At the entrance to Victoria's Inner Harbour stands a wee inukshuk. I like to imagine that he controls the float planes that buzz in and out of the harbour.
It's not a real inukshuk though. Real inukshuks are made of stones balanced upon one another. When you zoom right in on this fella, you can see that he's made of driftwood that's been fastened together somehow. But that's ok by me; I like him. But what I like most of all is that he's wearing a snazzy wee backpack!
Victoria BC, being a coastal city, has a harbour. It's a fantastic harbour; very lively. You can just sit on a bench and watch various kinds of pleasure boats, fishing boats, a huge ferry to the US, the 'clipper' to Seattle, kayakers, row boats, dragon boats, cruise ships, little water taxies, the Coast Guard, various boat building companies, whale watching boats and various seals and water fowl all somehow share the space. It's can look quite chaotic at times!
Add to the mix the harbour is also an airport, or more precisely it's an water aerodrome (sounds cool, eh?), with a few seaplane companies offering flights to various other harbours, mostly to Vancouver or to the smaller Gulf Islands, as well as sight-seeing tours. It's a very busy and very loud airport. I can hear the seaplanes from my flat. It's a great sound and I love it.
Here's a clip I found on Youtube (it's not mine) taken from a seaplane about to land in the harbour.
At about the 30 seconds mark the plane flies right over a section of town quite close to the ground and a weird angle. It freaks the crap out of unsuspecting tourists. :-) And here are a couple of photos from that perspective:
And some more photos as I get down right near the harbour:
In all my years living in this city, I've never taken a flight in a seaplane. I will be soon though. Maybe they'll let me fly the sucker... ahhhh, that would be cool... I can see it now....
Thank you for flying with Ms Toast Burner Air... please remain seated until we come to a complete stop... ;-)
See more skies - Skywatch Friday
