Traveller's Inn Pembroke

A mere 400 or so miles later I pass into very familiar territory, the Ottawa Valley. Rolling farm fields, barn smells and small towns after you bypass Ottawa (which has a charming hostel - the old Ottawa Jail right in the downtown).<br>There's a fiddle festival going on over the Labor Day weekend. It's become a phenom now after several years. The riverside park fills with rvs and bodies. Nice location.

... in a world without rules, or if everyone was just too lazy to bring the food out and put it on a table and announce that the dinner would start.<br><br>There were some people playing some music, and a guy with an accordion, singing about Killaloe. It was pretty interesting. <br><br>Bob and Therese's friend Susan from Merrickville showed up, as it turns out, she is one of Tim's exes. (Of which he has many...) She brought some amazing pumpkin cake and caribou stew, she runs ...

... the river. After the Rupert trip, we travelled for another 12 hours south again to the Gatineau River, where we stayed at the Bonnet Rouge campsite. This was a beautiful site by the awesome Gatineau River. The Bonnet Rouge is the smallest rapid on the river, but the waves are still much bigger than I have ever paddled before in a kayak. The first day we arrived, fresh off the bus, to a gorgeous sunny day. We unpacked, set up and played some silly games (human ...

... and took turns to guide one rapid each. The first day I guided The Normans and today I guided Coliseum, both of which went reasonably well and everyone stayed in the raft. We had some fun at Butcher's Knife, when the person guiding took the wrong angle into the Chopping Block wave and the raft high sided and dumped everyone. Not a flip though, so we ...

... several observation platforms and an old saw mill. It was dark. There are trees, cliff faces, rocks and a river. We only had torches to see our way around. So, I was told to search the area on the far side of the bridge. We searched around and moved onto the other bridge. Eventually we heard a noise - someone was crying out from within the ravine. We couldn't see because our torches were not good enough to reach that far down so we ...

I have made a rolling contract with Karine C. This means that whenever I want to practice my roll she has to go out on the river and help me but whenever she decides I should go out and practice I have to go. If we have time we are going to practice tomorrow afternoon after class. I'm not sure how much time there will be though, as we are doing a night search and rescue tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to that.

Christmas came at last this morning and we got some of the gear which we ordered so that everyone had enough to go paddling. We were supposed to be doing day two of the Wilderness First Responder, but Jim (who is supposed to be teaching it) broke down on his way back from Northern Quebec and was stranded 7 hours away, so we had kayak school day one instead! We loaded up boats from The Stick and brought them back on the bus before unwrapping them (see, just like ...

... to get out on the river this afternoon before dinner to practice my roll. I told her I don't have one but her and Siedsel (from Denmark) stood in the bay with me and helped turn me back up when it all went wrong. Siedsel paddles Greenlandic kayaks and can roll in many different ways, including with no hands or paddle! Anyway, I spent a long time ...

... and sat around it drinking and talking. Other WILD students have turned up now so I was able to chat to Kelly, Eric, Lauren, Karine and Karine. Right now I'm sitting having breakfast and wondering what to do today. I think the raft trip is full but I have an offer to join the others kayaking on the Ottawa. Not sure about that - it sounds a little scary to me! *Still no Davidson on the map despite e-mailing the tech support people.

... 76.796080&amp;num=10&amp;ms a=0&amp;msid=114316916078589434369.0004 54d2babc61313d034&amp;ll=45.868497,-76. 858292&amp;spn=0.095145,0.288391&amp;t= h&amp;z=11&amp;iwloc=000454d2be885c341b 934 Mark also has a GPS tracker, which you can locate by pasting the following link into Google Maps: http://www.luisespinosa.com/trackme/wil d08.kml