At the Ottawa Rowing Club

We know a young man (Dean Pucsek) who is training for the 2016 Paralympics, hoping to compete in the rowing team for the visually impaired. To be classed as a blind rower and eligible for the team, you must have

10% of vision in best eye with best correction (from visual acuity above 2/60 up to visual acuity of 6/60 and/or a visual field of more than 5% and less than 20%)

He gets up before sunrise every summer morning and cycles rather dangerously in the semi darkness to the Ottawa Rowing Club facilities at 10 Lady Grey Drive, on the river below Sussex Drive, to practise.

The Club has been in the news. In yesterday's Ottawa Citizen it was mentioned twice:

Two sections of the Ottawa Rowing Club’s new dock designed to make the sport more accessible to athletes with disabilities are missing and presumed stolen [on May 17th].

Four rowers were rescued from the Ottawa River Friday morning after their boat capsized. Paramedics, firefighters and police were called to the river near the Ottawa Rowing Club ...

Tomorrow, Sunday, June 9th, the Club will also be supporting volunteers who come to help clean up the shore line, as advertised by the Ottawa Riverkeepers:

Celebrate Canadian Rivers Day on the shores of the Ottawa River. Ottawa Riverkeeper is proud to welcome the Ottawa Rowing Club as new Riverwatchers! These keen and fit rowers have organized an exciting cleanup of the Ottawa River shoreline in downtown Ottawa. All participants are invited back to the beautiful Ottawa Rowing Club for a BBQ.

Come dressed to get wet and dirty! For your safety and comfort, we recommend that you wear a long-sleeved shirt and pants, canvas gloves, and rainboots.

Meet at the Bytown Museum, at 10 am.

Another heron

It's been a cloudy day followed by a grey evening, which deepens the shades of green along the river. After sitting on the seat in the park by the reinstalled, floating boat launch dock, and watching the fluff from the poplar trees drift by, we walked along the bank a little way and passed very close to where a heron was patiently waiting for fish. We'd previously seen the bird land on the branch of a riverside tree, flying low across the water and gliding into the tree very gracefully. It stood very still as we came close, perhaps feeling that if it didn't move, we wouldn't notice it. There was a mother duck, further along, with five ducklings. I'm afraid one of the ducklings might become the heron's supper, one of these days. Long and thin though the heron's neck is, it can easily swallow a duckling whole.

Moment of peace and quiet

After breakfast at Ralph & Sons' Diner on Carling Avenue I had the best part of an hour to kill, so drove to the nearby riverside park by the Nepean Sailing Club marina in Dick Bell Park, where I sat on a bench in the shade (it was already very hot), gazing upstream into the misty distance. What a pleasant way to start the day!

An exclusive enclave of homes is adjacent to the park, known as Rocky Point. I drove slowly down Rocky Point Road to explore it. A real estate advertisement for a house for sale says:

Welcome to this prestigious Crystal Bay/Rocky Point location surrounded by million dollar waterfront properties...

But there doesn't appear to be any public access to the water from there.

Mist rising, with herons

We went for a walk to the Rideau Falls after heavy rainshowers, this evening, and saw mist rising from the Quebec side of the Ottawa River, near the bank. It looked mysteriously beautiful, although something should be done a.s.a.p. about the dilapidated and defaced concrete walls around and below the falls.

Seagulls and ducks were swooping overhead as usual and another bird glided onto the cliffs, that wasn't the right shape for a seagull. I think I have now identified it as a Black Crowned Night Heron (as pictured here, courtesy of the Wikipedia). In fact there was a pair of them.

 We also saw the more familiar kind of herons (the Great Blue) flying over the bridge and perching on the embankments. Ducklings and goslings on Green Island were being taken good care of by their parents.

Sunset at the end of the Rideau

A couple of evenings ago the change of light in the sky summoned us out of the house for a walk to the Rideau Falls, to see the sunset, and I took my camera with me. (My husband took the last of the photos below.) The fisherman commented on the number of goslings; they and their solicitous parents are often in the park as well, eating the grass, distracting walkers and making a terrible mess on the trails, but most of us like to see them. Ducks, seagulls and bats are everywhere too. The bats are feasting on the moths and mosquitos.

"On the water at last!"

Au Feel de l'Eau posted a status update on Facebook, I see. It says:

Photo from tourismeoutouais.com

Enfin sur l'eau, sur notre belle rivière des Outaouais, en route pour les quai du casinos. 17 mai 2013

Au Feel de L'Eau is Ottawa's and Gatineau's water taxi company that not only offers a short ferry ride across the Ottawa River from the Rideau Canal locks to the Museum of Civilisation, but also private cruises on the Ottawa and Gatineau Rivers for parties of up to 10 people. They advertise the boat as being "electric powered" and therefore causing "zero pollution" and no noise either. I intend to sail on this boat this summer. She's called "Bes" after the Egyptian God of pleasure.

Tributaries of the Ottawa River

These pictures were taken on April 28th, 2013 during a flight up the Ottawa River from Rockcliffe to Arnprior and back, when all the rivers were full of melt water. They are still full, nearly a month later.

Bridge over the Mississipi, near Arnprior

The mouth of the Madawaska at Arnprior

A dam on the Gatineau River at Chelsea