Entry 3 – Sunday 13th to Thursday 17th August
2017
For us this
entry shows the enjoyment provided by the Canadian country side.
It seemed
most of the publicity/tourism information available promoted the populated /
commercialised areas near the eastern coastal regions of Canada. This was
similar to the Australian mind set involving tourism, unfortunately Canada
seemed to be lagging behind with the recognition for the economic benefits to
be gained from the expanding numbers of the grey nomad community reaching out
to explore the country side away from the commercialised regions.
Whilst
scanning all the displayed promotional pamphlets in the various tourist
information centres a small booklet caught our attention showing the locations
of provincial parks in Ontario, our preferred viewing locations provided by the
natural beauty of the environmental landscape.
We decided
to take a punt and head west from North Bay away from the promoted eastern
locations. Looking at the map we headed for Killarney Provincial Park a bit out
of the way, where we would need to back track some distance before continuing
with our exploration of the country side. We had an inbuilt gps in our hire
vehicle and another one provided by our son Tim. We utilised both gps’s when
travelling and they were constantly bickering over what route to take. For us
family comes first and Tim’s gps was given priority for our route to Killarney
Provincial Park. We ended up travelling along some quiet country side roads
where we got to view some different farming practices from our Australian
country, enjoying a relaxing drive with minimal traffic about.
We arrived
at our destination, George Lake Campground in Killarney Provincial Park and had
the choice of 3 camp sites, set camp and made our way to the beach where we had
a nice dip in the not too cold waters of Lake George.
The scenery
was stunning and the camp ground magnificent. Our initial thoughts showed the
amenities were not as good as our Algonquin Prov. Park experience but the
scenery was more spectacular providing a happy atmosphere within the park. We
walked some of the trails, spent a day canoeing around some of the different
bays and found people to be quite friendly. The one question everyone asked us;
“how did you find out about Killarney Provincial Park?” Many of these people
lived closer to the publicised Algonquin Park but chose to spend their time at
Killarney Park and we understood why. We loved it. It almost seemed like the
“locals,” viewed this as their own bit of private oasis.
Even with
Mary’s broken wrist still causing her grief, (swollen hand,) where she was
finding it to be more comfortable held in a sling, she was all go for spending
time in a canoe. At one stage Steve, had gotten out of the canoe and suddenly
it over turned with Mary still in it. She disappeared under the water surface,
popped up spluttering, then started laughing. Killarney Provincial Park oozed
with goodness providing a boost to the well-being for all who visit and if we
had been on our Aussie travels would have easily been a stopover for a month or
more.
We packed up
the tent and went for one last 2-hour walk, a guided walk with commentary
provided by one of the park rangers, returning to the car and it just started
to rain. It rained non-stop for nearly 10 hours. We were glad to be staying in
private accommodation for the night not being stuck in a small tent or needing
to venture out around muddy wet tracks to facilities.
July and
August is Canada’s big school holiday break period and yes it was crowded with
kids at the campgrounds. Many people had been informing us the campgrounds
quieten down after the first weekend in September, (long weekend) which had
been our strategy for our time to explore the Canadian Rocky Mountains. We were
hoping and looking forward to quieter times once the peak period dropped off.
As we had
good internet access at our accommodation we decided to post some happy photo
shots.
