Beachliness Review 6: Lake Erie, Ontario, Canada

Readers will be pleased to know that the LiS Beachliness scale transcends seasons and types of bodies of water! Hence, here is the review of the beach at Sandytown, Lake Erie.

The first measure is sandliness, which I have to give full points, given the quantity, expanse, and lack of garbage. I do note, however, that this beach can suffer from erosion at spots, and there are a few sticks to deal with. This is nature, so DIY, or keep walking.

Boatiness. Nope. Would be a bit alarming in the winter, even before the lake has frozen over, but boatiness is low here even in warmer weather, except for some watersports. The only floaters are birds. The Canada Goose is a surprisingly vicious animal, and here is how big its footprints are:

Prettiness? Fabulously expansive, with trees, grasses, waves, the great lake shores are still not known as the world's most beautiful beach, I think. So half points here, I think.

Desertedness. We saw no other humans, and the footprints above are deer. Even in the summer, you can walk for kms in mainly solitude. This doesn't even compare to our other beach desertedness scores, so we'll give a bonus here.

Wildlife. Yup, we have big birds like fish eagles, geese, turkey vultures, deer, chubby squirrels, and you can pick yourself a seasonal greenery bouquet! This area is a bird migration hotspot, but photographing that is an art, so here are my big bird blobs:

Note: Canadians largely consider squirrels as vermin rather than wildlife, but their fluffy tails are cute, albeit hiding here.

As for activities on the beach, this is limited to walking and birdwatching in winter, but summer months there is a campground and more. I will deem this half points.

Finally, as for cocktails, well you can bring beers, or ask my parents. None available beachside.

Lake Erie Beachliness Review

Sandiness: 1

Boatiness: 0

Prettiness: 0.5

Desertedness: 1.5

Wildlife: 1

Availability of activities: 0.5

Availability of cocktails: 0

Total: 4.5/7

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Korea, where the Alpacas are

Hello from the land of Alpacas!

Alpaca world is a couple of hours drive from Seoul, and Barry liked it this much!

Some of the Alpacas were outrageously beautiful, even in the rain. But not so clean, what with being outdoor animals and all.

Naturally, I worked on the Alpaca selfie.

They were keen, this one even smiled for the camera with me!

Going to see Alpacas, and driving back into the big city gave us some hungers. We went to the local grocery store.

There were healthy options, including arrowroot and onion juices in convenient pouches.

And a bewildering assortment of dried fish!

Korean hotdogs are highly recommended. This one came with corn, sweet potato, and BBQ sauce.

I have an unnatural love of cabbage, so I'm very compatible with Korean food.

It was delicious, and it was all circular.

We tried to learn things from the Korean markets.

The best lesson was about men and cats.

And then we met a self-righteous bag.

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Inside-out snail heads, grapes, and modern oystering

Great news, I found out that when snails want to be left alone, they turn their face inside out, antennae first. A skill we've been trying to learn: my friend advises starting by getting your nose into your mouth.

Speaking of enclosed face places, here is how you collected oysters in the olden days.

You do this in the étang, which is vast inland marshy basin filled with great things like flamingos, demonstrating our amazing photography skills.

So let's look at the cool skies, and imagine the under-oysters instead.

Speaking of photography, we learnt about cave drawings, well what little there is to know.

The washrooms in France are limited and terrifying. This one, covered in stank, doesn't turn on the light until you lock the door in the pitch-black room, then opens and showers itself automatically after 15 minutes.

Best to plan well in the Boulevard of Thirst.

We went to Rocamadour, and I tried to not make sound effects while Barry was driving as he "does not like that".

We compromised that I was allowed to squeal lightly and singsongishly.

We saw the making of Rocamadour cheese, which you throw whole into lunch salads. Have I mentioned my love of cheese?

And it was just past graping season. They throw the skins back into the fields (for fertilizer, I suppose). Seemed like a good fibre supplement to balance out all the cheese, but I resisted.

They also had Dough house, Cream and Tip of the day, so some great food options.

Finally, I can't resist taking pictures of old, short French doors, so we'll close on that:

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Prickly Crayfish and Pears; Greenish and Pinkish water

We visited my parents in France, and Barry took the perhaps the best picture ever of the 3 of us. Too bad I didn't wear more fashions.

I also took some great ones.

This is the view from their rooftop terrace, to help you remember where you are.

They took us to a nearby ghost town, knowing our love us such things.

They were surprised at our fascination with the locally invasive crayfish.

Why so angry, crayfish?

There are many pretty old things, like this walled town.

Even older dinosaur footprints!

Local greenish water near the old moulin.Local pinkish water, where I learnt that fleur de sel is actually made from the crust of the sea. Fun fact: rather than to flavour food, it was traditionally used as a purgative!

You can hike up to some castle ruins. I was tempted to dig around for artifacts, but informed that we didn't have enough time.

Barry failed at his goal to feed the local donkey, because that was not allowed.

And I was curious about the abundant local prickly pear.

Too curious, in fact.

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