Way back when in February I went to the Outdoor Adventure Show and I twisted my friend Leslie’s arm to go on a learn-how-to-kayak weekend with me. We booked 2 days including meals, kayaking lessons and camping accommodation with a company called Equinox Adventures that has a rafting and kayaking camp located on Calumet Island in the Ottawa River.

So Friday we got ready, I picked Leslie up from work and we headed off on Highway 401 east of Toronto. We got stuck in rush hour traffic for a solid hour and half until I decided to go north of the highway to take a country road. We stopped in for a nice little dinner in Belleville, and after driving through the beautiful countryside in Eastern Ontario and after getting lost on the winding roads near our destination, we finally set up our tent at about 11 pm, illuminated by the headlights of my car.

The Equinox river camp is very basic, located around an old farmhouse are 3 different campgrounds (for noisy, semi-noisy and quiet campers..), an outbuilding with extremely basic men’s and women’s bathrooms that have 2 toilet stalls as well as 4 functioning shower stalls in a co-ed shower and an outdoor eating area covered by tarps that are draped over metal railings. Luxury accommodation this is definitely not.

Saturday morning we got started early, we actually got woken up by the mooing of cows in the farmers field next door at about 6 am. Other campers reported that some of the cows took a walk right through the camp ground and actually left some sizeable paddies behind. It was fabulous to be in a tent again after not having gone camping for about 8 years…. We got a simple breakfast, some pancakes and pre-packaged muffins (some of them a little furry) and we started picking our kayak gear and headed off with our knowledgeable guide Christine and her helper Krista in a van to the Ottawa River. We got suited up with our life jackets, helmets and sprayskirs, and then put our kayaks in the water.

I had a devil of a time getting my sprayskirt over the kayak’s opening because it was so tight. We started with simple paddling exercises in the calm waters of the Rocher Fendu dam and first learned how to do a “wet exit”: after you tip the kayak and are underneath the vessel (panic time for most people) we were taught to rip the sprayskirt off and swim our way out of the kayak.

Paddling was quite difficult since the angle of the blades of the paddle is offset, so while your right hand is supposed to stay still, the left hand is supposed to tilt a little so the left blade of the paddle goes into the water at the proper angle. I had a bit of a problem with that since my right arm is way stronger than my left arm (from playing tennis) and I couldn’t get the entry angle of the left side of the paddle right, so many times I ended up going in a circle off to the left, having to paddle 3 or 4 times on the left side just to straighten myself out again. The kayaks are perfectly flat on the bottom, so there is no hull to help you out with the tracking on the water.

Paddling got a little more difficult when we went up the Ottawa River and my own personal faulty technique caused me to veer off to the left all the time, causing me to get caught in the current of the river, drifting downstream, against the direction of where we were trying to go. I then realized a few things: that the currents on a river as big as the Ottawa River are extremely strong and that my upper body strength was waning pretty quickly. I really developed some major respect for the river and for the skills involved in kayaking.

To be honest, I never quite got the hang of it. We were taught skills like “ferrying”, i.e. getting across a current at an angle, or the “T-rescue”, where a second kayak comes up to you after you have tipped your kayak and are trapped underneath the boat in the water. You are then supposed to tap on your own kayak 3 times to make noise to alert other paddlers that you have capsized. Then you have to reach along the side of the boat to locate the second kayak, and then you put both hands on the other kayak and twist yourself out from underneath your own vessel with a flick of the hips.

I have to admit, I am a pretty athletic person, and I love speedy sports like downhill skiing and mountain biking, and I am actually pretty good at them. But some things about whitewater kayaking gave me the chills, just the idea of getting entrapped upside down underneath the kayak, possibly snagged by a rock underneath the water, and not being able to get back up freaked me out.

So I decided that in the future I would try calmer water sports such as canoeing or sea kayaking on a calm lake, instead of facing mortal danger on the rapids. To reassure all of you readers though: all the other kayaking students did fine, they went upriver, and came down through some mild rapids and had a great time paddling themselves around on the Ottawa River on Saturday and Sunday. And Christine, our guide, was very helpful, and there was always another kayaking student around to help you if you were in trouble, so assistance to safety was never far away.

Saturday evening we actually watched a safety video for whitewater kayaking and in the video I realized that advanced whitewater kayaking is a pretty dangerous sport and the risk of drowning or hurting yourself by getting entrapped in rocks or “strainers” (fallen tree branches that stick out of the water) is substantial and must be avoided at all cost. We also learned that working as a team and rescuing one’s team mates are critical life-saving skills. By this time I had already decided that I would trade my second day of kayaking lessons in for some mountain biking on Sunday, combined with a little photo safari of Calumet Island.

So Sunday morning, after my interview with Krista, she was kind enough to lend me her mountain bike and I grabbed my camera and started my discovery of Calumet Island, a large island in the Ottawa River wedged between Ontario and Quebec. I cycled through forests, rolling hills, grazing pastures and past a few extremely well-kept country properties. I spent about an hour cycling on dirt roads to the edge of the Ottawa River where I started to experiment with my camera a little bit.

My brother-in-law Roger, a consummate graphic designer and visual artist, had recently taught me how to do close-up shots of plants and other objects, so I started experimenting taking close-range shots of plants and flowers right next to the Ottawa River. This was the first time I experimented with this photo technique and I have to say I was reasonably pleased with the outcome once I came home last night and downloaded the images.

On my way back from the river I had an interesting encounter: I drove by a barn and saw 2 horses grazing in the distance. They looked up and noticed me, and as if on cue, two other horses came out of the barn as well. They started approaching me, as I was standing on the side of the road, behind a wire fence. All four horses came trotting towards me. About half way from me they stopped in unison, checked me out, then looked at each other, figured they had seen all they needed to see, and trotted off in perfect coordination again. It was a really comical cross-species encounter and I ended up chuckling to myself when the horses disappeared again into the barn.

After my 2 hour mountain biking excursion I spent the rest of Sunday exploring the island in my car and drove through rolling hills and farm land. Upon my return to the camp ground I spread out a blanket under a tree and did some open-air reading. All the other campers were gone to either river raft or kayak, and the campground was totally quiet, all you could hear were the crickets and an occasional moo from a cow. It was serenity at its best. The other rafters and kayakers came back in the afternoon and they all reported that they had had a fabulous time at their respective water sports.

At about 4:30 we headed back out on the road and did a nice 5 hour highly scenic drive through towns like Eganville and Bancroft that are surrounded by rolling hills, lush green forests and ancient rock faces, before we headed into the serene lake district of the Kawartha Highlands. It was a perfect weekend - a combination of adventure and relaxation under crystal blue skies, and it just taught me how beautiful the back roads of Ontario can be.

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions(http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest(http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

“Life is a Journey

After deciding to move to Siberia for a year to teach at the Chita State Technical University, I embarked on a travel odyssey unlike any other. In this entry, we pick up the trip leaving the train station in Khabarovsk.

A Train To Nowhere?

In deciding to travel to Chita, Siberia, I had originally estimated a travel time of three days. Okay, maybe three at the outside figuring time changes and such.

As day 4 of the trip headed into the afternoon, I was finally on the train that would take me to Chita and figured I would be there in a day or so. I would finally get to see the beautiful and extreme landscape of Russia. To make things even better, I would get to brag to my friends about riding on the famous Trans-Siberian railway. This was going to be great. As is often the case with anticipated events, reality threw an ugly wrench in the proceedings.

StopGoStopGo

In California, there are two types of trains you can take. The first is an express train that pretty much takes you from point A to point B with few stops in between. For those traveling shorter distances, there is a “slow train” that stops at every little town and station. In Russia, we were clearly on the slow train.

As we pulled out of the train station in Khabarovsk, anticipation was in the air. The train slowly gained speed. We stared out the window as the city started to pass at an increasing pace. After about 5 minutes, we stared out the window as the city started to pass at a DECREASING pace. After a few more minutes, we stopped at another train station.

Ah, there are probably two big stations in the city and it makes sense to pick up everyone for the trip across the country. Soon enough, the whistle blew and off we went again. Smiles spread across our face. These disappeared roughly 5 minutes later as we stopped again.

My god, how many train stations are there in this city? I can tell you there are at least 5 since we stopped at that many. With time spent sitting in each little train station, an hour had passed and we weren’t even out of the city!

As I stood at a window in the hall, a Russian man heard me muttering and decided to practice his English. We chatted. I remarked on the number of stops. He grimaced and told me the trip to Chita would take 3 plus days. I grimaced. And nearly cried like a small child. Three days in a train compartment no bigger than a closet. Oh, my.

Then he told me the food car on the train was closed for the trip. Since this is a clean web site, I can’t print the words I uttered at that moment. Just picture the reaction of Homer Simpson on learning there is no more beer in Springfield.

My new Russian friend smiled and said, “What does that word mean? We never learned that.”

Read more of this Russian Travelogue at NomadJournalTrips.com.

Rick Chapo is with http://www.nomadjournals.com - makers of travel journals. Writing journals are the perfect travel accessories. Visit http://www.nomadjournaltrips.com to read more travel articles and travelogues.

Our winter getaway over the last two days was supposed to include a couple of different activities: snow-tubing and outdoor skating. Well, our outdoor skating fell through, due to the extraordinarily warm conditions, however, we had a beautiful day yesterday on Kempenfelt Bay in Barrie, where we enjoyed some great outdoor time on frozen Lake Simcoe.

Today, after our delicious filling breakfast at Nicholyn Farms Bed and Breakfast, we headed off for another adventure: snowtubing at Horseshoe Valley. Unfortunately the weather today was even less cooperative: as the day progressed it went from freezing rain to rain to a veritable downpour as we drove back to Toronto.

Nevertheless the morning was cold enough for our snowtubing adventure. My 8-year old nephew had never been snowtubing before, and knowing his penchant for high-speed adrenaline-filled activities, we knew that he would fall in love with this sport.

Horseshoe Valley is one of several Ontario winter resorts and in addition to downhill skiing, cross-country skiing and skating, it also features a snow-tubing hill. It’s a thrill to get pulled up on the hill, sitting on a refunctioned inner tube, and then getting linked up in a group of 2, 3 or 4 snow-tubers, who hold on to their neighbouring tuber’s handle and then get pushed down the hill by one of the staff members - with a spin and a momentum that feels almost like a roller coaster!

Snowtubing is just one of the many fun winter activities that Ontario has to offer.
Snow Valley Resort just on the other side of Highway 400 also offers snowtubing.
Blue Mountain Resort in Collingwood is another place for Ontario snowtubing enthusiasts.

Skating:

Obviously hockey is Canada’s national sport and skating runs in the veins of many residents of this northern country. Virtually all Ontario cities, towns and villages have outdoor skating rinks and indoor arenas. Outdoor skating is free in many cases, and indoor pleasure skating is generally a very inexpensive sport.

One of the best known skating Ontario opportunities exists in Ottawa, on the 7.8 km long Rideau Canal, the world’s longest skating rink according to the Guiness Book of Records. The City of Ottawa lists its public skating information on the Internet.

Toronto’s well-known outdoor skating venues include City Hall, Harbourfront and Grenadier Pond in HIgh Park and the City of Toronto provides a list of leisure skating opportunities in Toronto.

Skiing & snowboarding:

Although Ontario certainly doesn’t have the greatest vertical drop compared to international ski resorts, but it does offer 41 resorts for downhill skiers and snowboarders at the Ski Ontario website.

Cross-country skiing & snowshoeing:

Ontario’s more than 120 cross-country ski areas are rivalled only by Quebec for sheer number and variety. Ski areas are operated by various organizations ranging from parks to clubs and resorts. The Ski Ontario website provides an extensive listing of cross-country opportunities across Ontario.
Special offers for snowshoeing and cross-country getaways are featured on the Ontario Outdoor website.

Snowmobiling:
Ontario offers more than 43,000 km (26,000 mi.) of maintained, interconnected, uncongested trails. It is the longest network of recreational trails in the world. The 248 member clubs of the Ontario Federation of Snowmobile Clubs build and maintain this extensive trail network. Find more information about snowmobiling in Ontario in the Ontario Snowmobiler Magazine.

Iceclimbing:
The north of Ontario is the heart of Ontario’s iceclimbing country and features ice-clad routes with heights of more than 90 m. Special ice-climbing getaways are featured on the Ontario Outdoor Website.

Dogsledding:
Dog sledding has evolved from a utilitarian form of transport in northern countries to a unique travel experience. Some dogsledding operators have a guide drive the team, where at other places you may drive the sled yourself. The Ontario Outdoor Website features a variety of dog sledding adventures and getaways.

Urban Winter Getaways:
For those who want to enjoy the best that Ontario’s cities have to offer over the winter time, there are a variety of special events going on. Many cities and towns throughout Ontario feature special winter festivals, starting with many festivals of light, tree lighting ceremonies and New Year’s celebrations in November and December, and continuing with a variety of special events, trade fairs and restaurant promotions throughout January and February. The Success with Ontario website features a listing of Ontario’s Festivals and events.

Major festivals include:
Toronto’s WinterCity Festival and Winterlicious
Ottawa’s Winterlude Winter Festival
Niagara’s Icewine Festival

Ontario Accommodation Choices:
Ontario offers a wide variety of choices for getaways. From all-inclusive feature-packed resorts, to down-to-earth farm vacations, to cozy bed and breafasts, secluded cottages and chalets and inviting country inns, Ontario has a wide selection of accommodation providers. Unique boutique hotels, and centrally located urban hotels round out the accommodation offers. Ontario Travel’s website offers a great overview of the accommodation choices available in Ontario.

There is plenty to do in the winter in Ontario, indoors and out. Nature lovers, urban explorers, adrenaline junkies, and romantic lovebirds will all find something to choose from to brighten up those cold winter days.

Susanne Pacher is the publisher of a website called Travel and Transitions (http://www.travelandtransitions.com). Travel and Transitions deals with unconventional travel and is chock full of advice, tips, real life travel experiences, interviews with travellers and travel experts, insights and reflections, cross-cultural issues, contests and many other features. You will also find stories about life and the transitions that we face as we go through our own personal life-long journeys.

Submit your own travel stories in our first travel story contest (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/contests.htm) and have a chance to win an amazing adventure cruise on the Amazon River.

“Life is a Journey Explore New Horizons”.
The story with photos is published at Travel Stories and Photos (http://www.travelandtransitions.com/stories_photos/hello_barrie_3.htm)