Lake Simcoe

Last night we slept in the van, parked on the driveway. It was a poor night's sleep, though I can't point out any reason for this, just first night in a new environment I guess. At 5am I was woken by a clicking noise, that seemed to be coming from the fridge. The check light was also on, not sure exactly what that means, but clearly not good. Went to the loo and had to switch water pump on to flush the toilet. The clicking noise stopped. Very strange, how are those two systems connected?

After breakfast I try to retract the tip-out sections. They don't move. The interior lights aren't working either, we have no electric power, can't start the generator, and are clearly going nowhere soon. 

I can start the van engine, which has it's own separate battery. That provides enough juice to start the generator, which provides enough power to work the tip-outs and to start recharging the battery. In the meantime I flip the fridge from auto mode to gas mode, so that it is powered by propane. I figure that the fridge has drained the batteries, and the clicking noise was the fridge trying and failing to switch automatically into gas mode. A phone call to the RV helpline confirms this thinking, my only worry now is whether the fridge can work using the propane as fuel. When I turn off the generator I am relieved to hear the whirring of the fridge running on gas.

We say farewell to Mike, who is driving back to Hamilton, and spend sometime with Rachel helping her make a necklace. Curtis finishes a conference call at 11, and with his working day over offers to take us out on the lake. It's a great lifestyle here.

So a picnic is assembled from leftover food and we go down to the water to board the boat.

These big bullfrogs make lots of noise at night

Speeding across lake Simcoe

We enter the Trent Canal. Our original plan for this holiday was to rent a houseboat, and I even did the course to obtain my Canadian Pleasure Craft Operator's Licence, so I'm interested to see the canal and how it operates.

We travel as far as the first lock, where we have our picnic. The locks here are huge, and hydraulically operated. There are also loads of staff to organise the boats traveling through the lock. Also, unlike UK locks, the gates seal with almost no water leakage. It also fills really fast, but with no strong currents to throw your boat around. There are also cables down the side of the lock to which you can tie your boat, keeping it in position while it moves up or down the cable. I guess these are all features that become possible when locks are made from reinforced concrete rather than brick and stone.

On the journey home Curtis allows me to drive the boat, which is really exciting. The whole front of the boat rises out of the water as we pick up speed, and then flattens out again as we reach a cruising speed.

It is finally time to say goodbye to Curtis, Jessica, Rachel and Sabrina. They have been absolutely wonderful hosts, but we must leave to get to our campground before dark.

The road north is much prettier now, and we see lots of Inukshuks. These are stone cairns, often in the shape of a figure, traditionally built by first nation people. A reminder I think that they are letting us know that they are maintaining a claim on their land.

We stop just before Arrowhead park to get some final grocery items, most importantly some beer. We get to the camping ground as the light is fading. The permit office is closed, I will have to check in tomorrow, but pick up a map so that Vera can navigate to our booked site.

I thought I'd booked a drive through site, but it clearly isn't. I have to reverse in, around the trees, in the gathering darkness, and get hooked up. 

I cook while Vera unpacks the shopping and organises the van

We have only just made it in time, any later and it would have been really difficult to find our pitch and manoeuvre into it. A learning point for next time 

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