Rex and Nancy's Travels - "ALL WHO WANDER ARE NOT LOST" - JRR Tolkein

  Friday morning, we drove to Algonquin Provincial Park which is about 2 hours north of Fenelon Falls in the Algonquin Highlands.   The scenery along the way was beautiful, it is hillier here with a lot of granite outcroppings and very green from the recent rains.   It was raining when we arrived at our campsite in Canisbay Lake Campground.   Gunter and Susanne are camped in the next site in their Roadtrek van.      After we got settled in, we kayaked on Canisbay Lake. It was sprinkling some, but the water was smooth.  Nancy, Susanne and Gunter are out ahead of Rex as he took this picture. The wind came up when we were on the far side of the lake, so it was a little harder paddling back.  This area is beautiful, and we had a great time on the lake. The next day it was raining so we went to the Visitors Center and watched a movie about the park.  Algonquin Provincial Park was established in 1893 and was the first provincial park in Canada. After looking at all the displays and buying

We took a great hike at the Ken Reid Conservation Area, a 272-acre nature preserve - Susanne, Gunter, Nancy and Rex.      This was a beautiful hike through lush green forest. Susanne said this flower is called Indian Paintbrush – much different from the Indian Paintbrush we have in the western US. We hiked through an area where there was little vegetation, and the trees had few leaves. Our hike began and ended at Sturgeon Lake.   It was a beautiful hike on one of the days that it did not rain. We went on a cruise from Parry Sound and into  Georgian Bay on Lake Huron.   This is called the 30,000 Island Cruise as there are around 30,000 islands in this region of Georgian Bay.   Our ship was called the Island Queen. The captain gave three long (and loud) blasts of the ship’s horn to let the keeper of Rose Point Swing Bridge that we needed to pass.                     Three Cormorants sitting on a rock. We went through several narrow passages between some of the islands. It was a nice sunn

We left Niagara Falls on Friday morning and drove to our friends, Gunter and Susanne, home in Fenelon Falls, which is north of Toronto in a beautiful area with many lakes. We were able to park our motorhome in their neighbor’s driveway. After we got settled in at their home, we took a short walk downtown and to Fenelon Falls and lock area.   The falls were beautiful. The Fenelon River after it flows down the falls.  The river connects Cameron Lake to Sturgeon Lake. Susanne, Nancy, Tacky, Gunter, Rex and their dog, Charlie in front of Fenelon Falls. We did a lot while in Fenelon Falls - bike riding, kayaking, hiking and a cruise in the Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. We kayaked on the Burnt River up to Three Brothers Falls. We were able to kayak under this old railroad bridge that is now being used as a bridge for automobiles. Three Brothers Falls was beautiful – this picture is of the upper two falls.           And the lower falls where we beached the kayaks. Gunter, Susanne and Nancy gett

Thursday, we drove along the Niagara River to where it runs into Lake Ontario.   We stopped and walked along a path towards the town of Niagara-on-the Lake. Fort George was constructed in 1796-99 and served as the headquarters for Major-General Brock in 1912.  In May 1813, it was bombarded and captured by the Americans who constructed fortifications of their own on the site.  These in turn were retaken by the British in December 1913.  In 1815 Fort George was described as a “tumbling into ruins” and was abandoned.  The present works are a reconstruction done in 1937-1940 and represent the fort as it was in 1799-1813.  Dogs are not allowed at the Fort, so we were not able to go inside the grounds. We continued walking along the path to where the Niagara River flows into Lake Ontario.   We walked along Queen Street, a tourist area in Niagara-on-the-Lake with lots of shops, restaurants and horse-drawn carriage rides. The clock tower in the middle of Queen Street.  We window shopped and t

Wednesday morning, we took the bus back to Table Rock Center and took this picture of a goose flying in front of Horseshoe Falls while we were waiting for the Niagara Park Shuttle. We rode the shuttle to the White Water Walk where we were able to walk on a boardwalk beside the Whirlpool Rapids. The Class VI rapids were beautiful. We were able to get really close to the rapids as we walked along the boardwalk. The boardwalk was about a quarter of a mile long and we enjoyed getting close to the rapids. We then walked about a kilometer to ride the Aero Car that we saw yesterday from the US side.  We had to wait while some maintenance was done on this car that was built in 1913.  The ride takes you across Whirlpool Rapids and back. The views from the Aero Car were spectacular. This is looking downriver towards Devils Hole Rapids. Whirlpool Rapids from across the river before we started back. Whirlpool Rapids from directly overhead.  We can see why it is called Whirlpool Rapids – it is beau