Canada 7

Stupid computer! It wiped out all my dialogue and entered photos twice as big as normal so I had to delete the last written blog.
So, what was I telling you about? I know. We have met a lot of lovely people on our journey - Colin and Tony from "Walloping Window Blind", the English couple on "Vulcan" and Paul and Jen on "Moonrakers". Jen is also from the UK but has lived in Canada since she was 11 so we had a lot to talk about.
Colin and Tony (wife) helped push off the boat after both of us had stopped for an ice cream. Tony gave the boat a big push towards the stern, over balanced and to avoid falling in the water, jumped onto the swim shelf below the dinghy. We now had an unexpected passenger so we returned to shore with strict instructions to Tony to be less forceful with her push. Luckily, she was not hurt although she did bang her arm when landing on the boat. We have seen them since and they were still talking to us.
We have travelled with Paul and Jen for the last three days, moored with them on a night and enjoyed nightcaps with them sitting beside the locks having a glass of wine and being bitten by bugs!!!! We met because I did something goofy. I was taking my laundry to the laundromat and because it was a very hot day and I was sweating like a pig (no, wait men perspire, horses sweat and women glow). I looked around me, saw no-one so bent down, grabbed the bottom of my T shirt and wiped my face revealing only things my husband had seen. Unknown to me was the couple sitting in a boat below pavement level. Well, the lady called out to me "I saw that" and "I am going to go blind". I blushed 7 shades of red, spoke to her and continued onto the laundry. I probably said something witty but do not remember my reply. When I returned from the laundromat I spoke again to the couple in the boat and this was how we met Jen and Paul and found out that Jen was from Swindon but had moved to Canada many, many, many years ago!!!! Sorry, Jen I had to get my own back.

                                              Jen on "Moonrakers".
Since last blogging we have visited Bobcaygeon on the Kawartha Lakes. I had read ahead of time that there was a "Settlers' Village" there and we planned to visit it. I am really glad we did as it was most interesting. The Village featured a variety of local heritage structures dated from 1850-1930. Each building housed a collection of artifacts that were related historically to its original inhabitants or were a general replica demonstrating the lifestyle of Kawartha Settlers. We got out our bikes and cycled to the "Village".

                             The entrance to the Kawartha Settlers' village.

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 The trapper's cabin, if you didn't guess. I did not like the look of the bear trap.

 This was the wheelwright's cabin. Gary was fascinated with the object to the left of the photo. It was a piece of equipment for making wagon wheels.

This cabin was interesting as we had never seen a roof like it. The roof was made of logs sawed in half lengthwise, hollowed out and then placed similar to terracotta tiles.

This blackboard was in the one room school house. I liked what was written on the board so hope that you too, are able to read it.

This big old stove reminded me of the one we had in 235.The house, I think was brand new or fairly new when we moved into it in 1954 and it had this big ugly stove in the kitchen for cooking on. If I remember wrongly, my Mum will put me right.
Whilst in the village I wanted to try out my new macro lens. It worked well, even better than the one I lost off the back of the car, I think.

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 As I previously mentioned, we biked to the Village. On the way we passed two nursery school helpers taking very young children for a walk. I was impressed with their stroller/pushchair.

The pushchair held 5 young children and steered so easily (they let me push it). We also passed teenagers jumping off a cliff as we approached Fenelon Falls.. It was quite a drop and must have given them a thrill. You can just see the children in the water below the jumper.

Yesterday, we had breakfast with our new found friends, Jen and Paul. It was so peaceful over looking the river I found myself almost in tears with contentment. (If only my Mia had been still with us). Gary and I had a lovely English breakfast which included beans and cooked tomatoes. Yummy!

 
We then travelled to the Big Shute Railway. It is a marine railway that transports boats over land in a huge open carriage. The operators raise slings under boats to hold them. The carriage then rises out of the lake, crosses the top of a hill, goes over a road and then down to water on the other side. The carriages front and rear wheels rode on independent tracks to keep the carriage level at all times.

                   This is where the carriage takes the boats over the road.

 Boats being loaded onto the carriage with strict instructions from carriage workers.

                                     Boats being lifted out of the water.

Above photo, whew, the view at the top. The boat you can see is leaning slightly but is supported in slings. The lower photo is where I am looking down on the boat passing below. You can see the cables and the pulleys.

 I've got my photos too close to tell you about them and cannot separate them. So, the one above the one above (if you follow my drift) is the end of the ride. The one above obviously is a cheat photo taken from the video of the Chute Railway. It shows the double track the front and back wheels take to keep the carriage level as it goes up and over the hill and then down.

Oops, now how did this one get in there!!!!  I know, I was taking a photo of Jen and these "hunks" came into the picture. You can just see Jen's arm and leg to the left. I really was shooting Jen, honest!!!
We said our goodbyes to Jen and Paul this morning. They headed home towards Victoria Harbour whilst we continued on the Loop. We led them out to the channel which was very narrow, following the marker buoys (red on right upon return, green on left). The route was quite an obstacle course.

                           "Moonrakers" cruising through the marker buoys.

 'Til we meet again, Jen, my bosom buddy!!!!! and of course Paul. Oh, by the way. Their boat is not named "MOONrakers" for nothing, is it Jen????
 We had been told by a lock keeper that the Tall Ships were visiting Georgian Bay (where we are now) so we decided to detour a little to see them at a place called Midland. We were greeted upon our entrance into Midland Harbour by a beautiful mural painted on the side of grain silos.

We were pleasantly surprised when we saw the Tall Ships that "The Pride of Baltimore" was one of the three ships. It was nice to see something from our hometown.

The "Pride of Baltimore", a topsail schooner. She is a goodwill ambassador for the city of Baltimore and it's harbour.

Tonight we are staying in a Marina in Midland so that we can visit the local Walmart and replenish our supplies, especially the wine and cheese curls.!!!! It is 5km from the marina so we will go on our bikes.

                                The marina where we are staying the night.
The weather in the last 10 days has been absolutely perfect. We had a little rain one night whilst we were in bed and that is all. Today, we have puffy clouds, blue skies and a feel to the air that autumn is coming. The trees are beginning to don their fall clothing. In a couple (two, Linda) of weeks they should be splendid in their new autumn colours.

Kingston Rover Great Loop Map

Canada 6

Boy, am I having a good run. I never knew I had so much to say!!!!!! Gary and David would dispute that, no doubt!!!
The first photo I want to show you today is the T shirt my parents gave us for our wedding anniversary. It has the name of our boat on it plus our two flags - Old Glory and Union Jack. My T shirt unfortunately did not fit despite it being labelled as a women's extra large. I could not even get my head through the hole (now that should cause a few comments from my "fans").  Mum has had to re-order another one for me.

Travelling along Canadian waterways I have seen several stacked stone arrangements looking like humans in people's gardens. I have finally found out what they are thanks to a very kind young man in Kingston. They are called inukshucks and are stone figures originally created by the Inuits. Inukshuk means "to act in the capacity of a human". They are supposed to say "someone was here" and "you are on the right path". We passed a nice one made by the lock keepers.

The stone figure is on the top of the pile of stones to the right of the "heron" in the first photograph.
 Talking of the lock keepers, they do a wonderful job despite having their hours cut and made to operate at times, more than one lock. They are always so pleasant and helpful when approaching the lock or in the locks. So, I say thank-you to them. Another thing that is great about the locks is the landscaping, toilets and picnic benches. They are big tourist traps and are well used by people who come to see the boats go through the locks.
All the Canadians we have met have been so nice. If on land when we approach a lock, they come to our aide to help with mooring. Many of them are fascinated with our boat (it is not common, at all). We have only seen 2 others since leaving Florida. The homes on the waterfront that we have passed often fly the Canadian flag. I do like to see patriotism. The only complaint I have about Canada (and it is the same in the U.S. and U.K) is the graffiti. It is on many buildings, underpasses etc. Some of the people who draw/paint them are quite talented. It is a shame they cannot put their talents to a better use.

We went through a very interesting lock at Peterborough. It was a hydraulic lift lock built in 1904 to lift boats up and down 19.8 meters. The boats are lowered and raised in two water-filled chambers. Any movement in one chamber must force an equal and opposite movement in the other. To raise boats, the upper chamber is over-balanced by taking on an extra 30cm of water forcing the chamber downwards. 

The upper pan is on the right side of the lock.

A view of the pan from below.

In the pan and ready to be raised up approx 65 feet.

Boats in the pan with us.

The view from the top. We were surprised it took only a couple of minutes for us to get from the canal below up to the top level. We have another smaller lift lock to go through further up the Trent-Severn.
I forgot to mention that when returned to Toronto after attending the wedding in Las Vegas we saw many apartments being built which would really add to the population. Toronto is a very eclectic city with many different nationalities.

Look at all those new apartments. Every building in this photo is in the process of being built.

 An interesting view of Toronto taken from the bus window.

An interesting glass building in downtown Toronto. It had a twin at the other side of the road.

I have finally received my replacement telephoto lens which means I can start taking close-ups again. My first close-up was of a pair of loons. What a magnificent bird. I used to love penguins, then pelicans. Now it is loons. Their call, which is often heard at night is quite unique and eerie sounding. If you go on Youtube and type in "Loons" you will see and hear loons.

An immature loon.

Mom and baby.

It is very hard to see but on the back of the above jet-ski is a dog wearing its life jacket. There were 2 jet-skis each with a dog on the back. By the time I realised what was on the back, they had passed me by. We caught up with them later moored at a lock exercising their dogs on the land. I do not know how the owners stopped the dogs from falling off when the jet-skis went over the wakes of boats.

 OK, to end I will end with several photos I like.