Until my wife got pregnant, I didn’t know what a baby moon was or that this even existed. But it sounded like a good excuse to get in the outdoors one last – more – time before the baby comes. It was also a perfect occasion to finally get a taste of the Broughton Archipelago https://www.google.ca/maps/@50.6390647,-126.6117081,10z?hl=en in the Johnstone Strait between Vancouver Island and the BC mainland.
Through the morning fog, a short motor boat ride lead us – and our kayaks – to a sand beach in the middle of the archipelago. Goodbye; the fading sound of the engine left room to a sea of silence – I love silence. Just the two of us, the sun, the ocean and the shore for a whole week! What an amazing prospect!
The cool thing about sea kayaking is all the comfort that comes with it. Compared to, say, hiking, one can bring so much more stuff! It’s quite amazing when you’re used to small backpacks and “light and fast” kind of expeditions. Sea kayaking has everything Canadian adventure can offer… with comfort on top of it. So we brought as much food and booze – for me – as we could, a huge pregnancy pillow – for her, solar panels, 2 cameras and so many other things we would never have considered on a normal hiking trip. But that was the whole purpose of the baby moon: have some good time, relax, eat, fish, explore a little bit and sleep -a lot. We also brought two Solite headlamps we received from our friends at Light and Motion and, speaking of comfort, that too was quite a change compared to our usual headlamps. Durable, light, waterproof and sooooo bright! All you need on a kayak trip. We didn’t kayak at night but I bet the Solite would be the perfect tool for that. This trip was also a life test for all the gear that I was going to be bringing to my film shoot in Alaska 2 weeks later.
There aren’t many places where one can spend good but comfortable adventure time in pristine wilderness so close to civilization. But the Broughton archipelago is one of them. For a whole week, we shared our time between wildlife watching, exploring, fishing and camping. I can’t think of any sea creature we were hoping to see that we didn’t see. Seals, deers, sea lions, fishes and crabs by the ton, bald eagles, humpback whales and orcas… so many orcas!
I am not sure this trip prepared us for parenthood but it did do one thing, it made us want to live the same adventures with our unborn child. We are so looking forward to show her – it’s a girl! – all these fascinating places.
For this first post, a “what’s in my photo bag” thing will do the job. It’s a simplified version but the essential is there. 4 speedlights and 2 400 w/s battery powered flash heads + a bunch of really cool dive lights graciously lent by the folks at Light & Motion for the underwater lighting:
Francois-Xavier De Ruydts -> Blog 