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An Adventurous Route for Backpacking South East Asia
Copyright (c) 2004 Parry Loeffler You have permission to publish this article free of charge electronically or in print, as long as the About the Author bylines are included and all links remain active in electronic versions. You can remove the...
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Hello from Toronto (5) - Novice Golf, Driving through the Kawarthas, a Little Off-Road Mountain-Biking & Preparing to Say Goodbye
It is unbelievable how nine days can just fly by. Today my
brother, sister-in-law and our two Austrian friends are
scheduled to fly back to Graz, Austria, via Vienna. There has
been an increasingly palpable sense of sentimentality in the
air, in light of the fact that this wonderful time is coming to
an end alarmingly quickly.
It's also amazing how many activities one is able to cram into a
short amount of time. I wanted to give them a really good taste
of everything that I love about the city of Toronto and my new
country. So occasionally I put a few too many things on our
plates and we ended up racing through a few of the activities.
On the whole though, I think our European guests had a fabulous
time and they fell in love with Toronto, just like I did, many
years ago.
Saturday all six of us went golfing to a little par-3 golf
course in the East end of Toronto. None of my Austrian guests
had ever golfed before, so a couple of days earlier we started
with a few buckets of balls at the driving range, followed up by
an indoor putting practice session on the carpet. Saturday we
would get to try the real thing. The attempts at the driving
range didn't look all that great, with balls spraying all over
the place, to the left and to the right. But on Saturday
afternoon, another gorgeous day, our four Austrian guests
performed quite admirably and only lost 2 balls in the water
hazard.
They really enjoyed golf, a sport they had never even dreamed of
playing, but the Toronto area with its several hundred golf
courses, many of them reasonably priced, made it easy to give
this sport a try. All preconceived notions about golf only being
a sport for old people went out the window, and they enjoyed the
challenge of trying to sink the round little ball in the hole.
Sunday came our second big excursion: a driving tour through the
Kawartha Lakes. I had only planned two major driving tours: a
wine-tasting tour through the Niagara Peninsula, and a second
one to the lake district of the Kawarthas. We started by driving
east on Toronto's 401, a 12 to 16 lane highway whose size duly
impressed my European visitors. Then we headed north-east
through rolling farm country to Peterborough, a rural university
town with a population of about 70,000. From there we drove
north into the Kawarthas, a gorgeous lake region set in the
rocky landscape of the Canadian Shield.
Our first stop was Buckhorn, where we watched the mechanics of
lift locks of the Trent-Severn Canal that links Lake Ontario
with Georgian Bay. We saw how several boats assembled inside the
lock following by an opening of the sluices and the water level
equilibrating itself with the level of the lower portion of the
river. The Parks Canada lock supervisor explained the whole
process to us and it only took about 10 minutes for the boats to
reach the lower level.
From Buckhorn we drove through rocky and marshy countryside to
the quaint village of Bobcaygeon where we took an extended
stroll. We had a nice waterfront lunch, looking across to the
marina, seeing the the boats come in an out of the canal.
Particularly our Austrian friends Luis and Isabella love boating
and seeing the many houseboats on the Trent-Severn Canal gave
them a few ideas for future vacations in Canada.
The lunch was delicious and we took a little stroll around this
charming town, admiring the waterfront parks and picnic
facilities that allow great access to the water. From Bobcaygeon
we drove on to another little picturesque country town: Fenelon
Falls, whose name comes from a waterfall in the middle of town
that has been used for electricity generation since the 1870s.
After a sizeable line-up we picked up a few delicious cones of
Kawartha Dairy ice cream and strolled over to the bridge over
the falls and then down to the little peninsula that sticks out
into the river. From there you can look into a rocky gorge where
both sides of the river are surrounded by high rocks.
Again, we watched boats being lifted and lowered, this time in
lock 33 of the Trent-Severn Canal System. This is another town
with a beautiful little park right by the locks with lots of
opportunity for barbeques or simply for a relaxing snooze in the
sun . Time was flying by and by this time it was already 3:30 pm
so we had to start our return to the city. We only took back
roads and my brother lost count of the numerous golf courses
that dotted the landscape. It was a nice relaxing drive through
rolling countryside and we made it back
to Toronto in less than
2 hours. All four of my Austrian guests had fallen in love with
the Lake District and the prospect of another vacation in Canada
to explore the waters north of Toronto seems ever more likely.
Yesterday was their last full day in Toronto, and we took our
bikes out for a spin one more time. Since we all love water we
rode down to the Eastern Beaches again, and leisurely explored
the waterfront. We watched some lawn bowling, and one of the
participants kept coming over to us to explain the rules of the
game to us since none of us was familiar with this sport. My
guests commented several times on the friendliness of people in
the stores, restaurants, in line-ups and even I myself was
surprised at the approachability of Torontonians, often known as
a more reserved breed of people. But we truly kept having very
positive experiences, equally with people employed in the
service sector, as well as with regular citizens, taking a
stroll, playing a game of lawn bowling or going for a walk with
their dog.
Of course we admired the inukshuks by the beach, a public play
area for adults with rocks of various shapes and sizes that are
used by passers-by to create interesting stone sculptures. We
watched a few tense points at the Kew Gardens Tennis Club, and
checked out the picturesque Kew Gardens park itself. From there
we headed west past the beach volleyball facilities to the
little peninsula west of Ashbridges Bay which always offers a
fabulous view of Toronto's skyline. We took in the tranquil
atmosphere and soaked in the sun for a while before we started
our return back along the waterfront. My European visitors
commented several times how incredible it is to have all this
publicly accessible land right along the waterfront and how in
some secluded spots you don't even realize that you are in a
major metropolitan area.
To get back up to our house we had to climb back up from the
waterfront and this time we chose the Glen Stewart Ravine, where
a little brook has carved a valley into the slopes leading down
to the waterfront. It is a densely forested area and when you
are in there it feels like you are in a remote forest somewhere,
not right in the middle of Toronto.
Once back at our house, preparation got started for our final
goodbye barbeque and we had invited a few extra friends to join
us to give our Austrian guests a proper sendoff back home. We
enjoyed some excellent food and they sampled a few more
varieties of Canadian wines and beers, all of which they had
commented quite favourably on. We didn't sample much restaurant
cuisine since my brother is a talented chef, but the fresh
ingredients that he purchased in Toronto's various markets made
for some truly delicious dinners.
In the evening we took one more spin in the car, first to
revisit the Distillery District at night. Luis had wanted to buy
some beer glasses at the Mill Street Brewery as a souvenir, but
unfortunately the brewery and restaurant were closed. The whole
Distillery area was a little quiet, not surprisingly, since it
was Labour Day, the last official day of summer, and the final
day of respite before school would begin again. We continued our
driving tour with a little spin through downtown and up Yonge
Street before we turned east on Bloor Street. We crossed the
Bloor Street Viaduct and arrived on the Danforth, Toronto's
Greek area. As always, Greektown was quite busy and people were
milling about. We sat down on the patio of one of our favourite
restaurants and enjoyed some Greek snacks before we headed home
after another long day, all of us a little sad, commenting how
nine days can pass so quickly.
Today we'll have to take their four rented bicycles back and
around 2:30 we'll have to start the trek to the airport. It's
been a fabulous 9 days, an extended sleepover with four great
people and we won't forget this holiday for a long, long time.
We are already hoping for another reunion, either in Austria, or
back here in Canada, to deepen this fabulous connection.
About the author:
Susanne Pacher is the publisher of
http://www.travelandtransitions.com. It deals with travel to
foreign countries and is chock full of advice, tips, real life
travel experiences, interviews with travellers, insights,
cross-cultural issues, and many other features. Participate in
our travel story contest
http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm and win great
prizes, a fabulous cruise to the Amazon. Life is a Journey -
Explore New Horizons.
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