I reluctantly came back last Sunday from an incredible 2 weeks trip in the province of New-Brunswick.
Many many thanks to Gisèle and Herb for graciously lending us their cottage near Bathurst for a week. That was the main reason this trip was so great.
When we wanted to go by the sea, all we had to do was open the door, walk 15 steps and our feet were in the water. WEEE!
Highlights of the trip:
The SEA!
Fresh seafood.
All the kinds of birds we could see from the cottage and in our trips, including a bunch of ducks that quickly learned that when they took the time to knock on the patio door, the humans would give them bread.
All the nice falls that Gisèle showed us that are not necessarily on the standard tourists circuit.
The Magnetic Hill Zoo, near Moncton.
Hopewell Rocks formations also near Moncton.
The Fundy National Park. It rained the day we went then so we did only one trail to a very small river with the most incredible falls we have ever seen, tightly squeezed between trees and rocks covered with thick moss. The rain gave the whole place a unique look that I hope will come out in the pictures. We swore that day that we would revisit all our favourites rivers near our hometown during rainy days to see what kind of effect it gives.
The Cap Enragé lighthouse that was saved from demolition 15 years ago by highschool students. It is still run by students and they do a terrific job of it. It was rainy there too but we thought it gave the place a feeling fitting to the scenery.
The city of Grand Falls, cut in two by a river that dug a deep (by my standards) gorge in the soft rock.
Less beautiful but unexpected encounters, the McCain headquarters and one of their frozen food factories (HUGE) and the Sabian cymbals factory (I didn't even know they were Canadians).
We would go back there again anytime, so many places we did not get to see.
My van's trip counter : approx 3,800km.
The day before we started the trip, I went crazy and decided to acquire new lenses to satisfy my two basic needs, faster exposition and wider angle. I got a Sigma constant aperture 70-200mm f2.8 for speed and a Sigma 10-20mm f4-5.6 for the wide angle. I sometimes regret my impulse buys, but not this time. I made in my pants a few times after I saw what those jems could do.
We had TheGal's laptop with us so we could transfer our pictures and make backups on DVDs. By the end of the trip, I had 7 DVDs filled with something around 1,500 pictures in RAW format. Yes, I'm nuts with a camera in my hands. It will take me a while to go trough everything, choose the good from the bad and stitch all the panoramas I took (Thank you, wide angle lens!). Watch my Flickr page, but dont hold your breath.
Damn, I never write big entries like this, I'm going to crash the intartubes!
Bed time kids!
Current Mood:
ecstatic
Current Music: My cats snoring