Barry and Dana on the Road, and more......: Life on Rob's Island: Before and After.....

June 28 - Otter Falls Provincial Campground, Whiteshell Provincial Park, Manitoba. We are camped on the edge of the Winnipeg River. The river is dammed downstream so this part of the river is called Dorothy Lake. We are still not connected to wifi so I am writing offline hoping to post in the next day or two. It was a terrific day. We left Rob’s Island on Lake of the Woods early this morning and began our drive back into Manitoba, then north into Whiteshell Provincial Park, easily the largest park in the province. After 100 kms we are on the western edge of the park. The park continues north for another 50 kms. Whiteshell Provincial Park is about 2,700 square kilometres in size. It is Boreal forest on the edge of the Canadian Shield. It is solid granite, trees and wetlands, all in a big scale. But I digress……

The last 3 days has been a wonderful experience. Dana and I feel very privileged to have been invited to Rob’s little paradise on Lake of the Woods (LW). Our introduction to LW was on June 24 when we arrived in Kenora, just east of the Manitoba border. We arrived mid afternoon in time to find a motel room and a place to eat. Kenora is a resource town, mainly logging, and one that supports a summer cottage industry. LW is one of many lakes that are dotted by summer cottages big and small. One unique feature in Kenora is that many stores, the Safeway for example, is accessible by boat. There is a parking lot for cars and a dock for your boat. You can even have your groceries delivered direct to your boat.

On the morning of June 25th Dana and I backtracked about 30 kms on the Trans Canada to the marina where Rob would meet us and take us to his island. We arrived at the designated time and there was Rob, at the dock having just arrived in his boat. After hugs and laughs we loaded our gear and headed out. Even though it was a bit choppy Rob’s boat was very comfortable. After about 20 minutes we arrived at his island. For the next 3 days we enjoyed awesome hospitality, sights and scenery. One activity that we spent a fair bit of time at was birding. We had no idea that the birding would be a good as we found it. During our stay I got some terrific bird photographs and we added 5 bird species to our world list. (Bird photos coming in a later post). Rob, in his ongoing quest to out-do us claimed his bird life list grew by 10 during our visit. It was a thoroughly relaxing time. Granted we were required to work periodically and Rob had some odd point system he was keeping but other than that we could not have asked for a better host and friend. Our stay with Rob could very well be the highlight of our summer. Thanks Rob!

Here are a couple of pics from our stay in Kenora, with Rob and from today’s travels. Enjoy!!

PS: June 29: At around 5:00 a.m. this morning the sky opened up and drenched us for about 4 hours. Add in the dramatic lightning and thunder and safe to say it was a sleepless night. Our tent is a 3 season tent but it is fantastic. Only after 4 hours of hard rain and wind did a couple of drops of water enter the tent. What was truly amazing about this story was that we were both still in bed at 9:00 a.m. No reason to get up and sleep was needed. Neither of us can recall a time in recent memory where where we were both in bed that late in the day.