Sunday 20th August 2017
Woke to a misty morning. Thank goodness it’s a travel day! The journey took us about 4 hours and by the time we arrived in Sudbury (for the second time this trip) there was glorious sunshine.
We were greeted at our next accommodation by a very jovial host named Roddy, who encouraged us to dump our things and head to the lake at the bottom of his garden for our first experience of kayaking.
This was followed by some larking around in the lake, leaping from the pontoon, swimming and lazing on the inflatable platform – all courtesy of Roddy and his family. There were three other travellers from Australia, Belgium and the UK staying in the house too, so we shared stories with them over supper, but it wasn’t long before Roddy was back encouraging us to try out the sauna followed by a cleansing dive in the lake. It was 9:00pm, how could we refuse! We saw out the night’s entertainment by watching the stars led on the inflatable platform on the lake. The perfect end to a perfect day.
Monday 21st August 2017
Back on the road again for a 3½ drive to Algonquin Provincial Park. Our next accommodation is Wolf Den Hostel & Nature Retreat, a set of rustic wood cabins just on the outskirts of the park. There’s no light pollution, no wifi and the place has a calm and natural feel to it. Late afternoon we took a walk to Ragged Falls – a short walk from the hostel. En route we met a fellow guest, Marianne from the Netherlands, who was travelling alone, so she joined us on our walk. It was an easy scramble along the river, through the forest and the falls didn’t fail to impress. They were beautiful.
Supper was very much a communal affair after which we were invited to sit around a camp fire with 20 people – adults and children – from various countries toasting S’mores (marshmallows) on sticks and swapping campfire stories. Another perfect end to the day.
Hostelling is a new experience for both of us and sharing with such a diverse community of people has been a rewarding and enriching experience. It’s now our intention to do a bit more hostelling.
Tuesday 22nd August 2017
The forecast for today was thundery showers, but as there was a huge thunder storm last night and it looked fairly bright this morning we decided to put last night’s agreed plan into action and hike the trails in Algonquin Park with Marianne (Netherlands), Andi (West African/Canadian) and Brynn (Canadian). Our first trail – Hardwood Lookout – was a short hike to wear in our hiking legs – a 30 minute ramble to a vantage point overlooking Canoe Lake. Unfortunately the view was somewhat obscured by the cloud from the torrential downpour we’d just had to walk through. Nature had just thrown her best shot at us and so far we’d survived!
At the end of this first trail the storm had subsided so we continued on to our next recommended trail – Track and Tower – a 3½ hour scramble through forest.
Once again nature threw another torrential thunder storm, but we weren’t going to be beaten! As we progressed and the rain continued to fall the trail path become a river with its own tributaries and we had to pick our route through soggy, muddy ground and running water.
At one point we came across a torrent of water running down the hill in the path of our trail. The water was so fierce we had to form a chain to help each other across before we could continue on our way. It was an exhilarating moment, a highlight of the walk, if not a little foolhardy, but we had become adventurers… in our minds!
By the end of the hike we were drenched from head to toe, but we felt like we’d had a huge adventure, as we found the forests hidden lookouts overlooking the beauty of the lake (Lake Cache). The girls were fantastic company. Real adventurous souls. We’d like to thank them for a wonderful hike that will remain in memories for a very long time.
Heading back to Wolf Den we changed into dry clothes and headed for the lounge area for some R&R – we like this place. The lounge area was full of games so I taught chess to a couple of the lads.
Wednesday 23rd August 2017
Today is canoe day – a 6 hour trip on ‘Canoe Lake’ in three or four man Canadian canoes. On arrival we were separated into two groups. Our group consisted of five Germans, five Americans, two Brits [us] and a very young guide from Ottawa called Evan. We teamed up with an American called Vanetta. Between us we made the most of the lake – unintentionally covering every inch. The wind was so strong in places we kept straying into the bank and it took all our combined efforts to get back out into the middle each time. Consequently we were always at the back and had to be waited for on many occasions. After about 1.5 hours we had to portage our canoes, lifting it off the lake, carrying it down a muddy track and launching it again. Evan took us to seen two natural ‘bonsai’ trees that had self-seeded themselves close to the edge of the lake.
After another hour of canoeing Evan [our guide] directed us to a small cove on an island where we stopped and climbed up to a look-out over the lake. The view was stunning. We sat and took it in over lunch – a beautiful ham and salad roll prepared by a very popular German bakery in town. It was during lunch that Evan proclaimed this was the area for cliff jumping – something neither of us had done before. Not wanting to turn down any opportunity for something new, we both prepared to jump into the lake. I [Julie] jumped from the 3m rock, whilst Jacqui jumped from both the 3m and the 6m rock. What an exhilarating experience – the water seemed so far away! We were very proud of ourselves because only one other adult in the group was prepared to take the plunge!
Back in the canoe Evan guided us down some creeks and it was here we saw one of the creatures we were hoping to see… a wild moose. Everything was so quiet – all the canoeists stopped paddling so as not to disturb the young male who continued to wade in the marshes and eat, seemingly oblivious to our presence. We couldn’t have been more than 40-50m away. It was an awesome yet tranquil experience.
Happy with our find, we headed back – in tact, no upturned boat, all our belongings still with us [although Vanettas car keys were discovered, fortunately, in the water by our guide just before we left the island]. Our precautions did us proud – keys and phone in dry bags and cameras attached to us with string. After a group photo we stopped for a beer with our German friends and headed towards Eganville – an overnight stop en-route to Ottawa.
Two Judo Girls One Adventure 
You must be logged in to post a comment.