Alex catches his fish (Big Lake & Ottawa!)

We have an relaxed start after a very peaceful night’s sleep and a lovely chat to our hosts Robbie and Nancy.  Robbie is back in his big protection outfit and the we’ve covered up got hats and lots of Deet to try and avoid being eaten. 

The weather is still glorious so we’re keen to be outside.  Robbie very kindly during a chat offers to show Alex how to fish from his pontoon on the lake, despite it being the season to leave bass alone as they are spawning.  His first 2 or 3 casts and he’s pulling out fishies! After a few more casts Alex catches his first fish all by himself and he’s over the moon! If you’ve been reading our blogs you will have heard we’ve been chasing trying to catch a fish and trying different tackle and asking advice for weeks so it’s a really lovely moment.  He catches big and small mouth bass (including a couple of big ones) and even a small sun fish which we release to swim another day!

After a busy fishing session we have a spot of lunch on Robbie and Nancy’s beautiful deck and watch blue jay and hummingbirds, and a nut hatch visiting their bird feeders.  We also see a litttle chipmunk scampering about. It’s so calm and idyllic amongst the trees here. 

The lake is lake la Blanche also nicknamed “big lake” and is a couple of miles long and a mile wide and home to a large reserve where people aren’t allowed to go at all so it feels pristine.

It’s a beautiful sunny day so Nancy and I sit and

paint some rocks with my acrylic pens which is relaxing as we chat (Nancy did a lovely shell with blue and purple flowers like foxgloves and I made a little bee and some flowers for her too).

After our painting session Nancy has kindly offered to take Alex and I into town (Buckingham - same as at home but the “ham” is pronounced!) for a walk and to stop at her friends Joanne who has horses for Alex to say hello.  We have a lovely walk across a bridge where there are sluice gates as part of a hydroelectric plant and along the small town high street.  We stop for some shopping at “giant tiger” which seems to sell everything and I find some pjs for guy saying “RV nearly there yet” which I thought would appeal to him!

On the way home we stop into Joanne’s and she has 2 stunning horses banner and Brianna, incredibly kindly she teaches Alex how to stroke banner and brush him and then let’s him have a little ride - Alex loves it and both Banner and Joanne are so brilliant with him.  Alex can be incredibly manic but he is calmly, relaxed, attentive and focused trying out riding for the first time.  Apparently horses and autistic children often have a strong understanding and bonds (so Joanne tells me) so I will definitely try to let Alex ride a bit more on our trip and get him lessons when we get home.

Such an incredibly kind thing for Joanne and Nancy to do for a little boy who is a stranger but gives them both huge hugs in gratitude.

We’ve left the boys trying to fix a small boat Robbie has been given and is very kindly trying to get going to take Alex out on the lake.  Sadly the engine doesn’t seem to want to go so no boat today.

We make dinner and chat to our hosts through the fly screen (they are sensibly inside hiding form the biting beasties, we’re outside determined to brave the hearts and trying out our thermacell which seems to be keeping the bugs at bay!  We chat amiably and have a few rounds of uno together inside and very generously Nancy offers us hot showers in her basement bathroom which we are very grateful for.

We have only been here a day but spent most of it in the company of our lovely hosts who have treated us as friends since we arrived and we are really enjoying their company.

We’d planned to go into Ottawa the following day but are enjoying ourselves too much so decide to stay at Nancy and Robbie’s for the day.  Now we’re confident of our bug repelling regimen (we’ve only got the odd bite) we do a little more fishing in the morning with Robbie and amazingly he finds a little electric engine and small battery so can take guy and Alex in the boat! I’ve got my paddleboard up and ready to go so the boys head out on the boat and I follow them on the board.  It’s gorgeous and chilled on the lake and the boys make it 20 mins or so before the battery is telling them they need to head home and I carry on paddling to the end of the lake.  It’s stunning and so lovely to be able to do a longer solo paddle in such perfect conditions.  I stop on a perfect little beach for a rest and watch huge bass sunbathing.  I’m out for another 1.5 hrs and the boys are fishing again when I return.

We enjoy lunch on the terrace again and realise that Nancy is an avid mahjong player and this is one of the games we brought with us and want to learn.  Our version is a little different to traditional mahjong with animal symbols and it takes us a little while but we’re soon playing and getting the hang of the rules- great fun! Will have to play with auntie Rachel (boardgaming queen) when we get home!

Alex and I manage to sneak in a quick swim and water pistol fight before we get ready for visitors.  Guy manages to get the drone out and take some nice photos and video of Nancy and Robbie’s house which looks beautiful.  Nancy has invited some of her British friends (Ken and Jane) over who live on the next lake for nibbles and drinks.   We bring some wine meats crisps and nuts to add to the feast of prawns, devilled eggs and cheese and spend a lovely couple of hours chatting and sharing a drink.  Another incredibly kind thing for these lovely people to do for us.

We head back to the van and pack up as much as we can as we will have an early start to allow us to explore Ottawa 45mins away and then drive the 4hrs to our next stop on the Trent Severn lakes a couple of hours out of Toronto.

After a quick breakfast we say our goodbyes and are sad to leave, this has been such an incredibly memorable stay and our hosts (and their friend Joanne) have been so kind and generous.  We hope they will visit us in England one day so we can repay their kindness.

We’re up early and manage on the 2nd go to get out of the super steep driveway and it’s hot hot hot - 32 degrees as we enter Ottawa -  ouch!

Our first stop is at the science and technology museum which is brilliant - full of interactive things to do.  The highlights were the crazy kitchen - fooling the senses with its wobbly wobbly surfaces, the interactive periodic table where you can add elements together and see what happens (very cool!), and identifying different rocks and minerals in a demo.  But the best bit was the pyro demo where there were fire experiments and culminating in an explosion of calcium carbide mixing with water and making acetylene gas ignited and blasting a tin - great fun! For once we feel virtuous on the home schooling front!!

We then headed to downtown (took us a while to find Wendy friendly parking!) and the notre dame cathedral and the byword market which was established in 1826 by the British Lieutenant-Colonel John By, Builder of the Rideau Canal and its a cool market reminisicnent of Camden in London with a boho vibe and little stalls and food outlets.  We buy some more incense and some fantastic Italian gelato before walking past the giant spider outside the national art gallery and along to the rideau canal and parliament buildings. 

The canal is over 125 miles long, was originally a defensive military structure, is a paddler’s paradise and is the biggest ice rink come winter. 

The parliament buildings are again reminiscent of home .  After queen Victoria picked Ottawa as the capital of Canada (seen as an odd choice at the the time as “Bytown” as it was known was “a bit dodgy” back then) there was a competition to build the barracks and parliament buildings - Victorian gothic styling won which is why it looks a bit like some of the stuff back home.

We leave in good time a little sun baked to try and get to our next hosts before dark but the propane gods had a different idea! So far we’ve found propane pretty easily - this time we tried 5 places and failed and had to give up to try and get to our next hosts and hoping we’d have enough to run the fridge for the next few days!

A couple of hours later we arrive along “fire route 50” at our stay on Sandy lake near the Trent Severn lakes and locks and are very excited to have 3 nights out of the van in a small cabin - space!!!

Emma