Today in a bold revolutionary counter cultural move, Leo and I took a shortcut. Well to be fair Leo has been taking me on shortcuts the past few days while I have been staying with her and Peter. We would be walking around the town where she lives and she would say, "We'll just take a shortcut through here." It is always hard to know whether the short cut really is the quickest route when you are not familiar with the surroundings. However, todays shortcut was par excellence as it involved a river.
When we visited the same river yesterday I had wondered out loud how long it would take me to swim it. It is probably about two kilometres wide. Leo commented the river looked deceptively calm and there was probably a strong current lurking beneath its millpond appearance. There was no doubt the vegetation that was floating by was going at a fast trot.
So we trained to the big railway station made famous by a film about a boy who gets separated from his family. Then instead of joining the seething masses looking for a taxi we bought a ticket for the ferry. The railway station is on one side of the river and the city where we were going is on the other side. There is a rather large and spectacular suspension bridge that connects the two. Once one finds a taxi then one has to contend with honking hoards of vehicles trying to cross the bridge. Today however, we bypassed the cacophony and enjoyed the river breeze and a leisurely cruise. The river shortcut was certainly a far easier quieter option if you are brave enough to climb on the ferry that looks like it could be well past its use by date.
While on the ferry I practised taking selfies and tried to include the river in the photo. I am not particularly good at taking selfies because I rarely pose for myself. Anyway I am sure my antics, as always, were a source of entertainment for my fellow passengers. I was relieved to see there was an orange life saving device above my head but not sure how useful it would have been if the ferry had hit an ice berg. If I look a little flushed in the photo it is because I had just lugged my back pack for about ten minutes and it was about 35 degrees.
When we visited the same river yesterday I had wondered out loud how long it would take me to swim it. It is probably about two kilometres wide. Leo commented the river looked deceptively calm and there was probably a strong current lurking beneath its millpond appearance. There was no doubt the vegetation that was floating by was going at a fast trot.
So we trained to the big railway station made famous by a film about a boy who gets separated from his family. Then instead of joining the seething masses looking for a taxi we bought a ticket for the ferry. The railway station is on one side of the river and the city where we were going is on the other side. There is a rather large and spectacular suspension bridge that connects the two. Once one finds a taxi then one has to contend with honking hoards of vehicles trying to cross the bridge. Today however, we bypassed the cacophony and enjoyed the river breeze and a leisurely cruise. The river shortcut was certainly a far easier quieter option if you are brave enough to climb on the ferry that looks like it could be well past its use by date.
While on the ferry I practised taking selfies and tried to include the river in the photo. I am not particularly good at taking selfies because I rarely pose for myself. Anyway I am sure my antics, as always, were a source of entertainment for my fellow passengers. I was relieved to see there was an orange life saving device above my head but not sure how useful it would have been if the ferry had hit an ice berg. If I look a little flushed in the photo it is because I had just lugged my back pack for about ten minutes and it was about 35 degrees.
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