Splish Splash, Camera's Taking a Bath

Yesterday, Louise and I rolled our kayaks down the hill to the Gorge for a paddle with Paula and Marlene....

...but they were looking like no-shows, so we launched without them and headed towards Portage Inlet.


I was loaded up with camera gear, including a camera mounted high on my rear deck shooting interval shots. I set it to take a picture every ten seconds, and come back home with a few hundred dull pictures and a few interesting ones.


We saw some cormorants drying their wings in a tree.


We also watched this swan chasing geese away from his nesting mate. He's not actually doing any chasing in this shot, but this is what he looked like when he was, head lowered like a battering ram.

These geese were nesting just a few metres away from the swans. For some reason the swan left this couple alone.


We entered Craigflower Creek. We were facing an ebbing tide, but I was hoping to get up to the tunnel at the end of the creek, thinking that I might get some interesting shots with the deck cam. But it all depended on the water level. Too low, and we would not get around the fallen tree.

And that was the case. If the water level is high enough, you can sneak around this tree on the right. But no luck today.
So I began paddling backwards and the deck cam hit some branches...

...and off it came.

I heard a splash, looked down, and saw my home-made camera mount and my camera slowly sinking into the muddy waters. Before they disappeared out of sight, I reached down and grabbed it...

...and as I fished it out of the water it took my picture. I'm not sure why the mount failed, but I suspect it was loose and then got caught in a branch and torqued.

The Pentax Optio W60 -- take's a licking and keeps on clicking (although it would be nice if the batteries lasted longer).

We headed back and found that Paula and Marlene had indeed shown up and had their own paddling adventure.


Trip length: 10.13 km
YTD: 39.84
More pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.