My life is aqua-centric. I am drawn to water like a bug to light.
I recently returned from six months on Koh Phayam, an idyllic island on tropical Thailand's Andaman Coast. Countless hours in the ocean paddling a sea kayak, surfing a waveski and swimming never failed to bring a smile to my face. The ocean creeps into your system and becomes a drug. Like an addict, I need my water fix. Without the ocean or a lake or a river, I am incomplete.
When I left Koh Phayam, my first stop was Hong Kong Island. You are never far from the ocean and often find yourself riding a ferry between islands. Even the ferry to Discovery Bay on Lanta Island imparts a sense of the sea as the craft rolls past Chinese junks and sampans, private yachts, a fleet of other ferries and the inevitable morass of super tankers.
Returning to Ottawa, one of my first stops was Downie Island, in Canada's famous Thousand Islands. What a fantastic setting to call an office. The cruise ships pass regularly and pleasure craft of all shapes and sizes move about. Geese, loons, osprey and a host of other birds create a background symphony.
For the May long weekend, I visited Black Island (aka Kenny Island). The island is private and serene. The call of the loon floats eerily across the dawn as a deer slips silently to the water's edge for a drink. It is quite close to Ottawa yet seemingly so far from everything that you are transported to another world.
In the in-betweens, I have spent some glorious nights on Lac St. Antoine, watching the sun go down behind the Gatineau Hills as the colors shift and dance on the surface of the water.
In keeping with the water theme, my location for June will be Kennedy Lake. Although it is not an island, it is so remote that it may well be. Another superb office. I will watch and listen to "Maurice", the resident loon, admire the beaver and muskrat swimming below the surface of the crystal clear water, and give thanks for my good fortune.
As long as there is water, my soul is at peace.
