Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Winter : Algonquin Park 1


Algonquin Provincial Park (3rd Mar to 4th Apr) is located about 4 hours bus ride away from Toronto, about 200km away. After travelling such distance, it is still within the Eastern tip of Ontario.

Although it may be a provincial park, its size is more than 10 times the size of Singapore.The frozen lake in the winter.
It might be a sparesly populated in a remote area, but locals travel on snow mobiles.
It was about a 2km walk across the frozen lake to reach the cabin.
At the cabin, the host served hot lunch that is essential for the survival of the cold.

Bagels and being heated up on above a firestove filled with firewood. Gabbage is being carefully separated in order to properly be disposed and not to pollute and preserve the park. Waste paper is being burnt in the firestove. Some more primary ways of life for experience.
After lunch, it was the start of an array winter activities, meaning it can never be done in tropical countries like Singapore. It may be cold, but not a moment boring.

At the start, it was dog sledging with a variety of sledge dogs. In the past, it was used for transportation of mail or goods, through the rugged tundra terrain. Now, it is for recreational purpose rather than any real transportation. A rare breed of the Canadian Eskimo with wolf-like features. It is a dying breed due to constant cross breeding of this breed with other breed dogs.

Though the dogs are strong, they are well-trained.

Unfortunately, visitors can only get to ride on the dog sledge and not have any control over the dogs. It may not be a fast ride, as the dogs get tired of running and dragging someone along the same route repeatedly.But still, it was a once in a life time experience.

Winter cannot be without the building of snowman. A tiring process that requires much effort to achieve the right size and shape.Made from icicle for the nose, branches for the arms and mouth, stones for the buttons and the eyes, and of course the most important was snow.

The more exciting part was the creation of snowball,
all ready for exhausting but therapeutic snowball fight.
Perhaps one of the most memorable winter activity.

Of course, what is winter at the provincial park without experiencing the wonders of the greater nature, momentally forgeting the drags of capitalism lifestyle.

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2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

momentally forgeting? momentarily forgetting i suppose.. and..'gabbage'.. 'Winter cannot be without the building of snowman.' winter cannot be complete? Hmm.. what's the size of singapore? :P

The pictures rox! just lacked the icing on the cake.. the face of a monkey! I want to feed bananas! heh

21/4/07 17:28  
Blogger bornappleT said...

haha, balexpublishing co has only one employee. 'not so big, not so small, just the size of Singapore'.

True, singapore's size, just like the earth's temperature, is increasing everyday. Currently a little over 700km2.

22/4/07 06:03  

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