Pictures from our trip to Algonquin National Park, Ontario, from 17-24 August 2002 We didn't mean to hire such a monster big car, but it was all they had left. Still, at least there was plenty of room for all the gear... We drove north from Montreal (trying to stay on the right) past Ottawa and made it to a little place not far from Algonquin Park called Pembroke where we camped for the night by this beach. There's the tent. All the pegs still seem to be there. The next day we progressed to the park and stopped by the gate to get some advice. They told us Number One Lake would be beautiful and all ours, and they weren't wrong. Each pitch in the park has a fire place and a wooden box privvy. I didn't photograph the privvy. Oii! Stop taking pictures and help with the cooking! The next day we headed out of the park to collect our canoe. Popped it on top of the car (it's size now proving a bonus) and headed back in for the wilds of the interior. This is the Barron Canyon from the hiking trail at the top. We planned to canoe through it later in the week. Rachel considers our prospects. Our first night with the canoe we camped at Brigham lake on a river. In the morning we start portaging. Here goes. Portaging means carrying all your gear, plus canoe, between lakes and rivers. It's heavy, but you don't usually have to go too far. Here, we've just made it through our first. But the scenery was consistantly stunning once in the canoe, with some gorgeous flora and fauna. We saw a lot of frogs. And decided to photograph most of them... This is High Falls Lake which is quite shallow and contains many little islands We saw lots of birds up close too. The herons were the best, and seemed really huge alongside the canoe Another frog... ...and a pretty lilly. Time for camera revenge! You paddle for a bit, Mister. Are we actually supposed to be going this way??? Colourful lilly pads which make drops of water look like jewels We stayed at the Cascades lake for three nights and, again, we had it all to ourselves. The evenings were really peaceful and the stars shone super bright. You have to look for the yellow portage signs to know where to stop paddling. If you miss them, you might end up on some rather rocky rapids. The end of our canoe. Next time we're hiring a kevlar one rather than fibre-glass - they're 30% lighter. This is High Falls where there is a rock slide and diving pool, and also other people!!! It's thirsty work, but there is certainly no shortage of clean water. The Barron Canyon, which we'd looked down into from above a few days before. This was my view during the portages. As you can imagine, navigation was often a source of entertainment. In lifting position to get the canoe up, with extra padding for the shoulders More frogs anyone? Right. On the last moring, we awoke to rain. Boo. Whats more, the critters had finally got to our food bag which we'd carefully hung away from the tent. Rachel checks the damage, and wonders if we should have brought the towels in earlier. It's not quite the same in the rain. This is the put-in at Achray on Grand Lake. Looks just like Scotland in the wet... On the way back to Montreal, we stopped over in Hull/Ottawa at this B&B and pondered our filthy motor. The next day we stopped at the Canadian Civilization Museum, to re-aquaint ourselves. That's the Canadian parliament in the distance. And Rachel got herself aquainted with a Mountie. What a lovely couple.