Three Amazing Experiences.

So far three things from this trip will stick in my mind for ever. 

Two of them involving just about the largest and smallest animals we're likely to come across in this part of the world. 

I was leaning over a jetty turning off a tap and I heard a buzzing like a very loud bee or a wasp in my right ear. Instinctively I went to flick my right hand out to swipe it away but as I looked up there was an Anna's hummingbird hovering completely motionless looking straight at me an arms length away. 

Not my picture by the way!

Its wings beating so fast that like a helicopter's rotor blades they were almost invisible, it hung there for just a few seconds then it flew away at such speed it might as well have just disappeared into thin air. 

We've become familiar with the buzzing now and often hear it but they fly at such a speed that by the time you're aware of the sound they've gone, you'll never see them. 

The other animal? Well. A whale. Diving. A boat length in front of us. Its huge tail gracefully arching out of the water and then disappearing silently with hardly a ripple.

The third I still can't believe happened. 

Anyone who has done any repetitive physical activity such as walking, cycling or kayaking for any length of time will know how sometime the time flies but other times seconds seem like hours and the hands of your watch seem glued in position. 

You plug away knowing that even though your paddle feels as though it is made of lead, the sea of treacle and you're paddling up a 45deg slope that from a relaxed grip on the paddle through to feeling every stroke alternately on your footrest you are actually moving along quite nicely. Quite as well usually as when it feels like you are flying. 

I've had the same on long bike rides, the feeling that your tyres are made of lead and the road is made of treacle is so strong that I've actually stopped and spun the wheels certain that the brakes are rubbing so badly they're slowing the bike to a crawl. But, no it's all in your mind, usually the mind of a tired and hungry body. 

Sometimes it's the other extreme; one's thoughts are taken far away by the constant and repetitive mantra of the paddle or pedal stroke and time flies, 15, 20mins or more goes by in the blink of an eye.

We were well up the West Coast of Baranof Island, the confused seas near Cape Ommaney were behind us. It was after lunch when with a full stomach and well and truly warmed up by the morning's paddling I am usually feeling my best. 

I looked at my watch. An hour and a half had gone past in the blink of eye. Nothing - interesting sea birds, a discussion about navigation, a comment about the coastline or the sea conditions. Nothing at all had broken me out of my meditative reverie for an hour and a half, I couldn't believe it. I looked at my watch again, surely I'd misread the hour hand but no, a whole 90 minutes had slipped by as though I had been asleep. I'd sub consciously steered the kayak in the direction we wanted to go, kept paddling and the boat upright with absolutely no recollection of my thoughts or daydreams over that time.