It's not a Friday and it's not five-to-five, so it can't be Crackerjack (Crackerjack!), but what are we doing hitching up? It must be Summer and it must be the start of the Six Nights Away Run for the Toads.
The hound's gone on her holidays to Mary Lou's Pet Palace and the Tadpoles are off with their father, so it's a free run for the grown ups, which doesn't happen often. In the words of the great Homer Simpson, "Whoo hoo!"
We did have the Tadpoles as far as Missisauga but with a fully loaded car and trailer, travelling at 100 Km per hour, we were managing a very respectable 17.2 litres per 100 Kms fuel consumption. Normally, with no trailer, we'd get around 11 litres per 100 Kms so that wasn't too shabby at all. It's almost entirely down to the wind, though, or rather a lack of it; wind resistance is our biggest enemy when towing.
Once Tadpole free, we struck north from Missisauga along the 407 Toll Road around Toronto then onto Highway 400 towards Parry Sound. The road was clear and we made good time before turning off onto Highway 11 as we neared our destination, Orillia, and the Mara Provincial Park. Orillia is at the top of Lake Simcoe (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Simcoe), the largest of the Kawartha lakes and the start of the Ontarian North; not too far above us, the fields give way to the granite, lakes and scrub of the Canadian Shield.
Mara is a small park, but pretty and heavily wooded. The access roads are small and twisty but locating our site was easy and we were soon unhitching and getting ourselves settled in, sweating in the humidity and 29C heat but feeling pleased that it was still only a little after 3pm, which makes a real change from the usual 8pm or so when we've left home at 5pm. So pleased were we that we didn't actually spot the the ever-so slight ommission that we'd neither dumped the waste tanks or taken on fresh water. Doh! We had no choice but hitch up again and drag Towed Haul first to the dump station, then to the fresh water point. It took an hour all told to get back on the site and set up properly, so our smugness at our early arrival had been mis-placed somewhat. Not only that, I was so sweaty that my shirt was soaked through - oh the joys of camping. We also discovered that Mara is the bug capital of Ontario and we were getting eaten alive, even after being doused in bug repellent.
However, when we were settled we took a quick run down to the little sandy beach on the lake's shore. The wind was quite lively but it was taking the edge off the heat and made our paddling time there most acceptable. We stood on the boat slip (so called because it was very slippery), up to our ankles in warm water whilst we watched a small and very confused Cray Fish struggle about in the shallows. One can only have so much excitement in a day so we made our move to Duckworth's Fish and Chips, situated just a mile from the park's gates. I'd like to have thought that Duckworth's was a Coronation Street themed shop but no, it had been established in 1930, slightly ahead of Jack and Vera's arrival and was a fairly basic, fairly hot and extremely busy little restaurant. It was, of course, Senior's night (discounts for the elderly) so the place was heaving with Sanatogen junkies, which meant a 15 minute wait for a table. It's well known that Toads don't wait for tables so we settled on a take-away and headed into the town of Orillia to eat it. We happened upon the curiosly named J.B. Tudhope Memorial Park on Lake Couchiching and discoved a delightful little place in which to consume our haddock, chips and battered mushrooms. There was a fine beach there with kids still running around and swimming even at 8pm, a lovely trail along the lake's edge and a couple of baseball games in progress. (As an aside, I don't really understand baseball but I'll be happy to explain the rules of cricket to anyone prepared to open baseball's mysteries to me.). All in all we had a very pleasant evening and only returned to Towed Haul as it was getting dark.
I'm not entirely sure why but we sat in the trailer sweating quietly whilst watching "Team America" on the DVD player. We have air conditioning but chose, for some reason I can't fathom, to leave it unused. We went to bed with the windows and vents open and perspired as we expired.
At 4.25am we were woken by the sound of a major rain storm, the rain hammering on the aluminium skin of Toad Haul and gushing off the awning onto the ground with great splashing noises. Mrs T decided to get up and shut some the trailer windows and we eventually went back to sleep as the rain eased off. I can't really complain because we'd been promised such storms all day so for this one to arrive at 4.25am was quite nice really, but being inside the trailer when the rain comes down must be like being in an oil drum during a monsoon.
Anyway, it had been a good day but with the threat of stormy weather for Wednesday, we made no firm plans. What did we get up to? Was it exciting? Are you interested? Look out for Day Two of the Six Night Run; it could be the best thing you read all day. It might not be, of course.
