I am typing this lying in the hammock fiona bought me for my birthday while our sweet potato cooks in foil on the campfire. We are in olympic national park at the heart of the hills campsite. We are here for our second time heading back towarards Seattle. But i digress when we last wrote we were on the train heading to seattle.
We did the tourist things in seattle, had a coffee at the first ever starbucks, with a hostel opposite there were quite a few homeless guys around with inventive signs to encourage donations, the two we saw were "please give me a dollar i need to buy beer" "i bet you a dollar you read this sign". Considering i thought there signs notworthy enough to write about i know feel like a bit of a git for giving nothing to either of them! We also went to the fish market in town that has lots of other good stuff too a bit like Borough market in london. Although the market was nice it lacks authenticity nowadays, there are a handful of seafood stalls and vistors wait around until the guys on the stall decide to throw a fish to each other for the benefit of the cameras and in hope of a tip. It seems that there is no real need to throw fish any more, capitalism it seems has provided quicker and more efficient means of rapid fish transportation or just that the chinese or other growing economy can throw them quicker for less money.
We also visted the REI flagship store, literally as exciting as that sounds. It is an outdoor shop in central seattle so big it has a cycle test route running around the outside. We thought you could hire camp cooking equipement here but it was just the stoves so we ended up shelling out for a load of cooking stuff but it is all really good.
On our first night there we also met some friends of friends from felixstowe chris and his wife katja who gave us a night time tour of the city and the space needle.
In our hotel room i watched some robot chicken a series sadly lacking from the uk schedules. The adverts for pharmaceuticals are absolutely awesome, you typically have a pair of older people smiling with a beautfiul sunset in the background while a two minute long disclaimer is read out at the end of the advert - "taxonell is known to increase risk of cancer in forty percent of users, has in some cases led to bleeding from the eyes, incontinence, puffing of the face, blurring of vision and premature death" - throughout these announcements the happy couple continue to gaze at the sunset unperturbed by the side effects of the drug they have just taken.
Monday 27 June 2011
mountains of fun
Today we visited our first US national park, Mount Ranier. We were amazingy lucky wth the weather as it was visible from seattle, with a climate similar to Wales this is apparently a rarity.
Mount Ranier is an active volcano and its gigantic mass looms over you as you approach it. It is pretty breathtaking. We headed for the trails at the top of the mountain in the hope of seeing pikas. It is crazy you can get almost up to the top via the road, although it turned out that the trails we wanted to take were impassable. Instead of hikers there were people snow boarding and snow shoeing.
We were told at the visitor centre that foxes and pikas had been seen on the other road up the mountain which had been closed to traffic due to the snow cover. On the way down the road we bumped into group of Tibetan monks we had seen earlier frolicking in the snow in their bright orange robes socks amd sandals (a second memory card has malfunctioned so no photos of monks on the mountain top). Just another one hundred metres around the corner and we spotted something in the road. It was a hoary marmot, unaware of our presence it went about the business of collecting bedding for its burrow. Only when its mouth was stuffed full of grass did it head back across the road and into the snow to find its burrow. Around the corner and less than fifty metres further down the road we spyed something on the sunny kerb to our left where the snow had melted to expose the grass beneath. . . .a very sleepy fox. It wasn t at all bothered by us being near and continued to laze about ocasionally recurling itself or leg stretching. We saw quite a few new bird species too. It was easy to identify them as they were all featured on the `please do not feed` poster in the toilet! We made the most of the longest day and then set off late for Seattle. On the way back our Sat Nav gave up the ghost and left us to remember the way but somehow we went wrong and ended up going round in circles until about midnight when we stopped to ask directions at a shop where a very kind man said he was shutting up shop and drivng home past downtown Seattle so we could follow him and were we going to a party? Sadly no parties followed but we did get back safely to Seattle.
Mount Ranier is an active volcano and its gigantic mass looms over you as you approach it. It is pretty breathtaking. We headed for the trails at the top of the mountain in the hope of seeing pikas. It is crazy you can get almost up to the top via the road, although it turned out that the trails we wanted to take were impassable. Instead of hikers there were people snow boarding and snow shoeing.
We were told at the visitor centre that foxes and pikas had been seen on the other road up the mountain which had been closed to traffic due to the snow cover. On the way down the road we bumped into group of Tibetan monks we had seen earlier frolicking in the snow in their bright orange robes socks amd sandals (a second memory card has malfunctioned so no photos of monks on the mountain top). Just another one hundred metres around the corner and we spotted something in the road. It was a hoary marmot, unaware of our presence it went about the business of collecting bedding for its burrow. Only when its mouth was stuffed full of grass did it head back across the road and into the snow to find its burrow. Around the corner and less than fifty metres further down the road we spyed something on the sunny kerb to our left where the snow had melted to expose the grass beneath. . . .a very sleepy fox. It wasn t at all bothered by us being near and continued to laze about ocasionally recurling itself or leg stretching. We saw quite a few new bird species too. It was easy to identify them as they were all featured on the `please do not feed` poster in the toilet! We made the most of the longest day and then set off late for Seattle. On the way back our Sat Nav gave up the ghost and left us to remember the way but somehow we went wrong and ended up going round in circles until about midnight when we stopped to ask directions at a shop where a very kind man said he was shutting up shop and drivng home past downtown Seattle so we could follow him and were we going to a party? Sadly no parties followed but we did get back safely to Seattle.
foxy!
high (as in top of the mountain -get it) camp
Sunday 26 June 2011
Basic Training
Today we are writing (but am only posting this a week later) on the second leg of our trans american train journey. The first trip was from Penn station New York to Chicago. The first part was not massively memorable, we slept in our seats for one night which was ok, but now we are heading for seattle we have ungraded to a roomette.
Forgot to say in the last post that we visited the natural history museum in New york - we looked at all the native american art and artifacts which was great. We also went to the american mammals section, they had stuffed grizzly bears in an exhibit opposite some alaskan brown bears, lthough the grizzlies wer big they would have easily fitted into the massive broad headed alaskan bears - this did freak both of us out a bit making us a little scared and apprehensive about the trip to Kodiak. It is going to be amazing but also a little frightening.
We missed montana and the start of the rockies as the train was five hours late due to the back log of freight trains. This meant much of the most picturesque parts of the trip were undertaken in darkness, although the approach to seattle was really nice. Slightly frustratingly we spent a lot of time dring the trip pulled into horriblly unpicturesque and decidly industrial sidings waiting for frieght trains to pass having, much to are dismay, flown past the most amazing wetland habitats teeming with bird life at a speed that made any identifying any almost impossible. Are patience was eventually rewarded at the most scenic siding - a bit of littley grazed pasture,it was here that we saw two separate species of king bird which were really cool.
Although the delay was a bit anoying the trip was great fun and we spent most time either dining,at he observation car or in are cozy roomette - Which, to start with at least, looked like it would require a maneouvre similar to the you tube clip of the twin contortionists getting into a perspex box that my mum sent me (google it its pretty creepy). However, once we had stowed our bags elsewhere did the job nicely. I think train is my favourite way to travel although the boat was pretty amazing too.
I am really glad we are writing this blog otherwise i think we might forget some of the cool things we have done.
Forgot to say in the last post that we visited the natural history museum in New york - we looked at all the native american art and artifacts which was great. We also went to the american mammals section, they had stuffed grizzly bears in an exhibit opposite some alaskan brown bears, lthough the grizzlies wer big they would have easily fitted into the massive broad headed alaskan bears - this did freak both of us out a bit making us a little scared and apprehensive about the trip to Kodiak. It is going to be amazing but also a little frightening.
Anyway lets get back on track (ho ho) the empire builder to Seattle has a lot more going on. We are currently stationary which has been quite a theme for this journey as we stop to let freight trains go in front of us every five minutes and are running five hrs late as a result. As recommended by the in-train magazine we are watching out for beavers at this point. . . none spotted yet but its getting quite competitive as Ralph thinks he`s already seen one (which i `m sure he has. . . . .for the record i definitely did!). We`re piling on the pounds with our three meals a day in what they called community dining which Ralph thought sounded like some sort of care project. It`s been great for meeting people including a former picadilly line tube driver who left for florida in the 70`s but still loves his cuppa tea. It s been flat all the way, almost Bedfordshire so which I didn `t expect but more than making up for it now in Cascade Mts where peaks are apparently a mile above us. We have been very lucky as unbeknownst to us this route has been closed for three weeks due to flooding, the train runs along side rivers most of the way and only opened to trains two days before we set off. We`ve been going dead slow and stopping so much as they`ve had to build up the levees to raise the train out of the floodwater and I think its a bit of a temporary wobbly fix.
We missed montana and the start of the rockies as the train was five hours late due to the back log of freight trains. This meant much of the most picturesque parts of the trip were undertaken in darkness, although the approach to seattle was really nice. Slightly frustratingly we spent a lot of time dring the trip pulled into horriblly unpicturesque and decidly industrial sidings waiting for frieght trains to pass having, much to are dismay, flown past the most amazing wetland habitats teeming with bird life at a speed that made any identifying any almost impossible. Are patience was eventually rewarded at the most scenic siding - a bit of littley grazed pasture,it was here that we saw two separate species of king bird which were really cool.
Although the delay was a bit anoying the trip was great fun and we spent most time either dining,at he observation car or in are cozy roomette - Which, to start with at least, looked like it would require a maneouvre similar to the you tube clip of the twin contortionists getting into a perspex box that my mum sent me (google it its pretty creepy). However, once we had stowed our bags elsewhere did the job nicely. I think train is my favourite way to travel although the boat was pretty amazing too.
I am really glad we are writing this blog otherwise i think we might forget some of the cool things we have done.
Sunday 19 June 2011
A little nibble of the big apple
Sad to say goodbye to Kerhonkson where we had been made to feel so welcome, we returned to New York by bus the day before our train to Chicago in order to get a better look at the sights. This time we stayed in Manhattan and went up the empire state building. Although crowded at the top, the views (writing on the kindle so will update them later) are totally worth the trip. A top tip is to save your money and not splash out the extra fifteen bucks (check me out with the lingo) to go all the way to the 106th floor, it is practically identical to the view from 86th except you can see marginally more of central park.
We also did the staten island ferry which is free and takes you relatively near the statue of liberty (not really close eniugh to appreciate its finer details) and gives great views of the city.
We also made a vist to central park, we passed many soft ball games, I had my first and only new york hotdog and then we got trapped in a crowd of thousands of runners taking part in a corporate funded 5 or 10k. There are loads of massive rocks sticking out across the park that give it a slightly wilder feel than some of the london parks.
We stayed just a block away from the empire state building, during the night i dreamed i was on a battle field (too much call of duty no doubt) with the explosion of grenades going off around me. I awoke to find that the bangs were real and that lighning was hitting the empire state, it was so close it was no longer a crack but a bang - annoyling we couldn`t see it from our window.
We also did the staten island ferry which is free and takes you relatively near the statue of liberty (not really close eniugh to appreciate its finer details) and gives great views of the city.
We also made a vist to central park, we passed many soft ball games, I had my first and only new york hotdog and then we got trapped in a crowd of thousands of runners taking part in a corporate funded 5 or 10k. There are loads of massive rocks sticking out across the park that give it a slightly wilder feel than some of the london parks.
We stayed just a block away from the empire state building, during the night i dreamed i was on a battle field (too much call of duty no doubt) with the explosion of grenades going off around me. I awoke to find that the bangs were real and that lighning was hitting the empire state, it was so close it was no longer a crack but a bang - annoyling we couldn`t see it from our window.
Bearly an opportunity missed
While in new york state we had three near misses in having a close encounter with a black bear, one of which we didn`t manage to make the most of because we both suffered from slight case of abject terror.
Our closest encounter was in Minewaska state park. Lindas daughter and son in law very kindly lent us their bikes and their jeep, so we set off to explore the park by bike. As i mentioned previously a lot of trail mantainance was going on in the park, hence the steam roller, this also meant there was an intermittent low rumbling of gravel trucks crossing the park.We cycled up the fire road until we came to really nice cliff lookout were we had our packed lunch we then carried on up the mountain. When we started up the mountain again i decided to stop and look at the view on another rocky outcrop. As I propped up my bike I heard what i thought was the low rumble of the trucks. But then i heard it again a distinctive very low and very loud growl, like nothing I had heard before and certainly not the noise an elk or other ungulate would make. It was at this point i complety pooed myself, although aware black bears are not nearly as dangerous as the grizzly cousins we could not see where the noise was coming from and it certanly sounded very pissed off. We hurried it back to our bikes and agreed in stage whispers to carry on up the mountain with haste. It was only ten minutes later when the adrenaline wore off that we suddenly started to feel gutted that we might have missed an awesome opportunity to see a black bear after all it could have been on the ledge below and completely out of reach. On the way back down the mountain we revisted the spot but the bear had obviously moved on - gutted! . . . .( but safe)
When we went out for dinner at the uniquely decorated eggs nest restaurant Amelia, lindas daughter who lives opposite, told us that while we were out in the morning a bear had walked through the garden of the house we were staying at. This was maddening and made worse on the way home where we saw a truck pulled up - the driver had seen a bear duck into the woods just there. we went round the block and i went into the wood but the bear had gone............it seems the bears of new york state were not mad keen on us, lets hope bears on the west coast are more friendly, but not overly so!
Our closest encounter was in Minewaska state park. Lindas daughter and son in law very kindly lent us their bikes and their jeep, so we set off to explore the park by bike. As i mentioned previously a lot of trail mantainance was going on in the park, hence the steam roller, this also meant there was an intermittent low rumbling of gravel trucks crossing the park.We cycled up the fire road until we came to really nice cliff lookout were we had our packed lunch we then carried on up the mountain. When we started up the mountain again i decided to stop and look at the view on another rocky outcrop. As I propped up my bike I heard what i thought was the low rumble of the trucks. But then i heard it again a distinctive very low and very loud growl, like nothing I had heard before and certainly not the noise an elk or other ungulate would make. It was at this point i complety pooed myself, although aware black bears are not nearly as dangerous as the grizzly cousins we could not see where the noise was coming from and it certanly sounded very pissed off. We hurried it back to our bikes and agreed in stage whispers to carry on up the mountain with haste. It was only ten minutes later when the adrenaline wore off that we suddenly started to feel gutted that we might have missed an awesome opportunity to see a black bear after all it could have been on the ledge below and completely out of reach. On the way back down the mountain we revisted the spot but the bear had obviously moved on - gutted! . . . .( but safe)
Trombones, sculpture & the great outdoors
During our stay in New York we made a couple of visits to Minowaska state park. its a beautiful mixed woodland with a number of ridges and valleys with amazing rocky outcrops. Our first visit started well with sightings of waxwings in the carpark. After a long time wondering the rather boring fire tracks we finally found a nice mountain path. The vegetaion was amazingly lush and the trail was steep and rocky, we finally felt we were in something approaching the wild.
Ten minutes in fi stopped dead and whispered something to to me with a hushed urgency, oh god I thought, she must have seen a bloody bear on the path. Adrenaline pumping i edged forward next to her, hurriedly she pointed forward and there it was staring at both of us, a tiny shrew. It froze with fear as we loomed over it before it legged it towards us and ran right under my shoe. further down the path we saw a brown ?? darting up and down the tree in front of us. At the top of the path we reached the top of the mountain ridge and we had great views of the whole park. Here we rejoined the fire track which was undergoing maintanence, uphead was a steam roller flattenening out the gravel - at which point ralph did a "hilarious"mime of falling under it. Behind the steam roller we found a large black spider (we did have pic but as i mentionned previously we accidentally wiped our pictures) which miraculously managed to survive the several tonnes of weight - or either never went under it or died later from internal injuries.
That evening we were treated to our first american cultural event - jazz! performing were Roswell Rudd a jazz trombonist (that is not a euphamism), he is a jazz bad ass check him out on google. He played together with an awesome cuban guitarist named David Ochenda. They were obviously amazingly skilled musicians though it felt to us that the session was aimed firmly at the numerous middle aged jazz geeks in the room (think older more well heeled comic book fans) with references we didnt understand about dizzy gillespie (rascals great uncle i think) or someone with a j instead of a middle name and remarks about tempo. Also much to fionas delight ninety percent of them had beards and were wearing the same zip off trouser to shorts\walking shoe combo that i was sporting! a jazz rendition of stairway to heaven was our firm favourite of the set. Although we were somewhat disappointed by the lack of the johnny briggs theme.
I forgot to say that the show began with a q and a session and roswell talked a bit about a gov funded music enthno-musiclogy project with adam ludlow he was inolved in the 60`s. It sounded both crazy and amazing, basically roswell and others listened to thousands of tapes of folk music from all over the world and attempted to score them on a scale that allowed them to be compared to one another - he must have heard some truly amazing stuff during that time.
Throught the performance there was a photographer in the front row who just before taking each shot did a weird swooping movement in time to the music. We really couldnt work out what he was up to but it was making us snigger a lot, it was was at least twice as entertaining as the lady doing jazz art, moving her pen to the beat of the music. When it finished we asked Linda whether she knew what the photograher was up to. Being a journalist she wasnt shy about asking, but instead of saying something like "interesting style can i have a look at the results" she went up to him and said "HEY WHATS WITH ALL THE SWOOPING?" it was absolute genius. Apparently its his style - he gave us a flyer for his show that was composed entirely of blurred pictures of different bands.
After the show we went to dinner with the jazz musicians as linda is good friends with verna gillis, Roswell`s partner. They invited us over the next day to see their house and sculpture park. The house and surrounding studios were totally crammed with amazing stuff - hundreds of books, fantastic vintage clothes and all sorts of trinkets and artwork. There was even a cool little music room with instruments from all over the world. Verna travelled the world in the 70s with a big reel to reel tape recorder and produced records of world music including yousson d`or, the wall was covered in her album covers and gold discs. Vernas late husband was a sculpter and all the grounds are filled with sculptures it was a really cool place- plus we saw our first hairy wood pecker there and a ruby throated hummingbird came to the bird feeder!
Ten minutes in fi stopped dead and whispered something to to me with a hushed urgency, oh god I thought, she must have seen a bloody bear on the path. Adrenaline pumping i edged forward next to her, hurriedly she pointed forward and there it was staring at both of us, a tiny shrew. It froze with fear as we loomed over it before it legged it towards us and ran right under my shoe. further down the path we saw a brown ?? darting up and down the tree in front of us. At the top of the path we reached the top of the mountain ridge and we had great views of the whole park. Here we rejoined the fire track which was undergoing maintanence, uphead was a steam roller flattenening out the gravel - at which point ralph did a "hilarious"mime of falling under it. Behind the steam roller we found a large black spider (we did have pic but as i mentionned previously we accidentally wiped our pictures) which miraculously managed to survive the several tonnes of weight - or either never went under it or died later from internal injuries.
That evening we were treated to our first american cultural event - jazz! performing were Roswell Rudd a jazz trombonist (that is not a euphamism), he is a jazz bad ass check him out on google. He played together with an awesome cuban guitarist named David Ochenda. They were obviously amazingly skilled musicians though it felt to us that the session was aimed firmly at the numerous middle aged jazz geeks in the room (think older more well heeled comic book fans) with references we didnt understand about dizzy gillespie (rascals great uncle i think) or someone with a j instead of a middle name and remarks about tempo. Also much to fionas delight ninety percent of them had beards and were wearing the same zip off trouser to shorts\walking shoe combo that i was sporting! a jazz rendition of stairway to heaven was our firm favourite of the set. Although we were somewhat disappointed by the lack of the johnny briggs theme.
I forgot to say that the show began with a q and a session and roswell talked a bit about a gov funded music enthno-musiclogy project with adam ludlow he was inolved in the 60`s. It sounded both crazy and amazing, basically roswell and others listened to thousands of tapes of folk music from all over the world and attempted to score them on a scale that allowed them to be compared to one another - he must have heard some truly amazing stuff during that time.
Throught the performance there was a photographer in the front row who just before taking each shot did a weird swooping movement in time to the music. We really couldnt work out what he was up to but it was making us snigger a lot, it was was at least twice as entertaining as the lady doing jazz art, moving her pen to the beat of the music. When it finished we asked Linda whether she knew what the photograher was up to. Being a journalist she wasnt shy about asking, but instead of saying something like "interesting style can i have a look at the results" she went up to him and said "HEY WHATS WITH ALL THE SWOOPING?" it was absolute genius. Apparently its his style - he gave us a flyer for his show that was composed entirely of blurred pictures of different bands.
After the show we went to dinner with the jazz musicians as linda is good friends with verna gillis, Roswell`s partner. They invited us over the next day to see their house and sculpture park. The house and surrounding studios were totally crammed with amazing stuff - hundreds of books, fantastic vintage clothes and all sorts of trinkets and artwork. There was even a cool little music room with instruments from all over the world. Verna travelled the world in the 70s with a big reel to reel tape recorder and produced records of world music including yousson d`or, the wall was covered in her album covers and gold discs. Vernas late husband was a sculpter and all the grounds are filled with sculptures it was a really cool place- plus we saw our first hairy wood pecker there and a ruby throated hummingbird came to the bird feeder!
Saturday 18 June 2011
Frogs and fireflies
From new york we we went out to visit a friend of the family who lives in Kerhonkson, an amazing place with a name so crazy sounding if i didn`t know better would make me think that native american/dutch influences must also have come up with biggleswade!
There are frogs here that sound like cows (we looked them up on the internet and they are bullfrogs - not to be confused with the green frogs that are also present but sound like rubber bands being twanged) how cool is that? It's rhetorical don't answer. One night we went out to the neighbours pond to record the calls but we accidentally wiped all our photos - absolutely gutted! NEWSFLASH Our couch surfing host Alex has just recovered some of the pics, a true hero!)
I also thought we were on a flight path until we were told that the lights filling the skies in the fields across from us were fire flies, they are absolutly amazing,but bloody hard to take a picture of as they only light up for a second.
linda made us feel super (i know i am being americanised - look out for me and fi in the backaudience of rikki lake or judge judy sometime soon ) welcome and we felt right at home straight away. she has an ace rescued poodle with a wandering eye like mad eye moody and numerous cats all of which were well friendly. i manged to suppress the 'cat killing native animals ' argument with lindas daughter amelia until the end of the week which is quite good going for me especially as we witnessed the demise of a vole and a chipmunk during our visit.
we significantly upped our wildlife quota during our stay seeing american redstart red carninal, downy woodpecker, chipmunk and woodchuck all on our first walk on the local roads.
There are frogs here that sound like cows (we looked them up on the internet and they are bullfrogs - not to be confused with the green frogs that are also present but sound like rubber bands being twanged) how cool is that? It's rhetorical don't answer. One night we went out to the neighbours pond to record the calls but we accidentally wiped all our photos - absolutely gutted! NEWSFLASH Our couch surfing host Alex has just recovered some of the pics, a true hero!)
Bullfrog/Cow
Theres a firefly in there somewhere
Leon, Linda's dog
Amelia, Linda and us
I also thought we were on a flight path until we were told that the lights filling the skies in the fields across from us were fire flies, they are absolutly amazing,but bloody hard to take a picture of as they only light up for a second.
linda made us feel super (i know i am being americanised - look out for me and fi in the backaudience of rikki lake or judge judy sometime soon ) welcome and we felt right at home straight away. she has an ace rescued poodle with a wandering eye like mad eye moody and numerous cats all of which were well friendly. i manged to suppress the 'cat killing native animals ' argument with lindas daughter amelia until the end of the week which is quite good going for me especially as we witnessed the demise of a vole and a chipmunk during our visit.
we significantly upped our wildlife quota during our stay seeing american redstart red carninal, downy woodpecker, chipmunk and woodchuck all on our first walk on the local roads.
Tuesday 14 June 2011
The bright lights of Brooklyn
Arriving into New york Penn Station was hectic as the underground access is the other side of the departure board for commuters. The hurried feeling was amplified by the pretty good latin buskers giving a high octane rendition of Mambo Lao (we only felt inclined to sing along once the crowds were behind us). I felt just like, and was in fact identical to, those annoying tourists I always swear at under my breath on the tube in London. I have no problem with them being on the underground, I just always wondered why they insist on traveling at peak commuter time, now I know it probably just didn't occur to them just like it didn't to us. Anyway I hope this is not the start of some morphing process - if I start stopping at the top of escalators to chat and begin using one of those air hostess bags with a pull out handle please get me some professional help.
Despite the station being busy it wasn't too bad as the underground is not as packed as it is London and the trains are actually air conditioned, something I was incredibly glad of given the heat. Again this is a worrying sign as environmental implications of city wide air conditioning are pretty mind boggling and something I am sure I have railed against in the past - lets just hope I don't charter a private jet home!!!!
After our trip to Delaware I am convinced that many of the cultural differences in terms of attitudes to the environment are a product of the vast amount of space here in the US. When people have such big gardens (I am talking out of the city now) and you can frequently go sizable stretches without seeing a house just an hour from New York it seems crazy to think resources are finite. Where there are landfills here they tend not to be away from anyones house - we are pretty backed in in the UK.
It also has to be said the people are incredibly friendly and lacking in cynicism, something I have found it hard to adjust to. However being just out of New York we have also only been exposed to the more lefty bohemian end of the spectrum here, a bubble that is not representative of the US as a whole.
When we reached Brooklyn we had an enormously friendly welcome, on exiting the underground a man threw up right in front of us on the pavement (no carrot pieces surprisingly). He checked himself out in a car wing mirror while doing this, probably to check he was heaving in a way that looked cool.
We stayed with some really awesome friends of the family (despite their slightly dodgy taste in hobbies - see below) and did some sightseeing the next day before heading off north into to NY state. We walked the mile across the Brooklyn Bridge, pretty good but crowded and undergoing some refurbishment meaning that views were only really possible on the second half of the bridge into Manhattan. This brought us into town close to ground zero, the old site of the world trade centre, which was about as interesting as any building site in London (not very). Although there are quite a few guys hawking photos of the buildings on fire - good to see an opportunity for commerce is never missed!
We also made it to trump towers for a photo opp though I unfortunately left all of my Trump dollars at home.
Despite the station being busy it wasn't too bad as the underground is not as packed as it is London and the trains are actually air conditioned, something I was incredibly glad of given the heat. Again this is a worrying sign as environmental implications of city wide air conditioning are pretty mind boggling and something I am sure I have railed against in the past - lets just hope I don't charter a private jet home!!!!
After our trip to Delaware I am convinced that many of the cultural differences in terms of attitudes to the environment are a product of the vast amount of space here in the US. When people have such big gardens (I am talking out of the city now) and you can frequently go sizable stretches without seeing a house just an hour from New York it seems crazy to think resources are finite. Where there are landfills here they tend not to be away from anyones house - we are pretty backed in in the UK.
It also has to be said the people are incredibly friendly and lacking in cynicism, something I have found it hard to adjust to. However being just out of New York we have also only been exposed to the more lefty bohemian end of the spectrum here, a bubble that is not representative of the US as a whole.
When we reached Brooklyn we had an enormously friendly welcome, on exiting the underground a man threw up right in front of us on the pavement (no carrot pieces surprisingly). He checked himself out in a car wing mirror while doing this, probably to check he was heaving in a way that looked cool.
We stayed with some really awesome friends of the family (despite their slightly dodgy taste in hobbies - see below) and did some sightseeing the next day before heading off north into to NY state. We walked the mile across the Brooklyn Bridge, pretty good but crowded and undergoing some refurbishment meaning that views were only really possible on the second half of the bridge into Manhattan. This brought us into town close to ground zero, the old site of the world trade centre, which was about as interesting as any building site in London (not very). Although there are quite a few guys hawking photos of the buildings on fire - good to see an opportunity for commerce is never missed!
We also made it to trump towers for a photo opp though I unfortunately left all of my Trump dollars at home.
Me and my mate Hans, the slightly dodgy hobby I referred to above! This mannequin was massively creepy, making you jump every time you came out of the toilet
getting back to my American roots
Amazing twisted tower, must have cost a bomb to build
cyclists on the Brooklyn Bridge
Russ I wish you could have been there with me (can I stress that Fi is still alive although not in any of these pics)
first american mammal, City Hall (apart from dolphin in Delaware Bay)
Sunday 12 June 2011
Horseshoes and high temperatures
After the unplanned stop off in Philadelphia we finally managed to get a car to make the trip down to Delaware Bay. Fi was significantly braver than me and agreed to do the driving which she was great at. It seems our accents are a bit difficult to understand out here, when asking the car rental dude how far it was to Slaughter Beach he thought we asked if he wanted to come with us, he replied in a slightly flustered manner thanks but he had to work - it must have been the pampas grass sticking out of Fi's bag!
Delaware Bay was massively hot (30c+) but the bird and horseshoe crabs were amazing. At the Dupont (terrible I know) visitor centre we saw ospreys swooping low overhead, clapper rails, willets and numerous gulls (including laughing and ringed).
The crabs were amazing, although we did not hit the full moon, high tide pinnacle there were masses knocking about. The noise their shells made on the rocks was amazing, just like real horseshoes and they really look as if they are from another planet. As its mating season there were loads of small males pursuing the larger females. Their blue blood has been harvested since 1970's as it is highly sensitive to bacteria and is used in ensuring the safety of medical products http://www.horseshoecrab.org/med/med.html
The campsite we stayed at was really cool, sandy and wooded. Each plot had a fire pit and picnic bench and there were several WW2 observation towers you could climb (view below).
The people camping opposite had a really cool dog named Willy, when we went over to meet him it turned out the owners were really nice, Sharon and Albert. They had a really ace portable hammock we were incredibly jealous of. When we left Albert gave us a couple of his CD's for our journey home which was really cool - checkout his music here http://www.albertsimpson.com/
On a light night walk we saw a white tailed deer and heard the amazing sound of a common nighthawk calling (sadly they weren't displaying like this) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qpsyjmda5Q
It was so hot in the tent I couldn't sleep at all despite pouring water over myself at regular intervals - I think I would have been cooler in a sauna. Even when the sun went down it kept on baking and this probably wasn't helped by my numerous mosquitoes and gnat bites - I don't know what it is but they find me really tasty.
Delaware Bay was massively hot (30c+) but the bird and horseshoe crabs were amazing. At the Dupont (terrible I know) visitor centre we saw ospreys swooping low overhead, clapper rails, willets and numerous gulls (including laughing and ringed).
The crabs were amazing, although we did not hit the full moon, high tide pinnacle there were masses knocking about. The noise their shells made on the rocks was amazing, just like real horseshoes and they really look as if they are from another planet. As its mating season there were loads of small males pursuing the larger females. Their blue blood has been harvested since 1970's as it is highly sensitive to bacteria and is used in ensuring the safety of medical products http://www.horseshoecrab.org/med/med.html
The campsite we stayed at was really cool, sandy and wooded. Each plot had a fire pit and picnic bench and there were several WW2 observation towers you could climb (view below).
On a light night walk we saw a white tailed deer and heard the amazing sound of a common nighthawk calling (sadly they weren't displaying like this) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qpsyjmda5Q
It was so hot in the tent I couldn't sleep at all despite pouring water over myself at regular intervals - I think I would have been cooler in a sauna. Even when the sun went down it kept on baking and this probably wasn't helped by my numerous mosquitoes and gnat bites - I don't know what it is but they find me really tasty.
Fi at the visitor centre
Crab action
crabless in philadelphia
It has to be said our first day was a bit of a failure.
The pilot from Chester was very nice and advised us on camping options and activities in Delaware bay as we motored in under the numerous bridges on the way into port.
After arriving in Chester we had to remain on the boat for around 45 mins for the customs officers and police to arrive to vet all on board. When they finally arrived on board the boat the crew lined up with there passports. As they waited one of the more junior Croatian officers mimed a shoot out with the armed cop through the doorway - although I thought this may be somewhat inadvisable the cop seemed to find it funny. When it got to our turn the cop was somewhat preoccupied on the phone berating a teacher or someone because hi son had been beaten up at school.
When we finally left the boat it was about half four, we got a lift to the airport car rental places only to find the prices sky high as we were unable to book in advance. After a discussion on the merits of Manchester United with the car rental driver we made it to the train station and eventually into Philli. We managed to get a room at the Travelodge which was OK apart from the massive tattooed Eastern Europeans, possibly on shore leave, drinking Jack Daniels and shouting loudly in the tiny lobby.
We went out and I had my first American burger and it was awesome - Both of us still felt like we were on the boat, and I still occassionally feel like I am gently rocking even now as I type!
We managed to book a much cheaper car over the phone and we were all set to go see the horseshoe crabs in delaware bay.
This is the only pic we took, its me at philly Market square train station
Saturday 11 June 2011
cabin fever
I know many of you have been on tenter hooks but you need not have worried after two days of hardcore nagging of the first mate I managed to secure a much coveted SCART cable for the dvd player - no more books just the warm glow of the goggle box to sooth me. As I connected the magical cable it seemed to shimmer in the half light of our cabin, it was only when I switched on the player that I realised the laser on the player was shagged ! It was another day before I managed to find a player that worked - Anyway before this blog starts to resemble confessions of a Dixon's worker back to the boat.
Being on the ship was a bloody amazing experience, the captain was Polish, the engineers and first mate were Crotian and Ukranian while the 3rd mate, cook and deck crew were all Phillipinos - there were 20 crew in total and we were the only passengers! The boat itself was 168m long.
Despite our best efforts we had three hot meals a day in the officers mess (nice but not as posh as it sounds). The food was simple but good worth some really tasty soups however the language barrier appeared problematic when trying to secure half portions or request anything in particular. We had no safety drill bag search or formal introduction to the boat other than being shown our cabin which was a weird - we didn't find the table tennis table for days.
The bridge was great with awesome views on the handful of days the New Foundland fog did not obscure them!
About the voyage - Where to begin?
The first night seems as good a place as any to start, bloody hell the lock out of liverpool port is narrow!! There was apparently only 60cm clearance below the ship and the tide was on its way out but the crew and pilot were up to the job, with a lot of shouting of numbers and something about the midships, we were eventually out at sea. Every containership has a pilot that meets them to get them in out of port.
Day 1
The highlight of the first day was definitely the coastguard helicopter which radio'd to ask if they could use the boat in a drill - the relaxed crew were more than happy to oblige and after much toing and froing a member of the helicopter crew was dropped onto the deck. Initially he looked well chuffed at the maneuver but as we gawped at him and his mates circled overhead it became obvious that he was starting to feel like a bit of a tit and waited with a slightly pained expression until he was picked up again. The chopper came in really low and was a good source of entertainment. We also picked up our first passenger a very lost looking racing pigeon who kept circling the boat and occasionally landing and slipping about on the containers.
Day 2
The roughest part of the trip, 3 to 4 metre waves Fi felt a bit seasick and slept most of the day. The chairs are super heavy, the table is stuck down and they all have lips to stop stuff coming off, even the television is strapped down.
Day 3
Got out on the lower deck for the first time, but only on one side as there were still some smaller waves spilling over.
Day 4
Saw a pod of 10-15 dolphins from the bridge. There have been seabirds around us every day even today when we were 600 miles from the Azores, 700 from home and Newfoundland
Day 5
First game of table tennis against chief engineer and second lookout - both thrashed me but was good fun and was much in need of the exercise after all those cooked dinners.
Day 6
Slightly shambolic fire drill, not sure all members of the crew would have survived! but did get to have ago in all the life boats but only on deck. We also picked up our second passenger, a barn swallow, who perched on the never used basketball hoop at the back of the boat - I asked about the ball but no one had seen it for several years.
Day 7
Land ahoy - Coming into Chester
Being on the ship was a bloody amazing experience, the captain was Polish, the engineers and first mate were Crotian and Ukranian while the 3rd mate, cook and deck crew were all Phillipinos - there were 20 crew in total and we were the only passengers! The boat itself was 168m long.
Despite our best efforts we had three hot meals a day in the officers mess (nice but not as posh as it sounds). The food was simple but good worth some really tasty soups however the language barrier appeared problematic when trying to secure half portions or request anything in particular. We had no safety drill bag search or formal introduction to the boat other than being shown our cabin which was a weird - we didn't find the table tennis table for days.
The bridge was great with awesome views on the handful of days the New Foundland fog did not obscure them!
 |
| Take it to the bridge, or maybe just leave it below deck..... |
 |
| officers mess - hotmeals at 8, 12 and 1700 |
 |
| Our route |
 |
| I think I have the eye colour to pull off a survival suit |
About the voyage - Where to begin?
The first night seems as good a place as any to start, bloody hell the lock out of liverpool port is narrow!! There was apparently only 60cm clearance below the ship and the tide was on its way out but the crew and pilot were up to the job, with a lot of shouting of numbers and something about the midships, we were eventually out at sea. Every containership has a pilot that meets them to get them in out of port.
Day 1
Day 2
The roughest part of the trip, 3 to 4 metre waves Fi felt a bit seasick and slept most of the day. The chairs are super heavy, the table is stuck down and they all have lips to stop stuff coming off, even the television is strapped down.
Day 3
Got out on the lower deck for the first time, but only on one side as there were still some smaller waves spilling over.
Day 4
Saw a pod of 10-15 dolphins from the bridge. There have been seabirds around us every day even today when we were 600 miles from the Azores, 700 from home and Newfoundland
Day 5
First game of table tennis against chief engineer and second lookout - both thrashed me but was good fun and was much in need of the exercise after all those cooked dinners.
Slightly shambolic fire drill, not sure all members of the crew would have survived! but did get to have ago in all the life boats but only on deck. We also picked up our second passenger, a barn swallow, who perched on the never used basketball hoop at the back of the boat - I asked about the ball but no one had seen it for several years.
Day 7
Land ahoy - Coming into Chester
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)