Mont Tremblant ski resort is a small ski resort in Quebec, a couple of hours drive from Montreal and about five km from the town of Mont Tremblant. The summit peaks at 2,781 feet and is part of the Laurentian mountain range. We visited during Easter 2016, after a couple of days in Montreal (which is a direct flight from Grand Cayman) before heading to Quebec City, breaking up the journey by stopping at Parc Omega to enjoy the wildlife (see post here).
My wife loves skiing, but I am more at home in the water (see 5 Reasons why diving is better than skiing). Still, it’s good to get a change in weather, and to get out on the slopes every so often. A trip to Canada offered a great chance for that. Read more…
Sphyraena barracuda, or the Great Barracuda, are regularly seen on dives in Cayman. They are a scavenger fish, and like to hang in the shadows of the dive boat or are thought to mistake divers for large predators. They are a ray-finned fish with an elongated jaw full of razor sharp teeth. As such, they can look very inquisitive, and are attracted by items that reflect the sunlight, mistaking them for potential prey. I have seen a barracuda dart in to rip apart a bait fish before my nose, faster than I could see. They can be eaten, but I have heard that they may carry a disease that is harmful to humans, and the way to test whether they should be eaten is to leave them near some ants. If the ants don’t touch it, neither should you. I think I’ll stick to eating land animals… Read more…
Living in the Cayman Islands, we had to chose something a little different for our honeymoon. Regular readers may have spotted that I like wildlife, and so a perfect place to start was Vancouver Island – great wildlife opportunities (like Browning Charters), good restaurants, stunning scenery and luxury hotels.
After a night in Vancouver to recover from jet lag and make the connection (a stunning city by the sea, with wide open boulevards, a great ocean walk and sea planes galore to watch in awe), we caught a little plane to the island. In hindsight, we would probably have preferred to rent a car and drive out to the island, catching the short ferry and enjoying the scenery, but with the start of the honeymoon the plane seemed the easiest option, and it was the first scenic flight of many on this trip. Read more…
We were travelling through Africa, having an amazing experience, and were scheduled to visit the Okavango Delta, camping overnight after being poled through channels of reeds by local guides in log canoes. Sounds pretty brilliant (and it was), but always good to throw a dog into the mix!
Getting back into exercise once you’ve fallen off the bandwagon is quite hard to achieve. For various reasons, some my own, others less so (I have been suffering a bad back which is partly travel related, partly me not looking after myself) I am in quite bad shape at the moment. Still, I’m over the stubborn optimist. Read more…
I first read these books when I was in my teens, having become a fan of Bernard Cornwell through his Warlord Chronicles (I enjoyed Sharpe but mainly on tv, but didn’t read many of the books).
The Starbuck Chronicles of four books are set in the American Civil war, following the travails of Nathaniel Starbuck, a Northerner, Yale educated theologian who finds himself on wrong side of the divide at the outbreak of the civil war. Initially taken under the wing by a rich Southerner, father of his best friend Adam Faulconer, Washington Faulconer who is determined to raise his own Legion to fight for the honour of the South. Nate defies his heritage and finds he has a skill in warfareenjoying the thrill and the womanising enough to defy the familial pull of a return to the North. Read more…
As part of our honeymoon we headed to Vancouver Island. I had previously visited Canada on a wind orchestra tour, but hadn’t had chance to get out of the cities and see any nature other than Niagara Falls (itself very impressive, but the area around it was rather tawdry and touristy for my taste).
I was very keen therefore to get out into the countryside, experience some of the beautiful scenery and get up close with nature, primarily bears and moose, the latter being a creature that had fascinated me since childhood. Read more…
Sepioteuthis sepioidea, or the Caribbean reef squid. Okay, technically a squid isn’t a fish, it’s a mollusc, but this feature is more about cool things I can identify underwater. We often see these in the shallows when diving or snorkelling, swimming in schools and moving in formation. They are quick and hard to catch on camera and translucent, changing colour as you swim after them. Apparently they can launch themselves out of the water and fly for up to 10 metres before re-entry but I haven’t seen that! Read more…
Taking it easy this weekend because I pulled my back on “holiday” in the UK, I have to say that Deep Heat, while being a useful tool for muscle strains after sport, has not proven very powerful for true muscle problems. I am going to have to start a regime of working on core strength and look after my back, but I was looking back to an enjoyable time on our travels when I learned to windsurf and felt very flexible…
Having convinced my famously sharkophobic (I’m sure there’s a proper word for this) girlfriend (now wife!) into bravely dunking her head under the water to do her PADI openwater diving course I found myself …
Source: Learn to windsurf in an hour…
Currently struggling from a bad back, back pain is so annoying, so thought I’d “reblog” an old fitness post to give myself some inspiration, maybe aim to do the Cayman Triathlon this November…
I am not a big fan of running and find the gym tedious but need to get incentivised so, after realising that training for halfmarathons was tedious I decided to try a triathlon.
The idea was that the cross training would be good for my body, keep me interested and the fact that I like swimming and cycling would counter my dislike of/inability at running.
A good plan, but one that ultimately led to me doing a halfironman which raised over £3000 for charity.
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