From the moment I stepped off the plane, the Maldives Islands were calling to me. I flew in from Sri Lanka and was looking forward to some rest and relaxation.
I’m not one to sit at a resort for very long, so venturing out to remote islands and doing some snorkelling every day was a big lure for me to get to the Maldives.
Maldives Snorkelling – Sweetlips!
You can’t help but have a smile on your face when your daily itinerary is something like this:
Wake up to a beautiful sunrise. Eat fresh fruit for breakfast. Jump in the water and go snorkelling. Come back and drink tea and eat chocolate cake. Go snorkelling again. Catch fish. Eat fish. Enjoy a drink while watching the sun set. Repeat.
Clownfish in the Maldives, near Vashugiri
What I loved most about snorkelling in the Maldives was that we’d just motor on to some random sandbar in the middle of nowhere and jump in the water. Then within minutes we’d have beautiful fish circling around, or sharks or eels or rays swimming by.
It wasn’t all big reefs and tons of coral, just amazing clear blue waters and colourful fish that were the attraction. Although there were some cool corals and reefs too, ha! The water was so warm too! My guides were pretty awesome too, pointing out rays or fish in hiding places that I might have otherwise snorkelled by without noticing.
Maldives Snorkelling – Creepy Looking Eel
Fun times in the Maldives, and my boat safari as they call it was much cheaper than a traditional resort stay in these islands. More than twice the fun at less than half the price is the way I looked at it.
My only regret from my adventure in the Maldives? Having a crappy underwater camera! I wish I had my new GoPro with me when I was there…maybe I need to return to get some better photos?
Maldives – Snorkelling with a Sea Turtle near Anbaraa
I think my biggest snorkel highlight during my days in the Maldives was seeing my first pufferfish! They are so cool when they are blown up. The sea turtles and lionfish were pretty cool too. Despite a bunch of “dangerous” creatures around, there was only one time when we had to change snorkel locations because of too many jellyfish. But, in the Maldives there is always another great snorkel spot nearby!
Vaavu Atoll, Cool Fish while Snorkelling in the Maldives
Lionfish in the Maldives
Spotted Ray in the Maldives
Maldives – Another Cool Fish while Snorkelling near Hulhidhoo
Just another funky fish in the Maldives!
Snorkelling in Vaavu Atoll, Maldives – Stripey Fish
Dressed in cozy warm, modern gore-tex, fleece and synthetic clothing, it seemed a little funny venturing into Old Fort Niagara in Youngstown, New York.
A place that epitomizes history and originally used by Native American for hunting and fishing, the site has had it’s fair share of violence over the past few hundred years! The French and British both occupied this area at times and today is nicely restored, helping to showcase what life was like during the War of 1812, the American Revolution and before.
The Log Cabin at Old Fort Niagara
Old Fort Niagara – Museum Entrance
Before visiting the actual fort, you need to pay at the Visitor Center, which also happens to have a gift shop and museum, with many old artefacts. It serves as a great introduction to what you are about to see when you head over to the fort itself.
Old Rifles at Fort Niagara Museum
Located along the Niagara River and Lake Ontario, the most impressive building here is the French Castle. Built back in the 1750s, this is the original building of the fort and was purposefully built to look like a trading post, instead of a military building, so that the Iroquois Indians wouldn’t get too suspicious.
Old Fort Niagara
Walking around the rooms inside the French Castle at Fort Niagara, you can envision soldiers mulling about, cooking, sleeping and guarding the fort. As I visited during winter, it seemed to give it an even more authentic feeling, with the desolation and quietness of the complex helping to let the history of the place sink in.
View of the “French Castle” at Old Fort Niagara
Old Fort Niagara in Winter
South Redoubt at Old Fort Niagara
Of course, my visit had to include a rifle firing demonstration too!
Apparently the fort often hosts class trips, not just for day visits but for overnight experiences as well. I thought that would have been a fun experience, to eat, sleep and live in a fort like soldiers did hundreds of years ago.
Ready, Aim, Fire! Traditional clothing and weaponry at Old Fort Niagara
Barracks inside the French Castle at Old Fort Niagara
Seeing bears in the wild is an amazing, heart-pumping experience for any outdoor or wildlife lovers. But, sometimes those encounters result in serious injuries or death, often because people are not prepared for how to properly deal with wild black bears and grizzly bears.
One thing that always annoys me when I’m talking to hikers or hanging out in parks is how dismissive experienced outdoors people are towards the dangers of black bears. I’ve heard countless people say black bears are push-overs, they’re timid, easily scared and nothing to be afraid of. This is true – usually. Most people will only ever see a black bear running away into the bush as they drive down a remote road, or perhaps see one running away after it hears them on a hiking trail.
Black Bear foraging in a Meadow
So Black Bears aren’t dangerous, right?
That “fight or flee” instinct almost always results in a black bear fleeing from you before you ever see or hear it. But people become accustomed to seeing black bears in some national, state and provincial parks across the US and Canada. Too many parks have black bear issues where bears become habituated with humans as they leave garbage and food lying around campsites. Easy food for black bears, and potential problems. These bears lose their fear of humans, and humans also become accustomed to seeing bears close by, so we lose our fear of them.
Grizzly bears still have a reputation of fearsome animals, so hikers and campers in the Rockies and western US/Canada tend to have more respect for these bears. Still, I’ve seen too many people out west with an attitude that black bears are nothing to be scared of, whee they should really treat both species with respect.
The reality of bear attacks is that black bears and grizzly bears have killed about the same number of people across Canada and the US.Black bears are much more prevalent, so the percentage of encounters that result in injuries compared to brown bears (grizzlies) is much lower, but still nothing to take for granted!
In Canada, fatal bear attacks have occurred in Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. With the two exceptions of Nunavut (polar bears only) and Yukon (grizzly bears only), all of these provinces and territories have had fatal black bear attacks.
Don’t Mess With a Momma Bear and Her Cubs
Depending where you are hiking or camping, the local authorities may have specific instructions about how to handle bear encounters. Whether it is black bears, grizzly bears, or even polar bears that are active where you’re going to be travelling, pay attention to the local rules. Some people say to throw rocks and stones and make lots of noise when encountering a black bear. Other authorities advise to simply stay quiet and slowly back away. Some people may tell you that grizzly bears can’t climb trees – but they can. When there are active bears in popular parts of most parks, the rangers will close off trails or park areas to avoid potential bear encounters. Don’t go exploring these areas, unless you’re looking for trouble.
Now that you hopefully understand that all wild bears are potentially dangerous, here are 20 tips on how to make sure you stay safe in bear country.
Grizzly Bear – Did you know they CAN climb trees?
Bear Safety Tips for Campers and Hikers
1. DO. Listen to local park rangers and authorities. If there is a “trouble” bear, or active bears, in the area, they will advise you on what to do.
2. DO NOT. Run from any bear. Seeing you run away will often trigger the natural instinct to chase potential prey.
3. DO. Travel with bear spray, especially in brown bear territory. Be sure you know how to use it. It is the most effective deterrent to bear attacks.
4. DO NOT. Climb a tree. Contrary to popular belief, grizzly bears can climb trees almost as easily as black bears. They can both climb faster than you.
5. DO. In the backcountry, cook food and clean dishes 100 metres away from where you are sleeping at night.
6. DO NOT. Go to sleep wearing the same clothes you wore to cook your meals.
7. DO. Hike in groups and make noise to ensure you do not surprise any bears along the trail.
8. DO NOT. Approach any bear cubs. If you see cubs, chances are the mother bear is nearby, which means danger! Back away.
9. DO. Stash your food in provided bearproof containers, in your vehicle, or in a “bear hang” between two trees.
10. DO NOT. Think you’re safe if you have a gun. Bears that are shot rarely die quickly, and often result in deaths or injuries to their shooters.
11. DO. Treat your toiletries like food. Toothpaste and deodorant smells good to bears, store it away from your tent.
12. DO NOT. Bring your pets into bear country. If you do, always keep dogs on leashes. Unleashed dogs can lure bears to your campsite.
13. DO. Maintain a “bare” campsite. This means storing away all dishes, camp stoves, coolers, bug spray, bottles – anything that smells.
14. DO NOT. Burn or bury your food scraps, as bears will be able to smell this food. Eat everything or safely store it away from your tent.
15. DO. Consider an extra large tent. Some bears may bite at objects touching the side of a tent to determine if it is potential food.
16. DO NOT. Cook strong smelling foods, such as bacon. Cook more dehydrated and pre-packed foods with less odour.
17. DO. Walk around your camp area before setting up. If you notice bear markings, scat, animal trails, berry patches, then camp elsewhere.
18. DO NOT. Ever bring food into your tent, not even a small snack on a rainy day.
19. DO. Advise park authorities of your hiking /canoeing route if you are going into the backcountry.
20. DO NOT. Stare directly at bears that are watching you. They may think of this as a threat. You want to convince them you are not a threat.
Overall, most tips are the same for black bears or grizzly bears. Bears that are standing up on their hind legs, or making huffing and snorting sounds are generally just trying to get a better look at you. They make do a false attack, or bluff, which sort of looks like they are bouncing up and down as they approach you. Most likely after getting closer they will realize you are not a threat, and turn and leave you alone.
If you do get attacked by a bear, most authorities agree that “playing dead” may be your best chance for survival from a grizzly bear attack. Lie on the ground, cover your head with your arms, and hope the grizzly bear is satisfied with your lack of threat and doesn’t deem you as food. Fighting with a grizzly bear often results in the grizzly getting more aggressive.
This blurry Black Bear photo is from when a bear walked into my campsite as I was setting up a tent.
For black bears, if they do attack, it is generally best to fight back with everything and anything you can, as they are more likely to get intimidated and run if you pose a challenge. As for polar bears, if you encounter one of them…good luck.
Follow the tips above and you should be safe in bear country. Learn to use bear spray, and spot signs of bear activity. If you come across bear activity on a trail, it is always safer to turn around and back track, or take a detour to avoid the bear area.
Have you encountered bears at your campsite or when you’ve been out on the hiking trail? Do you have any additional bear safety tips to share?
Visiting Ontario provincial parks during off-peak times is one of my favourite ways to get the best experiences from our natural wonders across the province.
Sandbanks Provincial Park in Ontario
In autumn, after the summer crowds have left, but parks are still open, there is a peacefulness, and quietness to our parks. You can often wander the trails in solitude and feel that you have the park to yourself.
As trees begin to change colour and lose their leaves, it makes it easier to spot creatures in the forest, or if you visit a park along migration routes, you may catch a glimpse of some migratory birds.
Canadian Geese at Sandbanks Provincial Park
I’ve been to Sandbanks Provincial Park more than once, as it’s conveniently located in Prince Edward County, just a couple of hours away from where I live. It’s also right on Lake Ontario, so it has a few beautiful beaches to explore, which makes up for the overall lack of challenging trails in the park. (There are 10km of trails, which are all still great, but relatively easy and short!)
Taking advantage of an unseasonably warm October day, we were off to Sandbanks to enjoy some sunshine and sand. The park was quiet, you could hear the rustling of the leaves in the trees, the distant honking of geese (instead of cars) and climbing the big sand dune was extra fun, as there were no other footprints in the sand. If you haven’t been to Sandbanks, well it is home to some of the best sand dunes in Ontario!
Climbing Sand Dunes at Sandbanks Provincial Park in Prince Edward County
One of the most interesting things I kept coming across, that I hadn’t slowed down to notice on a previous visit, was the perfectly circular patterns that plant were leaving in the sand.
Being blown around by the breeze off of the lake, grasses were creating miniature versions of what my imagination started calling crop circles. But in this case, they were sand circles. Just one of those wonders of nature. I’ve heard that nature doesn’t draw in straight lines or perfect circles before, but I’d have to argue against that now.
Sandbanks Provincial Park is Empty in October…
Being October, it was a little cooler along the beach, but the beauty of that was that it was deserted. Sure, I wasn’t planning to swim, but it was perfect for a run and a walk. Plus there were interesting animal tracks all along the beach, which had me wondering what creatures had explored this beach the night before, or earlier that day.
There was a large flock of geese hanging out off shore as well, seemingly getting ready to fly further south, and we also came across a huge gathering of ladybugs (ladybirds?) on the sand. There were thousands of them! Enough to make an area of the beach appear darker to the eyes, and make us curious as to what it was. It actually became a challenge not to step on any of them as we got closer and realized what it was. Strangely none of them were flying around, just walking on the sand. Perhaps because it was too windy for them!
The strange, but cool, sand circles at Sandbanks
Caterpillars, geese, ladybugs and more made for a fun autumn day at Sand Dunes Provincial Park. While the park was actually still open to camping, it seemed almost completely deserted. We saw a few other people on the beach (literally, three!) and a family arrived just as we were leaving. Definitely not the usual weekend experience at the park, but one I’d happily repeat any weekend.
Ask anyone what they should eat while visiting Buffalo and chances are they will answer “wings”. Chicken wings, I mean Buffalo wings, are famous. Restaurants and bars at home in Toronto often try to mimic, or advertise Buffalo-style wings.
So, on a recent trip to Buffalo I fully expected to indulge in the most famous food from Buffalo, but quickly found myself discovering that there are a few other local meats and treats that Buffalonians consider to be famous.
What are these other famous foods from Buffalo? Check it out below, and give them a try next time you head to New York State’s second largest city!
A charcoal broiled hot dog and loganberry drink from Ted’s in Buffalo
As the story goes, Ted came to the US in the early 1900’s and first ran a horse-drawn hot dog cart in Buffalo. He started his first actual shop in the ’20s and it’s become a locally famous tradition to hit Ted’s whenever you need a good hot dog.
Ok, so can a hot dog really be anything special? Skeptical at first, I was pleasantly surprised as soon as I rolled into the parking lot and saw the old style signage and simple decor. This is a place that doesn’t care about style, all they care about is serving up great hot dogs at their numerous locations in and around Buffalo.
Once you open the doors, the unmistakable smell of charcoal grilled meats wafts through the air and you know that if somewhere can elevate the hot dog to a higher level, this is the place. Make no mistake though, this isn’t some hipster-happy “gourmet” hot dog experiment place, this is good old-fashioned as-good-as-it gets hot dogs.
Ted’s Famous Hot Dogs in Buffalo
You can grab a regular, jumbo, foot long or a skinless hot dog. Sure, they have burgers and fries and such too, but the hot dogs are their specialty. You see your dog cooked right before you, and select from a range of a dozen different toppings. People in Toronto love their street vendor hot dogs, and Ted’s beats them hands down. It’s the same smell, and vibe as an Ontario institution for cottage-goers who hit Weber’s up in Orillia during their weekend escapes up north.
To finish off your meal here, be sure to order a Johnnie Ryan loganberry juice drink with it.
Half of a peanut stick from Paula’s Donuts in Buffalo
What the heck is a peanut stick, you ask? Well, the short answer is that it is a donut covered in peanut pieces.
That may not be super appealing, so you need to delve a little further into this locally famous Buffalo food to appreciate it more. First, it’s not a classic style of donut, but more of a cake donut.
This cake-y style of donut makes it denser, but not too heavy. If you’re the kind of person that loves combining biscuits, cookies, scones, or other types of treats with your coffee and tea drinking, then this denser type of donut will also do the trick. The donuts have a nicely crisp coating, which allows for the peanut pieces to stick, to this donut stick.
The donut is elongated, not a round donut. It’s a bit of a meal to be honest. I only ate half a peanut stick and was content. Now there are other donut shops around Buffalo that serve up similar treats. Paula’s also serves up peanut jelly donuts (it’s raspberry jelly), chocolate peanut donuts and peanut round donuts. If you’re up for it, give more than one a try! The classic peanut stick from Paula’s is what I suggest though, and it’s famous enough that the popular Buffalo coffee shop called SPoT Coffee caries them, so they’re easy to find!
Another meat treat that was made famous in Buffalo.
What makes beef on weck special, is the weck. Short for a kummelweck roll, it is a special bread created in Buffalo many years ago. The secret is that the traditional kummelweck roll has a sprinkling of kosher salt and caraway seeds atop it. This unique soft, but slightly chewy roll, with it’s salty surface creates the perfect complement to a shaved, smoked beef meat sandwich.
As with anywhere that serves up piles of meat sandwiches, quality counts, so you need to find a proper place with the right rolls and good meat. If you’re wandering around downtown Buffalo at lunch time, then head over to the Historic Ellicott Square building. It’s am impressive piece of architecture and home to a couple of “quick” lunch pots inside the central atrium, including an express Charlie the Butcher.
Don’t forget to grab some horseradish too, to complete the experience. As with Ted’s hot dogs, your experience here is something that goes back decades, reminding you how big of a blue-collar city Buffalo was, and in many ways still is today. Charlie the Butcher actually goes back for more than a century, dating back to 1914. My only small knock on the beef and weck here was that the kummelweck roll only had salt on it, no caraway seeds. For people who don’t like caraway, that could be a good thing!
As I was sitting at Resurgence Brewing in Buffalo, talking about their sponge candy stout beer, I realized I didn’t exactly know what sponge candy was.
Turns out, it is another locally famous food in Buffalo! Armed with that knowledge, it was added to the must-eat list while I was in town.
I expected something to be soft, spongy, sweet. Maybe like cotton candy? Well, I was wrong. Sponge candy is a light, airy sweet and sugary treat that is a bit crumbly. It’s most commonly served in bite-size pieces, covered in chocolate.
My first sample was a milk chocolate sponge candy at Watson’s Chocolates. Arguably the home to the best sponge candy in Buffalo. People buy it here in hoards and ship it across the US and to friends and family abroad because it’s a pretty addictive, tasty sweet treat.
After learning a bit about sponge candy, I sampled some more, this time with dark chocolate. I think I personally preferred the milk chocolate version, but both were great. if you’re an expert sponge candy eater, the proper way to (apparently) eat it is to bite off the chocolate coating first, leaving only the sponge interior to savour at the end.
The sponge candy tastes like granular brown sugar, and quickly, easily melts down in your mouth to a sticky, chewy piece of candy. Experiencing the different types of sponge candy was fun. I didn’t tell all the locals that I had tried something similar before – anyone who has tried a Coffee Crisp Crunchie chocolate bar in Canada, that is pretty much exactly what sponge candy is! I’d say the stuff at Watson’s is better quality though!
Not a surprise here. But no famous food list of Buffalo could have any other item at #1. Pretty much anywhere you end up in Buffalo there are wings nearby. Dirty dive bars, historic restaurants and new breweries all serve them up. I had some at a local sports bar, and they were tossed in a perfectly slightly sticky, semi-hot sauce.
Now, before any astute chicken wing connoisseurs complain, the above photo is NOT the chicken wings I had in Buffalo. For obvious reasons, Buffalo wings are something you need to take a picture of before you dig and and start making a mess. I forgot to take a picture of my Buffalo wings, so the picture above is of some wings I had at home in Toronto.
What are the difference? Well, classic Buffalo wings are unbreaded (unlike those seen above), and the traditional sauce is a vinegar/hot sauce/butter mix, giving them a tangy and hot kick. It’s generally a fairly liquidy sauce, as compared to thick, sticky and dense BBQ sauces or other sauce options that are prevalent everywhere today. So, next time you are at a restaurant ordering wings and they ask if you want them breaded or not breaded, know that the Buffalo wing style is unbreaded.
I’ve never had bad wings in Buffalo, even at chain restaurants. But for authenticity, visiting the ‘birthplace” of Buffalo wings is something everyone needs to experience at least once. head over to Anchor Bar for your wings and learn from the pro’s. This is where the classic Buffalo wing recipe was created and perfected.
There you go, five famous foods from Buffalo. A nice combination of sweet treats and meaty eats. Are there any other Buffalo specialities you’d add to this list of must-try foods?
I have to give a shout out to Visit Buffalo Niagara Tourism who helped me get around Buffalo and uncover some of these hidden gems of the city!
