Day 3: Via Chapleau to Marathon

Waterbomber at Chapleau airport

This morning we took off into hazy grey clouds that I'd thought darker than they really were, due to the taxi's tinted windows on the way to the airport. We decided to alter our planned route to a more southerly one because of an occluded front in the air beyond Timmins. The only other traffic on frequency was a water bomber approaching Val d'Or. During our slow climb out we were only grounding 55knots, but ATC allowed us a direct IFR path to Chapleau, even though we'd be out of radar contact, in uncontrolled airspace! We were still only showing 75kt over the ground. Crossing the Quebec-Ontario border at Larder Lake we were now in touch with Toronto Centre who gave us a report of fair weather ahead and cheerfully replied "Yes SIR!" to all of Chris' requests. Thumbs up, but we still had to fly through a heavy rain shower south of Timmins in a dark cloud that contained a  downdraft. We lost 200ft of altitude before recovering.

Approaching Chapleau

Closer to Chapleau it cleared up and now we were flying through haze in the sunshine. "Have yourself a great day!" said the Toronto Centre girl as we left her by cancelling our IFR flight plan (though we kept the alerting service and didn't close our Search and Rescue option till on the ground).

Chapleau Muni terminal!

We knew Wawa airport had a $65 landing fee so we landed for free at Chapleau Muni, run by a chap who's been there for 18 years. We couldn't drink the tap water, had brought some with us which we drank with our lunch (half an egg sandwich from Rouyn-Noranda and bag of crisps) at the picnic table.

Islands in Lake Superior, near Marathon

Over Marathon airport

In the afternoon we flew VFR in a straight line to Marathon on the northern shore of Lake Superior through bumpy skies and the thick haze. It's a pity we didn't have much of a view because we know how superb the scenery is hereabouts; we did make out sections of the trans-Canada rail and highways. A Thunder Air twin turboprop landed ahead of us; both pilots noticed the unexpected tail wind on the runway.

Chris, tired and hungry, had a temper tantrum trying to operate the self service fuel pump and the office girl came out to remonstrate with him but said he wasn't the only one misled by the instructions,so he apologised profusely and she let him use her computer. We decided to call it a day and a wonderful taxi driver came to pick us up, who gave us a guided tour of most of Marathon before dropping us at the Harbour Inn. She has lived here for three years, wanting to bring up her four children in a place less rough than Winnipeg, where she comes from. Marathon has a population of 2700 and a gold mine. They are hoping for a new hydro electricity station too. The other local places of work have recently closed down.

Lakeshore with train going by

One of the churches at Marathon

Marathon, near the harbour, Thursday evening

On Pebble Beach

We enjoyed our supper at the Wok with Chow. I ordered Chicken Guy Ding, which is probably not its real name, very satisfying, though. Then we walked to the Pebble Beach, over the driftwood, and I took my shoes and socks of for the essential foot wetting in the waves of the Great Lake. We also watched the sun go down over the islands in the bay. There are two churches, a curling centre, an imposing new Library and hospital, an ice rink-cum-basket ball court and a skate board playground here. "Absolutely no fish guts in the garbage bins!" say the warning notices.

Day 2: fourth time lucky!

Glimpse of the scenery en route to Rouyn-Noranda

We made it to Rouyn-Noranda, finally, over some wild terrain, after handing a cheque to Red for the necessary repairs to PTN. I'm writing this at sunset in our room at Le Noranda. Rouyn-Noranda is an amalgamation of two towns. We had our supper in the other one on the other side of the lake, after walking there along the waterfront from this area which is  dominated by the copper mine. Une mine, une ville! proclaim the slogans. The mine was opened in 1926 and in 1927 the railway came to the few huts that stood on the bank of Lake Osisko, and that was that.

Street in Noranda

Leaving the Gatineau Hills behind us once the weather allowed us to fly, we soon climbed above a low and creamy cloud layer that Chris called "custard". It was smooth up there--good! In our clearance we'd been given a more direct flight path than we'd expected: RADEN, JUNIS, REZIN, YUY. Above the reserve faunique and its lakes the clouds began to rise and cover us, but we could see views through the breaks. The last third of the nearly 3 hour journey was more in cloud and more turbulent because of gusty winds. On the surface they were reporting 20 knot gusts at our destination (CYUY). Chris was asked to go into a hold so as to let a Creebec Dash 8 into the approach ahead of us, and then the Dash 8 pilot kindly cancelled IFR at the last minute to save us the bother of doing this. Our long final was quite exciting enough without the added interest of the hold, because of the crosswind gusts which I must say my pilot handled magnificently. We came in at an impressive angle and I only loosened my grip on the strap as we taxied to the fuel pump.  Here I had to speak French to both the fuel man and the security guard, a young woman who intercepted Chris as he tried to open a forbidden door at the terminal building on his way back from the gents. My French comes in useful on these occasions.

The Noranda copper mine 

Main street, Rouyn

During our 20 minute taxi ride into town we passed what at first looked like the only restaurant in town selling la meilleure poutine du monde, but this evening we found the less deserted district and a tapas bar (Le Cachottier) that could provide us with scrumptious dishes: confit de canard with sugared orange peel for me, and lamb with creamed sweet potatoes––patates douces––for Chris. The high street had been turned into a pedestrian zone for the evening, with rows of open air stalls, and bouncy castles for the children, who were numerous, most of their parents looking no older than 18.

Lake Osisko, Rouyn-Noranda

Summer flying trip, Day 1

Third time unlucky. We must be jinxed. We should have set off for Rouyn-Noranda (QC) today. Twice before, when we tried to fly to Rouyn-Noranda, we were prevented by unsuitable weather. This time looked more promising and we had a hotel room booked there for tonight at the end of what was supposed to be the first leg of our flying holiday. We had finished packing, left the house on time on a beautiful morning for flying, filed a flight plan, loaded the aircraft (fuelled up the night before), did all the pre-flight checks, climbed in, strapped on our harnesses, plugged in our headphones ... and the engine refused to start.

PTN being towed to the hangar

PTN is an old lady who sometimes doesn't feel like getting up in the mornings. She's now having her fuel feed and engine parts checked by Red Sutton and his team. Red towed her into the hangar this morning, mournfully accompanied by Chris.

It is better that this set back happened at the start of our trip rather than half way through, or we might have been stuck for a long time in somewhere like Hearst, some 100 km from anywhere else.

A holy child of the 21st century

I've been watching a video called Unmistaken Child, a documentary about Nepalese Buddhist monks and their belief in reincarnation.

The subject matter of the film spans five years and is about real people. At the start, an elderly lama has just died and his young most attentive disciple, Tenzin Zopa by name, is heartbroken. The high priests of Tibet choose Tenzin to search for a child aged no more than one year old who can be recognised as the late lama reborn and the film crew follows him on his quest.

After much praying and studying of auspicious signs and symbols, Tenzin is sent eastwards into the high mountains of Nepal, to the Tsum valley on the border with China where the scenery is spectacular. This, in fact, is the region he comes from, and where the lama used to live in retreat when Tenzin was a young boy. There's a touching scene where the disciple visits the lama's former hut high on the mountainside and cries to see it so dilapidated and unused. He has been told to look for a child whose parents' name begins with an A. It is surely no coincidence that, after some false starts, he eventually finds a promising candidate in his own home village. This little toddler (who looks quite like my grandson Eddie!) has a remarkable command of words for his age and is sturdy and bright-eyed. He grabs the dead lama's rosary beads and won't let go of them. This is a Sign. He also cries less than some of the other babies who have been examined and has respectful and good looking parents, also seemingly more intelligent than their peers. The grandmother is a strong character too.

The point is, I think, that the reincarnated lama has to be an unusually intelligent and healthy child of a trustworthy family.

Tenzin takes to him at once and plays with him tenderly, which is essential because he is going to adopt him, taking him away from his parents and grandmother to be brought up at the distant monastery. At the end of the documentary the child is seen saying goodbye to his family who have accompanied him there. He calls to his daddy ("Abba!"). The little person, now old enough to begin to understand what is happening––about the age of my grandson Thomas in these scenes––doesn't want them to go, and reaches for them as they leave, the mother's face contorted by her mixed feelings of pride and loss, but the child tolerates the wrench because by this time he is attached to his "big uncle" Tenzin who has been looking after him with great affection and is by now a friend of the family. By this point, the child has been recognised and acknowledged as the lama's reincarnation by all the priests, including the Dalai Lama himself who has symbolically cut the last tuft of hair from his little shaven head with a pair of scissors. Dressed like a miniature monk, the child has chosen the correct accoutrements (bell, beads, boxes, etc) from a selection of objects representing his former self and when he sees photographs of the lama and himself side by side is heard to say, "They're both me!" (though I had to take that on trust from the subtitles, because of course he didn't say it in English). Being a sceptic I assume he'd been taught to say something along those lines.

In any case I found it compulsive viewing. Half way through watching this film I realised what it all reminded me of––the story of the baby Jesus in the New Testament. There too had been an extraordinary child born in poverty to intelligent, pure-hearted parents, discovered by persons in authority and held in awe by high priests and local country folk alike. When recognised, Jesus is reported to have been given gold, frankincense and myrrh; this two year old, 21st century, Himalayan child receives not only the appropriate religious tokens from Tibet but toy diggers and a remote-control car to play with, as well. He travels to his destiny by helicopter.

Two weeks in Ottawa

We have been busy with Richard and Sarah from England for the last two weeks, who seemed to make the most of their time here. I thought I'd write down what they did, in case in future we ever run out of ideas for entertaining other visitors. The following list also explains why I haven't had time for blogging recently, especially since the Music and Beyond festival started; I have a festival pass that I'm using on most days, at the moment.

Thursday, 26 June, having arrived on Air Canada flight 889, Richard and Sarah walked with us to the Minto Bridges and Rideau Falls at sunset.

Friday, 27 June. I took them in the car through Chelsea, to both ends of Meech Lake, then back to Chelsea, where we saw the Gatineau Park visitors' info. centre and a few shops. Then we had a drink in the garden of a cafe and drove back to Ottawa. In the afternoon Richard and Sarah walked around Parliament Hill and the Byward Market. Elva, Laurie, Carol and Don came round to join us for supper.

Saturday, 28 June. To the Natural History museum, and then they walked home through town. Richard went flying in PTN with Chris in the afternoon while Sarah had a rest, and after supper I took both visitors to the “sunset ceremonies” and “musical ride” in the grounds of the RCMP headquarters. We were lucky that this free public show coincided with their visit.

Sunday, 29 June. Outing to Upper Canada Village by car with lunch at the Morrisburg golf club.

Monday, 30 June. Day’s outing to Omega Park, Quebec, taking the river ferry from Cumberland on the way there and back. We stopped at the flying club on the way back too.

Tuesday, 1 July. Canada Day. Our visitors claim to have walked 6 miles round town in the extreme heat and thunderstorms that day.

Wednesday, 2 July. Visited National Art Gallery and Royal Mint, on foot.

Thursday, 3 July. River boat ride from Gatineau. Lunch outdoors at Canadian History Museum’s cafeteria. In the afternoon Richard visited to Aviation and Space museum without Sarah, driven there and back by Ali.

Friday, 4 July. Chris took a day off work so he could drive us to Mud Lake via riverside stone sculptures. We fed the wild birds and stopped for a pub lunch. Richard and Sarah visited the War Museum in the afternoon and in the evening we all went out for a barbecue supper at Elva’s and Laurie’s house.

Saturday, 5 July. Richard visited Science and Technology museum, while Sarah kept her feet up, reading and watching videos. In the evening, Richard and Sarah fed the geese in our local park.

Sunday, 6 July. Visit to the Museum of Canadian History, taking the water taxi back to Ottawa.

Monday, 7 July. Taxi to Science and Tech museum (Richard’s 2nd visit). Bus back to town. Canal boat ride. Walked through local parks to Rideau Hall side gate at sunset.

Tuesday, 8 July. I had the car so could drive Richard and Sarah to Wakefield: we saw Wakefield Mill, the covered bridge, Wakefield's tourist information centre (an old farmhouse converted into a museum) and shops. Lunch at Chamberlin’s Lookout with a view of the Gatineau River. After that, I drove them back to Ottawa where they saw the RCMP visitors’ centre by the RCMP stables, then home through Rockcliffe Park, seeing the houses of Ottawa's upper classes.

Wednesday, 9 July. Our visitors walked to Rideau Hall for a tour of the Hall, visitors’ centre and grounds. From there, they walked into town and had lunch at the Earl of Sussex Pub. In the evening, we all went to Parliament Hill to watch Mosaika, the national capital's sound and light show.

Thursday, 10 July. Lunch at the Canal Ritz restaurant beside the canal. I drove them to Parliament Hill afterwards and they walked home, one last time, from there. In the late afternoon, we drove to QNX via the Nepean Sailing Club. They departed on Air Canada flight 888 in the late evening, while Chris and I began to recover from this hectic fortnight, spending an hour or so at the Clocktower Pub in New Edinburgh, with friends.

VIPs in an Ottawa garden

Dr. Samar, The Hon. Flora MacDonald and his Excellency Sham Lall Bathija

I received an email from Dianne R. attaching "some notes" on the people we were going to meet last Wednesday at the UWHAW (University Women Helping Afghan Women) Garden Party, where my job was to co-ordinate the photography. The guest of honour was Dr. Sima Samar, Chair of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission. Among many honours and awards, Dr. Samar is an Honorary Officer of the Order of Canada, holds an honorary doctorate from Carleton University and has more than once been a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize.

Here is an abridged extract from Dianne's notes, to which I've added links.

• Laila Ayan is First Secretary, Embassy of Afghanistan in Canada [who] served in the German Afghan mission at the UN prior to her appointment here.
• Dr.Nipa Banerjee teaches at the U of Ottawa’s School of International Development and Global Studies. She [has] led Canada’s aid programs in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Afghanistan.
• His Excellency Sham Lall Bathija Ambassador to Canada from the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.
• William Crosbie, Canadian Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2011.
• Erica Donald presently a medical student at McMaster, is a cellist [who studied] music at McGill University. She has worked with the Youth Orchestra in Afghanistan and continues to support them.
• The Honourable Flora MacDonald served in three cabinet posts including Secretary of State for External Affairs, the first woman in the world to hold that appointment. Since 1988, she has been working for women and girls in Afghanistan as part of the World Federalist Movement.
• Dr. Maisam Najafizada is a physician and now PhD candidate in Health Policy at the University of Ottawa,
• Eileen Olexiuk. A seasoned diplomat, she was the former deputy head of Mission in Afghanistan with extensive experience in the country. In her retirement, she is involved with Afghan causes including Canadian Women for the Women of Afghanistan (CW4WA).
• Maryam Sahar at 15 was an interpreter for a Canadian Army unit and NGOs in Kandahar at great risk to her own life. Later she took advantage of the Afghan Interpreter Immigration Program to seek asylum here. She has provided cultural awareness training for Canadian troops en route to Afghanistan and works with Immigration programs here as a translator while attending Carleton University.
• Roya Shams, a young student rescued from the Taliban by Toronto Star reporters after her father, a senior police commander was assassinated in Kandahar. She presently attends Ashbury and wants to complete her education in Canada, hoping to return to Afghanistan afterwards to help her country.
• Marg Stewart is President of CW4WA in Kingston and Treasurer on the National Board.
• Madeliene Tarasick National President of CW4WA.

On the day, over 100 guests turned up and the rain held off! Half way through the Garden Party, everyone went indoors to hear some speeches. The Ambassador Sham Lall Bathija saluted Dr. Samar and the CFUW for their commitment. In Afghanistan there are now 3 million girls in school. He was proud to say that Afghanistan has met its millennium goal for healthcare, but that “doesn’t mean we should stop here.” He spoke of the value for Afghan students of studying abroad and then going back to serve their country and offered Canada thanks, greetings and love from Afghanistan.

One of our UWHAW members paid tribute to Flora MacDonald who, like Dr. Samar, is a “rescuer”––while acting as the first woman Minister for Foreign Affairs in the world, Flora ensured that 100,000 Vietnam refugees were welcomed to Canada. In her retirement from politics, as initiator of Future Generations Canada she has continued to work on humanitarian projects, such as providing electricity to remote parts of Afghanistan by means of wind and solar power.

The hostess then introduced Dr. Samar, saying how much we were “moved by her unimaginable bravery.” Dr. Samar thanked and greeted us, telling us that Flora MacDonald was her role model. She appreciates people who can bring about changes in the lives of Afghan women. The situation in her country is “much, much better” than it has been and the improvement is due to education, although there are still millions of girls there who do not go to school. Empowerment means having the right to decide one’s own destiny, to have control over what to wear, what to do, what to be, how many children to have. Only 19% of Afghan women have access to contraception. She spoke of a girl UWHAW has been sponsoring, how she had cried when she told Dr. Samar of her impossible dreams of a higher education. Now that dream is after all fulfilled she will no longer have to be a carpet weaver all her life.

Speaking of the recent elections in Afghanistan, Dr. Samar said that the election demonstrates the influence of the international community. All the candidates had come to a human rights conference, which had never happened before. For the first time in history the Afghan people had taken the initiative. When the election is over and the new government takes office “we shall keep them accountable,” she said. Later she repeated that “we shall have to be cautious.” However, it is “impossible” that Afghanistan will now step back to the day of the Taliban. The Commission for Human Rights is now part of the Afghan constitution. Her long term vision is one of equality for all, men and women. Every child has the right to live with dignity, she said.

In answer to a question about the high literacy rates in one particular part of Afghanistan, she said with a smile: that was the area she has assisted. Her first trip to Europe was in 1989 to Norway, when she raised $10,000 for the creation of ten new schools. One school took place under a tree, one in a mosque. Tents were used as classrooms. All the children in this district now go to school.

(Photo © Robin Spencer)

Several young Afghans or students with connections to Afghanistan were at the garden party. Besides wine and strawberries among the roses, we had a silent auction. I actually won something, a framed piece of Afghan embroidery that's now brightening my kitchen wall. Some of the other guests were treated to henna hand painting by two high school students of Ottawa who had collected funds to present to Dr. Samar. Although born in Canada, these girls share an Afghan heritage and know the barriers to education for Afghan girls. They had baked and sold cupcakes, painted people's hands for donations and prepared an Afghan meal for 80 teachers, all to raise funds for their counterparts in Afghanistan.

Picnic at Lemoine Point

We followed the Shore Trail,
walking back along Meadowlark Lane

Yesterday Chris flew me down to Kingston for a walk and a picnic near the airport, at Lemoine Point. The flying conditions were near perfect with no more than tiny clouds to contend with at 4500ft and marvellous visibility. We're so privileged to be able to fly this route, one of the most beautiful in Ontario, surely, following the line of the old Perth Road from above, over Westport or Portland where the many boats are moored and the locks between the lakes on the Rideau Canal. This time we had a tail wind from the north so the outbound journey took us less than an hour. As we landed at Kingston, we think we saw a young eagle sitting beside the taxiway. It was a huge and beautiful bird, anyhow, and the men at the FBO said some eagles had been seen nearby.

Walking conditions were good too; it was not too hot. The woods and wet meadows of Lemoine Point were full of flowers and dragonflies. I have never seen so many chipmunks at once; they were everywhere. In the farmland near the southern car park an adult goat had a following of little goats, bounding through the long grass, surely not all her own? A very tame squirrel made determined efforts to share our lunch at our picnic table.

Back in Ottawa, driving down the Rockcliffe Parkway to fetch Chris after he had lingered at the Flying Club before supper, a fox crossed the road ahead of me.