Gelada Photos

You Don't See That Every Day

The other day I spotted some traffic cones around a small hole in the sidewalk. Banff is full of creative and unconventional people, and you see the strangest stuff sometimes, but this was definitely one of the more baffling things. When I got closer there seemed to be a piece of paper in the hole...

 It's a bit hard to see but this was the best picture I could get. Yes, the hole in the sidewalk contained a note: "Hi, I borrowed this brick to complete my house". The whole thing just raises so many questions, like Why?!? It had to take a bit of work to pry it the brick out, and what can you do with just one brick?

 

Then I saw this rare two-headed elk in the river, just two minutes from my house.













Here it is from another angle. Turns out it also has two bodies, very disappointing. You can see Mt Rundle in the background. It's one of Banff's well known mountains and I really want to climb it this summer.

The Great Alberta Flood

Nobody was expecting a flood. It started raining on Wednesday, life went on, and then by Thursday morning we woke up to news of flood warnings, evacuations, roads closed and bridges destroyed. Banff is not as badly affected as some places. The park is flooded and you can't get out of town to the east, and a few buildings near the river are uninhabitable. We still have power and water and everything is open. The news from Canmore and Calgary sounds a lot worse though. Lots of people have had to evacuate and there are houses falling into the river in Canmore. Canmore was cut off completely for a while, but some buses and trucks were getting through yesterday. There were several helicopters circling over Banff, checking out the situation and looking for anyone who needed rescuing.








I'm not really affected by the flooding since I wasn't planning to leave town anytime soon, but it's always a weird feeling when there's a disaster around you. People naturally want to help but there isn't anything to help with at the moment, so all we can do is stand around in the park and gawk at the water.

I don't know why they bother with all the caution tape. If people are too dumb to notice eight inches of water on the path, I don't think a sign is going to to help them.




















This park bench would be a good place to sit for lunch- some other day!

Madagascar Memories

Sadly, I am not in some exotic location right now,
but I wanted to post some more of my photos, so here are a few more of my happy memories.


Lemur on a taxi brousse! This is one of the lemurs on the ride home to KAFS to be fitted with a new radio collar. He spent most of the journey inside a big fabric bag to minimize stress, but I took the picture when they opened the bag quickly to check on him.

A small fraction of the bounty of lychees. Lychees were in season when I left Madagascar and you could get a shopping bag full for about a dollar. They are kind of addictive so when you eat one it's easy to just keep on eating them, like chips.

 This is one of my little gecko friends. There were always a few little green day geckos chasing each other on my tent or stalking insects in the thatch roof. This one is about as long as my hand and he caught a big insect, I think it might have been a dragonfly.

Run away, it's the evil duck! Some of the ducks in Kianjavato were the usual mallards and white domestic ducks, but there was also this black kind with weird red swellings on the face. This particular duck belonged to a family who kept a little store next door to KAFS. The volunteers would go to the store for cake (mmm, mango cake with chocolate icing!) and sandwiches, and this enormous duck was always there hissing at us and snaking its neck. It looked kind of demonic so I called it the evil duck.

 I have fond memories of drinking at Hotely on a Sunday afternoon. Sunday is market day in Kianjavato and everybody goes into town wearing their best clothes, going to see and be seen as much as to shop. Hotely is right in the middle of town and their porch has a great view combined with shelter from the sun or rain, and of course the cold beer. Looking at this picture I can almost hear the rain on the sheet metal roof, taste the Namaki coffee rum and Three Horses Beer, and smell the gutter you have to cross on a little plank bridge between the porch and the street. The street is usually packed solid with people on market day but this day everyone who could was waiting out the worst of the rain under whatever shelter they could find, so there were only a few people and the hotely dog out on the street. Also in the picture is the famous red car, maybe the only car for miles around. You could tell the guys driving it thought they were pretty cool, with Celine Dion blasting from the stereo.