When you venture beyond your own backyard, your eyes are opened up to new creatures and new colours.
At home, the birds I see are brown, grey, black…dull. Not so enticing to look at. But in Africa, many bird species easily catch your eye.
That was the case with this Lilac-breasted Roller in the Serengeti, Tanzania. Perched atop a branch, it was posing politely, showing off it’s colourful plumage. As it is unlike any birds I see at home, I happily complied and snapped this photo.
After landing in Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Kamchatka, I had a couple of days to relax before exploring the Commander Islands and Kuril Islands off the coast of Russia.
This is the part of Russia beyond Siberia. The eastern edge of the largest country in the world. In Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, or PK as they say, everything seemed stuck in time. Old concrete block buildings everywhere. Nothing new, bright or exciting. As drab as it was, I loved it, and didn’t care that many Russians call PK the ugliest city in Russia.
This was just a temporary stop. I had islands to explore, and one that I was looking forward to most was Simushir Island in the Kurils. The island was mostly uninhabited over the years, but a size-able settlement was functioning here for nearly 20 years, with a top secret submarine base operating at Broutona Bay from about 1987 to 1994.
It was abruptly abandoned one day, leaving behind relics and buildings that tantalize your imagination. Plenty of Soviet Era artwork still adorns the walls in the empty buildings too.
Once home to thousands of people, the settlement had a hospital, large apartment blocks, school, livestock pens – now all lying in ruins. Books are scattered on the floor. Gun turrets rust outdoors, having never fired a shot. A shoe repair shop has half-finished repairs lying about and trucks now sit idle in fields being recaptured by nature.
It’s a spooky place in some ways, but fascinating at the same time.
The setting is beautiful. A large volcano in the background, a sheltered bay and beach out front. Wild foxes and birds all about. You can really envision families living here and having a good life. But then it all ended.
Where did they all go? Why did they abandon the settlement? Did they move to another top secret submarine base we don’t know about, or was it just time to close up shop and send everyone back to more populous cities?
Today, very few people visit this island. Perhaps some Russian fishing boats stop by now and then. Only a handful of tourist boats ever make it out here in any given year. It feels more like an outdoor museum than anything else.
Definitely a place unlike any other that I have visited. It made me wonder though, how many of these abandoned settlements exist throughout Russia?
Since I enjoy visiting far flung destinations, my Russian travel experience was short on cities like Moscow and big on remote island chains like the Commander and Kuril Islands in Far East Russia.
One of those islands just happened to have some interesting Cold War artwork and murals lying about – 20+ years after the settlement had been abandoned.
Simushir Island is a remote island in the Kuril Islands, which was once home to a thriving community at Broutona Bay. Now, less than 20 years after it was abandoned it is back on the map and can be visited by intrepid travellers who venture to Far East Russia.
One thing that stood out while walking through the eerily quiet buildings was the art work found on walls, including murals, mostly all paying homage to the Soviet Era rule and importance of strength and might during the Cold War era. Here, propaganda seemed to run rampant.
In the Kuril Islands, the battle was, and still is, with Japan. These disputed islands remain a source of contention, claimed by both Russia and Japan. The international community largely keeps out of this controversy, but the US has acknowledged that they believe Japan is the rightful owner of the islands. That surely doesn’t make Russia happy.
Back to the artwork! From images of tanks to murals of Lenin and cosmonauts, this was one of those places that seems a bit frozen in time.
Lenin is prominent in this abandoned settlement. Not surprising really, as from what I gathered from the people at a couple of settlements on other islands in this far end of Russia, they feel somewhat forgotten by the current leadership back in Moscow. At least when Lenin was around, they had supplies and infrastructure and purpose.
After visiting Simushir Island, I couldn’t help but think that the few inhabited islands I visited would one day have a similar fate. I suppose only time will tell.
The Spotted Deer is more commonly called the Chital in Sri Lanka and others parts of Southern Asia.
It is a very widely distributed deer species that is found in good numbers across the forests of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Bhutan.
While many deer species have spots when they are young, this species retains their spotted hide even when they mature.
This Chital, or Spotted Deer, was photographed at Yala National Park in Sri Lanka.
The start of October also marks the start of Ontario Hiking Week, so it seems the perfect time to put together a few photos from some of my favourite day hiking trails from the Ontario Provincial Parks that I have visited.
I’ve hiked all around Ontario, from the shores of Lake Superior to the Niagara Escarpment to the southern tip of Point Pelee. It’s not easy choosing just six hikes that stand out, but these ones are some of the most enjoyable short hikes I’ve come across.
As with many parks further north in Ontario, hiking opportunities are plentiful, with many more options than you see at parks in Central or Southern Ontario. In total, Sleeping Giant boasts 17 different hiking trails, ranging from easy strolls to tough multi-day treks. The Kabeyun is known as a challenging hike with excellent wildlife viewing opportunities and plenty of great scenic lookouts.
You don’t have to do the entire hike to appreciate it, this photo is of ‘Sea Lion Rock’ (the head of the sea lion broke off years ago), which is only a hike of a few kilometres from the trailhead parking lot.
More famous for canoeing routes, Algonquin Park also offers great hiking options, with 13 hikes along the popular Highway 60 corridor and numerous hikes accessible via other entry points.
Of all the hikes along the corridor, Mizzy Lake stands out for a few reasons. First, it is an ideal day-hike length of 11km, taking you anywhere from 3.5-6 hours depending on how often you stop and what your hiking speed is.
The Mizzy Lake Trail also passes through a great variety of landscapes, from open forest, to dense pines and shores of lakes. Wildlife viewing here is the best of any trail, with patient hikers being able to catch glimpses of everything from chipmunks to moose. This is also the only trail along the corridor that does not allow dogs on the trail, so as not to disturb the wildlife. (Note, however that you may encounter hiking groups along the flat and easy ‘old railway’ portion of the trail that have dogs.)
Arrowhead Provincial Park is a fun park to visit on a weekend, as the handful of trails on offer total only 13km, making it easy to hike all of the trails and enjoy the rest of the park over 2-3 days. The Beaver Meadow Trail is the only one of substantial length, at 7km, but I found the short Mayflower Lake Trail to be the most impressive, and conducive to photography.
If you are like me and like to take photos of nature, then the Mayflower Trail hike provides some nice green scenery and points of interest. Beaver lodges, rocky shorelines, changing trail conditions and a variety of plants make it a fun, short hike.
The shortest trail on this list, it is also one of the most interesting. Few places in Ontario let you get so close to a piece of history as this trail does.
Some of the most impressive and most accessible pictographs are found along the rocky shoreline on this trail. It has a steep and sometimes slippery descent to view the pictographs up close, but on a clear day it’s well worth a glimpse of centuries old Indian rock paintings.
For such a large park, Killarney has surprisingly few hiking trails if you skip doing any section of the 100km long La Cloche Silhouette Trail. Yet, the few trails it offers are all superb, with different landscapes and environments. The Chikanishing Trail is my personal favourite on a nice day, as it offers a pleasant hike along ridges and shorelines of Georgian Bay.
A great hike for staring out across the water and watching kayakers go by, or for stopping along the rocky ridge line for a picnic.
Nestled above the immense Algonquin Park, getting to Samuel de Champlain park is a bit of a chore for people from Southern Ontario. It is well worth the effort though.
There are no simple ‘boardwalk’ hikes here. Each of the hikes at Samuel de Champlain has a bit of a challenge to it, and the Etienne Trail is the best of the bunch. This trail is actually comprised of three loops, so you can pick and choose the length of your hike based on your interests. I suggest doing all three loops for 9km, but in the least, don’t skip the Nature Loop part of the Etienne Trail.
Around the beautiful Long Lake, the Nature Loop offers a fun trail with plenty of rewarding lookouts, as well as potential animal encounters. This is the kind of trail that can be enjoyed by virtually any park visitor – from hikers and wildlife enthusiasts to photographers.
Enjoy Ontario Hiking Week! Hope you have time to get out and explore a nearby park.
