Jinkerjacket's Closet

Thursday, May 24, 2007

Algonquin and beyond...

I’ve taken a full four days to post about our long-weekend because…well…blogging about it would be admitting it’s over. That...and I’m lazy and was busy.

After two months of planning and organizing and e-mail chaining, 12 of us made it out to the Wolfden Bunkhouse 'n Cabins in Algonquin Provincial Park this past Victoria Day long-weekend. No, it wasn’t hardcore camping (I had enough of it last September in the Bruce to last me until the long-weekend in July), but it was a hostel with a bunch of cabins and shared kitchens, bathrooms, etc. (very similar to Pittwater in Sydney).

We arrived Saturday morning and set out for a hike to Ragged Falls, which was gorgeous and bug-ridden. Dipped our feet in some very cold water and hung out by the beach, then returned to the camp and began drinking at 4 p.m.., followed by a bbq FEAST and the essential campfire with smores.

Sunday was a bright and early rise and shine for us, as we set out to the hiking trails. We started out at the Peck Lake trail and on our way there we had our first of 16 MOOSE sightings of the day (and my first moose sighting EVER) – was tres exciting. They are gigantic!! Very noble and majestic-looking. After Peck Lake we hit up Hemlock Bluff and had lunch at the top of the bluffs...was a great lookout point. After a bit of resting we checked out one last trail for the day - Beaver Pond..in search of some beavers! Unfortunately...Mr. Beaver wasn't home but we saw some of his dens!

Our final day there we set out for a 30 km bike ride...I have no words for that...other than..I was duped into the tortuous ride, which left me in pain for a week and hating bicycles for a lifetime. But at least the rest of the ladies had fun...we stopped at Rock Lake for lunch...before heading back on the trail.

*thanks to some of my girls, I've used a few of your photos cuz apparently my camera doesn't like Aussie sand in it.

Labels: Bruce Peninsula, Pittwater

Monday, December 12, 2005

At one with nature...

So with all the time on our hands...and it being summer in the middle of December...we decided

to get away from the city and kick-back and booze-it-up in nature for the weekend. Went out to Pittwater Youth Hostel on Morning Bay, just inside Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park

outside of Sydney. Literally just a large cottage on a hill, overlooking the bay. The whole place is completely open, so you're eating dinner outside on the picnic tables with wallabies, possums, cockatoos, iguanas, magpies and a million other creatures. In fact, Dumpy had quite the chat with a resident cockatoo over dinner:

Our first day there, we had the place completely to ourselves since none of the other guests had arrived yet. We just lounged around, took naps in the hammocks and were amazed by how close we were to the animals! Our first glimpse was a wallaby with a little joey (baby wallaby..ps wallabies are like kangaroos just smaller in size) in her pouch. Also, for some odd reason there was a rather yummy looking turkey walking around the camp.

Anyways, our second day there we went on a mission to find a beach...so we ended up taking a Water Taxi (yes, you read that correctly) to Elvina North Wharf and spending the day on a completely secluded beach which we had all to ourselves. Ended the day napping, sitting, reading on the Morning Bay Wharf dock and taking in the ocean. The weekend was amazing and I definately recommend Pittwater to anyone who visits Sydney. It's just a nice getaway it you want to bum around, soak up some sun and get away from the city.

By the way...I've decided I want to eventually buy a house in Morning Bay...the place is just beautiful and it's definately the lifestyle I want. So we checked out some house prices when we got back home and found something for $399,000 Australian (which is like $347,000 Canadian)...but of course prices go up to like $2.2 million for gorgeous mansions. So that's the plan....we'll see!