Monday 21 June 2010

Bmore redux: tubing the gunpowder

I was back in Bmore this week for a quick visit.  On the way over I saw George from Masterchef and a bejillion socceroos supporters in the airport.

I recovered from the jetlag with a lazy float down the gunpowder river, something I've wanted to do since we rode part of the north central rail trail back in 2008!  A friend and I hired a tube in Monkton ($15) and got a ride in the shuttle ($5) to give us about 2.5 hours of floating.


The scenery is pretty amazing - it is very jungle-like and with the mist on the water in places it felt like we were floating into Jurassic Park.   The only sounds we heard were birds and the occasional cyclist riding past on the rail trail that follows the river.  The flow is fast enough that you make good progress, but slow enough that there is no whitewater.  The water is super cold, apparently it is piped from the bottom of a dam upstream, which keeps your beer comfortably chilly.

I had a great time catching up with friends and had some good meals: revisited Fogo de Chao, and went to Henningers and Ryleigh's Oyster Bar for the first time.  I also sampled some of my favourite things about the US: bagels, magic hat number 9 beer, Chipotle, and cheap outdoors gear.

Wednesday 9 June 2010

Gap Adventures: Special trip to Hoth, Tatooine and more!

I just saw this, and it pretty much made my day:



Em and I were planning a trip to South America, but I hear the Ewok harvest festival on Endor is amazing...

Wednesday 2 June 2010