Canada 1

The following is an account of what I did on the 05/10/06 on my 21st birthday going to Canada.

I got through the security at Gatwick airport very quickly considering how long the queue was. I didn't even have to take my shoes and belt off! Eventually I got onto the plane after a slightly shambolic boarding. I had a window seat in the middle of the plane over the wing (which is the safest part according to BBC2s 'How to Survive a Plane Crash'). The plane was an Airbus A320. Everybody had their own TVs in the seat in front. The plane was about half full so I could stretch out quite a bit. It was direct from Gatwick to Vancouver.

We had no turbulence. There were 12 TV channels and 12 radio stations to watch whilst on the plane. The TVs were touch-screen. There was also a camera on the front and on the bottom of the plane which could be viewed at any time from the TV screen. The journey passed uneventfully for most of the time. It was sunny for the entire 10 and a half hour flight. I switched the camera on the bottom of the plane over Greenland/Baffin Island/Nunavut and could see the snowy, icy Arctic wastes. There were snow-covered islands in a bizarre jumble everywhere. Every mini island was a totally different shape. They looked like shards of a broken eggshell floating. After I crossed Hudson Bay I could see the snow suddenly end and green islands took over with snow only on the higher parts. Then there was cloud.

Over Alberta the clouds cleared. Below I could see the arid grasslands of the Alberta plains and Badlands. Soon after habitation appeared. I then recognised the city as Calgary- the last place where I had been on Canadian soil. I could clearly see from 36000 feet Fish Creek Provincial Park and downtown Calgary. But we were soon over Calgary and flying over the Rocky Mountain foothills. Then the mountains started and I could see from the camera on the bottom of the plane and from the window that there was a light dusting of snow on the peaks. I saw the lakes and the forests and I could also see Canada Highway 1 snaking through narrow passes. I saw Banff and realised that I was in Banff exactly a year ago to the day. It looked like a small speck of civilisation in the vast wilderness of the Rocky Mountain National Parks. A few minutes later I realised I was further than I had ever gone before. I was over the Rocky Mountains and flying over British Columbia. It was a stark difference to Alberta. It was totally covered in trees save for the rocky craggs and tiny areas of deforestation and forest fires. It has many rivers snaking towards the Pacific Ocean. Then the descent into Vancouver started but I hadn't seen any human habitation for hundreds of miles. I came over the Coast Mountains and could see lakes in the calderas of extinct volcano's. A legacy of the ring of fire. The plane was only a couple of thousand feet over the mountains. Then the terrain smoothed out and a solitary farm appeared. Then a road. Then another farm. Gradually human habitation developed. I could see thousands of logs floating in neat stacks down the length of the river. They looked liked matches in a matchbox. The plane descended lower and lower until it bumped onto the tarmac of the airport. After a lengthy wait through customs and immigration I was on my way to the Vancouver-Victoria ferry. I boarded the ferry and it set out on the very flat waters of the Georgia straights. Many small islands appeared and some were dotted with lighthouses and houses. Most were empty. (All photos are taken from the ferry). The entire journey I could see the Coast Mountains in the north and the Olympic Mountains (in the US) to the south through the mist. It was overcast and chilly on the ferry but the boat hardly rocked at all. Soon the boat docked into Victoria harbour and I was on Vancouver Island...............

More to come.

Alexander Cowan