Thursday 15 February 2018

Way out West... An extended Valentines Day

The usual journey up to the winter mountains of Scotland at this time of year has been somewhat shaken up! After packing away my ice axes and winter gear, we left the Welsh mountains under fresh snowfall with a completely different bag of gear in the boot.



A fun night at Fort Martin broke up the journey to the airport and by mid-afternoon on Valentines Day I waved goodbye to Scotland as we passed by from overhead!



Travelling back through time on board a Virgin Atlantic flight, we crossed Iceland and then Greenland.



Even in Economy Class, Sir Richard had made sure we had plenty of room! The flight was only about one third full, so we all had a row of seats each to stretch out on!



Baffin Island and the Hudson Bay was utterly beautiful in its desolate snow cover. Not a single trace of a human for as far as we could see.



In the bay, the sea was frozen and you could see the dark cracks in it’s surface. An incredible view.



It was hard to sleep, with such an exciting and inspirational vista laid out before us. It made me feel very small. 



Gradually, as we crossed North America, the mountains grew in size, but even after hours of flying across them, there was still barely a sign of civilisation. 



Finally, we reached the east coast of America with the fjords and inlets around Seattle laid out like a map. 



We’d been on the plane for nine hours, but when we stepped off and adjusted our watches, less than two hours had passed since we’d taken off. Very confusing. We had Valentines afternoon all over again! Bonus!



A train from the airport and a walk through the  city got us down the waters edge.



Here, the final part of our journey ended with a beautiful ferry ride for one hour around the sound to Bremerton, where Amber was waiting for us. The sunlight illuminated the houses on the waters edge and big seals lay bathing on the marker bouys we passed. 



We stayed up chatting until 10pm to try and stave off any jet lag, then crashed out into a coma like sleep. We’d arrived! Happy Valentines Day.

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