Sitting in Nate’s in the Ottawa airport waiting for flight.
Last Canadian meal before beef time!
Dreary weather is looking in on us from the outside world. Overcast and the like.
I’m peering out at a robin’s-egg blue Air Canada plane at gate 17. Ours is next to it.
C-GJWO is our equipment. Airbus 319. Looks air-worthy. We’ve got about 1:15 till lift-off 0:45 till we board.
Update: there was a gate change, we were actually at Gate 15. Don’t know what the tail ID was. Sorry kev.
Jody and I had plans to go see Monty Python’s Spamalot at the theatre in Toronto on August 12th, along with Alix, Matt, and Andrew Raven. The tickets were bought months ago, and the time was finally approaching. Well, rather than simply go see the show, Jody and I decided we’d make a long weekend of it and hit Paramount Canada’s Wonderland for some serious thrill-ride action! We took the Friday off, so we could hit the park outside of the crazy weekend window. I think it was a good plan. Even though we did end up waiting an hour for one of the rollercoasters at mid-day (Top Gun, if you’re interested), most of the waits were much more reasonable. We also got to do a lot of front seat rides, and multiple trips on our favourites. There are a lot of rides at the park. We had some faves, and some not so good. The thing that sucks on some of the rides is the beating your body takes. They have a new ‘flying’ coaster, called Tomb Raider, and we really didn’t enjoy the bone rattling that went with it. As usual, our favourite was the old-school woodies. Wooden Coasters are just more thrilling. Sure, they don’t do inverted loops or anything, but they feel rickety, and you only have a little lap bar holding you in while you whiz around at top speed! We like them so much that we capped off our visit with seven consecutive runs of the Wild Beast, without even getting off the coaster. It was pretty quiet late at night, so the ride attendants said we could just stay on. It was crazy! When we finally went to bed that night, I still felt like i was riding a coaster! If you’d like to check out some pictures of that day, check out the folder on Flickr.
19/02/08
Just thought I’d let you all know that for the first time in the entire trip, there are no pictures, or maps, or really any stories to tell you for the day. Yup, I took the day off. Fully. I did laundry, did lots of Internet-y things, ran some errands in town, and even hired a movie to watch. Popped up some popcorn, and watched it in the late afternoon before the kids got home. Once Julia and Mark got in, I took them out for some Mexican food for supper. Tomorrw, I start the day with a ride on the historic TSS Earnslaw, a coal-fired steamer to get to a gravel road that will take me to the Mavora Lakes where I plan to camp for the night. Day after that, on to Te Anau, and my day trip to Milford. However, you’ll read about those things in due time, so there! Hope you all enjoyed your day off for Family Day as much as I did for my Recovery Day!! 🙂
So, we finally find ourselves getting very close to our objective on this trip: the roof of Africa. Yesterday was a relatively short day for Cantrailia, and it took us up to 4,300m where we slept and acclimatized. The goal for today was going to be to make our way to our final ‘camp’ on the ascent of Kili. I use the term ‘camp’ lightly, as we were really only going to sleep a few hours there before beginning our slow trip up the mountain. But of course, I’m getting ahead of myself in this introduction. So, rather than spoil the fun, I’ll start like I always do. First, have a look at the satellite map showing where we hiked for this day. Also, check out the set of pictures on flickr. Overall, it was a good, if not a bit boring, day on the mountain. There’s not that much to tell, but I’m sure I’ll embellish it enough to turn into a decent little story for you all :-). When you’re done checking out the goodies, come on back and read on.
Good evening and welcome back to another exciting chapter in the African Adventures saga. Once again, strap yourself into the safari vehicle, as Team Cantrailia was once again taking to the dusty roads in search of more of the ‘Big 5’, and any other animals we could scare up. After a lovely evening at Rhino Lodge, it was now time to make our way to two other very famous Tanzanian destinations. First stop of the day would be the Olduvai Gorge, followed by a visit to the Serengeti. If you’re interested in taking a preliminary trip through the eyes rather than needing to read my ramblings, click on over to Flickr and check the set of images out from the day. As you might already imagine, it was another successful journey, so I’ve got a few interesting little tales of the day to share. Read on my friends, read on.
