Well I said I would update you on my holiday with Benn. It has been such a fun-packed awesome week I decided to take stock midway to tell you about it.
We picked up an RV just north of Toronto city, we had booked a 2 man camper but they didn’t have any in stock so we ended up in this 8 sleeper beast. Yep that is 10m by 3m of house on wheels, and I have been driving it round the countryside of Ontario, mega proud, only hit one low hanging branch so far (and apparently a cone, but I didn’t see it, so it doesn’t count).
We had our first night just north of Barrie and then onto our first Provincial Park – Killbear. Hella nicer than the name suggests it was our first endeavour to bear country. It was also the beginning of crazy lake country which unfortunately even the best photos don’t show the vast yumminess of, but I’ll obs pop some in. Canada did not lie about the whole ‘country with the most lakes in the world’ thing, it has been awesome to drive along and every few km come across another stunning lake.
Killbear provided us with a beautiful lakeside walk with huge pine trees just growing straight up out of rocks with dramatic quartz lines under our feet. Some of the most people friendly deer I have ever seen, they happily munched while we watched in awe.
Moving up out of Killbear continuing to trek north, we braved the bears leaving the safety of campsites and just winging it in forest laybys.
This was incredible, I sat at the edge of a lake watching beavers building their dams in the evening sun (can’t say I’m keen to go home haha). The dams are hidden in the tree shadow.
Guess where we went next? To another lake! More lakeside walks and deliciousness but bugs… Oh bugs, how they love me. Bathing in deets, 32 bites and counting, my entire body has swollen up, my face it very puffy, much to Benn’s amusement. That only slightly detracts from the awesome calmness that is this area.
On the morning of my birthday we went into Killarny town, population 500, worked out we could fit at least 10% of the population in our RV. Sat eating breakfast on the pier, local anglers pulled up on the deck shouting ‘Hey buddy’ ‘Hey there buddy’ ‘Good to see you buddy’ over and over off the back of the boat for a good 5 minutes. As the boat came towards us I thought we were about to meet the ‘person’ of the village, you know, the odd one. Turns out he was talking to a family of otters that follow his boat to port each day for his fish. We got to watch feeding time from about 4ft away and after the fishermen left the otters got in their boat to make absolutely sure each fishy morsel was gone, a real unexpected treat.
The afternoon of my birthday has to be the highlight of my trip so far (I know right, better than otters?!), we rented a canoe and took to George Lake. Sat in the sun in the middle of the water surrounded by mountainous rocks and mega pines. This is a big reason I wanted to explore Canada in the first place and it surpassed expectation. I have honestly never seen such a beautiful sight, bit like Capri but with pine trees, thanks for the awesome birthday Canada! Alighted for a picnic, found bear poo and a bear scratching post, but no bears… yet!
Last night was another wilderness stop on a little lake beach in Gore Bay, where I learnt there is a game I can beat Benn at – uno, at least there is one, well, uno. Bright red sunrise over the lake, didn’t even have to get out of bed, just open the curtain, that’s my kind of wilderness (I was not about to crawl out from the duvet to find my phone for a photo, sorry guys it was 5am, and you know how I love mornings…). We hit the road this morning and have come back to the civilization of campsite land, partly for electricity and partly because I need more antihistamine having actually doubled in size due to bug bites.
So that gets you up to date for now, we have another week of RV exploration to go so stay tuned for news on the caterpillar outbreak, a map of our route and more of me going on about how much I love lakes. Everyone cross their fingers for bear and moose sightings please, so keen to see big mammal wilderness! Missing all your faces xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Discovered that Toronto is one of the few cities in the world to have a cinema dedicated to documentaries and its 20mins walk from my front door! Very happy about this and have already become a member. This month was their film festival, I did a couple of days of binge screenings where I sat firmly in my element.
The Adventures of Kat Mac 