Up, Up and Away: Our day in a Float Plane

Having found a reasonable internet connection I can now recount to you the wonder that was our float plane tour with Simpson Airways complete with pictures.

As I have mentioned before the float plane dock was right outside where we were staying at the Mackenzie Rest Inn. So, after being fed an almighty breakfast of cereal, eggs, bacon and toast we wandered down to the dock about half nine.

Our transport for the day

The pilot and another employee were getting the plane ready for takeoff, refueling etc. He introduced himself as Dave and I'm not quite sure what happened but somehow we ended up booking ourselves on a longer eight hour tour that took us not just to Virginia Falls but then on to a place called Glacier Lake.

Anyway, we all piled in to the plane which looked quite small from outside. I was worried about how we would all fit in such a small aircraft but, like Mary Poppins' carpet bag, it was deceptively roomy.

As we taxied downstream I was surprised how solid a surface the water felt underneath us. Suddenly, Dave remembered a parcel of food that had to be dropped off at a cabin in the mountains. Deciding to take a slight detour and give us an extra treat he returned to pick it up. Now we had the added bonus of a trip to Rabbit Kettle Lake to look forward to.

At last we took off, the plane gracefully lifting off the smooth path of the river, and I was able to look back down the river a good fifteen miles or so and see what we had paddled just three days before. It was vast but a plane is much quicker than two heavily laden canoes and in a matter of seconds we had turned and left it behind. I felt a tinge of frustration: that had taken us the best part of a day to travel.

We carried on inland away from the river heading for the world famous Nahanni National Park where the Virginia Waterfall is situated. To get there we had to fly through a gap in the Nahanni Range. Dave pointed it out to us: a blueish jagged line far on the horizon. It was about a half hour journey to them so we sat back, relaxed and enjoyed the view.

From the plane we got the best view of the surrounding landscape. The land always takes on a different character when seen from the air. It seems at once vast and small. You can see it stretching out in every direction but the trees and the lakes are so small and dainty. The ground is mostly flat and covered in vegetation. Sometimes it was covered in small shrubs that stuck up, bristling, sometimes the ground was soft with marsh, it looked smooth like felt. It reminded me of the moose hair tufting traditional crafts we had seen at the open sky festival: the stark contrast between rough and smooth.

The rough and the smooth

The Pilot dipped the plane wings to the right and his voice crackled over our headsets:
"There's a nice rainbow over there for you"
And indeed there was. A beautiful rainbow with clear colours arched from beneath the white clouds beside us to touch the textured ground.
We carried on flying over land that was much the same as before. A repeating pattern as on printed fabrics. I followed the shadow of our aircraft as it skimmed playfully over silver lakes, murky lakes, little lakes. The long, straight scars of old seismic survey lines ran through everything disturbing the perfect disorder that nature had arranged itself into.
But then, at last, after so long without so much as a tiny hill to break the landscape....mountains. Huge, great, big grandfather mountains. They crouched solidly with their blankets of trees pulled up to their chins. Their deeply carved faces watched placidly as we flew past. Once we passed over the Nahanni Range we carried on further into mountain country. The mountains were ribboned with streams and dried up river beds. One river bed was so thick with pale, soft silt that it reminded me of the inside of a milky way.

Grandfather mountains and the milky-way river

We carried on flying past mountains up through a system of three canyons that led to the Virginia Falls. We passed over hotsprings where the water was a milky, mint green, sweeping bends in the Nahanni River where the water rushed up against the sheer sides, white and foamy, and flat muddy stretches where the ribbon of river was slashed and shredded into different channels. The mountains varied too. Sometimes they were completely covered in tall, spiked trees but thinly so that they looked not so blanket like but more like the quivering quills of a porcupine. Sometimes the mountains were bare of trees but alive with the vibrant colour of yellow moss and the reddish tinge of the rock (or perhaps that was my tinted sunglasses).

And then Dave's voice came over the headsets again, in crackling bursts, to prepare us for our first glimpse of Virginia Falls: once one of the seven wonders of the world. Cameras ready we waited eagerly as he tipped the plane to allow us a better look. I was on the wrong side to take a good photo so put down my camera and simply looked. From my seat, three thousand feet up, I could see the spray from the crashing water as if it were as solid as the mountains that surrounded it. The falls were a heart-stopping drop into a canyon of white oblivion. I doubt there could be a scarier funfair ride in all the world than if you went over the edge of that. Having said that, the fun of the fun fair is being able to say you did it. You wouldn't be alive to say you went over the edge of Virginia Falls: it is twice as high as Niagra Falls.

This picture best shows the scale of the Falls

The falls disappeared from sight as we turned and began our descent to the visitor centre where we would take a walk of about a kilometer to the falls to experience the thunderous beauty as close as possible. We landed calmly on the Nahanni River and taxied down the thick and lazy waters to the float plane dock.
There, we were met by Pam who was to be our guide on our walk to the falls. We paid the entrance fee to the park which was virtually nothing when you consider that it goes towards the upkeep of an area the size of Scotland that is filled to bursting with plants and animals and geological specimins that are deemed to be some of the most unique in the world. They have an extensive walk-way around the Virginia Falls observation centre that has purpose built camping areas spawning off it. There is a food platform in the trees to keep food away from bears, outhouses and a communal campfire area all built from wood. It was like a little community nestled in the heart of the forest. The campers who stay there are mostly paddlers who are doing the Nahanni River and have to portage round the falls but, because the park is co-managed between the Government and the Dene Indians, there are also weeks where traditional skills are passed on to the younger generations of first nations children, much like the rights of passage camp at Fort Providence.
As we walked Pam kept up a rich narrative of our surroundings, pointing out plants like Labrador Tea and the Mackenzie Orchid. Showing us what Bears like to eat, what Moose like to eat and so on.

The Mackenzie Orchid

Labrador tea - used by the Dene for medicinal purposes and for drinking

 

She told us about the Dene attachment to the area. They used to spend the winter in the mountains, hunting and trapping in small family groups. When spring came they travelled down the Nahanni River into the Liard River and then onto the Mackenzie River - Deh Cho. Of course when the Europeans came to "discover" this huge landscape, being of much greater intelligence than the savage Dene they decided to travel UPstream against the current instead of downstream as the Dene did. Brave? Yes. An amazing feat of exploration? Yes. But clever? No not really.

Such was the harmony of the first nations people with the land that if, for whatever reason, they had to cross the river on their journey they stopped and constructed a boat out of the nearest tree and a moose hide. When they had crossed the river they simply abandoned the boat and it disintegrated (or as they say "went back to the land"). It is a testimony to them and their nature-friendly way of life that there are virtually no archeological artefacts to document their traditions because it all went back to the land. Every bone tool, birch bark pot and moose skin canoe.

We were getting close to the falls now and I was learning so much I had almost forgotten that that was why we were there. We were next to the rapids that precede the falls. The water tosses and boils, shifts and churns it's way forward. The white mist begins here. Pam told us that the Dene believe that the spirits of those who have gone over the falls live in the mist to protect those who stray too close to the rapids. I looked at the refracted light, the mini rainbows in the soft gauze of fine water droplets, heard the whispering rush of the river rapids over rocks and I could understand where this belief came from.

The rapids before the falls. See the spirits on the right hand side?

I'll leave you to digest this episode whilst I write up the rest of our float plane adventure in part 2 and then write up our short journey from Tulita to Norman Wells. Hope all is well with everyone. Been doing some maths - which isn't my strong point but I'm pretty sure I'm right - and it appears that we are exactly half way through our trip in terms of time. It's gone quite quickly don't you think? About six weeks since we left home and six weeks until we get home. We've done 513 statute miles so far and we have 340 to go. A managable distance all things considered.
Lots of love,
Hannah