Les Iles is a bit of a mindfuck for me. It's similar to St. Pierre et Miquelon in that it's fascinating to see what other cultures did with the same exact building blocks that mine had. So much is the same, but it's obviously, unmistakably, completely different.
However, unlike St. Pierre et Miquelon, it's not necessarily more urban. St. Pierre would easily feel like the second-largest city in Newfoundland if it was ours. Easily. There's no contest. With 6K people it has a core several times larger, more walkable, etc. than even towns/cities of 25K here.
Gorgeous stuff. Really enjoyed browsing those.
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A few from St. John's this morning. I ran along the trails from Outer Cove to Red Cliff, which is roughly this (but along the coast):
We had two nights at the Trout Point Lodge in SW NS this past weekend. Beautiful spot on the Tusket river and next to the Tobiatic Wilderness area. I'll post some pics... wood fired sauna and hot tub, stargazing platform, Tusket river, lichen and old man's beard, red squirrel. Over the past 400 years the forests of NS have been cut down many times leaving less than a single percent of old growth. It's so great to see protected areas where forests will be allowed to mature though I'll be long dead before it happens. The Acadian forest has species of lichen that are found nowhere else on earth.
A nice video, with an explanation of an old legend. Mont Saint-Hilaire is in the suburbs of Montreal, on the south shore.
For those who don't read French:
A farmer wanted to sow early in the season, even if it was a cold spring. Then, his white horse, named «Eau Blanche» got sick for a little while, causing delay to the sowing. All the farmers around who had sow too early lost their seeds, but not our farmer. The years after, the white horse was the one who decided when to sow. When he passed away, it is said that his soul found a shelter on the slopes of the mountain, in the form of an ice wall. Since then, the farmers know that you never sow until the White Horse is melted.
Wow I've never heard of Les Iles before. looks amazing. I wonder how it became part of Quebec and not PEI,N.B, NFLD, or Nova Scotia? So much amazing landscape on such a small Island.
Cowichan Valley is an interesting area that many people overlook when visiting Vancouver Island.
The first stop on our trip was the newest attraction on the island, called Malahat Skywalk.
While there is no elevator, the massive structure is easy and effortless to climb up do only an 5-7% incline of the climb.
It's often windy on top of due to how open it is.
The attraction offers beautiful views of the Finlayson Arm some 250 metres below you.
Our place of stay for the trip was in a small seaside town of Cowichan Bay.
Cowichan Valley is home to several farms where it is possible to see farm animals upclose.
Shawnigan Lake is location of Kinsol Trestle which is one of the highest railway trestles in the world.
The bridge is 44 metres (144 ft) high and 188 metres (617 ft) long, and it was renovated in 2011.
The bridge was originally built in 1920 for trains hauling timber.
The small municipality of Cobble Hill is the location of several nice and award-winning vineyards.
Duncan is the central city for the valley and home to world's biggest hockey stick, because why not?
Nice place to have a brunch in Duncan.
There are many nice small municipalities on the island and Chemainus is a nice little town with long history in lumber industry.
These days the town is most famous for its 53 historical murals which are very well made and display a lot of local and Canadian history.
Maybe the nicest looking Subway in existence?
It was a nice little trip to visit Cowichan Valley and to us it has some hidden gems that many people are missing out. I hope these photos will inspire someone else to visit the area one day, hopefully with better weather!