Places: Tavira, Portugal

After almost two years to the day since our last international travel plans were cancelled, we finally made the bold move to explore outside of Canada again. In looking for destinations for March break, we made the decision that we were not comfortable heading to Caribbean island given the uncertainty of the pandemic and the potential health care situation but instead booked flights to Portugal, a country with a very high vaccination rate that has treated the pandemic with a high degree of caution ever since the first wave rampaged through the country.

We booked the trip about a week before Omicron took over and at multiple points it just seemed like we would have to cancel as at one point in February, Portugal had banned travellers from Canada from entering. Regardless, we held on to our tickets and although I was not convinced that we would be going until we were on the plane, everything held together for us enough to make it a reality. We still required rapid tests before going and a ream of paperwork that was never really looked at it, but eventually we got through customs at Humberto Delgado Airport, snagged our rental car and were driving out of Lisbon to Tavira, a small town in the Eastern Algarve. I had read about Tavira on a random blog, and it sounded like the perfect place to get our bearings for a couple of nights and recharge. This was a bit of a last minute decision as I booked our Airbnb as we taxied out to the runway in Montreal – completely against my typical way of doing things.

Tavira is about a 3-hour drive from Lisbon taking the toll highway that runs the length of the country. Upon arrival, we were thrilled with the Airbnb that we had chosen and quickly assessed that everything in the town would be within walking distance. We had a grocery store only 2 minutes away and we were about a five minute walk from the river that leads out to the sea and bisects the town.

The roof deck on our Airbnb became the focus of our time there as we ate dinner up there the first night and then made a daily custom of enjoying our coffee and pastry there every morning. Although the weather was not overly warm, the sun emerged and after five months of Canadian winter, felt perfect.

For me, my favourite aspect of this part of the trip was just the ability to relax and enjoy – Noah and I woke up early each morning to search out the best bakeries in town and found a couple of excellent ones that met our criteria. Our level of pastry consumption soared as we found a french bakery that was on the level of any Parisian shop and a more traditional Portuguese bakery that was open from 6 in the morning until midnight every day. We managed to find excellent food throughout the small city, dining on the local seafood such as the clams, prawn, and octopus that is caught in the saltwater river that cuts through town.

So much good eating….

The town also includes an old fortress, parts of which date from the 13th century that provides an excellent view out to the sea. Mostly though, we spent our days relaxing by the river, exploring the small avenues that wind through the town, and eating delicious food.

Although it was true for all the places we visited, in Tavira particularly, coming in the off-season was wonderful as we could get a reservation wherever we wanted and enjoy the empty streets that I expect fill up considerably during the summer months. After three days in town we were starting to recognize many of the locals and I feel like if we had stayed much longer, we would have been on a first name basis with many of them.

Although it was just a short start to our trip, I would certainly go back to Tavira to relax any time that I was in Portugal – the accessibility, the tiled buildings and the friendly people made it a favourite for everyone.

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Ontario Parks: Achray Provincial Park

As our new trailer sat in our driveway through the summer, we became more frustrated as our truck delivery date kept getting pushed out and we became even more anxious to use it. The kids spent countless hours in it, we organized all the compartments, and even took to having a drink in it after work some days. Despite that, it didn’t move for two months but with a pending reservation at Achray, we were thrilled when a very generous friend offered to lend us his SUV for our annual Labour Day camping trip with some family friends.

With the trailer hooked up and ready to go for the first time, we took off and had a smooth ride up to the park gates until we hit the horrible gravel road that leads into Achray. Anyone that has done this drive knows that it can be really bumpy but I’ve never seen it as bad as it was this year. Travelling with a trailer will be a bit different and there were a couple of things at Achray that we hadn’t considered. The first is that the type of road you must travel now needs to really be taken into consideration. The second was that there is no dump station at Achray – although you can pay $20 at the gas station coming out of the park and use theirs.

We survived the ride in and set up quickly due to an easy drive-through site (site 37) located right at the end of the park on the lake. This site is beautiful and very private but given the temperature and the time of year, I am not sure that I would pick it again since the wind in this area comes right down the lake and this is the first part of the campground that it hits. In the middle of summer, this could be great though as it would keep the bugs off a bit as well.

The first night was pretty funny as we all retreated to the trailer at the same time to try and get ready for bed. We found out pretty quickly that we did not buy a big enough trailer for that to work well! From that point on, we realized that it was much better to set up the beds and then have only one or two people at a time in the trailer digging around for clothes and getting ready for bed.

Beyond that, we fully enjoyed all the creature comforts that the trailer had to offer – the girls loved having the washroom in the middle of the night, we were able to look out the big front window and see the stars at night, and when it started raining a bit one evening, I was able to lie in bed and not worry endlessly about whether the rain was getting heavier or not!

Overall, we were really impressed with the new Alto and its functionality shone through. Although much smaller than many trailers, everything seems to be in the right place. We had debated some options on the trailer such as a lithium battery and the awning but we used both on this trip and I think we would have missed them if we hadn’t originally added them.

As usual, our time at Achray was really relaxing for the four nights that we stayed. We did a couple of things during the day; hiking the trail at Barron Canyon and doing the walk into High Falls for an afternoon at the waterslide; but for the most part we relaxed on the beach, paddle boarded out on the lake and hung out around the fire at night. Even though it means back to school is coming, this is a trip I look forward to every year and this one lived up to all expectations.

Purchased: Safari Condo Alto 2114 Trailer

Prior to the pandemic, we had often discussed whether we would make the move from tent camping and try out a trailer for our adventures. I am not sure what finally gave us the push, but in June 2020 we put an order in for a Safari Condo Alto 2114 Trailer just before everyone else in North America realized there wasn’t much to do anymore and the market for trailers took off.

The process of deciding on this particular trailer was a matter of elimination – we knew we did not want something enormous but any other trailers that we looked at seemed so cheaply made that they didn’t entice us very much. The Safari Condo brand, a Quebec company with a great reputation, receives such excellent reviews all over the Internet and seemed to offer a layout that would work well for us while still being lightweight and small enough to be considered camping in our eyes. The large windows that make it very bright inside were also very appealing. We ended up placing our order without actually setting foot in one.

Once we had decided on the type of trailer we wanted, the process of making decisions about the options we preferred was the next step. Since each trailer is custom-built, there are many choices that can be made in terms of what to add, modify or eliminate. In the end, the major choices we made were to add solar panels and lithium batteries so we would not be limited to serviced campsites.

At the time we ordered there was about a 10-month wait which I think has now expanded to about two and a half years. We were lucky to get our order in and after some delays when the Quebec border was closed to us due to the pandemic, we managed to pick it up in June 2021.

Pickup day at the Safari Condo sales centre just outside Quebec City

After receiving it, we were thrilled with the layout and how well everything seems to be thought out – there are few areas of improvement and it will really change the way that we are able to camp with much more storage and a dry place to sleep every night.

We did have one major problem that presented itself when we received the trailer and that was the fact that the truck we had ordered months earlier had still not been delivered due to production delays. As you will see in a future post, this was a source of frustration throughout the summer but another one of the challenges of doing anything when there is a global pandemic on the go. We didn’t have much choice except to make the best of it and we will be ready to go when this season opens up.

Home at last

Ontario Parks: Achray Provincial Park

Our last trip of the summer was to one of our favourite spots to camp. We were introduced to Achray many years ago and have made an attempt to try and go back every year. This small gem of a park is kind of off the beaten track in Algonquin and is used by many people as a jumping off point for canoe camping to many spots that are located either on or near Grand Lake.

The park only has about 45 sites, and all of them are within a minute of the water. Our favourites are the non-electrical sites that back on to the beach and allow us to sit at camp while the kids roam free on the beach, building castles or hunting frogs.

This year we ended up on site 24 and it turned into a perfect three days of camping to end the season. (and maybe our last time together in tentropolis?)

Site 24

Days up at Achray tend to be very lazy since there is not that much to do except relax, enjoy the beach and read a book. One of my favourite parts is that there is basically no cell service – if you want to know the weather forecast you need to walk up to the ranger station to check their printout or hope that you might catch a bit of 3G if you stand in just the right spot.

We were faced with only one rainy morning and we took the opportunity to go hike the Barron Canyon Trail – a quick 45 minute walk that delivers some pretty spectacular views. This year we did not bring our kayaks but the lake is a very enjoyable spot to get on the water and paddle around – canoe rentals are also available at the office.

This was really a perfect end to the camping season in one of our favourite spots and we will be looking forward to visiting again next year.

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Grand Lake

Ontario Parks: Arrowhead provincial park

The week after we visited Presqu’ile Provincial Park, we met up with our friends a second time a little further north at Arrowhead Provincial Park. This was another park that we had not visited previously and a part of Ontario that we have never explored despite its popularity.

We ended up cancelling our first night in the park since it was clear it was going to just pour all night but we were able to leave Ottawa and arrive early the next morning. From Ottawa, it is a straight shot across Algonquin and now that they have improved the highway the whole way, it makes for a really nice drive through the park.

The famous big bend of the Big East River

This is a huge campground that is broken up into a few distinct areas. We stayed in the East River Loop which has a pretty cool design – there is one main road and then many arms off of that which lead to groups of about 10 sites – it is an ingenious design because it avoids having lots of people driving by your site all day. We ended up on 337 – a huge site which also had a huge puddle at the entrance when we arrived.

Site 337

At the park, there is lots to do – the kids enjoyed biking all around and we spent the majority of the first day down at the beach. There is also a very cool waterfall on the Little East River that flows out of the lake which we were able to walk to in about 5 minutes.

Given that our weather was so good, we just spent most of our time around the campground and did not venture in to the town of Huntsville during our stay. We also did a float trip down the Big East River which worked out pretty well – although our only criteria for success was getting everyone out of the water in one piece.

The only part of town we did manage to see, which some people would argue is the most important, is the Kawartha Dairy on our way home. To say their cones are oversized would be an understatement – even the big guy gave up on his about a half-hour into Algonquin Park on the ride home.

Arrowhead is one of Ontario’s more popular provincial parks due to its easy access from the GTA and location in the Muskokas but given its size, it seemed relatively easy to score a site – even during this crazy summer. I am not sure that I would rush back to this campground but I would certainly return to explore a bit more.

Ontario Parks: Presqu’Ile Provincial Park

The fourth park of the year we visited this summer was Presqu’ile Provincial Park. This park is a favourite amongst everyone that couldn’t get into Sandbanks and while the crowds were similar, the beaches are not quite the same.

I couldn’t get over how busy this park was and there is clearly a strong Toronto influence – I have never seen so many people on electric sites with a tent that were using the shore power for their Tesla. The number of people zipping around on Segways and hoverboards really made for a bizarre experience – not one that I’d seek out again.

We stayed in the Craig’s Campground loop on site #182 which I think had the most spacious sites in heavy cover. There were no electric hookups on this loop and as a result, many tenters. The only issue in this loop was the long walk to the washrooms – although there were outhouses located in the loop, they were so badly maintained that they were basically unusable. As a result the lineups at the washrooms due to the COVID restrictions were constant and the line to the women’s washroom was laughable at some points. I think since this park has been hit badly by flooding in the past few years, a lot of their resources have gone to dealing with that. However, there is a serious need to invest in some of their infrastructure, particularly if the parks are going to remain as popular as they were this summer.

Regardless of these drawbacks, we had a great time at the park with our friends who were also there for the weekend. The weather was beautiful, hitting 30 degrees both days and although the sand beaches were closed due to e-coli, we found spots to swim on the Lake Ontario side of the park where the water was deep and cool. We explored the lighthouse amongst the crowds and the kids enjoyed the nature centre. That is always a highlight at any park.

Early bird gets the photo – looking East over Lake Ontario

Since we were only there for two nights, we did not venture outside the park but the town of Brighton is right nearby for a longer stay. I don’t think I would go out of my way to go back to Presqu’ile since there are better offerings to be had in Ontario Parks but for the time we were there, it was a nice getaway despite the crowds.

ONTario Parks: Bonnechere Provincial Park

Our tour of Ontario Parks continued a couple of hours west of Ottawa at Bonnechere Provincial Park. This is a relatively small park of about 100 sites that sits on Round Lake and adjacent to the Bonnechere River.

We arrived on another super-hot weekend and were able to sleep with the fly off the tent and enjoy the beautiful night sky. We were on Site #8 in the Tall Pines loop so it was a quick five-minute walk to the beach.

Site #8 – Noah taking on a ll comers with the bug zapper racquet

The weekend we were there our loop in the campground was mostly filled with large trailers. There are two large loops in the park, Tall Pines, where we stayed and then another loop near the river. I would be a little worried to stay in the loop near the river given the amount of standing water which seemed to lead to more bugs but there were some cool spots that faced right on to the water. Some folks even had their boat parked right at their site. There is an additional loop of about 10-12 sites that is considerably further from the beach – although some of these sites were large and private, it is almost like you are staying in a different campsite altogether.

On Round Lake, the beach is quite shallow – I was able to walk out about 100 metres and was still only up to my chest – but that made it great with the kids and there is a large roped-off area for swimming. The kids were able to practice doing their handstands in the water which provided some good entertainment.

Another favourite activity of the kids was riding their bikes at this park; since it is relatively small, there is not a lot of traffic and they were able to just do continual loops.

We considered this park to really be a find this summer and we will definitely want to go back – it is far enough away to feel like a real break but still less than two hours from Ottawa. Next time, we will be a bit better prepared with a canoe and/or kayaks to explore the river and the lake a bit more.

Ontario Parks: Silver LaKE PROVINCIAL PARK

With no summer camps this year, it became a bit of a challenge to find things for the kids to do during the week so I took a bit of time off early in July to take the four cousins camping at Silver Lake Provincial Park, only about an hour away from Ottawa on Highway 7.

Even this local park was fairly full during the week but we grabbed site 140 for two nights. At this park, Highway 7 runs right alongside so it is key to try and get a spot as far away from the highway as possible. There are some sites that literally border the road which must be horrible to listen to all day and all night. Walking around the campground, I think site 135 is probably the best one here – a nice large site at the end of a loop which I’m sure is pretty popular.

Site 140 – One of the better sites with room for two tents and no close neighbours on either side

Although there really isn’t too much to do here, this is a pretty fun park to visit with kids since it is small and very manageable. The kids can make their own fun and the beach is ideal with a gentle sandy slope out into the lake.

One thing I noticed is that there are a lot of locals at this spot – it is not really a destination spot so many people just come out to the beach for the day or set up camp for the week and then come and go. It is a bit of a different vibe but was fine for us. The only odd thing I found about the park was how much time and effort they spent on enforcement – I am not sure if there have been problems in the past but a constable in full uniform and bulletproof vest patrolled the beach at all times on the lookout for people with open alcohol. In most cases, I appreciate the vigilance but having him check my drink twice while I sat reading my book and supervising four kids seemed a bit much.

Overall, although I wouldn’t likely spend much more than a weekend here, it was a nice break from Ottawa and one of the few spots with open sites available at the last minute.

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OnTario Parks: CHarleston Lake

There have been very few activities that have been ‘normal’ this summer but one of the things we have been able to do is get out and do some camping, even if we have had to really scramble to actually find a site here in Ontario.

In early June as bookings opened back up, we grabbed one of the backcountry spots at Charleston Lake for mid-June. We actually ended up staying on the site a day earlier than they opened although it took a discussion with the warden to make it happen. It seems odd to be writing it now, a little over two months later, but at the time even opening up campgrounds seemed to be very uncertain.

I have stayed at Charleston Lake previously, although not for many years, and it remains a very popular park in Eastern Ontario. Although the lake is nice, I didn’t remember the sites being particularly good or anything else that really stood out about the park.

However, this time around we barely glanced the park as we drove to the parking area and unloaded our canoe to get on the water. We stayed on site #505 at Bob’s Cove , which is reached by a quick half-hour paddle across the lake. This site has three tent platforms of about 10×10 and is close by to well-maintained outhouses. I really don’t think there is a better spot to stay on the lake. There are three sites in this cluster and this site is definitely the best although #506 is interesting as well – it is outside the cove but higher up on the rocks.

Site #505 – Bob’s Cove

From this site, there were many things to do – the weather was extremely hot when we were there so we spent time jumping off the rocks into the lake, paddling out in the canoe, and fishing off the pontoon bridge that cuts across the lake about a 15 minute hike from the site. This was Noah’s first time trying out his new fishing gear and he happily hauled in sunfish all day. We also watched dragonflies hatching, caught water snakes and checked out turtles.

The only negative of this site, and camping at this time of year, were the bugs that rolled in at sunset each night. Although they were basically non-existent during the day – they were unbearable at this time and chased us to our tents.

I would certainly go back to Charleston Lake but now that I have been exposed to these back country sites, it would be hard to stay in the park with everyone else.

Places: Lacombe, AB

Last year was the first time in a long while that I had not taken an extended period of time off work in the summer so we had to become a little more creative in our childcare. With the chaos of our renovation, it was even harder to plan to get away. However, one thing we already had planned before we even started with the renovation was a trip to Alberta in July. I couldn’t have been more pleased with how this worked out – the kids were champs flying and got to have plenty of good quality time with their little cousins and even some gorgeous Alberta summer weather, which is not always guaranteed.

The kids spent their time riding the tractor with Grandpa U., baking with GramA, going for cannolis at Sweet Capone’s, playing in the wading pool at the Legislature Buildings in Edmonton, and of course plenty of time with the family dog.

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