Well, We Didn't See That Coming!

12/4/2020

Mara Provincial Park, Bug City.

Referencing the last entry in this blog, our non-plans for this year have changed to non-plans plus, what with this virus upset. With the new arrival expected in June, we didn't think there would be a whole lot of camping this year, but now that so many public and private places are shut down, I'm wondering if we'll even get away for the occasional weekend this summer. Still, onward and upward, I'll get Towed Haul out of storage at some point and see what develops.

For today, then, I thought I'd drag out a photo or two from a previous trip and see what I can remember about it.

This is Mara Provincial Park, near Orillia, Ontario. It's situated right on the north shore of Lake Simcoe and is well positioned to explore around the lake, the Trent-Severn Waterway and Georgian Bay. Great, you're thinking, what could be better? Well, sadly, this Park stood out as the biting-bug capital of Ontario. This little camp site was secluded and the Park quiet, but we couldn't sit out at any point during our stay for getting eaten alive. Even the copious amounts of bug-repellent we used only lasted a very short while before the little nasties were biting again. I have vivid memories of having to dump the tanks on the way out of the park and getting bitten to pieces in the 15 minutes it took me to complete the job, even with the bug-repellent liberally splashed all over me. I guess a roaring campfire and a ton of Citronella candles may have helped, but once bitten (often) and we really didn't want to go outside of the trailer. I've never known the like, before or since. At the next stop on the tour I can remember feeling that my ankles, red-raw from the bites sustained at Mara, were going to explode every time the sun caught them.

That said, we did get around the area, away from the bugs, visiting Midland, Penetanguishene and the Marine Railway on the Trent-Severn, as the photos below illustrate. I've included one from the second stop on that trip, Emily Provincial Park, of the Osprey family having lunch delivered. It wasn't nearly so buggy there, despite the trees and the proximity of water, which made the stay there so much more enjoyable.