We travelled to Quadra Island yesterday for a little exploring. This is the first time we have been in the Discovery Islands. We travelled through the interior of Quadra by road which is mostly wooded. What I really wanted was to have the beauty of the forest on one side and the spectacle of the seascape on the other side. The advantage is that this would give me a continuously unfolding panorama where I am able to fix the points of the mountains or the points of land in the ocean as well as the shapes and shade of the trees into a clear sense of place. In spite of this, or because of this tree tunnel travel, I saw the mountainous archipelago from different view points and then knit the places in between together in my memory and in my imagination. This gave me an internal map of sorts. Then I checked an actual map and compared what I believed I saw with the technically correct version. It is amazing how the map came to life when I did this. The printed map took on inspiring dimensions. I now look at the map and I am intoxicated with possibilities for water travel in the straights, inlets, narrows and passages.
I wonder if the printed map would have had the same effect if I hadn't had the snapshot perspectives of the ocean through the tree tunnels?
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