Sunday - Woken by thunderous rain in the night, it was still
raining heavily this morning so we packed up and hit the road, stopping half
way for a top-up Walmart shop and lunch.
We had passed some boards en route advertising white water
rafting which we all wanted to try. I
did some research over lunch and found Montreal Rafting which appeared to have complimentary
reviews, so Simon rang and booked us in for Wednesday. We’ve been hoping to do some rafting ever
since Becky was with us but it was way too early in the season back in March. I’m really happy, it looks like we’re finally
going to get to give it a go. The woman
on the phone talked us out of doing the gentler version aimed at families with
young children, so we’re hoping that the ‘adventure rafting’ won’t be too scary
for Ann and Ray!
Carrying on, we had to drive through Canada’s capital,
Ottawa, to cross the river into Quebec.
The City had never really factored as a place we wanted to see, but
driving through it appeared quite scenic with some striking buildings and river
views:
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| View of the Ottawa River and Ottawa City |
As soon as we entered Quebec it all became very French
indeed. I shouldn’t have been surprised,
Ann had quoted from her guide book that 70% of Quebecois (that’s the correct
term, folks) speak French as their first language. But, suddenly, even the landscape and the
road signs became very reminiscent of drives through the French countryside.
We arrived at Parc Du Plaisance, in between Ottawa and
Montreal, about 5pm. I had been racking
my brains for any of the High School French that surely must remain lurking
somewhere in the deepest depths to assist on our arrival. Luckily, I only had to bring out ‘Parlais
vous Anglais?’ and one of the ladies working in the office could help us! The
Parc here is larger than we expected and covers a series of interlinked islands
out on the Ottawa river. Straight away,
Quebec provincial parks are winning in comparison to Ontario. Simon and I had been discussing how we have
been slightly disappointed with the standard of the parks compared to that
which we have experienced for the entire rest of our trip. The mosquito levels are entirely out of the
park’s control of course, however, the cleanliness of the sites has not been as
good and the toilet and shower facilities have been of a lower standard than
we’ve been used to. Not the ideal
‘camping with home comforts’ lifestyle we wanted to project to Si’s parents!
But here, the mosquitoes have disappeared and the facilities
near our camp site, when we finally found it, are much better with the luxury
of flushing toilets and running water rather than just a hole in the ground!
We had outrun this morning’s rain. Here, it was a sunny and very warm
evening. Simon and I set up the fire and
barbecuing facilities to get dinner on the go, whilst Ann and Ray got out on
the bikes to make the most of the lovely evening in case tomorrow was not as
good to us:  |
| Ann and Ray head off into the wildnerness.... |
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| Snapping turtle - not my favourite because they bully the smaller turtles, but I'm sure this one was smiling at me! |
They struck lucky,
seeing a skunk which is something that Simon and I are yet to see.
I joined Ann by having some salmon for dinner whilst the
lads had steak with sweet potatoes and veg on the side. Our favourite group card game this week has
been trumps. We play until the first
person wins three games or the light beats us.
Tonight we played again, but with a few distractions – a turtle in the
road, a raccoon that came wandering through the campsite followed by fireflies
lighting up the hedges all around us. I
think that’s the first time I’ve seen that. Simon found a sachet of ‘rainbow
flames’ chemicals that we bought ages ago.
You throw it in the fire and it creates multi-coloured flames for no
particular reason but it was rather pretty (right).
Still, all these distractions didn’t put me off from winning
trumps for the second, or was it the third, night in a row? I struggle to recall! But it was a lovely, animal-filled evening
for Ann and Ray’s last night with us in the RV.
Monday - It was really humid last night. Si had to abandon our bunk bed to seek lower
ground on the sofa overnight as he got too hot so we had a slightly disturbed
night’s sleep.
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| Beaver damage - how long before this trees fall down?! |
It was warm again this morning but with some more cloud
cover about, so there was some protection from the heat of the sun. We did not have to check out of the Parc
until 3pm and, being less than two hours from the Newman’s Montreal hotel, we
decided to make the most of the beautiful area.
Simon and Ann set off on a bike ride first reporting back that they had
seen frogs, woodpeckers and lots of turtles.
Ray and I then went out intent on outdoing the other two by seeing more
and cycling further! I managed to see two skinks (lizards) but as soon as I
disturbed them they shot into the tall grasses for cover so Ray didn’t get a
peek and there was no time to get a photo.
Apart from that we probably saw pretty much the same as the others so we
were all winners!
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| The wetlands.... home to this little guy: |
Arriving back at the RV we had just under an hour to get
showered and have lunch. The staff must
have checked someone onto our site as a gentleman turned up with a trailer,
despite there being numerous other sites free around us! We totally maxed out our time here but
managed not to upset anyone by pulling away from the spot at 259pm!
As I previously said, it wasn’t too far into Montreal from
there, but it still tipped us over the 26000-mile mark in the RV! We also stopped
on the outskirts at another ‘Outlet’ shopping centre, so that Ray and Ann could grab a
bargain or two. It is Si’s brothers 40th in a few days and he’d
asked for some sports clothing. Luckily, this outlet centre had Nike and Adidas
shops so hopefully he’ll be pleased with his presents and that gave us the opportunity to get him a gift to compensate for the fact we're missing his Birthday.
Si then drove us
through the chaos of the city streets and we managed to find Ann and Ray’s posh hotel, the St Martin, right in the centre, dropping them off about 630pm. The valets that came out to meet us pointed
out that they didn’t need a hotel when they had this room on wheels, but I
reckon that Ann and Ray were looking forward to a long shower in a reasonably
sized cubicle and a little more luxury!
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| We passed this cathedral just round the corner from their hotel |
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| This furry little fella was by the gate to welcome us |
We had booked the nearest Provincial Park that looked very close on the
map but was actually a 25 minute drive away from downtown. We arrived at 710pm, set up and had a quick
dinner before collapsing in bed to watch Point Break – we’ve been looking
forward to watching this since we visited the Oregon filming location…. And it
didn’t disappoint, yet again, a classic!
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