The Color of Water

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Oops - Sorry. That was The Color of Money. Whether you prefer older handsome guys, or younger handsome guys - they were all in that movie!

Anyway, my intention was to write about the color of water. "What color," you might ask - "Water has no color, right?"

Right. But, one of the beauties of traveling to places where the water is almost ice-cold is that you get to see the water almost absorbing the colors around them, reflecting them as if they were its own. Take a look at the dance of water and sun, on a cool day over the Antarctic Peninsula:

For some reason, the water is even more colorful than the sky above it - You get the whole palette just like a watchful painter was using his watercolors skilfully. And even when the sun is about to set, the water keeps its color games with it!

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Speaking of Antarctica, you probably expect to see some snow and ice in the picture, right? Well, even with them, the water has to say a lot about color.

In the meanwhile, on the other side of the globe, summer looks very different. Glacial streams storm down the valleys, carrying what's called "glacial dust" - the powder created by the sheer weight of the ice on top of the bedrock up on the mountains.

In the valleys, the glacial streams meet their pure and innocent relatives - spring water streams. The result is yet another dance of contrasts in the color of water.

A closer look reveals the amount of glacial dust in that stream, when it's meeting the pure water one:

No wonder there are no fish in those streams! (In this case, in Denali National Park in Alaska) There used to be special Dust Fish but even they all died of asthma.

Hahaha.

Sometimes, the water goes an extra step and rather than improvising on the colors above it, it just copies them. In the Arctic ocean, there's a thin layer of fresh water (from melted icebergs) on top of the salty seawater. On colder days, when the temperature drops to near freezing, the freshwater freezes faster and makes a huge ice blanket on the ocean. On warmer days, the different density between fresh and salt water makes for a perfect mirror effect:

So perfect, that sometimes you could get vertigo and be completely disoriented between the sky and the ground without flying a plane - Just by paddling in a kayak... But I guess if you were upside down, paddling in a kayak in the Arctic Ocean, you'd know that because you'd freeze in the water.

Other times, it seems the water just decides how to color itself. Sure, it's all about physics. Even physicists have very thoughtful sayings like "the color of the pond depends on its depth" - But that takes all the romance from the photo below (taken in Alaska) - Don't you think? Same pond, only several feet apart, and with no Photoshop...

 

To read more about the wonders of colors in the water, read my post Mountains In The Sky - With Diamonds

A Tent with A View

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Each year, thousands, maybe even millions(!) of men are asked to pack up and go ("you can sleep in a tent").

NO! What were you thinking? That my blog has turned into some middle age, bitter dude's place of expression? I meant go camping, of-course! Spring is just around the corner and camping season is gathering heat, so to speak.

And as every camper knows, you don't have to go to the end of the world (up or down) to find beautiful views; but then again, you should! Because nothing beats the following view, for example, right from your tent, in Alaska:

Or even at the Bowron Lakes Canoe Circle in BC, Canada, where you can wake up next to the canoe and never wonder how you got there!

Camping gets interesting when you go further north to the high Arctic, where the midnight sun is present for several months each year. Not only can you take a great picture like the following one, shot exactly at midnight:

But you can also watch the beautiful Arctic Ocean, with ice floats and icebergs on it. Unless you time your trip to just a couple of years from now, when there will probably be no ice around places like Ellesmere Island in the heat of the summer...

But until then, camping up in the Arctic can also give you a sense of how large these icebergs are when you see the whole of them, not just the tiny part above the water. I love the following picture, because it felt like camping in a parking lot of giant buses, feeling small and fragile...

But who said you need a tent to camp? How about a big Back-To-Nature? in Antarctica, on a mild summer night when the temperature hits 30F/0C, and the snow is light, there's nothing like camping under the starry(?) skies. All I needed to do was dig a little foxhole, perhaps even build a low igloo-like wall, and there you go!

Yes - This is me digging. And yes - There are two sleeping bags there. Now stop speculating!

Lastly, if push comes to shove, and there are no tents, no ice, not even bare ground under you, that's still not a problem. There's always the giant canoe waterbed. I guess it's better used for an afternoon nap, but hey - That's important too, no?

Read my post Alaska Summer Vacation for Ordinary People to see other interesting things to do when the outdoors calls you.

Who Don't Care 'bout The Polar Bear?

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It helps to have thick skin. (No, you have not been redirected to one of my self-help sites where I collect Google Ads dollars! You're still at arcticfever.com)

As you may have read in previous posts, summers in the Arctic are no longer fun for the Polar bear. Sometimes, before they can say "Jack Robinson", (or "Jack Daniel's" if you believe the stories about drinking habits in the far north) a Polar bear waking up from winter on Svalbard Island cannot see any sea ice, because it has melted and retreated so far, and so fast, that it's hundreds of miles away.

This means no ice floats to hunt for seal, and that means a long summer without food. Well, you'd say, pity for all living animals on the island! The Polar bear is at the top of its own food chain, a well trained killing machine, and so any sea mammal on the island is doomed!

Not as far as the Walrus is concerned. The Walrus, which weighs up to a ton, can dive down to 800 feet to scrap clams of the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, and has two very sharp tasks, also has very thick skin. 

As the sea ice melts, Walruses come on shore by the hundreds, mighty yet lazy. Easy prey? Not really. Their skin is so thick, and their demeanor so violent, that they're not really threatened. Following are photos of a Polar bear trapped on Svalbard for the summer, very hungry. It walked along the shore looking for food, and look who it saw! (Pics were shot from my kayak)

   

The smell of fresh meat might drive him crazy, so he decides to check it out:

Are you afraid of Polar Bears? Not the Walrus! See how they don't even bother to look up. They know the bear will not hurt them because they can hurt it. Right now, he's looking for a young or sick one, which they may have among them.

The Walrus couldn't be bothered. After all, if you looked like this, would you?

And the bear? It doesn't know whether it should be frustrated or just not waste energy. It's hungry, almost starving, but knows a fight with a bunch of healthy Walruses will not fix that.

So it just walks past them. Look at the Walruses - I would be Offended by not being looked at like they're treating the Polar bear! So what's left? The bear, frustrated, tired, hungry, and lonely, despite being one of the most efficient predators on the face of the earth, has one option left:

Will it survive the summer? An increasing number of Polar bears starve to death as they're trapped on Arctic islands, the summer ice floating hundreds of miles away. Global Warming, man-made or not, is taking its toll.

And finally, another piece of self-help advice: if you see a Walrus like in the following photo, make sure you stay stable on your kayak no matter what.

To read more about the Walrus, see my post The Beauty And The Beast

ARcTic Art?

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Traveling in the Arctic or Antarctica, whether by foot, canoe, or kayak, has given me a lot of inspiration. It is true that most of the times the inspiration is how to design a really good fireplace! However, sometimes, between the natural beauty, the wildlife, and the remoteness of the place, you (I, that is) get the inspiration to be artistic. 

A couple of years ago, a friend pushed me to try and send my pictures to some photo competitions. That just added to the pressure by my daughter who had pressed me to do an exhibition. (Probably viewing herself at the opening, with a martini glass in her hand although she's underage!)

I was tempted, I admit, and sent in a few photos. And guess what? I won some awards!!!!!!!! So this post is dedicated to some of the more artsy photos I have taken over the years, which were recognized in some leading photography competitions.... (brag brag brag)

The photo at the top was taken in Antarctica, a reminder of a whale whose memory will be there, in the ice, forever. You can note the penguin in the background, reminding us that life goes on even in the frozen continent.

And speaking of penguins, here is one of my favorite photos. I took that one instinctively and only days later, looking at it, wondered whether that was a lovers' whisper or an angry word said:

   

The following picture was taken "a bit" more to the south, in Yellowstone Nat'l Park. There was a huge cloud of steam coming out, and all of a sudden this bison emerged, just like a ghost!

But enough with animals! Nature itself can help provide some very artsy photo-ops. Look at this iceberg, shot straight from my kayak. Don't you think it looks just like a large 20th century plastic piece of modern art? (Don't forget to click to enlarge and get the full impression!) This photo actually got me a nice award.

But icebergs can also be wild and convey a feeling of the perfect storm, as well:

And then again, they can be calm and beautiful. All you need is to paddle real close in your kayak and look at the details!

I do take photos of people, too, on occasion. The following one was taken on a lake in the lower sub-Arctic, at a moment of Zen, literally, with complete quietness and no wind at all:

And finally, this photo is of a valley in Denali Nat'l Park, Alaska, showing the cloudy glacial water, carrying rock particles, merging with the clear spring water of the melting snow. Nice colors, I think!

See some black and white pictures I've taken in my post Arctic Black and White, with A Story

I've Got Your Back, Ma'am!

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This is me. Smiling while using a water pump. Typical male. Not too attractive unless you flipped your kayak in the Arctic ocean. Need to go there to find love.

Trust me. I know. I've seen many women turn their backs at me. Like when I try to initiate a conversation. I hate seeing those backs.

Except on a kayak. There, seeing people's backs means differently: I am in control. I am steering the boat. The recipe is simple: Go on many Arctic and Antarctic kayaking expeditions. Become a pretty good kayaker. Have the guide pull you aside and whisper: "would you mind sharing a kayak with that person? It's their first time in these conditions."

So this post is dedicated to all the backs of women I watched while kayaking the frozen waters of the Arctic and Antarctica. It'll allow you, the readers, to see how it looks from the back seat, and then what you miss by not seating in first row - I've coupled those views together.

During my first Antarctic trip, I saw this back for many hours. Ally was actually a good kayaker and we always sought out the narrowest paths among the icebergs. In such cases, it actually looks scarier when you're in the back seat, and you tend to say "let me know where to turn! Let me know when to turn!" Especially when it snows (on you and on the seals) while you paddle:

But, then again, this is what Ally saw by being in the front seat:

Sometimes, though, it's better to step outside the boat to look at your companion's back. I took this picture in Bowron Lake Park in British Columbia, where I decided that some perspective to this woman canoeing was not only necessary, but beautiful as well:

A bit later, back in the canoe, it was clear why one prefers to have a perspective on these lakes!

The following is a very special female companion. That's my daughter, honing her kayaking skills when she was only 12. Well, "kayaking" is a bit of a strong term. Those of you who have sharp eyes can see the bubbles at the front of the advancing kayak, yet she was not paddling! Someone actually paddled AND shot this photo at the same time! Who could that be?

Thank you. Thank you. But it was still worth the view. When you see this - Why would you want to paddle and not just watch in awe?

These guys, in the Water of British Columbia's Inner Passage, jump pretty high, don't you think?

Admittedly, though, sometimes the real position to be at is in front of a lovely woman, especially as soon as she feels the solid earth underneath her feet again. Want a proof? Here -

Let me watch your back.

Hey, what was Carolyne thinking here? That she could get away from me by jumping off the boat? And even if so, why was she so smiling? And why on earth did she have her camera wrapped around her hand?

(She didn't get away. We got her back into the kayak. And then she flipped it, making me pump the water out. Now you're making the connection?!)

We can't end this post without one more lovely photo of a back, energetically paddling the waters round the Antarctic Peninsula, and of the view that brings up this energy. Here they come:

View my post Arctic Black and White with a Story to see some additional photos.

Kayaking Deja Vu - Best of My Arctic and Antarctic Kayaking Posts

The kayaking season on the Arctic ocean has ended a couple of months ago, and the Antarctic ocean is about to open up to kayakers very soon. I've been getting a good number of emails from readers asking me for recommendations about kayaking trips, the experience of kayaking, and kayaking photography. It seems that since I've been writing this blog for some time now, many great and relevant posts have been buried! And as I get new readers almost every week, I thought I'd direct you - or, for my repeat readers, remind you - to my most favorite kayaking posts. Click on any link to open that post, and on any photo to enlarge it!

If you're interested in kayaking, you may want to start with my post Kayaking The Arctic and Antarctica - 9 Tips 

Think it's crazy and risky? Unlike walking, kayaking on thin ice is rather safe, and you get to see amazing views like this one:

And of course, the benefits of kayaking among icebergs is that you can no only take pictures of them, but literally absorb them! A very popular post I wrote about this is Frozen Creatures of the Arctic and it has some very nice pictures I took while kayaking.

That's it for today - Just a filler to remind of old gems!