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Sunday 18 July
We didnt arrive at Emma & Norms house till quite late last night so all we managed to do was have a chat while the boys went to bed but this morning I was up bright and early and ready to go. It was quite a slow start trying to get the boys through breakfast and into clothes and we didn't manage to leave the house until until lunch time again which meant that the 100km journey to Parc Gatineau was a long one. We did get there and had a quick picnic lunch by the beach before we start to hike into the forest. We had seen on the website about a set of caves so we went searching. It was quite a long walk in for the little ones, about 5km up hills and through dense forest at times and Warren, 7, didnt hold up well and struggled to keep up. The caves were awesome though and even though we all forgot water shoes and torches we went in anyway to test it out. The second time through little Graham ,4, came with us and was so brave even when he got a little skittish at the deep water section. I dont think that I would like to try caving for real but a fun little cave like that was fun. there was another section which was deeper and darker but without being better prepared decided not to try that one and leave it for another day. As it was such a long walk in Norm and I yomped back to the car in quick time to pick the others up and drive back to Constance Bay. It was pretty late so we stopped at a Mexican restaurant for dinner and I had my first Texas size frozen margarita which was awesome and as the meals are so large I also had my first doggy bag, woo hoo!
Monday 19 July
It rained right through the night really heavily so we couldnt go straight into Ottawa but it cleared up nicely so we prepared ourselves for a good day of mounty hunting!
However, the first stop of the day was to the local pharmacy as I had to get something to control the massive great spider bite I had on my thigh. Somehow, yesterday I got bitten by something and by this morning it was about and inch deep and the size of my palm with 2 very neat little bite holes. man it hurt, it made my entire leg go dead so I had to limp everywhere... We eventually got into central ottawa and after a bite to eat where I had to eat my words about how disgusting Poutin was (chips covered in beef gravy and Quebec cheese curd) we headed up to Parliament hill for some mounty hunting. I was sooo excited but when we got there, there was not a red serge to be seen anywhere! apparently, because it had been raining they decided not to go on parade that day. I was a very upset girl!! In our effort to track one down we drove to their stables but because it was so badly signposted we missed the shop opening by 5 minutes and all the stables were locked shut for the day so poor michelle had to go without, boo hoo!! All was not lost though, we treated ourselves to a 'beavers tail' which is a rather large pastry base baked with cinnamon and lemon and just one whiff can clog the arteries at 100 paces. soooo goood....
Tuesday 20 July
Today we drove early up the Ottawa River to Beachburg to go white water rafting with wildernesstours.com. Compared with the day before it was blue skies and a raging hot sun beating down which was just the perfect setting for the rafting along with our guide, Tyler Fox or "Foxxy" as he likes to be known... We went through some awesome rapids despite the river being very low and there was no doubt that our raft hit the waves harder than anyone else and we all got very very wet! I was determined to ensure that I was sat at the front of the raft to ensure that myself and Allison got the best drowning possible and I think that Norm underestimated the sharpness of my elbows in achieving this... although no complaints as was sat right behind us and luckily so as he had to catch Allison as she nearly fell out on the first rapid. It was a pretty chilled day with a beach BBQ half way through and a fair few stops for swims including somersaults off the front of the raft and even a stop for some cliff jumping which although was nervy was awesome. But even out there where the only people in the water were rafters and white water kayakers there were some interesting sites! We were going round a fairly large rapid that circled a rock and sat on top of this rock was a female kayaker that was the size of a moose! i have no idea how she fitted into a white water kayak let alone roll and I was so distracted that I nearly fell out! It was very bizarre, she kind of looked like a heat sealed marshmallow wedged in there with her skin tight leggings....
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