Kayaking trip

[framlingem]

That kayal trip turned out to be just what the doctor ordered. Do you have any idea how wonderful it is to just shut yourself off from the world for a couple of days, to interact only with a small group of people where everybody gets along and with a five-metre long piece of tapered plastic? And most of the time the people were strung out along the coast a bit, so the only real interaction was when we were at base camp and, on the water, keeping an eye out to make sure that if anyone capsizes, they get help right quick (nobody did - well, not by accident. Until Andrew capsized while getting out of the boat this afternoon, with his bow on shore. But let's not mention that.)

It was... perfect. The skies were blue (the hurricane didn't hit the WestCoast, nyah), and cloudless, and the water... was smooth green glass with mountains overlayed onto the rocky bottom. We were in Bonne Bay, which is a fjord (although not, alas, designed by Slarty Bartfast) in Gros Morne National Park. I woke up this morning and had breakfast with a moose and a grey jay - I didn't bother them, and the moose didn't bother me - just munched for a while and ambled off into the woods quite amiably. The grey jay stole some of my oatmeal, though. Thief.I ate my oatmeal sitting on a rocky beach, looking across the water to the world's oldest mountains, poking glacier-scarred rock up out of a boreal forest dominated by balsam fir trees, in the quiet.

At nighttime, the stars were phenomenal... like someone had spilled sugar over a jet tabletop. Millions and million and millions... my god! it's full of stars! - They say it better than I ever could. Or then there's Robert Service: "And the stars they throng out in their glory/and they sing of the god in the man" - I like that.

The whole experience was - well, take a gander at my user icon. It made me wish I had a voice and the skill equal to singing the Ode to Joy; I was singing it very quietly to myself, but the place itself embodies the music, so it didn't really need me to sing it.

Comments

Ode to Fr.

[mopeydick.livejournal.com]

The Glorious Ninth by Ludwig Van is one of my favorites, too. You should check out the live recording of Bernstein in Berlin. It was recorded Christmas Day, 1989, just as the wall was coming down.

It's a little different because... well, when Schiller originally wrote the Ode to Joy, he used the abbreviation Fr., which most people assumed meant "Freude," or joy. But an equally valid interpretation would be "Freiheit," or freedom. This is the version that is sung. Bear in mind these are Berliners, on Christmas Day, and the wall is coming down. When the tenor sings "Freiheit," you can hear everyone who was expecting "Freude" take a little gasp. Awesome, awesome record.

- MD

Re: Ode to Fr.

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

I've got tears in my eyes just from reading your description - I think I need to hear it. I can't dowload anything or file transfer because of the school firewall, though... is it on cd? I've been thinking about asking for a cd of the Ode for Christmas (I have a tape made from a scratchy, degraded LP), and that sounds like the perfect one.

Freedom and Joy are codependant, I think, at least to me. You can't really have one without the other.

[fredd9.livejournal.com]

Sea kayaking rocks.

We've already looked into a trip doing just that next time we come out!

Spring time in Twillingate! HERE I COME BABY! :)

[framlingem.livejournal.com]

Booyeah. It's sick :)

I highly recommend Bonne Bay :) Purty.