that I noticed on my walk is that none of the cars in Halifax have front number plates. A few have adverts, but most are clear. I’ll have to look into that.

Another thing of note in the area of Halifax that I am staying is that it has a large university, the Dalhousie University, and so caters a lot to the student crowd. Not that there is anything wrong with that, it means there are a number of pubs and cafes with cheap food and beer.

After finishing at the Superstore (basically a very large grocery store with a pharmacy, fresh fish and butcher, as well as a small amount of other things like books), I headed over to the Southern end of the Halifax Waterfront Boardwalk, via the Via Rail offices (the company that runs the train lines across Canada). There was no information like timetables and fares available (you get it off the internet), and for what I wanted in terms of tickets, it was recommended I just buy them off the internet too.

So off to the Boardwalk. At the southern end, it starts with the Halifax Seaport. So that’s where I started to investigate. I wandered through the Halifax Farmer’s Market (which opened at 10am, just before I got there so was only just setting up), followed by a closed Annexe used for various events integrating the water with the area close to it (closed), and the NSCAD University Port Campus (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design). Next door was the Mary E Black Gallery and Design Art Shop, which was open so I wandered in for a look. There were two small exhibits on, the first being various objects made from porcelain. This was quite colourful, with my favourite items being two boxes that very much looked like they were made from textile but were actually porcelain. The work was so intricate. The second exhibit, which is being advertised around town including on a brochure in my hotel room, was called Birth by Fire. It is an exhibit of forged steel with an interplay with wood and sometimes stone. It is interesting because whilst steel is forged in fire, wood in many cases dies by fire. I enjoyed some of the many uses of the materials. But I wasn’t allowed to take photos.

I then headed next door to the Canadian Museum of Immigration, which was also closed. But it is open for the next few days so will definitely go back. Canada has a long history of accepting immigrants, and I took some photos of items outside. But I’ll leave those until I am able to visit the Museum. Next door, there was another area for shops and displays that is used only when cruise liners are in town, which there wasn’t, so it also was closed. Then following that building is the operations of the Cunard Line. This line was started by Samuel Cunard, a Haligonian – someone from Halifax. There was a statue of him near the start of the actual Boardwalk.

I then turned around and noticed a Brewery (Garrison Brewing Company) on the other side of the road. So I had to stop for a sample. They make a range of different beers, with their most ordered beer being Tall Ships Amber and Irish Red. I had a Nut Brown, a dark bitter beer. It was quite tasty, especially at $2.

I then headed off to the start of the Boardwalk. Along the way are a number of cafes, restaurants etc. and touristy items like bike and Segway hire (both closed until May). Whilst it was relatively cold, there were a number of joggers and cyclists using the Boardwalk. I took a photo of a large helicopter taking a circle around the harbour, which I think was something to do with today’s anniversary of the harbour explosion.

I passed George’s Island – in the middle of the harbour – on the way. It doesn’t look too exciting. But it was first fortified in 1749 by the British, then used as a detention centre. It became a naval base in the 1800s.

I then reached the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. There were a number of exhibits. Downstairs was mainly around wartime navy ships and weaponry; a large exhibition and video display on the harbour explosion, as well as some fascinating storied from those who survived and those who came to Halifax to help out (some areas were set up for dignitaries to attend events later in the day).

There are also another half dozen photos on this event that WordPress would not allow me to add. I will keep trying over the next week to update this entry, as the historical information is fascinating.

In the museum, there were also full and part size models of a number of yachts and other boats. Upstairs was taken up with two main subjects. One was a number of model steam ships (around 20 of different sizes between about 30 centimetres and 2 metres long) and various articles like quadrants, spliced shipping cables and various bits of wood from sunken ships. Given Halifax’s historical use of the water, and position as a major port and navy “half-way house” for the Americas and Europe, there are believed to be around 10,000 sunken ships around the Nova Scotia shoreline.

The final exhibit (and it’s a large one) is the RMS Titanic. The Titanic was sunk not much more than 400 miles from Halifax, and this was the nearest major port so was used to deliver bodies recovered from the event (the survivors travelled to New York). I’ll try to get out to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery, where the unclaimed bodies were buried, in the next couple of days and so will add some photos from the museum exhibit together then.

Two more noteable items from the Maritime. One is that Merlin, the talking parrot, has his own live webcam at www.novascotiawebcams.com. The other is that I received a Certificate of Proficiency in Morse Code from the Halifax Radio Club for being able to send my first name in a morse code message. Nowhere near up to your standards of course, Dad, but I did it.

After the Maritime Museum I went for a walk up to the Citadel. On the way, I stopped at a Rum Distillery (Halifax Distilling Company) and went in for a sample. It was quite smooth. I had a Mojito, but it was nowhere near the standard I got at Hotel Nacionale de Cuba in Havana, or even the Havana Café in Cairns. But it was okay (although missing mint leaves!).

I got up to the Halifax Citadel (a National Historic Site). This was chosen (again in 1749 – that was a busy year for Halifax) as the right place to place a fort to protect the city, given its views across the harbour. It was well set up with cannons and its armoury. It is currently undergoing a major renovation (as are a number of historic parts of Halifax).

After leaving the Citadel I wandered 2 blocks to the Halifax Public Gardens. They have a large fence around them. And were closed for winter. So I walked back to the hotel. On the way, I stopped in at a chocolate shop and asked for some chocolate covered honeycomb. The lady didn’t know what I was talking about. After a couple of minutes, we worked out that in Canada they call it “sponge toffee”. The shop sells it as Rocky Seafoam, as another company has trademarked the name “sponge toffee”. But that’s what everyone calls it. So I bought a packet to test. And after a couple of samples, I can highly recommend it. The honeycomb does not have as strong a bite as our Crunchie bars, but are half way between that and Violet Crumble.

I then headed back to the hotel (got there around 4pm) and sat down to read today’s Globe and Mail (they are free at the hotel), so I read the local paper (The Chronicle Herald) with breakfast. On the front page was an article on a political and environmental storm about an oil pipeline, one on Liberal Party fundraisers being unethical and potentially illegal. Sounds like more than one country has these issues.

There was also an article inside about concerns around an online survey on electoral reform in Canada, to decide a new way of voting (they currently use first past the post). There are concerns that the questions are not valid, and there may be nothing to stop people completing the survey more than once. The current Prime Minister promised that the 2015 election would be the last based on first past the post, but at this point the pollies cannot decide on what should replace it. The newspaper even listed the web address for the survey “mydemocracy.ca” and said that the consultants had posted out 15 million postcards to electors to get them to complete the survey. So I logged in myself and completed it too. Apparently, I’m a Challenger, and my politics is both responsive and transparent.

Now I’m finally catching up on my blog (more photos than word tomorrow), so now it’s time for bed.

 

These two days are combined into one entry as they consist of checking out of my Fairbanks, Alaska, USA hotel; waited around at airports in between taking 4 flights; and checking into my Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada hotel. Whilst losing 4 hours in the process due to flying east.

 

4 December:

Got up for breakfast at 7am, packed my bags and checked that they met the check-in and carry-on for usual carrier requirements, and then sat and read a book until 10.50am, with 11am being my hotel check out time. Said goodbye to the Westmark Fairbanks Hotel and caught a taxi to the Fairbanks airport. I checked my bags through to Vancouver (was taking two Alaska Air flights, the first from Fairbanks to Seattle, the second from Seattle to Vancouver), the bought a newspaper and a bottle of water and cosied up for a few hours of reading. During this period I also had some “pretzels” – they were long fluffy sticks rather than the round harder ones I’m used to – and a couple of JD and Drys.

The first plane took off on time and it was a clear flight through to Seattle. Caught the internal train to Terminal C, and had enough time to stretch before getting on the next flight. That second flight also took off on time. I waved goodbye for the last time this trip to the USA.

I will say that, whilst I never thought Americans (from the USA) were all like the stereotypical ones you see on TV in Australia, either on comedy shows, documentaries or the news; I found mostly everyone I dealt with or spoke to, to be polite, intelligent, friendly and they made me feel very welcome in their country. Whilst some of their service presence may be due to the need to garner tips based on the way they get paid, I found the American hotel and restaurant employees to be attentive and polite, and on average superior to the average of similar employees in Australia. In terms of their attitude and demonstrated professionalism. This is obviously a relative thing, but I was impressed.

 

5 December:

I arrived in Vancouver around midnight. After fetching my 2 suitcases I found most shops at the airport were closed, and there were no money changers still open so I could not get change for the vending machines. It was 1am, Air Canada was not opening their counters for at least another 5 hours, and the 7 or 8 people also waiting were laying on all the seats near the check-in desk. So I went in search for something to eat. There was one shop open, Tim Hortons, which I found out is the Canadian version of Starbucks. Now I was in Canada, I had to try their cuisine. So this is what I bought.

It’s a Chipotle wrap, grande French vanilla coffee, Canadian maple donut, and a French honey crueller (the last word can be spelt a number of ways). Damn it was all so tasty. And laden with sugar.

After that sugar hit, I bought a bottle of coke from a vending machine with the change I got from Tim Hortons, and headed back for the 4 hour wait. Luckily I had a good Kathy Reichs book (4 novellas) to read.

At 6am I was able to check my suitcases through to Halifax, and headed out to get a newspaper (The Globe and Mail) and a coffee, and waited until 7.20am to board. This flight was to be from Vancouver to Toronto – 4 hours and 25 minutes. Given it was a large plane, they boarded in zones, and I was zone 4. So I boarded about 7.35am and settled into my left window seat (like 50% of the window seats, over the wing). I looked out and saw lots of ice on the wing. I recalled an episode of Air Crash Investigation around icy wings and thought “damn, I hope they are going to be de-icing them”. By now it was around 7.50am and so 10 minutes before takeoff. I was wondering whether I should hop off the plane as it didn’t look like we’d have time to de-ice the wings. Luckily we were late. We left the bay 15 minutes after we were meant to leave, and it was announced we were heading over to have the wings and engines de-iced. I was very happy. That took around 45-50 minutes of waiting and then having the machines (a bloke sitting in a cherry-picker with a mechanical arm that held a pipe which sprayed the foam that turned the ice and snow yellow, and then it fell off) de-ice the plane. I am always happy to allow the airport workers to take as long as they need to do what they have to, and be as late as needed rather than be on time and miss something.

So we took off an hour and fifteen minutes late. And as we taxied across to the final runway, it started snowing! Once we were in the air, I calculated with the time change (I put my watch 3 hours ahead to Toronto time) that I would have a half hour from touchdown before my final flight left from Toronto to Halifax – 2 hours and 5 minutes. Luckily the pilots made up a little time. I have always assumed they do this by flying a bit faster which would use up a little more fuel, much like driving a car 10km / hour faster. Which I assume they cannot afford to do very often. The Air Canada team on the ground had also spent time rebooking about a quarter of the passengers on later flights than they had already booked. And they advised the rest of us which gates we would be going through on our latter flights, so we’d get there before they had taken off. Plus after we landed, two special people got to deplane first so they’d catch their next flight. All in all we got in about a half hour late. So all was fine for me.

I got onto the final leg (Toronto to Halifax), changed my watch forward again by another hour, and settled into the final leg of my 2 day travels. The flight was fine. I got to finish another story (3 down, 1 to go), happily at the end of the flight my 2 suitcases came through, so I caught a taxi to my hotel. The Halliburton Inn in Downtown Halifax. It’s a 3 storey boutique hotel, very comfortable. So I headed off to the 24 hour pharmacy a few streets away to get a couple of supplies (it was minus 2 degrees Celsius so I didn’t take my scarf or gloves given Alaska was so much colder), then came back, had a shower and shave and went to bed.

Today (Saturday) was quite a relaxed day. In fact, I didn’t get out of bed until 11am. Mind you I was watching TV until midnight. The various channels and their take on their President-elect is quite fascinating. There are more right wing media forums than just Fox, although Hannity is certainly promoting himself as Trump’s Number 1 media supporter. Still trying to see what Bill O’Reilly’s view is. Anyway, I’ll leave that up to them.

When I got outside, it was clear that Fairbanks had received some snow whilst I was away. I went for a walk to the Cooperative / Grocers a few streets away. It was very much into organics, and the prices were no different from ours. I bought a few goodies to try. I got a packet of rice cakes topped with 68% cocoa chocolate. Who’d have thought you’d melt chocolate onto a health food? Well, apart from strawberrys etc. I also bought some cashew brittle (lighter in colour than our peanut brittle but still as tasty), and some pork rinds (like our pork crackling) in a chip sized packet. Now that is something I’d love to import into Australia, instead of only being able to buy really small bags at the local bar.

I then went for a wander around a few streets just to snap a few photos and see how the snow had impacted the houses. I realised my gloves (not the mittens I have used most as they are great) were really not of much use in the cold. I’m pretty sure I bought them in London so I’d have thought they’d keep out the cold. Anyway, I then walked to the local bus terminal to catch a bus to the museum. Sadly I had missed it by 5 minutes and the next one wasn’t for an hour and a half, so on my way back to the hotel I hailed a taxi to take me there. The trip cost US$22, around AuD$33 which was pretty reasonable for the distance, and only about two thirds of what it cost to drive from Port Hedland airport to my home when I worked there.

The Museum of the North is based at the University of Alaska. It has three main areas; an art gallery; a “Place Where You Go To Listen” (which was unfortunately closed); and an area like a usual museum, with the history of Alaska, from the time before it was “discovered” when it was occupied for many thousands of years by various indigenous peoples, and how they lived, through to European arrivals, to its sale from Russia to the USA in 1867 for $7.2m, through the goldrush and the oil pipeline, etc through to relatively near the present (there is a new wing being built to update the history and bring things through to various changes that have occurred over time).

Here are a few photos of the artworks in the upper gallery.

This last photo was an “Outhouse Experience” you could open the front swinging door (with the antlers) and go into and sit down on a bench. The whole article is made up of found pieces inside and outside. Below is the explanatory sheet attached to the right hand side. I remember we had an outhouse when we lived in Kenny Street Bassendean (until I was 7 or 8 years old). That was too long ago for me to remember much, but I recall that it was sometimes scary to head out at night!

Here are a small number of photos from the downstairs museum section.

I was particularly interested in the display on the Permafrost, given what I’d heard about its effects during the trip up to the north.

There were also three display tables out in the corridor to the entrance of the museum, each with what looked to be University Students at them. There was one table that had a whole lot of instruments and items made out of wood. It was something I would have liked to spend more time on except I knew it was unlikely that anything they sold at the shop would have been been treated to the level acceptable to Australia’s customs officials.  So I spent some time talking to the young lasses at the table that displayed the deforestation of trees in Fairbanks over the previous 100 years. We got to talking about it around the world and then onto climate change. One of the ladies asked me where I was from and so I said Western Australia. So she asked me about the two things that everyone has asked me about when wanting to know about Australia – are there really lots of snakes and spiders! And how scary are they? Personally I’m more worried about spiders than snakes, certainly the ones I have seen. I explained how sometime we catch a spider on a piece of paper and take it outside to shake it off, rather than killing it. She said she go straight at it with a shoe. It’s always interesting to hear overseas people and their view on our killer insects and reptiles. Then I had to get to the shop to buy a couple of gifts before the bus came.

I really did enjoy visiting the museum, and although I have been reading up on the history over the past 12 months, getting details from a personal level rather than just at a country level, is enjoyable and educational.

I then went to catch the bus back to the hotel. I took one photo of the “sunset” behind the clouds across the road from the museum (the sun did rise a little above the horizon in Fairbanks).

Unfortunately, the bus came about 5 minutes early so I didn’t get a photo of the museum building itself. It was quite architectural. I caught the bus back to my hotel and fired up my Surrface Pro to transfer across all my photos from the Coldfoot trip and update my blog. For dinner I was thirsty but not hungry, so I headed off to the Red Lantern Steak and Spirits restaurant for a half sandwich / half soup meal (Cuban sandwich / clam chowder soup) and a glass of Chateau Ste Michelle Reisling (Columbia Valley). A sweet wine, thinner than but with the same lemon honey taste of a Botrytis Semillon dessert wine. I liked it so much I had 3 glasses. Then off to bed.

It’s now Friday, the final day of my trip north of the Arctic Circle.

So I slept in, relatively speaking, getting up at 11.10am. I don’t know what has got me staying in bed so long as I’ve never done it elsewhere. Anyway, off to the Cafe for breakfast I go. It’s my last breakfast here in Coldfoot, so I challenged myself to the Truckers Breakfast. 2 eggs, 2 hash browns, 4 biscuits and gravy, along with two cups of the cold tea that I have come to enjoy.

Yummy, doesn’t that look tasty!

I also took a photo of an genuine Ice Road Trucker!

I then headed back to the Inn. I wanted to make a snowman on my last day, but I was told that the ice and snow here is too dry and so would not make a snowman. Very sad to hear that. I guess I’ll have to wait until Canada then. So I sdat down to watch Forensic Files on the TV (having already packed).

The plan for the day was we were to be picked up at 1.30pm for the trip to the airstrip and 1+ hour flight back to Fairbanks. The time then became 3pm, then 3.30pm. I didn’t have a problem with the delays, except for the darkness taking away from the photo opportunities. The reason is, I’d rather whoever is doing so spends as much time as they need making sure the plane is airworthy, rather than rushing to meet a deadline.

Anyway, we left around 3.45pm. It was getting dark as we drove up next to a 9 seater plane. And there were 8 of us plus the pilot. Hmmm, would some of my 24 pounds of gear not be let on the plane? But no, all was fine. We got on and prepared for takeoff. Herewith a photo of the plane as we board.

And one of the airstrip as we taxi on.

And one as we climb into the air.

The plane did shake a little as we headed further up into the air, so I decided to close my eyes and meditate for 10 minutes. When I re-opened my eyes, we were still up in the air, which comforted me greatly. Until the pilot decided to call up another passenger, obviously a colleague, to help him close his window – whilst we were flying! Now I am normally a bit perturbed with small planes because I am all in favour of having 2 pilots, just in case one has a heart attack or something like that. But when the pilot’s window isn’t closed?? Argghhhh.

Anyway, I have been updating my posts, so I obviously survived the trip. Most of the rest of the flight was relatively calm, and we could not see anything out the windows. It was all like a grey / green fog had enveloped the plane for the rest of the trip until we reduced height to land. Anyway, I was very happy for the skills of the pilot. But I was glad when we landed.

So we headed off to the Northern Alaska Tour Company’s offices (co-located at the airport), said our goodbyes and then I headed back to my hotel. Then into the shower (which surprisingly was not as hot as the showers at Coldfoot Camp – which were actually the hottest I’ve had in Alaska, and off to bed.

The whole four day trip is something that I really enjoyed, and that I will remember for a very long time.

 

Today was a quite day to relax, with no tours planned.

I got up at 10.30am and ambled across for a late breakfast. This along with a relatively early dinner means I can save on buying lunch. So today I had a short stack of pancakes (2 buttermilk pancakes, fluffy and perfectly cooked – I wish mine were as good), topped with maple / honey and matched to a couple of cups of sugar-free iced tea. yummy.

Today was pretty warm relatively speaking, with the temperature up at minus 16 degrees Celsius, virtually tshirt weather. So I went with Marian and Rodney for a walk to the cemetery. It was about 400 metres away. We couldn’t find any actual graves but there was a couple of information boards. Sadly they tell of a couple of time between 1899 and 1903 of people have left for Coldfoot and not arrived, plus one of a man who froze to death at 73 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 58 Celsius) in 1903 when trying to drag loads of moose meat.

After we got back to the Inn, I sat down and watched TV. There were a few episodes of “Alaska Mega Machines” which demonstrated a number of very large pieces of equipment used to ship products to Juneau, clear the Dalton highway and prepare it for trucks after snow storms, dig a trench in the snow / ice to ensure the melting ice in spring does not cover the highway, and another large piece of equipment to dig up the ice. As well as a tug boat used up north that has its own ice-breaker fitted to break ice up to 3 feet thick. The Alaskans have thought of everything, and most of the equipment on these shows was specifically developed for Alaska.

There was also a show about an indoor shipbuilding facility in a place called Ketchikan, which has 13 feet of rainfall per year (hence the need to be inside). And some of the hull is built upside down so the welders, technicians etc. can get to it easier, then uses a double gantry which is one of the strongest in the USA, to flip over the hull to allow it to be welded to the rest of the frame.

Interestingly, Juneau is the capital city of Alaska, but is south of the main body of Alaska ands has no roads in or out – so you have to fly in or take a cargo / passenger / vehicle ship to get there. There are many light aircraft around Alaska to traverse the large areas where there is no roads.

An interesting thing I noticed as well was to do with commercials that sell medications. For every 30 second commercial, the first half of the commercial is selling the product, then the next, approx.,  10-12 seconds lists the various reasons you should not take the product as well as its possible side effects, followed up with the last 3-5 seconds being about speaking with your doctor before taking it. They do still have some small print at the bottom of the screen like in Australia, but it was fascinating listening to the possible side effects and warnings about taking the medications. It is nothing like we do in Australia.

At 5.30pm I headed back over to the Café for dinner. I had a very tasty Chicken Soup, followed up by an Oreo cheesecake with a scoop of chocolate icecream for dessert. I followed up by watching with Mark a game of basketball between the Houston Rockets and the Golden State Warriors (the team Andrew Bogut used to play for), with Houston winning 132 v 127 in double overtime. It’s as I remember when going to see the Perth Wildcats with my brother Chris some years ago, lots of stoppages and advert breaks. In between the adverts, the game was pretty good though, especially as it was pretty tight the whole time.

At 9pm it was still cloudy, there were no stars obviously, so I decided not to stay up to see if the clouds went away thus revealing the Aurora Borealis. There was however some very nice snowflakes that started to fall. I took a couple of photos from the front of the Inn over to the Café with some of the snowflakes, with different aperture and time settings. I hope to improve on this in Canada to get some good shots, when the temperature is warmer and I can actually get my hand out of my mittens to touch the camera!

Then I headed off to bed. It turns out that the clouds lifted and the Aurora Borealis did come out, as Rodney and Connie went to the cabin in Wiseman to watch and get photos. I was glad to hear in the morning that they had gotten some good photos of the AB. Everyone should aspire to get up to see the northern lights, or in fact travel down to the bottom of Tasmania or New Zealand to see the Southern Lights, AKA Aurora Australis, as I will hopefully get to do in a couple of years time!

 

 

 

 

 

Well, today was day 2 of my 4 day, 3 night tour up north of the Arctic Circle in Alaska.

I got out of bed at 9.30am and prepared myself for the day. Shower, put on my thermals, then my mid layer, then my outer layer – including scarf, mittens, woollen hat. Then I was ready to walk the 50 metres to breakfast! Being in the USA, I decided to have a traditional American breakfast – Biscuits and Gravy. I have wondered for some time what sort of biscuits you’d put in gravy, and why you’d have gravy for breakfast. Anyway, the biscuits are Australian scones, cut in half, and the gravy is a mix of what tastes like mayonnaise, white sauce and bits of sausage in it. Surprisingly, it was actually quite tasty. But still something I’d more likely have for lunch than breakfast.

Before I speak of the next event, I’ll introduce you to the four other people on my tour – Marian and Rodney from Queensland, and Connie and Mark from Oregon (if I remember properly).They were delightful company across the trip. A better group I could not have asked for. I had met Rodney previously on a photo tour in Anchorage.

At 11am I went along with Marian and Rodney (also a keen photographer) on a Mountain Safari, which consisted of a trip up the Dalton Highway to a DOT (Department of Transport) way station, the role of which is to keep the lifeline that is the Dalton Highway operational. Given this is the mode of transportation for almost everything up to Prudhoe Bay, a high level of monitoring is required to ensure no cessation of services and deliveries.

I got some really nice photos, again some will be helped along with Photoshop and Lightroom, however here are a few. I really like the texture in a couple of them. I also really like the way the fog lays over very thin parts of the landscape, and the effect it has on the light.

One of the things we learnt was that the moose population was fairly thin in the area due to there only being a couple of months of green shoots in the spruce trees in summer. There is twice as long (four months worth) in Fairbanks, so hence there are more moose closer to that city. Also we heard that the day with the lowest amount of sunlight will be December 21. The sun comes up but this north it does not go higher than the horizon. So there is light from around 10.30am to around 2.45pm, but no sun. December 21 will only have around 10 minutes of sunlight, after which it will increase by 9 minutes per day, until it gets to mid year, when there will be approximately 21-22 hours of sunlight. Not sure how comfortable that would be especially the type of curtains needed to get to sleep.

The TransAlaska Oil pipeline started being built in 1974, after the 1973 international oil crisis caused prices to skyrocket in the USA as it did elsewhere around the world. Special techniques were required during construction to offset the Permafrost problem. Without this, any heat from the pipes would cause a melting of the ice and therefore a pressure downwards due to gravity of the pipes. So some of the pipeline is built above ground on a frame / stilts (see photos yesterday), and some is underground.

The pipeline was developed for approximately 2.1 million barrels per day. The current flow is around 500,000 barrels per day. This is due to a number of factors including that the pipeline is now approximately 39 years old, and was built to last 25 years. So reducing the flow is extending the life of the pipe system.

Not all pumping stations (12 were built along the pipeline) are operational due to the reduced flow of oil. And one of the roles of the operational pumping stations is to keep the oil from gelling up due to the cold. So a certain amount is filtered out when it gets to the stations, is warmed up and then filtered back into the pipes.

With the ageing pipeline, there is now a decision to be made as to when to replace it, and where the finances are sourced to allow this to happen.

One of the things we did see on this trip was the northern-most tree. Here it is, all on its lonesome 😦

And here is an ice road trucker – without the ice at this point.

Then after a while we headed back to the Inn for 3pm finish of the tour. A very enjoyable tour. It also got to the coldest temperature of my whole trip on one part of the tour. The temperature reached approximately minus 45 degrees Fahrenheit, which works out to approximately minus 43 Celsius. Brrr it was cold.

At 11pm, I got up to go over to the pond (it was frozen – about 50 metres from the Inn I was staying at, to take some photos of the Aurora Borealis if it decided to appear. I wandered over first in the dark without my gear to make sure I could get there and back without any problems. Then I got my gear and walked back across and set up. Nothing much happened for the first 20 minutes, and then it came out. Here are a few photos.

After an hour it started to settle down. I was very cold at the time (about 10 minutes after midnight), so I packed up and headed back to the Inn to sleep.