These boots are made for walkin'

            Meet the Keens, Left and Right.  We first got together in August 2018 when I was looking for travelling companions that would fit well with my way of doing things, not get freaked out by a bit or rain snow or puddles, and not require a lot of maintenance. Once we had agreed that we would work together I brought them home and shortly thereafter we were off to Ottawa from where we were supposed to catch a flight to Resolute to board the Ocean Endeavour. Turns out they don’t call it ‘adventure travel’ for nothing. No ships had been able to get in to Resolute because of the ice conditions.  The Ocean Endeavour turned around mid-crossing and headed back for Greenland. Instead of flying to Resolute we spent an extra day in Ottawa until a flight to Greenland could be chartered. What can you do but go with the adventure? The Keens and I tramped around Ottawa where it was very hot. The Keens didn’t complain; I, on the other hand, grumbled under my breath. 

            Eventually after a few hours delay at the airport due to thunder storms, we boarded a Sunwing charter and headed for Greenland. I bet that’s the only time Sunwing has landed in Kangerlussaq.  Once on the ground we hopped into Zodiacs and headed for the ship. We had a life boat drill and then got a couple of hours of sleep before lunch and the start of the onboard programming. The Keens were glad to be off duty and, comfortable as I was with them, I was glad to be on my own for a few hours.

            In the next few days the Keens and I walked around Sisimiut taking photos and we admired the heart-shaped mountain at Ummanaq. We made our way out to the Ilulissat fjord where ice bergs calve off the Ilulissat glacier and make their way out to the Northern Atlantic. It was a grey day with rain and mist and the boardwalks leading out to the viewpoint were fairly slick, but we made it out and back all right. We crossed Baffin Bay on the Ocean Endeavour and landed at Pond Inlet on Baffin Island where we walked dusty roads, stepped in a few puddles, and took our chances of some slippery grass. At Dundas Harbour there was a green area at the foot of the mountain behind the old RCMP buildings. We headed down, all ready to take some photos of the buildings with the background of icebergs. What looked like solid ground turned out to be two inches of water. The Keens were surprised, as was I but they waded bravely in and crossed the distance to the cabins without complaint. Did I mention that the Keens wore Goretex under garments?

            In Auyuittuq National Park we roamed land that few  Southern Canadians have had the opportunity to visit. At Maxwell Harbour the Keens stood patiently while I watched and photographed snow geese. In the zodiac off Prince Leopold Island they muttered about getting a little chilly while I watched the hundreds of sea birds that nest there.  We ended our trip at Pond Inlet when the plans changed again because of ice.

            The Keens were agreeable to hanging around for another year or so and they got lots of exposure to Calgary’s ice and snow.  The Keens travelled to Vernon in the Okanagan and then through the Rogers Pass and across on a ferry to Bowen Island. They spent a week in the East Kananaskis and hiked up the Nahahi Creek Trail farther than I had ever been before.

 

In the fall of 2019, they set off again with me to the Faroe Islands and Iceland. We got rained on in Reykjavik. We stood for a long time on Mykines Island in a puffin colony watching the birds land, take off and waddle towards their burrows only to disappear into them. We travelled to Grimsey where we crossed the Arctic Circle. The Keens gamely came with me on an oak whale-watching vessel. Before boarding we had to struggle into survival suits. I’m not sure which was more difficult getting into the suits or getting out of them. They waited for me while I explored the many possibilities of the sound sculpture, a series of tuned concrete domes, in Seydidfjorder. In Heimay we walked around the town that was half buried in volcanic ash during an eruption in the 1970’s. A museum stands over one of the houses that had been partly filled with ash and the artifacts of daily living have been left in the house as they were.  In Keflavik the Keens and I walked the pathway along the shore where the giant sculptures made from stones stand looking out on the harbour.

            The Keens next adventure was in New Zealand and Australia. They walked in the rain in Auckland and visited the sky tower. We hiked on Rangatoto Island and got our first view of the tui, a bird unlike any other I’ve ever seen. On this trip the Keens and I visited the glow worm caves at Rotarua, saw geysers shrouded in steam at the Waimango geo-thermal area. In the Christchurch area we walked quietly through a kiwi hatchery and later, experienced a simulated blizzard in the International Antarctic Centre. We rode the steam ship the TSS Ernshaw to the Walter Peak sheep station where we had a huge buffet lunch and watched a demonstration of sheep shearing and saw the dogs herding the sheep. We visited the Weta Workshop in Wellington and saw many of the props for Lord of the Rings.

            In Australia we scuffed in the white sand of Bondi Beach, sat at dusk on Phillip Island and watched as the penguins rafted up off-shore, and then paraded inland to their borrows and their waiting chicks. The Keens got a dusting of red from the soil in Alice Springs and tried to be unobtrusive at performances of Come From Away in Melbourne and The Marriage of Figaro at the Sydney Opera House. In Sydney they took many trains and walked many miles.

            In Canada they have been with me most of the winter and I see that they have developed holes in their outer layer and the heels are worn down. While we have been good travel mates, it’s time to let them go and to move into new footwear and new adventures. It’s strange how thinking of my boots and the terrain over which they have taken me makes the places I’ve travelled in the last two years even more amazing. I hope my next set of shoes will serve me as well. Even though the new shoes are sturdy and comfortable, I’m a little sad to see the Keens go. After all, we have travelled half-way around the world together.