Canoeing, Waterfalls, Chipmunks and Raccoons

26th June Friday

Again, highly nutritious jam on toast for breakfast. Thankfully it wasn't raining. We walked down the road towards the canoe hiring place. The road was long, and empty and surrounded by fir trees, it looked like it was out of the Twilight film! The highlight of this walk was spotting a chipmunk on the roadside. We originally thought it was a squirrel but it was far too cute! The locals seemed amazed that we found them so fascinating!

The staff at the canoe hire place were really friendly and fitted us out with lifejackets, a map, safety rope, and some 'a-loo-min-um' paddles. We even got a demonstration of the "C" stroke and the "J" stroke. Map in hand, we set off to find the waterfall. Surprisingly, canoeing with three people was easier than we first thought and we got a bit of speed up as the sun came out. And it really came out; all the grey clouds disappeared to make way for gloriously blue sky! This provided a perfect tanning opportunity for Gillian and Alice, Bessie was very keen to cover up!

Having said we were going pretty fast, we were still easily over taken by the British lady we unexpectedly walked in on, in the sauna last night (there were only two in her boat, much to our shame).
We also got passed by a speed boat with our campfire friends from last night in. They were a little bit quieter than they were last night, but still enthusiastically showed us the 2 foot long bass they had caught.    Their strange Italian friend said nothing but filmed us as we paddled past. Very odd.

Having arrived at the waterfall, we expertly manoeuvred our canoe into a small spot and hopped elegantly off. A short hike away was the top of the waterfall, our British friend, Sarah, was already there swimming in the water, with her German canoeing partner. We ate lunch on a rock with a view of the rapids and Sarah told us about her PhD in Stem Cell research, which sounded really interesting (and allowed her to have business meetings in Canada -not a bad life!)

After lunch, Gillian and Alice went for a paddle in the shallows. Unsurprisingly, it wasn't long before Alice slipped on the algae-covered river bed and fell in up to her thighs. Gillian, spotting a great Kodak moment, ran to give her camera to Sarah. While running back in to join Alice (in hindsight, running was just asking for it!), she fell in up to her chest.

Now already a lot more wet than we'd previously intended, we threw caution to the wind and went for a swim fully clothed. There was quite a lot of complaining about the cold at first, and some interesting examples of doggy paddle to swim against the current, which was dragging us towards the waterfall.

Whilst lying out to dry, we spotted this butterfly on Gillian's top.

Don't worry, there were not many people about!

Whilst Gillian and Alice were swimming, Bessie took herself off on a little hike down the waterfall. Although this time she didn't get lost, she still managed to let her camera go for a swim in the river. (It took several days to dry out but thankfully has fully recovered from its ordeal!)
From this peaceful spot in the middle of nowhere, we canoed, walked and taxied back to Huntsville station. Our taxi driver was very chatty and told us stories of his previous passengers. At Huntsville we took a bus to Barrie. At Barrie we took a bus to Newmarket. At Newmarket, Alice's dad's cousin (Angela) took us to her house. The idea of being in a house was exciting, we didn't have to share rooms with strangers, and had our own bathroom. Small pleasures. In fact, this was the longest we will have ever stayed in one place since the end of May, all the way back in Los Angeles!

On the way to Angela's house we spotted what we thought was a dog running across the road. However, when Alice asked what it was, Angela casually replied that it was a raccoon. All drama ensued. We made her stop the car to admire it. It was standing on it's hind legs, hugging the tree, with it's triangular, stripy face staring right at us -so cute! Apparently they are a menace in this area and raid rubbish, a bit like foxes at home.

We stayed up talking really late then went to bed.