Greetings! My name is Daniel, and I have resided in Kitchener for the last 6 years. I am an uncle to a 7 year old boy and his 5 year old sister. I travel as often as I can, recently having discovered the Lake Erie coast, and often to the North Bay region, 4 hours north of Toronto, where I finished high school and went to Canadore College. I have been able to retain many friends from that area right up to this day, and I usually end up cramming many visits into a small time span. When I am not visiting friends or family, I can usually be found outside. Hiking, biking, fishing, canoe tripping...I always have my cameras with me. One is a throwback-film!- Canon Sureshot that has survived many canoe trips, thousands of kilometres on my bicycle, a month long trip to Bolivia, and a drop onto the cobblestone patio at Casa Loma, and it still takes terrific shots! My digital camera is a Canon Powershot SX 120 with ten times optical zoom, and it too is an excellent camera.
I have always enjoyed the outdoors world. As a kid I remember wishing that we could move to Sudbury, where a pal of mine grew up. Instead, my three siblings and I were raised in Guelph, which is actually a pretty good place to grow up. The Eramosa River was only 3 or 4 blocks away, and that joins the Speed River near downtown. The Speed, in turn, flows into the Grand River in nearby Cambridge. We spent many summer days wading in the Speed, catching gorgeous rainbow darters and tiny sunfish in our nets, or playing baseball at York Road Park, or swimming at the now-defunct Lion's Pool. We also spent many summer weeks at my paternal grandparents' cottage out of Mactier, and other weeks tobagganing the hills at my maternal grandparents' farm near Chatsworth.
I have had the opportunity to do many unique and interesting things. Sometimes, these adventures turn out to be crazy. Like the time I waded across a small stream in the mountains of Bolivia to sit on the very edge of a 70 metre tall cliff! Sometimes my adventures, when I look back on them, are ill-advised...Other times, most of the time, in fact, I see an interesting bird, or a huge buck, or a near perfect sunset. Rarely, there is an experience that transcends my world, where I become even more aware of the spiritual side of Creation, such as the clear, crisp night a month ago when I found a little-used country road far from city lights to experiment photographing the full moon and a pair of trumpeter swans flew through the night, invisible but very audible-hence the name-singing that they had returned from their over-wintering grounds in Central America. I have had mis-adventures, great adventures, and dangerous adventures, but through all of them I have had a great time, regardless of the weather-I am breathing fresh air, so why let bad weather get in the way of a good time? (It helps to have water-proof and winter-proof gear.)
I intend to share many of my adventures in this blog, with a little wisdom hard-earned, and on occasion I will add photographs. Other topics will appear here and there, such as how I have become a bird-watcher, and how and why I have become an avid outdoor photographer. I have little to no wisdom to share, just, maybe, some good tales and a little common sense.
Now, I am off to explore a little piece of the Niagara Escarpment on this gorgeous April morning!
See ya,
Uncle Travelling Dan
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