Tony's Trip to Canada - The Saint-Felicien Wild Zoo.

My first planned stop out of Quebec city was due north to Saint-Felicien and its Wild Zoo. The wild zoo is known for its train tour where the animals are wild and the carriages are caged. This gives the animals considerably larger domains and more natural conditions than in many zoos, although electric fences were still visible around some areas. The zoo specialises in northern and arctic species and even includes a polar bear.

Caged bus-train carriage.

The animals are quite used to the train, it is quite peaceful.

First black bear, resting beside a hut.

Grizzlies in their own domain.

More black bears.

Bison resting in the sun.

Another black bear. Normally, not something you encounter every day.

And another with cubs.

A Crane.

Wild Turkeys and a small deer.

A Bobcat.

A not very active Bear.

The Asian section had Snow Monkeys ...

... and Tigers.

While Corine was heading towards the real Mongolia, I had to settle for the Mongolian section of the zoo. It had Camels and Przewalski's horses ...

... Yaks ...

... a Ger kitted out in the traditional colours ...

... and Ibex.

Continuing on were Racoons ...

... and Martens.

An aviary full of Bald Eagles.

A lonely Wolverine.

Three playful Otters, one in the water.

A family of Beavers.

A Canadian Lynx.

The lone Polar Bear. He seemed to be having a great time in and out of the water.

A Snowy Owl.

Back to the Beavers.
There were plenty of other creatures but they didn't sit still long enough to get good photos.

Tony's Trip to Canada - Quebec city to Nova Scotia.

While Corine was taking the Trans Siberian railway, I was in eastern Canada. I started with a week at the IGARSS conference in Quebec city and then started a ten day road trip from Quebec city to Nova Scotia and back. Canada is a huge country and even my small travel plan ended up being too ambitious. My first stop was actually in the opposite direction as I headed north to Saint-Felicien and its Wild Zoo (in a separate blog post). Then I headed back across the Saint Lawrence river, down through New Brunswick and into Nova Scotia. The plan was to go all over Nova Scotia, but I only had time for the north east cape of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick on the way down and back. The main destinations were the bay of Fundy, cape Breton highlands national park and Louisbourg. I prioritised the wilderness and food and got plenty of both. From isolated beaches and moose in the forests, to eating lobster and crab at the harbours. Here is a small selection of photos from the trip.

Flying over Greenland with its amazing glaciers.

Conference centre in Quebec city with leaping wolf statue.

Artisan street in the rain, great rabbit restaurant down the end.

Fantastic wall painting, depicting the local history and culture.

The Chateau Frontenac hotel dominates the city.

Extra-large street art.

Beautiful Melvin beach all to myself.

Harbours on the Bay of Fundy have extreme tides. These boats at St. Martins will have to wait a while.

Nova Scotia's coastline. Lighthouse cove, Louisbourg.

Louisebourg's fortress historical reenactment ...

... including powder and pellet rifles ...

... and cannons.

Final day. Quebec city seen across the Saint Lawrence river from Levis.

Trans Siberian 5: Ulaanbaatar - Beijing

The last part of the Trans Mongolian train trip. Again we had the Chinese train number 4, but this time we had a 4-persons cabin which we shared we 2 friendly young men from Ireland and The Netherlands. Our carriage had quite a mixture of nationalities, many Chinese and Mongolians, but also an elderly Australian, a couple of French girls and some more Dutch travellers. After climbing up through the hills south of Ulaanbaatar we spent most of the day crossing the Gobi, which is pretty barren and flat, with the occasional group of camels and a wind swept village. The Mongolian-Chinese border is interesting, because here they need to change the wheels of the train. They split the train in 2, separate all the carriages and lift each carriage. Then the wheel sets are taken off and wheeled away, while a line of new wheel sets are pushed underneath the carriages. This happens while everyone is in the train, so you get a good view of the whole process. In China it was foggy and there are lots of tunnels, so we probably missed the best parts, but we did see a lot of agriculture, ugly power stations, impressive new road and bridge constructions and crossed a very scenic mountain range just outside Beijing.

Het laatste deel van de Trans Mongolian treintocht. We hadden weer de Chinese trein nummer 4, maar deze keer deelden we een 4-persoons coupe met 2 vriendelijke jongens uit Ierland en Nederland. Onze wagon had een mix van nationaliteiten, veel Chinese en Mongoolse reizigers, maar ook een oudere Australiër, een paar Franse meisjes en nog een paar Nederlanders. Na een klim door de heuvels ten zuiden van Ulaanbaatar zijn we de rest van de dag door de Gobi woestijn gereden. De Gobi is tamelijk kaal en vlak, met af en toe een groep kamelen of een eenzaam dorp. De Mongools-Chinese grens was interessant, want hier moesten de wielen van de trein verwisseld worden. Alle wagons worden losgekoppeld en opgetild, en de wielen worden gewisseld terwijl iedereen nog in de trein zit, dus je kunt goed zien hoe ze het doen. Het laatste stuk door China was het mistig en reden we door vele tunnels, dus we hebben waarschijnlijk de mooiste delen gemist. Wat we wel zagen was veel landbouw, veel nieuwe wegen, indrukwekkende bruggen en tunnels, lelijke electriciteitscentrales en een mooi berggebied net voor Beijing.

Boarding train 4 in Ulaanbaatar

Just south of Ulaanbaatar

Nomadic camp

Mongolian herder

Gobi desert, with camels in the distance

One of the villages in the Gobi

Horse dealers near the Chinese border

Changing the wheels

Dam in China

Ugly power station

New bridges and tunnels

Agriculture

Scenic mountainous area just before reaching Beijing

Suburbs of Beijing

We had only half a day in Beijing, we had both been in Beijing before, and this turned out to be a good choice. August is the hottest time of the year and not the best time to visit Beijing. It was 35-37 C, very humid, and the air pollution does not help either. We were staying in a hotel just behind the Forbidden City, close to some nice parks, Jinshan Park, which has an artificial hill (built from the soil excavated from the moats around the Forbidden City) with an excellent view over the Forbidden City, and Beihai Park with a large lake. Both parks are very popular with tourist and locals. In the evening we watched the locals gathering for music and dance in the park. When I was walking through the park in the afternoon I had an interesting encounter with a Chinese teacher in English, who, I guess, was keen to talk some English with a foreigner, and who invited me to join him at a tea ceremony. Not something I would have done by myself, so very nice.

We hadden maar een halve dag in Beijing, we hadden allebij Beijing al een keer uitgebreid bezocht, en dit bleek een goede keuze te zijn. Augustus is namelijk de warmste maand en niet de beste tijd om Beijing te bezoeken. Het was er 35-37 graden C, erg vochtig, en de luchtvervuiling helpt natuurlijk ook niet. We verbleven in een hotel vlakbij de verboden stad, en dichtbij een aantal mooie parken waar ik nog niet eerder geweest was: Jinshan park, met een heuvel gebouwd van de grond uit de moten rond de verboden stad, en met een prachtig uitzicht over de verboden stad, en Beihai park met een groot meer. Beide parken zijn erg populair bij de lokale bevolking. 's Avonds verzamelden de lokale bewoners in het park om te zingen en te dansen. Toen ik 's middags door de parken liep, had ik een interessante ontmoeting met een Chinese leraar Engels, die mij uitnodigde voor een thee ceremonie. Leuk.

Temple on top of the hill in Jinshan Park

View over the Forbidden City, the northern entrance

Beihai Park