North Tyneside Coast

Only a couple of weeks late, here are some photos taken on my holiday during a stroll down the coast from Whitley Bay to North Shields.

Newcastle upon Tyne

Following a couple of days in the Lake District, I returned to Newcastle where I caught up with friends and revisited some of my favourite spots:

The Lake District

The first stop in my holiday was to spend a couple of days in the Lake District at an annual orchestra week. Despite being there only two days, and not playing anything, it was great to catch up with old friends, take in the scenery and listen to a bit of music.

Here is Rydal Hall, the residence for the orchestra:

and the orchestra in full flow; Leo playing the Bruch Violin Concerto, conducted by son Nick.

Next to the hall, the church attended by William Wordsworth

This is the nearby town of Ambleside, favourite destination for an afternoon walk

This and That

I'll shortly be catching a plane to Newcastle, so I don't have much time -  this will be a brief collection of photos from the long weekend. You will have to guess where they where taken...

Bluesfest

The Ottawa Bluesfest (bit of a misnomer, as you can hear everything from jazz to metal to African to country to prog-rock!) runs for about two weeks, and on Saturday I cashed in my birthday present and showed up with Andrea. Here are the (musical) highlights:

The first band we caught were the "Tony Silvestri Band", a bunch of teenagers from down the road; actually, they were very good!

 

"The Love Machine" are an Ottawa band who had everyone dancing!

Just before dinner; something a bit more relaxing... "That's The Spirit" !

The evening kicked off with Metric; a best-selling Canadian band.

And concluded with The Flaming Lips, an American rock band specializing in OTT theatrics, with a splash of anti-establishment hippy thrown in for good measure. All together now: focus your mind on transmitting signals of peace to the global leaders!!

Canoeing Algonquin Park

The Canada Day holiday on July 1st created a perfect four-day weekend for Andrea and I to do a little exploration of Algonquin Park, a vast network of lakes, rivers and trails in the Canadian Shield.

We I set out from Ottawa on Canada Day morning and got to the park in the early afternoon, so we found a hiking trail through the woods to a lookout above Cache Lake:

Cache Lake

The Skymount lookout

In the past the park has been a hive of industry and tourism, with logging, a major railway, and large hotels; now the forest has covered most of the signs - this was the bed of the railway: 

Grant Lake - also called Gem of the Woods

We drove onwards into the park to find our first campsite, by the highway at Canisbay Lake:

Dinner of chicken and vegetable kebabs with baked potatoes cooked over a wood fire.

Canisbay Lake at sunset

On Friday our canoe adventure began at Canoe Lake. This is one of the busiest points in the park, with many people setting out on trips from here. It was also the favourite location of Canadian painter Tom Thomson, and the place where he met his end.

Given that we were concentrating on not doing likewise, there aren't many photos of the trip from Canoe Lake to our campsite on Tom Thomson Lake, but we did come across a loon family that consented to being photographed:

Loons

Campsite on Tom Thomson Lake

View from our campsite to an island in Tom Thomson Lake

And after a bit of a forage, we had some firewood...

 

...to cook dinner!

The wind died down, which gave us the chance to get out on the lake for a leisurely paddle to a calm corner of the lake:

On our full day in the park interior, we set out on a circuit of eight lakes, six portages, and one meandering creek:

Leaving Tom Thomson Lake through Bartlett Lake

Portaging!

Frog

Waterlillies

Andrea portaging!

Somewhere in the vicinity of Willow Lake

We lunched on an island in Sunbeam Lake

Creek between Vanishing Pond and Blue Jay Lake

After getting back to the campsite, there was only energy left to make dinner, and then watch the sun set.

We thought this one looked like a Canada Goose!

Our third day on the water was all about getting back to civilization, and paddling against the wind there weren't many opportunities for photos!

By this point, the end was in sight!

Approaching the Portage Store on Canoe Lake

and once back on dry land, we celebrated with ice cream - it has never tasted so good!