Ottawa, Canada

Yesterday and today were cloudy days with no rain and then turning hot, sunny and humid by afternoon. The last significant rainfall here was on June 3.  I spent the travel time armed with a fly swatter smacking one deerfly after another. 

Much of the scenery along this part or the Rideau River is going through farmland.

 With no rain the water levels are dropping at about 1 centimeter per day and we are a little worried about getting home through the Richelieu. If the water levels drop too far, they close off the canals.  

We came across this interesting looking grass harvesting machine used to keep the channels clear.

Monday we stayed at Burritts Rapids.

Following a winding channel through marshes, ditches, and locks, we came to a swing bridge which the operator opened by pushing a turnstile around and around. It looked like something out of a history text of Europe in the Middle Ages.  There were still quite a few one lane, wood, hand operated swing bridges in use.  You can barely see it in the background.

We caught up with Clark and Evelyn on Sea Moss in Merrickville; and then joined Chris and Marianne with their golden retriever Brody on their Oceania 35 "Options" for an evening glass of wine. Options is out of Toronto and has been with us on and off since Kingston. 

We traveled with them to Burritts Rapids and are docked next to them in Ottawa.  The original plan was to stop at Black Rapids, but it was full, and the next two locks had no power.  We decided to push on, and ended up here at Dow's Lake Pavilion.

We are both being eaten alive by bugs.  No seeums, mosquitoes and deerflies.