Our run from Douro was almost 3 miles until we stopped, rain was predicted to be heavy, so we decided to stay put rather than lock in the rain. Well, the rain never quite materialized, but we stayed put anyway, probably our shortest day cruise ever! The weather moderated a bit, so we kept moving through the lakes and past literally hundreds of cottages which cover the realm of beautifully luxurious to rugged and unique! It’s a delightful area to cruise. We stopped over at Buckhorn and walked to the bakery and the ice cream shop there. Kawartha Dairy is the regional go-to for ice cream, it seems. Pretty good! We reached Bobcaygeon on Friday, July 21. Bobcaygeon is a popular spot, and since we arrived in time to snag a prime spot on the lock wall, we decided to stay the weekend. It’s a great spot, and it’s also the place where the notorious rental houseboats of the Trent Severn are present, and any cruiser with good sense will avoid the houseboat areas like a plague, particularly on the weekend! They are fun to watch as they do bumper boats in and out of the locks, carroming off the concrete wall, and occasionally, an unlucky cruiser’s pride and joy! Hey, it’s a rental, eh?! Our mooring spot was tucked in a corner where we had minimal exposure, a great spot! There’s a park adjacent to the lock wall, and the town is delightful, if a bit of a tourist trap. We are, in fact tourists, so I suppose we’re allowed to participate!
There were plenty of weekend cruisers present, as it was the weekend, and one of the first sunny weekends in recent memory, so lots of foot traffic, and lots of friendly folks curious about Maerin and our intinerary. It seems that we’re somewhat larger, and certainly heavier and beamier than most of the cruising boats seen on the Trent-Severn, so we seem to attract attention of lots of the boaters. We’ve enjoyed sharing information with lots of them, and offering tours if the circumstances seemed right. It’s enjoyable to share our lifestyle stories with similarly interested folks who aren’t quite there yet. It’s similar to a trawler fest “Trawler Crawl”. But fun to invite folks aboard who are boaters and have an interest in the cruising lifestyle, but don’t have much opportunity to see cruising vessels first hand and up close.
Saturday morning offered a small farmer’s market a few blocks away, lots of local goodies, we picked up some maple syrup, and some other goodies. There’s a Mennonite population in Ontario, and they had some baked goods, really gooey sticky buns, yummy!! Later we got the bikes out and took in the Settler’s Village on the outside of town. It’s a sort of erstwhile museum, a collection of old buildings relocated from the surrounding area to the site of a former dairy farm. It was OK, an interesting overview of turn of the century buildings and life. There are some interesting shops in town, and we splurged on a pizza night at one of the local restaurants, not the typical pizza joint, a bit more upscale, the pizza was delicious!
We were on the move again Sunday morning, houseboat traffic was tolerable, so we set off for Fenelon Falls, 13 miles away.
