A day at the Park, Republique and Les Jardins.

A Witch's house in the garden? A pen for Hansel and Gretel?

It was a walking tour today, around the campground we're in (see yesterday's post for more park info) and the nearby Gardens.

The campground lies right beside the Madawaska River, a pretty, free-flowing clear-looking river. This morning we walked around sight-seeing:

Loved the house (cottage?) right on the river with your pontoon boat all ready to go

The campground has kayaks and canoes to rent. No takers yet on this cool windy morning.

Also pedal-style paddleboats

They also have bicycles to rent, mostly e-bikes I think. Also on the grounds are more traditional cabins, and ones similar to the Otentics found in National parks, kind of a combination cabin and tent. 

This one was one of several right on the river, great views from the deck:

This one looked like it would sleep at least 6 people, with bunks

Here's a sample of the smaller-looking cabins that aren't on the river. We quite liked this one: 

 

Right after lunch we toured the Jardins Botanique, right next door to the campground. Admission is 25% off for campers. Here's a sampling of the many pictures we took:

 

The grand entrance

There are quite a few tree sculptures

A 7 ft tall gardener

Amazing plant detail in the turtle up close.

 

Several large fountain settings

Whimsical garden art

Intensely red flowers ...

... merely lunch to a caterpillar

Several works of stained glass

A wider view of the witch's house (actually a coop for rare-breed chickens)

Water Lilies in bloom

After the tour it was back to our camp site and put our aching feet up in the lawn chairs. A very nice and tiring day, but a good kind of tired.

 

Through the province of Quebec today

On a short hike at our campground for the night

 

A shorter and somewhat easier travel day today, we trekked through Quebec to our campground in New Brunswick. 

With our early 6:30 start on this Sunday morning the Quebec Trans Canada traffic was lighter than we've dealt with on many previous trips out east. We still don't enjoy travelling in Quebec (for various reasons I won't go into here), but even though we love travelling in the US, these days we're very reluctant to cross the US border, so the options are very limited for driving to Atlantic Canada from Ontario. 

Crossing the St Lawrence via Hwy 30 bridge 

Overcast but bright 

 

Later on we started seeing some actual sun, after some rocky driving with gusty winds, rain and mist:

The highway gets more hilly after the Riviere-Du-Loup turn:

Pulp mills still active, producing steam plumes from waste heat

 

This downhill is much steeper than the camera shows

Our various camper vehicles have struggled with the hills in this area over the years. The uphill climb before this downhill has been the only hill this trip that has caused our van to shift down to a lower gear.

The hills have been tamed somewhat since trips with our older vehicles, but our current van's small 4 cyl turbo diesel is very torqey and quite capable on the hills.

 

République Provincial Park is just a few kilometers into New Brunswick, and has been a common stop for us on many trips. It can be hard to search for and find on the Internet, so here's a link in case you're interested:

https://www.parcsnbparks.ca/en/parks/8/republique-provincial-park

 

We were all checked in at the campground by 2:30 Atlantic time (1:30 Eastern). No reservation but no problem getting a site. I had gone into their reservation site yesterday and could see lots of vacancies for our stay, so didn't reserve.

All set up

 

A few pics while hiking around in the park: 

Rose plants are producing Rose Hips now 

 

Rose hips are very common in Atlantic Canada, and other places too. They are known for their high vitamin C content and have been traditionally used for medicinal purposes, including treating colds and boosting the immune system. Rose hips can be consumed fresh, dried, or used to make jams, jellies, and teas.  (credit Internet AI)

 

Several spots are looking overgrown. That's a deliberate re-wilding exercise:

 

 

We've booked in to the park for 2 nights. We like the park, and need a rest day to get ourselves and the van sorted. Our reservation at St Andrews Kiwanis campground is for Tuesday, and only about a 4 hr drive from here.

 

 

We're on the road again (finally!), heading for PEI with some stops there and back

The view on Hwy 400 heading north

Yes we're finally on the road again, trying to remember how all this van camping stuff works. It's been over a year since we last set out on more than a day trip with the van.

This was a long first half of the year for me. Starting off with knee problems in early January, which put a real crimp in our usual winter hiking. Continuing on to a diagnosis of prostate cancer in May, with radiation treatment and after-affects through June and July. 

Not pleasant, but the radiation treatment was prompt and I hope will prove successful over time.

We set off today taking what has become our sort of regular route, up to Orillia, down the east side of Lake Simcoe, and on to hwy 7. This is all to avoid going through Toronto on the 401 or 407 highways. It takes a couple of hours longer, but much more pleasant. 

A bit of fog in the distance that soon burned off

  

Along the way we stopped at the Misty Meadows country store in Conn, a small town north of Arthur. We had picked up a pint of excellent  blueberries there a few weeks ago, and got another little box today:

  This is a good Mennonite-run market with a wide range of fresh produce in season, and lots of goodies too:

 

Yummy-looking baked goods 

 

Lots of other local products

 We escaped with just our blueberries though, this time.

 As we worked our way closer to and on to Hwy 400 the idyllic rural drive ended, as in the intro picture. We had expected traffic today though, as it's a beautiful summer Saturday in vacation country. Lots of traffic heading north, on any highway.

We pressed on easterly, moving south to the 401 once we could expect to be past the heaviestToronto traffic. 

Tonight we're boondocked at a truck stop in Lancaster Ont, near the Quebec border. About 780 km today. Google rates it a 9 hour drive, but it took us about 11 1/2 elapsed. A lot of the extra time we spent stopped, at the Conn market, Kingston for gas and facilities, a good browse at the Cornwall Walmart, etc. 

I was concerned what my driving stamina would be like, but no problems. We're both tired tonight though. It sure is warm, still about 30C, and we have no AC when the van is stopped.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Tundra Swans are heading North

 

One of our spring rituals is watching for Tundra Swans visiting our area on their way to their northern breeding grounds. Last year's migration was spread out over a longer period, so we saw very few swans migrating though our area on a given day. 

Although we haven't seen numbers this year like we did a few years ago, there were quite a few around when I dropped in to our viewing spot yesterday:

 

 

 Here's a short video of some of the action:

 

FYI, the swan viewing area we usually go to is near the Lambton Heritage Museum, on Hwy 21 near Pinery Provincial Park. The swans are usually found along Greenway Road (aka Road 5), which runs off Hwy 21 near the museum. 

 

 

A few more pictures from today.

Today there were likely twice as many swans in the main viewing areas along Greenway Rd, on both sides of the road today:

 

 

 

 

 

Once back at home we went to see what Lake Huron looks like today. A beautiful-looking day but with a cool breeze from the east. The lake ice is shrinking and shifting daily: