Picnic in Canada, expect the unexpected
It was 28 August 2018 and we were on a road trip in West Canada travelling from Osoyoos to Whistler.
We just spend a few days in the area of Penticton and Osoyoos, the winery area and fruit area of Canada. Although it were beautiful places, the wilderness was calling and I was happy to travel back up north. We had to drive 600 km that day, our longest day journey on that road trip.
We were on the road since 6:15 am and already enjoying the beautiful scenery, the idea was to travel up to Hope and then take a break. We were looking for a nice stop near the river and just outside Hope we saw one but I thought there will be plenty more…no more stops unfortunately…
We drove until 2 pm up to Lilooet ! Both being very tired we turned the famous road 99 to Whistler and in a blink of an eye I saw a parking lot near the river, this time no more hesitation, I stopped, made a U-turn and drove up to the quiet parking next to a beautiful river and looking out on a few very steep mountain cliffs. Ideal for a late lunch I thought.
There was a table by the river so Veerle was preparing lunch and I was just sitting there, tired from driving whole morning, soaking in the environment. There was an information board indicating that on the cliffs across the river you sometimes can see mountain goats. That would be nice…i never saw these beautiful animals in the wild.
Tired i started staring at the cliffs when suddenly I saw a small white rock moving along the cliff…so here I stop eating…It was so far away i decided to pull out the tripod and the extender 2x, i was setup in record time and indeed there they were mountain goats, pictures and videos, a happy man.
I was going back to the car when my Veer suddenly called in a low voice upon me “there is a bear in the river” !
Wow, I realised that with the extender on, this was going to be difficult so I did not think and switched lenses, ran back and did what i needed to do. A beautiful bear was strolling along the river bank sometimes going into the water to then disappear into the woods.
I did not eat much during our stop but I got so much energy seeing nature’s best, I forgot I had been driving all morning.
So time for a sanitary stop and hit the road…When inside the toilet Veer suddenly called out “ there is a very large bird here just in this tree”… I thought “OMG I even do not have the time to do what I need to do :-)”
I rushed and could just take pictures of a big owl who was killing a snake he caught near the river .He took off, flying over our heads, the snake between his mighty claws.
Sometimes you do need to take that U-turn in life.
An afternoon we will never forget.