the final ferry finally

-there was a fire aboard the atlantic vision last night as the ship pulled out of north sydney the ship returned to port. it seems that the fire was in the boiler room as it was when the ship did its test run in january. no one was injured.

figures.

i hear this at the top of the hour news as i am leaving the fair isle motel - a great little motel in waycocomagh. the owner could have got by cynically with the view but actually worried about the inside of the rooms. mine had microwave, toaster, refrigerator, tea kettle and coffee maker, but what made it was that instead of standard motel fixtures, she went to restoration hardware.

i am officially starting the day in mabou mines - 20 klicks north - for despite what some misplaced israelis say, former swiss photographers photographers with jewish sounding names aren’t to blame for the wandering instinct of the breed - photographers not misplaced israelis or former swiss photographers.

greater wanders being.
st brenden
louis and clark
timothy o’sullivan
fernão magalhães
and of course that tour group leader moses who wandered the sinai without a gps.

last time here in similar situations made a quick diversion to see if i could find the place later realised that i was on the wrong side. this time headed to the mines, and worked back hoping to recognise something from the photographs - we know they don’t lie.

one can see why the area was chosen, open to the sea, a lot of land around the few houses that i saw, nestled in a valley.

passed a house with a ratty-ish machine in the front with new york plates. could it be? before i could react, i pass another with new york plates in front.

good enough. make a panoramic then head on my way.

think about perspective as i stop at the gasbar, across the street there is a photo gallery which can only lead to the thought of bobby frank opening one up along main street also.

mabou is quite the intellectual oasis along the ceilidh trail, a bistro, many galleries and shops. seems nice but...

and this wander has been about the buts. would i move here, i would be a sensible place to live - the area is beautiful, driving from waycocomagh i realised all that i missed by hanging to the coast and if i had chosen to go more inland, i would have found more of what i was looking for.

the lady pumping the gasoline - and cleaning the windows - wasn’t any more encouraging than the owner of the motel.

sure you can do the cabot in three hours but you are going to want to stop. when’s your ferry? she at least gave me a short cut.

i wasn’t planning to stopping, already i was becoming nervous fearing that i would miss the ferry, i was constantly calculating the time left versus my speed. i reckoned i would get to north sydney at 4pm for the 6:30 sailing.

and stuck pretty much to my word. stopping once at the tim’s, i plut my blinders on and made time. i admit it was difficult as this was road side attraction land. a shop with scare crows out, another advertising itself with manekins dressed along the highway. was wondering if it would be possible to come back this way.

i was looking for a photograph that i saw last night after dark but was so preoccupied with getting to the ferry that i passed it.

the highlands were what i needed. they are beautiful, the mountains, the valleys, driving is great with the curves the steep rises and descents but with me looking for human traces, there was nothing to make me stop. unlike everyone else that stopped at every lookout possible.

the highlands were what i didn’t need as people drove incredibly slowly, ontarians the worse. along the 401 they are at a leisurely 160 clicks, here they can barely make 20. am constantly recalculating. becoming more antsy as there are more of them.

now i am too far along to turn back i must keep going and hope. i keep thinking destinations are further along than they are. but in the end i am through the park and find that i am closer than i think.

the cbc is constantly talking about the ferry and the back ups along the road into north sydney, i cannot stop to phone so press on hoping to be indignant at the booth.

but i did stop again, reckoning that it was only 30 minutes to the ferry and only 2PM, i was ok. stopped at look out for the graffitti mixed the scene. once again became the official photographer for people who wanted everyone in the picture.

it was the easiest i had had getting into the wait area for marine atlantic. wondered what all the fuss was about. was third in the queue. gave my reservation number said i knew that the atlantic vision wasn’t sailing so when would i get out. midnight.
was third in the queue. parked the machine. worried about the film in the boot as it was the hottest day so far and there was no shade. sheltered them from the heat with the shiny aluminium shade that i had and went for a walk around north sydney.

some chips at cisco’s fries, another smoothie from the irving’s next door, wandered the neighbourhood where buddy mistaking me for his friend ray yells out - jesus you’re getting to be as dark as a n.....
-that’s because i am...

he apologised when he realised that i wasn’t ray, invited me up for a beer - budweiser - could see that his girlfriend was quite embarrassed.

-no thanks, i said, you only rent beer.

she got it. he didn’t.

checked the heat of the boot. then headed into the terminal to catch up on the entries.

the queue to get in now was three miles long outside the terminal, lorries were now parked all over town awaiting a time to be able to get in. two truckers in the the bar had been waiting now for 48 hours.

there were discussions that people on the rock didn’t realise how their lives depended on the ferry service and how they were being let down. fresh produce comes in via the ferry and it was passing its sell by date on the docks. sobey’s and the likes pay an express charge so that we can have our kiwis but that is tacked on to the prices in their shops. the truckers were comparing prices in cape breton where no ferry is needed to the rock. they seemed to think that if the people of newfoundland and labrador knew how much their trade was dependent on the ferries - from new cars to crap for walmart - they would press marine atlantic for more reliable ferry service.

worked in the bar as there was a table as long as i could, they turned on the air and froze me out. but others seeing me working quickly made use of the wifi and updated their face book pages.

wandered back into town at night for some food as the ferry really isn’t vegetarian friendly, then made some snaps of north sydney at night.

worried more on if and how i would get to sleep on the caribou as there is usually a rush for the seats and i had no sleeper.

the ferry was supposedly on a load and go service. it arrived at 23:30 loaded at 0:30 and finally left at 3:00. found a seat and didn’t move.