Over the Atlantic ,Arctic ,and Pacific Oceans .!!

We took off from Frankfurt in the afternoon at about 3.30 pm and after a flight of more than 10 hrs reached Vancouver at about 6 pm .!!After travelling for nearly 24 hrs starting on the 28^th in India ,I was in Canada on the 27^th evening .Such is the difference in longitudes between India and Canada .!!

We flew over the Norwegian Sea and then over the North Atlantic Ocean .It is so overwhelming to see so much of water .We kept on flying and we could not spot a piece of land .!!I was  thinking all the time that in schools we teach children about the scarcity of drinking water .!!And here was so much water that it occupied nearly 2/3 rds of the earth .We did not fly over America to get to Vancouver .We flew north ,over Greenland ,Iceland ,Victoria Islands ,Queen Elizabeth Islands ,Baffin Islands and the Arctic Ocean .There was nothing else one could see except white.Greenland is a huge mass of snow .There was  snow all over  .More Snow .The Arctic Ocean a sheet of ice which has a average thickness of 6 to 7 feet !!Punctured in between by small appeareances of water .And dotted by snow mountains .I could never imagine anyone ever staying there .But yet there were people who had gone there and conquered it .Edward Peary had done so in 1909.And the great Edmund Hillary and Neil Armstrong had been there (Infact Edmund Hillary had also been to the Antartica and Mount Everest ,thus making him the only human being to have been to the North Pole ,the South Pole ,and the Everest .What a man !!).

The foreboding ice of the Arctic Region.!!

  Canada is also close to the North Pole ,which is the northern most point of the earth .Unlike the South Pole which is situated on a mass of land ,the North Pole is situated in the centre of the Arctic Ocean (90 degrees North) . The North Pole is significantly warmer than the South Pole because it lies at sea level in the middle of the Arctic Ocean (albeit mostly frozen), where as the South Pole is significantly elevated on the frozen continent of Antarctic. In the summer months at the pole the sun is permanently above the horizon; during winter the sun never rises.I clicked many photographs ,though we were a fair distance away from it .

Our flight detoured south towards Canada and as we ate up miles after miles ,we started to see the green patches of the earth .Suddenly ,we saw trees and settlements .Ahoy –we were back on track .!!

Canada is a beautiful country –and it is reflected even from a height of 30,000 ft .Lovely colors of trees ,and beautiful small rivulets and mountains .Large lakes .We were lucky that we descended over it in bright sunlight.

The descent into Vancouver Airport .

We were served our final meal ,just about a hour before we were to land (the monitor on the screen keeps showing time left to destination,kms left to destination ,and the places over which one is flying .And of course the landscape on the monitor .So one is aware all the time as to where one is and how far one is from his destination).I hurriedly had my pasta ,and fruit salad and settled down to capture some shots as we descended over the Vancouver Airport .The Airport juts into  a large mass of water ,and is surrounded by mountains .We cut into it from the side of the Pacific Ocean ,and after hovering around and over the water for a couple of minutes ,we touched down .We were finally at the destination we had set out for .We were in Canada.!!I had researched it a lot ,read about it a lot ,seen a lot of videos of it ,and seen a number of images of it .But I could never imagine it would be so beautiful .As we stepped out of the lovely airport (it has a aquarium of jelly fish as we leave it !!),and out into the street ,I could feel why Kusum had insisted that I carry a lot of woolens with me .The air was divinely fresh –but it was also very cold .I picked up a hot cup of coffee just outside the airport ,and prepared to take a 5 star ferry that would take me to the Provincial Capital –Victoria .It would take me 2 hours more to reach the hotel where I was going to stay .But the ferry was out of the world .It was like a 5 star hotel on the move .I have been on ferries before –including in Scotland ,Hong Kong , Singapore,and Turkey –but nothing compared to theone I was on .

More of that on my next blog .