Jasper, Canada

17th of June 2011.

I’m back on the road again and it feels good! It’s been an amazing month in Holland with the presentation of my first adventure book ‘Streets of the World in Asia’ and the opening of my first exposition with a selection of 20 street photos from the Asian phase of the project. Loads of media attention which of course is great. The project’s really starting to pick up speed. Holland’s doing great, now it’s time for the rest of the world!

But it was a very hectic period so it’s very good to be travelling again. I chose to start in the north of this smashing continent. Starting in giant Canada I will travel all the way down to Peru/ Brasil to where I’ve gotten so far from the south. That will take me till the end of this year. But first: Canada

This country has always fascinated me very much. As a kid I would look up at the worldmap in the classroom and wonder amazed about what it would be like in that massive country. I’m here now!
And it might sound strange but I feel it’s time for a holiday. Or call it an intermezzo from this crazy ‘Streets’ life.
Luckily an old friend of mine from the Bangkok days has moved back to Canada. Kim.

She lives, teaches and paints in Jasper, a small town in the midlle of Alberta situated in  beautiful Jasper National Park. Although she's quite busy with school she finds time to pick me up at the airport in Calgary and drive me up to Jasper on the magnificent Jasper Parkway.
Within a couple of hours into the drive we see a lot of cars by the side of the road. There’s police too. What could be happening? As we stop we see everybody looking through their binoculars and taking photos. Not even that far away we see two Grizzly bears! Even in Canada that’s a pretty rare sighting. Kim has lived here her whole life and has only seen a Grizzly once. And here we are looking at two who apparently will mate soon. A very good start!

A litlle further down the road again cars have stopped. This time, much closer, there’s a black bear hanging around. I’m talking 5 metres away. Kind of scary to get outof the car, but I stay close to it. It still is a potentially dangerous animal, right? This is when the guy next to me starts to whistle for the bear’s attention. As if it were a dog! The bear of course couldn’t care less. I start filming the whistling guy instead of the bear becuase I seriously can’t believe what he’s doing!
We drive on and follow this fantastic parkway all the way up to Jasper. The views are absolutely stunning. We stop at a huge glacier where with signsposts you can see how fast it’s receded. A very alarming rate. It makes me wonder who these people are that don’t really believe global warming is real. It’s like in your face.