The slippery landing place was still there when we reached the island. The 'kitchen area' that my friend Doug helped clean and tidy up was also there. I was smiling upon seeing the small space under the pine tree cause it was there that Cecilia and I pitched our 'honeymoon' tent when we first camped on that no-name island many years ago. It was not really our honeymoon time you see, but the tent was so small, it was only meant for couple who are still mesmerized to one another, that my friends name the tent that way. Lastly, I checked the 'toilet area' where Doug and Craig fixed it and put a toilet seat they found somewhere. I was pretty sure that seat wouldn't be there anymore and I was right to bring one from home, a service of Jeha Outfitter to its customers :-). To extend the service, I dug the hole that was almost flat so that the participants could enjoy life while doing their most basic nature call. I could not forget being serenaded by a yellow warbler perching on a pine tree when I did that on my first trip.
The car trip to reach the Chikanishing River put-in where we launched our canoe was actually uneventful. (I was told later by a friend who took the Highway 400 on the Saturday morning at 8 AM, that he ended up stuck for 4 hours there because of a traffic accident.) We reached the 1st rendezvous around 8 AM as arranged but by that time, I already learned from Benny and Awi that they would not make it plus Herry and Koes planned to meet us at the 9 AM 2nd rendezvous. So it was only 8:30 AM when Cecilia and I arrived at the McDonald Molson Park. I called Koes on his cellphone to check where they were because Benny and Awi now are heading to the 3rd or final rendezvous, Killarney Park Office. They told me to wait for them, which we did. I was lucky to meet John and Paul, my friend from IBM Lab and his brother, when I finished going pee and wanted to buy coffee at the Tim Hortons in Noble, a small town after Parry Sound. The line-up was more than 10 people. As also planned, we arrived at the Park Office around noon. Not long after I finished checking in and purchased our car parking fee for the whole week-end, Benny and Awi showed up. We were complete, 10 adults, 2 kids. I told them to wait for me at the put-in cause I was going to pay for the canoe rentals and got the PFDs plus paddles.
Since we were all professionals :-), around 1:30 PM we were already paddling the river, 5 canoes all together. I made a small mistake :-), too trusting on my wife's calculation of the island coordinate from the map. When the GPS said it was still too far, being still very strong :-), I just kept on paddling for more than an hour. I remembered the island was reachable after paddling for approximately half-an-hour. I discounted that fact thinking that I paddled now with some old folks :-) while my first and second trip were with much younger people. One hour and 30 minutes, no more sign of island and I knew I paddled too far. I told John and Paul who by now would not believe my words anymore to stay where they were, about half an hour behind. Yes, using the trick I learned when I was still climbing mountain in Java, in one of the trips with John, I believe it was to Algonquin Pen Lake, I told him that in 'five minutes' we will reach the end. John was portaging a kayak at that time and he basically kept on walking while carrying that monster boat based on my several 'five more minutes' :-). I know he will never forget that wise word of mine even though he has forgotten everything else from all our previous trips together.
I have been to Georgian Bay and paddled its water a few times. I have never experienced a water so calm as it was on the Saturday when we made a day trip to the open water. No wind no wave, only ripples. The most amazing thing, only lunatics would swim in Georgian Bay without wetsuit and there we were, doing the swimming. Yes, the hot spell since several weeks ago across this belle province called Ontario, has caused Georgian Bay water to be swimable, no icy chilly as the usual. I told you taking along rookies bring good luck, didn't I? :-). When we arrived on our small rocky island to take a rest and set it as a base, upon seeing the scenic beauty surrounding us, I felt so sorry for Bang Roli, one of the famous Killarney Trio. As you all know, he went back to Indonesia to get a few dollars more :-). That was what his partner Herry said, not my invention. Sorry Bang Roli, if I were you I might do the same thing, so when I come back I could buy a yacht that we saw every day cruising the Collins Inlet :-). However, we were a bit lucky that Koes managed to replace Roli as a partner in the newly founded Collins Inlet Duo. Talking about music, Paul felt sorry too that he didn't take his guitar along. I knew that Cecilia also forgot to bring her harmonica. I used to be able to play guitar and Awi's friends know that he is a good guitar player. John plays drum, so we almost could create a band on that island. Oh well, next time then, I know John and Paul love to eat rice and would go again with us :-).
After doing all the activities we liked, swimming, reading, taking a nap or blueberry picking, we left back for our island home at 5 PM. The wind had picked up by then but still the wave was smaller than at George Lake where we canoed last month. It was nothing compared to the wave at OSA Lake that caused us to return back to Killarney Lake when we were going to move to it on that fateful day, the birthday of Herry :-). The wind came from the stern which made it easier to paddle. Once in a while big motorboats or yachts as I mentioned above would pass by us causing a one foot wave if the guy did not slow down or 'minus teaching', Herry's term for "kurang ajar", an Indonesian word meaning rude. That's why I don't like actually to paddle on a lake where motorboats are allowed. I noticed Benny had to steer his canoe facing the wave every time that stupid motorboat passed us.
On the way to our island home Cecilia paddled in the Swift Algonquin canoe with Benny at the stern and Meilisa at the bow. They passed me and John and Paul in our aluminium canoe. We tried to race them and it soon became evident that aluminium is really hard to paddle or a slowpoke. Three strong men could not beat women :-), oh well you win some you lose some :-). She said she wanted to help Awi and Herli cooked the rice because the dinner menu was 'ayam kecap a la Herli'. By then, we already had 4 straight rice meals since we came, Friday dinner (rice with satay a la Janti), Saturday breakfast (bubur ayam Cecilia), Saturday lunch (rice with Costco sausage) and now another rice meal. We were glad that Paul especially loves rice and John did not mind to have rice for breakfast after I convinced him 200 millions Indonesian did that.
When I came to Canada in 1980, Sunday was still a day of rest, some people call it Sabbath. There were no shops opened, no chance to spend your dollars in the store or mall. So after Mass, Cecilia and I usually would go to the park for our day trip and enjoyed the food that we bought with the kids. We could then play some cards or fooled around with them. That was what happened on our Sunday. It was still OK in the morning when I woke up, the first guy as usual. After the morning routine, washroom stuffs, boiled a pot of water for my coffee, I read the reading and reflection of the day. It was short and I still had no company, so I continued reading a book I brought from home. The author's wife gave it to me as my birthday present (thank you Dindin). Lilik, the author is the head honcho of AREK, Arena Refleksi Eksekutif dan Karyawan-wati seKAJ, loosely translated meaning Javanese Executives :-). Kidding aside, the book that is entitled 'Mencari Tuhan' is actually a compilation of essays written in AREK mailing-list. Other than the writings of Lilik, I came across some more by Mbah Pras an old friend from Paroki-Net, Bang Jeffry Gonjreng, who like me was also born in Jakarta (but from the affluent area called Kebayoran :-)), and many other good writers. I like their writings, I could feel for them, I was able to relate. I wish I had two three birthdays a year like some priests. They have their normal birthday, then their Saints' name day, then their ordination day, and so on :-). Back to the book, I wish all of the authors were with me on that week-end because I was sure they would find a glimpse of the God they are looking for.
How would they not? Despite the rain that came throughout the morning and into the afternoon, we laughed from time to time. We had lots of fun playing cards in two groups. John, Paul, Cecilia and Herli on one 'table' (my cool box) and I, Benny, Herry with Koes at another 'stone table'. They played Euchre, we played some sort of individual contract bridge called trump, that is kind of a stupid version of bridge. The bidding system is such that it almost guarantees, there will be at least one loser, sometimes everybody. Because of the heavy rain at times and the shelter was not wide enough, the cards kept getting wet. I had to roast 13 of them at a time by the fire from my stove to slow down the whole deck becoming all wet. It was fun indeed. I could tell from the way my buddies played their card, we could have done it for the whole week-end because like me, Benny was a member of FTUI bridge team. I used to play day and night non-stop with my friends Roy and Markus in the year 1965-1966 when the students got nothing better to do than playing bridge.
Actually Koes told me when he landed in Canada that he is a nephew of Roy, no wonder he was playing better and better even though he kept on losing :-). As I told you earlier, Koes is the rookie in this camping trip. Not only had he never been camping in Canada before, he said for two years since he arrived, he never had the chance to swim. You could tell he was paying back his dues, perhaps he did not want to disappoint the God of Water, Dewa Ruci anymore. He swam every day, sometimes several times a day. Herry told us that Koes spent already $ 200 on camping gears and sure enough, he did not want to waste that investment. Being still young, I see the potential of Koes to compete one day with Defi Samson on a portage. :-).
Sunday dinner meal was a special one cause Paul was going to be the chef, with 4 assistants. His brother John and the three helpers, my wifey, Janti and Herli. It was spaghetti a la John Paul, meaning with some stir fried veggies and salmon patties. Paul overestimated the pasta part, we still had tons left over but underestimated the veggies and salmon. Well, in a card game the score would be 1-1 :-). Actually Paul still had many goodies stored in his food barrel, my guess it would have been enough to keep on feeding us for a few more days. This practice is actually good, when you go canoeing to the interior, bring more than enough food for a day or two extra, just in case you are stranded. Sometimes you could be stuck if there is heavy wind, causing wave as high as one meter. That was probably why Paul brought the extra food, knowing we were traversing wide water like Georgian Bay.
Remember my last story to Killarney Lake when the toast bread a la Edu was finished in no time? We were about to have the encore on that Sunday night but there were so many corns bought by Herli and Janti. Even though we have already started roasting them since Saturday night, we still had a plenty. We boiled them by the fireplace. It was still delicious but not as delish as roasted corn with Indonesian soy sauce or 'kecap manis'. I was surprised that some of the guys who went on this trip had never tried roasting corn with soy sauce before. No wonder they were not too enthusiastic, psycho things you see. If you like me are used to fried rice for breakfast since you were kids, you would love to have it like I did once in a while in a camping trip when there was rice left over from the dinner.
Koes our rookie :-) indeed had many first time experiences in this canoeing trip. I hope he would still go with Jeha Outfitter, even though he got burned on the first day cause he did not know that one needs to apply sunscreen lotion when one is exposed to the sun the whole day. We were watching the stars, laying down on the rock by the shore. We could almost see the whole night sky because there were no big trees on the island. Then Koes said he has never seen a meteor or 'falling star' in his life. His wishes came true on that night because not too long afterwards, he was able to spot one. Thanks to the powerful laser pointer I just bought, he was also able to see a few satellites.
Monday August 1st was another nice day, a bit too hot. As Paul said, I just wished I did not have to work :-). Then we could move to Killarney Lake. After a filling breakfast, pancake with sausage and bacon and egg, courtesy of JH Outfitter, we broke camp. We arrived back at the Chikanishing River put-in around noon and took a shower inside the Park. Then we went for lunch to Herbert Fish and Chip in the Town of Killarney, that they boasted is world famous. Maybe they are right since you now know even though you live half of the world apart from Canada. However, their $ 10 fish and chip are indeed excellent because there were such a long line-up, we had to wait for an hour before we could gobble the food. As you all know, anything that is edible will be more delicious if it is expensive and you are hungry :-). Take care my friends, this is the end of my story, till we meet again likely after my trip with 36 Indonesians to Bon Echo next month. John and Paul, don't you want to come along? :-) You will eat rice at every meal :-). Adieu, farewell, goodbye, so long, bai bai lam lekom.
Home