"Get your fluffy head off my arm"

Hi everyone! We've now arrived safe and sound in Vancouver - I'll try to pick up from where Kate left off previously.

Last time on the Mimsy Poople show...

So far we're up to Thursday 14th July (we're really quite far behind aren't we!)
We were back on the Moose bus (Driver was a cool extreme-sports guy called Doug) and heading to Mont Tremblant, which is a ski resort. The town of Mont Tremblant itself is quite touristy, and a bit bland, but the hostel was nice and we got a chance to pedal-boat and canoe on the lake (about a minute's walk from the hostel). Aside from a minor leech-attach on my leg, Mont Tremblant wasn't too exciting so we decided to head straight to the next place on our journey, which was Ottawa.

On the way to Ottawa we headed through Omega park, which is a wildlife safari/sanctuary, the animals are a little timid but really love carrots, so we were in luck - we got some excellent photos of deer, caribou, timber wolves, arctic wolves, bear, raccoon, boar and flies. Apparently there was a moose on one of the trails, but we missed him...



The Ottawa hostel has a very nice gimmick, in that it used to be a prison.

Death row was on the 8th floor, where there were several hangings during the life of the prison (including one which they know to have been a bit premature...). The place was a little creepy, with cells on a few of the floors for hostel guests to stay in. It wasn't really built for comfort though, so during our first night it was absolutely boiling in the room, and I managed to keep almost everyone in the room awake by tossing and turning on the top bunk of my creaky bed. Fortunately, they couldn't sleep because of the heat either.We explored a little of Ottawa and the hostel (the walk in fridge was definitely worth a few visits), but mostly we used the time to relax, do a bit of shopping, and went to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in their air-conditioned mall (very important in the humidity!)

On Monday (18th July) we travelled from Ottawa to Fort Coulonge.We got back on the Moose bus, this time with Cathy as driver, and headed back into Québec (the province, not the city). We stopped at the site of the "Great Canadian Bungee", a 200 foot vertical drop over water. We all lazed around in the small lake and on the deck. The little lake itself was quite tropical looking, the water was fairly warm (compared to any English water, ever) so nice enough to swim in.We settled into the Esprit hostel later that afternoon, and spent our evening sorting out our Whitewater rafting trip, playing catch with one of the six dogs they had on site, and played pool in the bar.
While at the Esprit hostel we went Whitewater rafting along both channels of the Ottawa river. The best rapid was called the "Butterfly", which we went over a total of three times - the first to get over it, the second and third to try to surf on it :D
A girl in our boat, Katherine, fell out twice on this rapid - I was quite jealous.Our raft guide was a nice guy called Tom, we got chatting to him quite a bit during some of the quieter moments whilst we were paddling between rapids, and he even let me steer at one point for a little while! :D
When we got back onto calm waters we intentionally flipped the raft and we all had a swim in the Ottawa rivers with our little life-jackets on - it makes floating so much fun and I discovered the fun sport of Wench-Rolling (this is probably similar to barrel rolling, but I imagine Wenches are a little harder to find). The water was very warm, since it was a hot day, and both Kate and myself managed to get our legs burnt.
All in all, that was a brilliant day, and both Kate and myself really want to go again.

We decided to spend some time camping while we were in Fort Coulonge also since it was a few bucks cheaper, and because the tents were actually more comfortable than inside the hostel due to the heat.

A few days later we headed to Madawaska, which is fairly near to Algonquin Park, a huge nature reserve and wildlife sanctuary. We were hoping to do some camping whilst in the area, but in the end it turned out that the outfitters wanted a lot more money than we were willing to pay ($70 per person per night, not including food). Instead we slept in their really comfortable hostel - it's basically a house that's been converted. The staff were also really nice.

We lazed around on a beach, hiked some trails around Algonquin park, had a few BBQs, did some cycling and (the highlight of our time in Madawaska) canoed out to Moores Waterfall.The waterfall was very beautiful, and practically no-one else was around. You could get right up to the top of the falls and then luge down it on your bum (and it wasn't too uncomfortable) straight into the lake that formed below it. The fall also had a little whirlpool basin at the top where you could just sit and bathe, and there weren't too many bugs around, so it made that a really great time.


We're now up to Tuesday 26th of July, when we headed back to Toronto, again with Levi driving who was finishing his next loop around. We were all a bit impatient to get back into Toronto so we didn't really stop off a lot during the journey back - just once at a firetower used to monitor the park for any huge forest fires.That night however, we had a really nice Indian meal in Toronto, and then a whole bunch of drinks with Levi and a couple of Japanese girls (one of whom Kate mentioned earlier ;) ).


Levi ended up taking both of them home... smooth ;)


So, we've updated to Wednesday 27th of July, day 28 of our travels. I'm going to have to leave you here, because I've spent far too long doing this while Kate's been at the hostel, so I shall see you all soon.

Meanwhile, here is a picture of Kate for you all.