The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Wednesday, October 2, 2013

The Balanced Rocks of Remic Rapids

This is kind of cool, and exactly the type of thing we love to see when we're exploring an area.

Our hometown is Ottawa, the capital city of Canada. Because we grew up here, and we know the city very well, we wanted to find some things to do that we've never seen or done before.

Just before noon yesterday, we drove down to Ottawa. My mom is living in a seniors residence in the west end of the city and she had invited us for lunch. We were also dropping off our son Alex back at his downtown apartment, plus we were meeting with Jantine at Ottawa Tourism so that she could give us some ideas of what's new in the city of Ottawa.

Had a nice visit with my Mom and fixed a few of her computer issues while we were there. We both remarked afterwards that she's doing really well and hasn't changed a bit since we last saw each other almost a year ago. Keep it up Mom!

Said goodbye to our son, knowing that we'll be seeing him again a few more times before we leave here, then made our way right into the downtown core. Lots of construction going on...Ottawa is obviously a growing city.

We spent some time with Jantine at the Ottawa Tourism office, and we're going to be showing you some really interesting things over the next two weeks. Ottawa is a beautiful city, and the area has a lot to offer.

As we were leaving the offices (on the 18th floor of a downtown building), and waiting for the elevator, we noticed the listing of other offices on that floor.

One of them was the Embassy of the High Commission of Lesotho. Have you heard of the country of Lesotho?? Well if you're a regular reader of this blog, you are going to know a lot about Lesotho, because we are going there!!

The tiny Kingdom of Lesotho.

Lesotho is a small country surrounded entirely by another country, South Africa.

We knocked on the door!

We had planned on seeing Lesotho anyhow, but after speaking to the people at their embassy, we now want to spend even more time there. Not just a visit, but an experience. The mountainous country looks to be exactly what we love in terms of hiking and scenery. One of the ladies in the embassy said she would even meet us there and show us around if we were going next month, but unfortunately we won't be there until January or February. I'm sure we'll meet a lot of other friendly people while we're there.

Heading out of downtown at rush hour, we drove west along the Sir John A. MacDonald Parkway. Formerly known as the Ottawa River Parkway. Why do they have to change these things? I like the old name better! Anyhow, it's a scenic drive along the Ottawa River, heading west.

Jantine had suggested we see some balanced rock sculptures, so we pulled off at that location.


In 1986, John Felice Ceprano began creating balanced natural rock sculptures at this site. The sculptures are made entirely by hand, using rocks found exclusively at this location. The rocks are heavily fossilized and have a rich variety of colors, textures, and forms that are unique to the region. Every year, the sculptor returns to work and the project continues until the beginning of winter, when the forces of nature cause the sculptures to collapse.




Canada's Parliament Buildings in the city of Ottawa in the background.

You can find these sculptures at GPS coordinates 45.410532 -75.74211.




18 comments:

  1. Now that's some really interesting artwork! Good thing the artist doesn't get frustrated by Nature taking down his work. ;c)

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    1. The artist must have lots of patience to do this!

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  2. Oh my - that is awesome - love the rock art!

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  3. I love to come upon, or find out about, these type of things. Great photographs too. In the San Francisco Bay - on the Oakland side, there's an area where people have waded out and built sculptures out of flotsam that washes up at low tide. Some are really spectacular. Sadly, in my pre-adventure life, I never took the time to stop and photograph them. Darn.

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    1. We were on a hike the Czech Republic where we saw lots of Inukshuks (not sure what they would call them there but it is a similar thing) just built by hikers and children passing by. They probably stayed there a long time as there were LOTS of them!

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  4. Lesotho - never even knew it was in Africa. Seeing the world through your blog is so exciting. Love the rocks. It must be kind of like building sand sculptures - knowing they are there for only a short time before returning to their natural state. Wonderful.

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    1. We love to be able to show our readers what other amazing places are out there.

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  5. I can see thru your photos how Ottawa has changed since I was last there. Love what I am seeing. Why change the street names? I guess John A Macdonald needed yet another honor. Love the sculptures. What patience that artist must have and time.

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    1. We notice a changes in Ottawa every time we go back for a visit. It really is a beautiful city to visit.

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  6. Cool rocks.
    I too have trouble with arbitrary name changes. The plaza down the street here will always be "Skyway Plaza", even though it's supposed to be something else. I suppose though that I have switched over to calling Peking, Beijing. All though, is it now "Beijing Duck" instead of "Peking Duck"? It's confusing.

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  7. Great idea to go to your hometown tourism office. Those sculptures remind me of the environmental art of Andy Goldsworthy. I think they are just beautiful. Thanks so much for showing them to us. Never heard of Lesotho but how much serendipity is it that you ran into their Embassy. I think there is some magic following you two around.

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    1. We thought it was an omen that we should go and visit this country while we are in Namibia and South Africa. By looking at pictures, I don't think we will be disappointed with our decision.

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  8. Has been a while since I visited the blogging world so out of touch! What fabulous rock sculptures! An exciting adventure awaits you early next year! You always share such wonderful photos!

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    1. No problems Paul, I haven't been able to read many blogs lately either so I know what you mean. Thanks for taking time to have a look at what we are up to.

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  9. rocks sculptures are great. What language do the speak in Lesotho? English as they do in s outh Africa? St Louis is a queen when it comes to changing the names of roadways. At our old house they changed the name of the road and it was the exit to get to us, longest time we forgot this and told them wrong name.....of course they couldnt find that exit. You can be on a major road and it will change names as you go along ,somestimes 5 or 6 times.

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    1. The two official languages are Sesotho and English.

      Yep, we have seen roads that change names as you drive down them too, again it can be very confusing.

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