First Snow

We travelled home from Halifax yesterday evening and the weather turned decidedly wintry.  The snow started as we approached the Cobequid Pass and we saw the first snow plough out salting the road.  I may not feel ready for winter, but it has arrived regardless.

Heading East

Dawn sees us heading east out of Edmundston along the Trans-Canada Highway.

 

The morning is cool and damp with mist along the valleys.

 

The sun appears on the horizon.

 

Our third day on the road and another early start as we try to beat the clock and arrive early enough to do all that needs to be accomplished before the end of the business day.

On the road, we see warning signs for moose, which can wander into the road and be extremely hazardous for drivers.  The sides of the highway in New Brunswick are mostly fenced in an attempt to keep them off the road.  Travelling at night is particularly dangerous because they are on the move and most drivers who hit a moose do not live to tell the tale.

 

 

We continue east on mostly quiet roads, as it is still early in the day and commuters are not yet on the move.

Though I had never driven anything of this size before, I did take a turn at driving the truck - 26 feet of truck complete with a 20 foot trailer are a bit different to the last car that I owned, which was a Mini Cooper S.

 

 

As we were heading east, we had the sun in our eyes for much of the day, so I needed the hat to cut down on the glare.  It is impossible to drive without good sunglasses too, as the light is so bright.  

 

We didn't get a photo of the complete rig this time, but this is the view to the rear.

 

Just to prove that I was actually driving, Mr Candytuft decided to take some action photos!

 

 

As we approach the coast, the scenery changes again.  It is very pretty and the air has a special quality to it, which is fresh and clean: a pleasant and refreshing change after weeks of humidity in Ontario.

 

The warnings of moose become more frequent.  We are on a highway which is notorious for moose collisions and the signs warn drivers to slow down at night. 

 

I am co-pilot at this stage and enjoying the scnery, but also following our route on the map.  Here is a little clue to our destination.

 

We are heading for the Confederation Bridge.

 

 

Excitement mounts as we approach the bridge, which is a first crossing for both of us.  We can see the bridge ahead as we approach.

The Confederation Bridge took four years to build and opened in 1997.  It is 12.9 Km (8 miles) in length and spans the Northumberland Strait.

We see wetlands as we approach.

We begin our crossing and I take a photo looking back towards the mainland of New Brunswick.

We approach the apex of the bridge - the height of this fixed bridge allows shipping to pass beneath.  We complete the crossing in about ten minutes.

Our first sighting of a lighthouse.  Welcome to Prince Edward Island.

 I look back as the road curves and get this shot of the bridge in the distance.

We are now entering the smallest Canadian Province - a place of farmland and fields of oil seed rape and potatoes, for which the Island is famous.

Almost at journey's end.  We are booked for an overnight stay at a local hotel before our move-in date tomorrow.

On The Road Again

We had an early start and loaded through the morning.  By the time we got on the road, we had already been working for nine hours.  We had a three hour drive to our first overnight stop in Kingston, Ontario.  The second day was our long one - twelve hours on the road as we crossed eastern Ontario, journeyed into and then across Quebec and on into New Brunswick.

We ran into a few problems when the GPS took us astray in Montreal, which is a nightmare of a city to navigate at the best of times, because all signage is only in French.  We eventually got back on track, but it cost us a lot of time as we passed Quebec City (above).

On along the shore of the mighty St Lawrence River with the Laurentians in the distance.  The weather was hot and humid; the truck noisy, uncomfortable and with no air conditioning.

A typical farm with red roof of the barn and grain silos.

Entering New Brunswick and heading down to Tamiscouata-sur-le-Lac.  The scenery changes to rolling hills and the truck struggles up those long climbs.  The cab is so hot that my feet are burning when I put them on the floor!

The kilometres pass and the journey becomes a bit of a blur.  It is only when I look back at the photos that my mind recalls just how long a day we spent on the road.

 The roads are thankfully, uncongested.  We are tiring and longing for our overnight destination.

We reach Edmundston, New Brunswick before dark and having checked in at our hotel, head back out to eat before we are too tired to bother.  The sense of anticipation is mounting, as tomorrow, we will arrive at our destination.

(These photos were taken through the windscreen and side windows and on the move, so please excuse the picture quality - dead bugs do tend to get in the way, even when the windscrren gets regular cleaning!)

Life In Colour

Continuing our journey through eastern Quebec and the sun came out at Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatiere.

The landscape was transformed.  Suddenly, we were living life in colour again.

Black and White

The Trans-Canada Highway in winter (though only just, as it was shortly before the spring Equinox).

The landscape appeared in black and white.

This is Notre-Dame-du-Lac in Quebec.

The photos were taken through the window of our truck whilst moving at speed, which explains the quality of my photography!

The Long Haul

If anyone had told me that we would be on the move again, I would never have believed them.  Life is full of surprises.  We recently headed west on an 1800 kilometre (1100 mile) journey which took three days, followed by a further two days of unloading. 

We are now in a new place and surrounded by boxes again.  We are slowly making sense of the chaos.  It has been an exhausting few weeks and there is still much to be done.

Driving Home

Last week we were driving home in the sunshine on the Trans-Canada Highway.  There is a point in our journey when we come over the crest of a hill and we see a panorama of the shore in front of us.  I have tried to capture this view on so many occasions, but it is very difficult because the shot is a split second due to the speed of travel and on most days, the horizon is too hazy for a clear photograph.

I captured the moment on my iPhone camera taken through the front windscreen of my car (and no, I as not driving at the time!)  The feint lines visible are due to the fact that the windscreen has a heater, but if you can ignore this distraction, I think that my photograph came out quite well.

St Ann's Bay

Last week we spent three nights in Sydney, as I was on the teaching faculty for a course.  On Tuesday, we travelled back home and it was an absolutely glorious day.  

These photographs show St Ann's Bay from a viewing point adjacent to the highway.  The first photo is looking into the bay.

The second is looking towards the Atlantic Ocean.

If I hadn't spent two days working long hours, we may have taken the opportunity to do a little exploring, but I was tired and ready for home.  We do hope to return to Cape Breton before the end of the season and follow the world famous Cabot Trail, which offers even more beautiful views at every corner.

Postcard From Niagara Falls

 

The last post showed you the Falls during the daytime.  Once the sun sets, they are lit up with coloured lights and the scene is transformed.

A Room With A View

We were in Ontario for a few days where I attended a conference in Niagara Falls.  This was the view from the window of our hotel room.  Although I did not spend a lot of time at the hotel, I was drawn to the chair by the window and this ever-changing view.

 

The Horseshoe Falls are on the Canadian side.  The American Falls on the US side of the Niagara River can be seen in the distance.  The lower part of the photograph is Ontario and the other side of the river is New York State.

As this was primarily a business trip, we did not have time to enjoy much in the way of sightseeing.  We missed out on the famous boat trip to the foot of the Falls (though we have done this in the past and I highly recommend it), but did make a quick trip to the Table Rock Visitor Centre via the new Niagara Falls Incline Railway.  Standing close to the thundering water, we could watch as it descended over the edge of the Horseshoe Falls. 

We've been here numerous times in the past when we lived in Ontario, but there is a power and majesty about this place which draws visitors from across the globe and I never tire of seeing it.

Panorama

I've been extremely busy at work and I haven't had a minute to myself, hence the reason why I have not been blogging or visiting of late.  I suspect that the pace is not going to let up before the end of this month, as I have lots of preparation to do for a couple of things which are also work-related.  I've had my nose in a book since this morning and I will be spending tomorrow hopefully completing this before an online examination and a practical assessment later in the week.  Once this is out of the way, I then have less than a week to prepare for a course at which I am presenting (I must have been mad to have volunteered for this much stress!)

I came across this app called AutoStitch, which enables a series of overlapping photos to become a panorama.  This photograph was one of my first attempts (taken with my iPhone).  It is the bay of a pretty coastal village outside Halifax, called Prospect.  We were down there at the end of August for a couple of nights in the city ~ a rare opportunity to shop, do a bit of sightseeing and breathe some fresh air straight off the Atlantic.

I suspect that I will not be posting again until after the weekend of the course, which is at the end of this month.  Until then, I am going to be buried under a mountain of paperwork with which the course organisers have bombarded me (all electronic, but call me old-fashioned: I paid to have it printed!)

Until then, enjoy these last official days of summer.  Autumn is almost upon us and a change of season is definitely in the air.

Icefields Parkway

 

Our last trip during our visit to Alberta was along the Icefields' Parkway.  As the entire trip is about 232 km/144 miles, we did a section at the southern end of it.

Visiting yet another glacial lake, the name of which escapes me now.  The mirror-perfect image was stunning.

Not a ripple disturbed the surface of the water and it looked just like glass.

 

Along the road, we saw ancient glaciers and sweeping valleys, surrounded by rocky peaks. 

We had considered going up to one of the glaciers but time constraints, plus fatigue got the better of us, so we admired them from a distance.  Also, it is unsafe to venture onto a glacier except with a suitably qualified guide.

Anyway, it is always a good excuse to make a return visit....