ALGONQUIN

100% my favourite weekend in Canada so far. Algonquin Provincial Park is about a 4 hour drive from Hamilton and covers over 7000 sqkm. It's located in Central Ontario between Georgian Bay and the Ottawa River and is the oldest Provincial Park in Canada. We drove up on a sleepy Friday night to stay for a night in traditional cabins before heading out on the lakes for some canoeing. After a brisk 7am wake up call, we packed up our gear, got into our groups and headed out onto the water. In groups of 9, we had four canoes between us. Mostly in pairs, I was put in the three man and acted as 'princess/team flightless bears professional photographer'. Algonquin is truly spectacular, the autumn colours shone through in reds, gold’s and oranges. This combined with a shiny, still lake meant that the reflections were almost identical to the trees themselves. We spent the first half of the day paddling through a narrow creek. Not used to canoeing this was a bit of a struggle and a few of us beached ourselves in the grass a couple of times. After coming out into a wide, open lake, we spotted a flat-looking island and headed out for lunch and to soak up the sun. After lunch it was back on the open water. At one point we even lost a paddle (even less for me to do). In between getting to all the lakes we had a number of 'portages' or as I liked to call it 'French-canoe-walking'. This is where you need to hoist the canoe up and carry it on your shoulders to the next available body of water. Luckily for most of the guys carrying the canoes, the longest one was just over 500m! Canoes, dear readers, are a bit heavy. However these portages gave us the opportunity to walk through some of Algonquin's woodland, see some chipmunks and get out of the sun for a bit. The last hour of our day was arguably the best. In this hour, I saw a swimming moose and my Canadian dream was fulfilled. At first we thought it was a really big bird...I know. Stupid. Then we saw it's antlers and it's one heck of a snout puffing away. My pictures weren't great but so happy that I got to see a Canadian wildlife icon. After that we drifted in the lake for a bit soaking up the last of the sun’s rays and enjoying the peace and quiet. Arriving at camp, we parked the canoes and jumped straight into the water at sunset for a swim! The water was pretty icy but refreshing and laying out in the sun after was arguably the best way to end the day. The evening was spent stargazing. The stars were breathtaking, you could see the Milky Way and we even spotted a bunch of shooting stars! Despite a restless night, the next morning we got up and continued our canoeing. This was an easier day and a shorter one. The lake remained calm and a big pike nearly jumped in our boat! We encountered one fast moving waterway which apparently took out a few canoes in its rapids- we decided to avoid it altogether! Overall Algonquin was amazing, I'm not sure how many times I muttered 'this is the life' to myself but it's truly a beautiful place.