Summer Holiday

In Australia summer holidays are usually a time for the beach, sun and surf. Sometimes we're lucky enough to have parents who own a beach house, or know someone who has one, or we even rent one for a week or two. We get tans, salt bleached blonde hair, drag sand into everything we own and spend the next month getting it out. Canadians have a similar summer pilgrimage, but there's no surf and mostly no sand, certainly no salt (except on your french fries). Once the warm weather hits and the days get long people like to head north into 'cottage country' for their summer break.If you're lucky, just like back home, your parents own a cottage and you free-load, or if you're like us you rent one. Cottage country is a big area but generally what you're looking for is a lake surrounded by dense pine forest populated by bears, moose and beaver. Of course, again just like back home, cottages have become very popular over the last 10 years, property values have soared and cottages are sprung up everywhere. Most lakes have lots of properties on them so we're hardly talking about a quiet lifestyle, it can get busy on the water I'm sure. But you are a lot closer to nature, even if the bears, moose and beavers like a quieter life and tend to stay away from the humans. The images I had in my head, mostly from movies, were pretty much on the money.

We left Oakville around 7:30am Monday last week and drove about 250 k's north to a little town called Burk's Falls and from there another 15 minutes to a work colleagues cottage on Lake Cecebe. Terry and his wife Doris have had the place for about 9 years so he bought at the right time. He rents it out through the summer months but also has a small attached unit for his family so I guess he can continue to make some use of weekends with his family even if it's rented out, it's a good deal. The cottage is not much to look at as you arrive down the lengthy gravel driveway, it's when you step inside and see the lake through the picture windows that you see what's it's all about. Terry's place is about 30 feet from the water, a little sandy beach to the left and a floating dock to the right where the jet boat is tethered. The view straight across the lake, actually a large, enclosed bay off the main lake, looks amazing and the water is only around 12 feet deep so it was really warm.We might have been in the boonies but we weren't without the mod-cons, satellite TV, gas-log fire, hot tub, pool table and heaps of stuff for the kids to play with, both inside and outside. By far the biggest hit were the two kayaks and the pedal boat. At any given point through the week the three kids could be found out on the water paddling around. Both Jo and I thought that they'd find the kayaks difficult but they all took to them really quickly, even Cam, and on the last day went about 1 km of shore (life jackets were mandatory). Terry was good enough to take us all out on the lake in his jet boat on the first day and the kids and I enjoyed hammering around in his 'biscuit' being towed behind the boat at about 40 knots. On the way we saw a lot of the lake and spied how the rich people live, some with floating 'car-ports' for their float planes (sheesh!). I don't know why you'd need a boat house with room for four boats, like a floating four car garage. Clearly I don't have the imagination or the cash to answer that one.

The weather was mostly grey to start each day but after 2pm it would clear up and give us some sunshine. It certainly wasn't what we were expecting as our summer so far as been hot and often short on clouds. But it wasn't too hot either and that made things more comfortable than it might have been. Wednesday was our only really rainy day and we spent a lot of time indoors playing games and finishing some Tomb Raider levels on the 360. We made our way into the local town of Magnetawan (say that 10 times fast) and checked out the lock that allows boats to travel between Lake Cecebe and the next lake down stream. Most lakes in Ontario are actually connected by streams or rivers, they're really more like just wider parts to a long river, so it's possible in some cases to travel by boat from lake to lake through locks all the way into Georgian Bay, part of Lake Huron. The towns up there are all pretty small and I think rely almost completely on tourism. Most of them were booming earlier last century with the lumber trade (I'm a lumberjack and I'm ok) but now they're small and many shops are empty as people have moved on, a little sad really.

On Thursday we had some friends, the Emersons, Kent, Aleyx, Melanie and Jacquie (Abs closest friend here), coming up from TO to join us for a few nights but since they weren't due until later in the day we set out for Algonquin Provincial Park, the largest in Ontario, for a day trip and some hiking. Algonquin is the quintessential Canadian great ourdoors, populated with moose, bears and beaver. Sadly the wildlife we saw was limited to mosquitos and a few chipmunks but we did stay pretty close to the main road and the delights of the park need dedication, canoes, tents and serious camping. In any event it's a pretty place but the mossies turned us off a bit so we headed back on our 1 hour return trip to the cottage to receive our guests and crack the first of many beers and caesars. For the unitiated, and that means everyone except Canadians, a caesar is similar to a pre-mixed bloody mary. However while it is made with vodka and spices the tomato juice is substituted for Clamato juice. Clamato juice is tomato juice mixed with clam juice.... I'm not having you on. In fact Jo had until recently just thought that it was a brand name and had being buying/drinking it as a type of V8 juice. I can confirm that despite how awful this combination might sound the actual taste is great and if I hadn't mentioned it you'd have no idea. Like clam chowder it's slightly sweet, which works with tomato juice anyway. Jo was herself put off when she learned of the Clamatos true origin, but she got over it pretty quickly :-).On Friday I had booked a powerboat and we planned to hit the lake and tow around the biscuit so the kids could have some fun. I got the third-degree from the local marina owner on staying out of shallow water (I mentioned that the whole bay wasn't more than 12 feet deep right?) and to mind the rocks. We took it easy for a while when passing through the tighter sections as the warning bouys weren't completely obvious to us (ie. which side of them to stay on). But after an hour or so we pretty much knew where we could go in safety and started hammering around at a decent clip. Kent has a bit of water skiing experience in his past and he suggested that we give it a go, the boat came with a rope and skis so we had everything we needed, now we had an experienced skipper to drive the boat and were in business. I took the first try and after maybe 6-7 attempts got up on my skis and we went for a cruise around the lake. I hit the deck pretty hard on one attempt after I got out very wide on a turn, slingshoted and started to get up a lot of speed. After that I handed over to Jo who gave it a go but couldn't get up sadly. Later in the day we went out again and I had about 5-6 more runs, getting up first time for every one of them, it's like riding a bike. Kent drove straight for the beach and turned hard, the object being for me to sling shot, let go of the rope and free ski into the beach. I didn't get quite enough speed but my last runs had me travelling maybe 20 meters or so without the boat, pretty fun stuff. Kent and Aleyx often get a cottage later in the season and might give us an invite for a weekend so maybe we'll get to try skiing again soon. Mind you I was sore across the shoulders for the next two days, man it was harsh on my old bod :-).

That's pretty much it, now I'm back at work, it's 40 degrees outside and Jo has taken the girls to Jacquies house for a swim in their pool. Summer rolls on.

Andy, out.