Have you been wondering where I’ve been? Nah. Probably not. Hadn’t even noticed I’d stopped posting.
Actually we went on holiday and were ‘off grid’ so I haven’t even been reading. Just trying to catch up.
So we flew to Halifax (the one in Canada, not the one West Yorkshire) and collected our home for a few weeks.
Ford F350 pickup with a camper strapped in the bed. Reasonably comfortable for a couple of people although not massively economical.
We headed south past the Bay of Fundy which has the most ridiculous tides.
And a fair bit of coastal erosion too. Mind you, Canada is a sizeable country, it’ll be a while before it’s all gone.
Anyway, we kept going and crossed into the USA where we planned to spend the bulk of our time in the north part of New England. It’s an incredible place. Miles and miles (and miles and miles) of forrest for a lot of it.
Now I know this is going to sound totally nuts… That’s because it is totally nuts. When I point at one of our bags and tell people what’s in it they generally look at me as if they’ve misheard. You see… We fly an inflatable canoe around the world. Here it is…
Just for reference, the sexy bloke with the gorgeous legs is me.
The advantage of taking your own boat is that you can find interesting waterways and paddle off at the drop of a hat. Are you wondering if it’s worth it? Well we think it is. One year we took it to the Algonquin area and did 60 miles in it over a period of a few weeks.
I work in London so finding places where there are more or less no people is lovely.
Trees definitely outnumber people in New England.
And when you’ve finished this lake there is always another not far away.
We didn’t see a great deal of wildlife sadly. Loons are interesting creatures. They make a cool noise.
You see them from the boat quite often but getting a photo is a challenge. Wherever you are, they are somewhere else. And when you do slide quietly close to one in the boat they dive down and reappear on totally the other side of the lake.
We saw these chaps in one of the camp grounds.
When they cleared off the holes were buzzing with wasps or bees but as soon as the birds appeared the insects all went. I’m guessing the insects were ‘on the menu’ and didn’t want to get eaten.
Mrs Sweetpea found a bear but he wasn’t doing much.
Lazy git!
And this little guy was basking in the sun one morning.
No idea what species it is. I’ll look it up one day.
When we weren’t in the boat we did a few walks and found a few waterfalls.
It wasn’t hard avoid the trains while crossing the railway. There were very few trains. In fact we did’t see a single one on this line over the few days we were near it.
We did find one railway with a train. It went straight to the top of Mount Washington.
As you can see from the wildly inclined boiler and rack down the middle of the track they really did go straight up.
I think the steepest part was about 1 in 3 which is pretty steep for a person let alone a train. You can walk up if you are mad enough. Personally I was puffed out walking from the camper to the station at the bottom.
For the most part they ran Diesel engines but the newly restored steamer makes the journey twice a day.
Its the law in North America that when camping you have to set fire to some trees and use the flames to cook some dead animals. When in Rome, and all that…
I should point out that they object to you cutting down the trees actually growing in the campgrounds so you just buy them in little red bags for the purpose of making fire.
Now, as you can see from the canoe, I pride myself on being a accomplished outdoorsman but, at heart, I’m still a wuss of an Englishman. It took me four attempts to light the poxy thing.
And later…
If you happen to be camping by the water you get to watch the sun setting over it.
And later still the stars come out for your entertainment.
There is an interesting phenomenon over there that I’ve never seen in England. After dark and in the early morning you sometimes see the lakes steaming. The blue haze in the photo above is actually steam rising off the lake picked out with a torch. It must be something to do with the difference between the day and night temperatures and the heat of the water in the lake. Although none of the lakes seemed that warm to me. I didn’t go swimming in them.
Have a random photo of another lake just because I like it.
New England is a part of the world known for covered bridges. We saw a few but only got to stop and look at one. (Generally they weren’t in good places to park a large camper.)
This particular crossing originally dated from about 1830 but it was washed away by the river a few times. Most recently it was lost in the late ‘80s so what you are looking at actually dates from about 1990 but, as far as possible, it was built using traditional techniques. The construction is a thing of great beauty. The joints are so tight. Many of the joints appear to be held together with nothing more than a couple of wooden wedges driven in to hold a keyed section on the other side together. I found myself wondering where you’d find trees big enough to build this thing in the modern world.
So why would you put a roof on a bridge anyway? Well apparently they did it to keep the rain off the structure. That way it didn’t get wet and didn’t rot. A standard wooden bridge would last a few decades. A covered one could last a hundred years.
Heading back to Halifax we had a very clear night and spent a while playing with the camera and a torch.
You don’t see the Milky Way where I live. Apart from the version with chocolate on it…
Anyway, we aren’t done yet… We gave the van back to the rental company in Halifax and flew to Boston for a few days. (That’s not the Boston in Lincolnshire by the way.)
Remember my MR2? That was found by a mate at work called Ian. Despite that we still speak. Ian’s wife Lu is currently working in Washington (not the Tyne and Wear version) for a couple of years so they are both living over there.
Well we met in Boston (not the one in Lincolnshire) and had a few very pleasurable days wandering around together. I’m justly proud that Ian and I managed to get us all in the same hotel in the same city on the same dates. That’s a proper bit of organisation if you don’t mind me saying so. Although, if we are to be strictly accurate, I think we just acted as the intermediaries between our wives who did the actual organising… As I was saying, I’m justly proud of the people management and delegation skills that Ian and I are blessed with… I’ll shut up now and hope that our wives don’t read this.
Mrs Sweetpea and I have done whale watching many times but Ian and Lu hadn’t so we went. You never know with wildlife. Sometimes you just see nothing.
Did we see anything?
Oh yes. Loads. It was one of the best whale watching trips I’ve been on. I’d have liked a few less people on the boat but who cares when there are Humpbacks everywhere you turn.
Just in case you were wondering about Boston being in Lincolnshire…
It’s the other Boston.
Have another night shot - because I like them.
And then we came home to Ye Olde London Town.
Boo, hiss. It’s not the same.
James
Actually we went on holiday and were ‘off grid’ so I haven’t even been reading. Just trying to catch up.
So we flew to Halifax (the one in Canada, not the one West Yorkshire) and collected our home for a few weeks.

Ford F350 pickup with a camper strapped in the bed. Reasonably comfortable for a couple of people although not massively economical.
We headed south past the Bay of Fundy which has the most ridiculous tides.

And a fair bit of coastal erosion too. Mind you, Canada is a sizeable country, it’ll be a while before it’s all gone.
Anyway, we kept going and crossed into the USA where we planned to spend the bulk of our time in the north part of New England. It’s an incredible place. Miles and miles (and miles and miles) of forrest for a lot of it.
Now I know this is going to sound totally nuts… That’s because it is totally nuts. When I point at one of our bags and tell people what’s in it they generally look at me as if they’ve misheard. You see… We fly an inflatable canoe around the world. Here it is…

Just for reference, the sexy bloke with the gorgeous legs is me.
The advantage of taking your own boat is that you can find interesting waterways and paddle off at the drop of a hat. Are you wondering if it’s worth it? Well we think it is. One year we took it to the Algonquin area and did 60 miles in it over a period of a few weeks.

I work in London so finding places where there are more or less no people is lovely.

Trees definitely outnumber people in New England.
And when you’ve finished this lake there is always another not far away.

We didn’t see a great deal of wildlife sadly. Loons are interesting creatures. They make a cool noise.

You see them from the boat quite often but getting a photo is a challenge. Wherever you are, they are somewhere else. And when you do slide quietly close to one in the boat they dive down and reappear on totally the other side of the lake.
We saw these chaps in one of the camp grounds.

When they cleared off the holes were buzzing with wasps or bees but as soon as the birds appeared the insects all went. I’m guessing the insects were ‘on the menu’ and didn’t want to get eaten.
Mrs Sweetpea found a bear but he wasn’t doing much.

Lazy git!
And this little guy was basking in the sun one morning.

No idea what species it is. I’ll look it up one day.
When we weren’t in the boat we did a few walks and found a few waterfalls.

It wasn’t hard avoid the trains while crossing the railway. There were very few trains. In fact we did’t see a single one on this line over the few days we were near it.

We did find one railway with a train. It went straight to the top of Mount Washington.

As you can see from the wildly inclined boiler and rack down the middle of the track they really did go straight up.

I think the steepest part was about 1 in 3 which is pretty steep for a person let alone a train. You can walk up if you are mad enough. Personally I was puffed out walking from the camper to the station at the bottom.
For the most part they ran Diesel engines but the newly restored steamer makes the journey twice a day.
Its the law in North America that when camping you have to set fire to some trees and use the flames to cook some dead animals. When in Rome, and all that…

I should point out that they object to you cutting down the trees actually growing in the campgrounds so you just buy them in little red bags for the purpose of making fire.
Now, as you can see from the canoe, I pride myself on being a accomplished outdoorsman but, at heart, I’m still a wuss of an Englishman. It took me four attempts to light the poxy thing.
And later…

If you happen to be camping by the water you get to watch the sun setting over it.

And later still the stars come out for your entertainment.

There is an interesting phenomenon over there that I’ve never seen in England. After dark and in the early morning you sometimes see the lakes steaming. The blue haze in the photo above is actually steam rising off the lake picked out with a torch. It must be something to do with the difference between the day and night temperatures and the heat of the water in the lake. Although none of the lakes seemed that warm to me. I didn’t go swimming in them.
Have a random photo of another lake just because I like it.

New England is a part of the world known for covered bridges. We saw a few but only got to stop and look at one. (Generally they weren’t in good places to park a large camper.)
This particular crossing originally dated from about 1830 but it was washed away by the river a few times. Most recently it was lost in the late ‘80s so what you are looking at actually dates from about 1990 but, as far as possible, it was built using traditional techniques. The construction is a thing of great beauty. The joints are so tight. Many of the joints appear to be held together with nothing more than a couple of wooden wedges driven in to hold a keyed section on the other side together. I found myself wondering where you’d find trees big enough to build this thing in the modern world.

So why would you put a roof on a bridge anyway? Well apparently they did it to keep the rain off the structure. That way it didn’t get wet and didn’t rot. A standard wooden bridge would last a few decades. A covered one could last a hundred years.
Heading back to Halifax we had a very clear night and spent a while playing with the camera and a torch.


You don’t see the Milky Way where I live. Apart from the version with chocolate on it…
Anyway, we aren’t done yet… We gave the van back to the rental company in Halifax and flew to Boston for a few days. (That’s not the Boston in Lincolnshire by the way.)

Remember my MR2? That was found by a mate at work called Ian. Despite that we still speak. Ian’s wife Lu is currently working in Washington (not the Tyne and Wear version) for a couple of years so they are both living over there.
Well we met in Boston (not the one in Lincolnshire) and had a few very pleasurable days wandering around together. I’m justly proud that Ian and I managed to get us all in the same hotel in the same city on the same dates. That’s a proper bit of organisation if you don’t mind me saying so. Although, if we are to be strictly accurate, I think we just acted as the intermediaries between our wives who did the actual organising… As I was saying, I’m justly proud of the people management and delegation skills that Ian and I are blessed with… I’ll shut up now and hope that our wives don’t read this.
Mrs Sweetpea and I have done whale watching many times but Ian and Lu hadn’t so we went. You never know with wildlife. Sometimes you just see nothing.
Did we see anything?

Oh yes. Loads. It was one of the best whale watching trips I’ve been on. I’d have liked a few less people on the boat but who cares when there are Humpbacks everywhere you turn.
Just in case you were wondering about Boston being in Lincolnshire…
It’s the other Boston.
Have another night shot - because I like them.
And then we came home to Ye Olde London Town.
Boo, hiss. It’s not the same.
James
