“A story has no beginning or end: arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead.” - Graham Greene, The End of the Affair
We always knew the end would come, but it seemed to accelerate into the final fortnight at an unbelievable rate. So to try and slow the experience down somewhat, we had decided to spend the last 12 days of our trip road-tripping around the lakes of Ontario in a 38ft RV. Despite it being extraordinarily hard work, and Leone and I being extraordinarily ill-equipped to camp efficiently, we had perhaps our best part of the trip to date. We met loads of Canadians, who are indeed the friendliest people on earth. We stayed in truly remote parts of the world. We saw incredibly beautiful wilderness scenery. But most of all we spent huge amounts of time together, eating, swimming and cycling bikes around the place. It was a fitting end to a trip whose main purpose was to reset and realign our family dynamic.
We picked the beast up in Bolton, North Toronto and after a quick briefing and a long stop at Walmart to stock up on food and bikes for the kids, headed out on what was meant to be a 2 hour drive to Awenda National Park. 3 hours later, we found ourselves trying to reverse into a darkening space with hungry children and no idea how to set the whole rig up. It turns our RVs are as slow as they look. It was somewhat chaotic, but we got a fire lit, got the beds made and managed to get everyone into bed by 10:30 pm, tired but rather happy.
The trials of RV'ing were quite an experience. Neither Leone nor I have spent any significant time camping in life. I assume Leone has zero experience, and my experience is limited to a filthy, wet weekend in the Wye valley in 1981. As such, we stood apart from the professional Canadians we met on our way. The access one gets to remote and unspoilt parts of the country are certainly paid for through the degree of faff RV'ing entails. Our first observation is that it is almost impossible to keep the floor clean, a problem that becomes unbearable during heavy rain. Second observation is that Leone is not a huge amount of help when reversing the monster into sites. She invariable stood in my blind spot and gave inaudible instructions. That lack of volume was actually a blessing as it turned out she has no idea which way the vehicle will go when she says, "left hand down.... right hand down....". She was delivering just a random set of instructions which boasted no relevance to either the environs or the direction in which the vehicle ought to travel. The problem was resolved by Leone assuming just one word of command, a scream of "STOP!" when I was about to hit something and for the rest I just guessed. Once we got into the swing of it, we became pretty good at the cooking and washing up part of it, learning quite quickly that the more you can do outside, the better. Keeping the place tidy and clean remained a challenge throughout and so we had to resign ourselves to the fact that we were going to be a little grimy for a fortnight. Perhaps the most annoying part is the constant filling of clean water and emptying of dirty water. This entailed driving to a sanitation station, connecting a very smelly pipe to our "black tank" (you can guess what is contained in there), inserting the other end to a small hole that contains the contents of other black tanks, then pulling with all one's strength to release a valve. All of this occurs at a height of 1 foot above the ground and so all the while one is hoping not to lose one's balance and end up sitting or lying in something unsavoury. We would then spend about 15 minutes filling the fresh water tank. The perplexing thing of all of this was that no matter how much we tried to avoid using the RV's facilities, the water would run out in about 12 hours and the black tank filled in what seemed like about 3 hours, so I spent more time with my head in unusual places than I perhaps would have wished. Overall by day 5 we had slipped into a pretty slick routine which appealed to my OCD sensibilities. Even her ladyship became very efficient and I like to hope that we may have a permanent change in her ability to put away things after she has used them. After 44 years, we can but pray.
We spent two days in Awenda, cycling, shouting at each other as the initial strains and claustrophobic tensions erupted and enjoying camp fires and toasted marshmallows. We spent time on lake Huron, swimming and playing on "Steve", our inflatable pizza (we can thank Eliza for that christening). We then set off up to another provincial park called Killbear. Here we met a wonderful Canadian family who lead us to an amazing spot where we could jump off cliffs into a beautiful deep lake. All of them had a go, with Alfie and Eliza terrifying us by launching themselves off 4 or 5 meter cliffs, having to clear ledges in order to avoid a trip to A&E. I honestly think this was the best part of the entire trip for them. Even late in the evening, as we watched the sun go down over the same cliff, they stripped off their clothes and launched themselves against the reddening skyline into the dark waters below. Thankfully there was some smaller rocks for Olivia to jump off otherwise I fear she might have forced herself to keep up with other two on the higher cliffs. It reminded us of how far they have come over these past 6 months. 3 city kids, hitherto without a huge sense of adventure, the youngest by far of the children jumping from the higher cliffs. One has to remind oneself that Olivia is still only 4 as she flies off the rocks into deep lakes, when all the others around her are 6 or above.
After the sunset we were invited back by our lovely new Canadian friends to their camp to try s'mores - toasted marshmallows, sandwiched between chocolate and graham crackers (a thin digestive-like biscuit). A little sweet for my liking, but heaven for the kids. We spent the next morning with them, visiting a small wildlife centre to learn more about rattle snakes, which Alfie was convinced he had seen the day before. Thankfully, although rattle snakes are present in the park, it turned out that it was a more benign type of snake that Alfie had chosen to stare down.
From Killbear, we headed east to the largest of Ontario's provincial parks, Algonquin, famed for its black bears, beavers and moose. Sadly, we yet again failed to see any of Canada's fabled wilderness wildlife, but enjoyed ourselves with loads of cycling, swimming and kayaking. Steve the pizza slice got many an outing. We kayaked across to a small island in the middle of the Lake of Two Rivers to go geocaching and were lucky enough to meet the people who actually maintain the geocache site (for the uninitiated, geocache is an online treasure hunt thing). They were yet again lovely people, who showed us more rocks to jump off which did in the company of their boisterous dog. Alfie chose to jump in at the same time that the dog decided he wanted a dip. Luckily they collided mid air rather than pre-launch, so instead of ending up head first on the rocks, Alfie found himself executing a forward somersault with a half twist. It would have attracted a decent mark for difficulty but execution and entry may have dragged the score down a little.
We spent a wonderful day visiting a beaver pond. Genuinely fascinating creatures, though evasive! The kids were a little disappointed that after a 2.5 hour trail in 28 degree heat, they had failed to see a beaver. I was amazed by the dramatic impact these little things can have on their environment, but my enthusiasm failed to ignite much interest elsewhere other than with the perpetually keen Leone. That said, we must be becoming a little bit geeky as we then all had a brilliant 2 hours at a loggers trail museum, where we learnt about the history of logging in Algonquin Park and tried our hands at various different things that loggers had to do in the early 1900s. The evening finished off bear hunting against the setting sun. Sadly the only bounty to be found were wild blueberries.
From Algonquin, we travelled south to Lake St Peter for one night (where we did little other than get rained on by a terrific thunderstorm and ravaged by mosquitos) and then on to Sibbald Point where we were to spend our last 3 days in the RV. Most importantly, we were to celebrate Eliza's 9th birthday - a prospect that had been talked about, anticipated, feared and lamented for over 3 months. That it was not be spent at home amongst friends and family, was a very big thing for poor Eliza. Leone and I had spent many hours planning and preparing so as to avoid the likely pitfalls that plague a 9 year-old's birthday and are all the more inevitable by being away from home. Despite a spectacular wipe out on her bike and a ill-timed midday heat geocache, we largely delivered on a good birthday and Eliza enjoyed herself with the present treasure hunt around the park on bikes being the highlight. Eliza has been the most acutely aware of the distance from her friends out of all of us, so I am not going to pretend it was her perfect birthday. But for me, as with any father, it will be one of the very few times I will get to spend the whole day with her on her birthday, so it was very special. I can only hope that when she looks back, it will be through similar eyes that she sees it.
After 11 days on the road and with only 2 nights left, we were in need of some pampering. But it turned out that it as a bank holiday weekend in Ontario and so pretty much every hotel was booked up. Time for some Leone magic. She managed to find a spa/golf hotel only 30 minutes from the RV depot and 45 minutes from Toronto airport. It was by far the most luxurious place we stayed in on the whole trip. It also owned a winery and so Leone, despite her recent bout of relative abstinence, was in heaven. We had no car, we were not in an RV and there was no sight to see, so for two days we did nothing. Nothing other than swimming, eating and drinking.
We flew overnight back to London where I was met by my brilliant brother who has, from beginning to end of this trip, supported us back home. He was the last to see us off and the first to greet us home and I wouldn't have wished it any other way.
So that is that, we have done it. Finished the trip of a family's lifetime. Experienced extreme highs and terrible lows. 8 countries, multiple cities, countless beaches. We have met hundreds of people, though I can honestly not think of any we have not liked. We have hated each other at times but in due course found ourselves on the other side, happier and closer than we were before. We have spent pretty much 24/7 together as a family, minute by minute, hour by hour. For the children it is their norm. Their time perception, particularly Olivia but less so Eliza, means they cannot acutely remember anything much different. For us it has been transformational. Both Leone and I will be writing one more blog each with our thoughts and reflections of the trip and what it has meant for us, so I will not pre-empt that. Suffice to say that whilst little seems to have changed back home, much has changed for us as a family. The quote at the top suggests that a story has no beginning and no end. That may be so, but I would suggest it does have chapters. We find ourselves revelling in the exhilaration of completing a fantastic chapter. That experience has helped forge an extraordinary excitement for the chapters to come. Our tale has taken a significant turn and we can't wait for what it holds for us.
"Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending." - Carl Bard
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