Ottawa

I pulled it to downtown mid-afternoon, and to my delight there was a prime spot open with power. It was hot and sticky so I spent most of the remainder of the day inside with the AC blasting.

Highlights for me on the trip down were excursions up the Tay Canal to Perth and the Kemptville Creek to Kemptville. Both involved waterfront patio dining. Spent one night in the remote marsh on the Tay, I basically ran into the mud between two beaver lodges.

The locks here are all parks. They’re all lovely, and most are operated as they were 100 years ago. I was quite taken with the swing bridges, some of which were swung by the locktenders completely manually. I took this video of the bridge being closed behind me.

I’m going to hang here for a couple of days. The weather has been perfect for a month, but it’s forecast to be hot this week, and I’m quite happy to escape the sun and heat for a while.

After that? I’m going to head down the Ottawa River, but it’s going to be a return trip. I learned a few days ago that the Carrillon Lock is closed for the season. Should have checked earlier. So there is no passage through to Montreal.

That’s OK. I’m really enjoying the travel. But I’ve pretty much abandoned the idea of going east from Montreal anyway. That’s a trip I’d like to take, but not this year, and probably not in Mazurka.

So now my plan is to do a return trip down the Ottawa to the closed lock, then back through the Rideau to Kingston, then back to the Trent Severn. All good.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•