Andrew Haydon Park, Ottawa

Andrew Haydon Park is one of the hidden gems of Ottawa, in the west end of the city, right by the side of the Ottawa River

Graham Creek one of the little rivers that feed the two lakes in the park, which then run into the Ottawa River.

On our travels across Canada we have only seen a few Herons. There are no shortage of them here.

Walking up to one of the lakes we saw these model boats, thinking those kids are having fun. We thought wrong they were a bit older, these fellas were having a great time playing with their radio controlled boats. They get together most mornings bring their chairs and boats and flasks of coffee, sail their boats and solve the worlds problems at the same time.

This reminds me of those beach photos you see, so many people you can't see the sand, here its so many boats you can't see the water.

Another Heron, this is Graham Bay a little inlet between Andrew Haydon Park and Dick Bell Park where the Marina is situated.

Egret and a couple of dabbling ducks.

Lovely little water fall.

The Bandshell, free concerts  during the summer.

Looking over the lake towards the river.

Looking south towards the city, across  Britannia Bay.

Another Heron fishing in Graham Creek.

Walking back to the truck, this fern showing some autumn colours.

Rideau Hall, Ottawa.

After spending about 5 days scrubbing and polishing and getting the fiver ready for re-sale, we left it with RV Canada Tuesday afternoon, returned to the apt. we have rented for our final month in Canada,  and crashed out for 2 days.

Today we resurfaced with a visit to Rideau Hall the official residence of The Governor General of Canada.

Walking up the long tree lined drive way to the hall.

The Ballroom.

The Tent Room, used for receptions.

The Library.

Back outside and a close up of the fountain, called the Fountain of Hope in memory of Terry Fox.

A bronze plaque (is it blending into the stone?) The first Four Canadian Governor Generals.  Before 1952 all the GGs. were British going back to 1760 and before that French.

 When this sight line was built it looked straight on to Parliament Hill, the trees have grown a bit since then and obscured the view somewhat.  If you look carefully you can just see the Peace Tower in the gap looking down the site line.  The Peace Tower is Ottawa's Big Ben.

 The Grounds Of Rideau Hall are part of its attraction and specifically the tree plantings.  They have been planting trees here for a long time and now have planted veritable forrest. Just about every Royal and head of state that visits Ottawa plants a tree.  The photo of the plaque above shows Queen Margrethe of Denmark, Nelson Mandela and John F. Kennedy planting trees.

                                                                   

Nelson Mandela's tree today, this must be one of the most visited tree's look how the grass is worn away in front of the plaque.

In 1967 I played cricket here on the Governor Generals pitch.  The teams were made up of Brits. and West Indians and the standard was very high, I lasted 2 games and when I was batting I never evan saw the ball, those West Indians were really fast ballers. Today with all the immigrants from India and Pakistan the standard will probably be even higher.

No we are not back in BC one of the many statues in the gardens

Inushuk, used by the Inuit people of the north to guide your route across the tundra, You see these rough stone statues by the sides of roads all over Canada, as Canadian as the maple leaf and a hockey stick.  

This little fella really enjoying an acorn and behind him a maple leaf already turned colour.

Rideau Canal Locks at Kingston Mills.

 A catch up post, and I'm glad for the break, only been at the scrubbing and cleaning for a morning and fed up with it already. Yesterday we made  arrangements for the fiver to to go into RV Canada on Tuesday morning.

The Kingston Mill Locks a flight of 4 locks just outside Kingston.  There are 24 lockstations on the 202km. canal controlling 47 locks, not sure wether these locks are No's 1to 4 or 44 to 47.  

The canal is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is one of the best examples in the world of a slackwater canal system.

The sluice gates opened to lower the water level in the top lock Colonel By Lake, down to the level of the basin.

This boat has now passed through the basin into the second lock.

The gates between second and third locks.

Going down in the third lock.

The gates being opened between third and forth locks.

Sailing through into the fourth lock.

Now in the fourth lock.

Sailing out and into the Cataraqui River and on past Fort Henry and the Martello towers and into Lake Ontario.  A total drop of 14.4 metres.  The Locks here use all three of the manual system of opening and closing the gates.

Nice break now back to the cleaning.

Fort Henry, Kingston.

Kingston, taken from Fort Henry.

We are now in Ottawa, at Sleepy Cedars Family Campground where we started our journey across Canada in April of last year. We are now on our last few weeks here.  Our time will be spent on visiting many of the places we have missed in our last 3 trips to this wonderful city and I'm sure we will  re-visit some of the places we been before. The first few days will be spent getting the trailer ready for re-sale by the folks at RV Canada, it will be scrub and polish etc.

Because of the lack of wifi over the last few days we do have a blog or two to catch up with.

Today its Fort Henry, built to protect Kingston and the Rideau Canal from the Americans, after the invasions of 1812 to 1814, Wellington (him of Waterloo) thought it best to be prepared in case it was to happen again.  

The photo above is taken from the fort looking south east. The two towers are part of the defences, they are called Martello towers.  In the mid nineties I worked in Kent in the south of England where there are lots of these towers, there they were built to keep out Napoleon.

The Fort Henry Guard practicing one of their musical walks.

A couple of Armstrong Guns.

 The gunners being inspected before they fired the Noon Gun, and the pic. below is the actual gun, its original and still works, made a hell of a noise when they fired it

Going down into the depths of the fort

Along this damp passage way

To this place, this gun fired a 10lb canister filled with shot, not at attacking solders but at the wall behind them, when it hit the wall it would burst and send shot zipping around the dry moat in all directions, there were two of these monsters, one at each end of the moat.  Fort Henry never fired a shot in anger, which is probably just as well.