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September 23 and 24 – Great Glen Way- Day 3 and Day 4

September 23 – Great Glen Way – Day 3, South Laggan to Fort Augustus A fairly long day today along Loch Oich and the canal to Fort Augustus. The first day where there was no real rain and the ponchos remained closed. The first bit of the trail was along an old railway line and the old Invergarry railway station, which was being rebuilt as (presumably) a tourist site. The path continued along to a lock where we stopped for lunch. The path then continued between the River Oich and the canal. The weather was nice and the path very flat but the distance seemed to be longer than advertised in the book and notes. We did, however, manage to get into the pub in Fort Augustus before a shower started! Had a drink while we waited to check into the hotel at the Lock Hotel. Crossed the canal to the B&B, which had an amazing view from the breakfast room of a crumbling old railway bridge. Had dinner at this Boathouse on the shores of Loch Ness, which also appeared to be where a birthday celebration was being held with some families with the worst behaved kids I have seen for a long time! September 24 – Great Glen Way – Day 4, Fort Augustus to Invermoriston Took the high route to Invermoriston, which afforded fantastic views of Loch Ness and the past days walks along the canal. There was a decent elevation gain to above the tree line, where we hiked along the moors. The weather was great with only a few minutes of rain as we hiked up the forest. The walk above the tree line was sunny with a bit of wind at times. We then had a ‘knee crushing’ (as described by the book) decent into Invermoriston, which is on the river, slightly away from Loch Ness. Stopped at the Glenmorriston Arms for a beer before we checked into our B&B next door. Had some venison for dinner before heading back to the B&B to relax. A rest day tomorrow.

Saturday September 9 – Bekopaka to Morondava

 Had our last driving day in the 4×4 jeeps on the way back to the beach town of Morondava. Along the way we stopped at a few of the tombs alongside the road, which were for the families of the villagers.   Some of the tribes visit the tombs of their ancestors while others simply construct the tomb and do not touch the tombs again.   We stopped for lunch at the same restaurant we went to on the way to Bekopaka where the prawns were amazing.   This time I opted for the grilled fish, which was also good and equally well presented.     After lunch we took the second ferry and managed to survive the 45 minute sail down the river,  this time with 6 jeeps on the craft.   We then carried back on in our jeeps on the bumpy road to the Alley of the baobabs to catch the sunset.   Had time for a beer in the little shack bar and watched the tourists begin to flock in for the sunset.  More tourists than we had seen before but nothing like the number of tourists waiting to watch the sunrise at Angkor Wat in Cambodia. I got my position for sunset and finally used my little tripod.   Had to reposition to a better spot but managed to get an amazing shot!  We then headed back to Morondava to the hotel on the beach.   Although since it was dark already there was not much to see.   Had dinner of shrimp curry,  which was good before retiring to my bungalow for the night.   Seemed a giant cockroach had “checked in” to my spare bed and was tucked in on the pillow for the night!  Fell asleep fairly quickly again. 

Friday September 8 – Grand Tsingy 

Woke up early this morning to prepare for our hike in the Grand Tsingy.  The frog family “checked out” around 5:30 am as I was finishing getting ready.  Had breakfast and then got in our jeeps for the bumpy ride of an hour and a half or so to the park.  The roads are very bumpy and the drive is slow but it appeared that they were doing some roadwork to repair damaged sections of the road.  We arrived at the parking lot and prepared for the morning’s hike.  The preparations included putting on harnesses for the climbing amongst the “tsingy”, which are the main feature of the park and which are limestone pinnacles that have been eroded into sharp and jagged edges. The weather was hot and it was good that we were doing the hike in the morning.  We climbed up the rocks using ladders,  stones and cables and made it to a viewing platform where you could see along the tops of the rocks.  The viewing platform was small so we didn’t linger up there too long as we had to let more people go up.   I went up another platform in a different area which was completely deserted as no one else from our group went up to it.   We then descended into a gorge amongst the rocks for our lunch, which involved crawling through some small tunnels in the rocks.  We had our packed lunches in the gorge.  Mine consisted of some rabbit pate, olives and crackers plus a squished donut for dessert.   The rabbit pate was actually pretty good despite the fact that it looked and smelled like cat food! After lunch we carried on,  hiking down and out of the tsingy and to the forest and savannah areas and then back to our jeeps.   The temperature was heating up so it was nice to get back to the air conditioned jeep.  We then drove back to the hotel over the slow and bumpy road.  We had some free time before dinner so I relaxed by the pool before dinner.  Another tiring day so fell asleep pretty quickly. 

Went on my second backcountry camping trip to Garibaldi Provincial Park this past weekend – this time to Elfin Lakes. We were fortunate that the smoke had cleared off the other week so the views were unobstructed.  Left a bit later than pl anned but the traffic was pretty quiet so we made good time to Squamish.  Made the turn off at the Canadian Tire and headed up the gravel road to the parking lot.  Shortly before the lot there was a ranger checking to ensure campers had permits.  Was a bit of a wait but we had no issues since we had the appropriate permit and were prepared.  Got to the parking lot and it was pretty full but, fortunately, there was a space for us at the end.

Took advantage of the toilet at the parking lot and got our gear together.  Headed up the trail to the Red Heather Hut, which was about 5 km from the parking lot.

The trail was consistently uphill but a much gentler slope than the Garibaldi Lake trail.  The hike up to the Red Heather Hut went by faster than expected.   Arrived at the red Heather Hut and went inside to make lunch. The hut is fairly small and has two tables, a wood-burning stove and a sink to drain dirty water. I made some beef and mushroom noodles on the jetboil for lunch. Was a bit of a hassle as I had to unpack most of my bag but luckily the Hut was fairly quiet when we arrived.

After lunch we packed up our bags and headed back onto the trail. The next part of the trail split into two – one path for hikers and one path for cyclists. This was only a short one km section before the paths rejoined. We carried on gradually heading uphill until we were at the top of a ridge. We walked along the ridge for a short bit with views of the mountains all around and then the trail began to descend.

Thought we were a bit further away but when we came around a corner we saw the two Elfin Lakes, about a kilometre sooner than we expected.

There were some dark clouds but and they ended up being non-threatening and soon dissipated. We headed down the hill towards the lake, the first one being for swimming, where there were a couple of rafts and a number people enjoying the cool water. The second leak which was slightly smaller is reserved for drinking and is right beside the camp. This campsite, unlike the one at Taylor Meadows, is quite open with a number of tent pads overlooking the mountains and descending down a  small hill. The views were really quite spectacular and we were excited to set up our tents. There appeared to be a number of day hikers sunning themselves and having lunch on the various tent pads so it took us a few minutes to actually find some tent pads that were free.

 Managed to set up the tent up relatively easy but ended up putting the fly on backwards and had to redo it. Didn’t have an issue finding enough rocks to hold my tent down as the tent pad I had chosen seemed to have half the rocks in the campsite including a number of very large rocks. Once the tent was set up and secured the clouds pretty much vanished and it was a nice sunny afternoon with it almost near blue sky. Enjoyed some vodka lemonade on the tent pad while sunning ourselves and enjoying the view. Unlike Taylor Meadows, the bugs didn’t seem to be very present here and it was actually quite enjoyable just lying on the tent pad.

After a few hours of relaxing in the sun we decided to head to the dinner hut to make dinner. Made some pasta primavera and we had hot dogs roasted over the jetboil, which surprisingly turned out very well. Had some red wine, which I probably didn’t need given the Vodka lemonades I had earlier. For dessert, we had a chocolate mudslide dessert topped off for some Bailey’s, again which was probably not necessary given the vodka and wine. Felt fine though so lapped up the Bailey’s topped dessert. After a leisurely dinner it was time to head to bed and I suspected that I should sleep pretty well considering the hike and the amount of alcohol I had consumed.

 Managed to sleep very well through the night and it was actually considerably warmer than it was at Taylor Meadows – not sure if that was the alcohol or the actual temperature outside! Slept in pretty late and was feeling a little bit hungover but managed to get up and get ready for breakfast. Wasn’t that hungry though and didn’t really enjoy the egg and bacon scramble that I bought – definitely preferred the other egg mix and the oatmeal. Didn’t end up eating much of the eggs but had a piece of toast for some peanut butter which seem to fill me up.

After breakfast we started to disassemble our tents and pack everything up to prepare for the hike back to the car. The weather seemed slightly more cloudy than it was yesterday afternoon but I suspect that it would probably clear up later in the day. Manage to fit everything in my bag and actually noticed a little bit of extra room this time. We headed back, this time with an uphill start until we reach the Ridge and then it was to be all downhill afterwards. Took us a little while to get back into the hike and the first few hills seem to be very challenging. Once we warmed up though it wasn’t too bad in the uphill areas were broken up with sections of flat.

The hike on the way back seem to go quicker than on the way in and in no time, we reached the Red Heather Hut. Stop for only a short lunch and had a sandwich and then headed back down the last stretch to the car. This downhill was definitely much easier than the Garibaldi Lake stretch and was actually enjoyable. Although my feet did start to get slightly tired by the end it was definitely a lot better than the last hike, partly due to me wearing the thicker hiking boots. Got to the car changed our shoes and headed out after another great overnight trip to Garibaldi Provincial Park!

Japan 2013 Photos Added!

I have added some photos from my trip to Japan taken in November 2013.  I visited Tokyo and Kyoto with a day trip to Nara and the Osaka aquarium.  The weather was great and I stayed at a lovely ryokan in Kyoto, which had some amazing food. The photos can be found here.