Rod here. I could tell these kids were about to pop, all we did was drive 250 km to see Belfountain park and the Cheltenham badlands and they acted like we took them on a 24 hour endurance race across the Sahara. I can’t remember what that’s called but i know it’s grueling. We needed to find a campsite last night and stayed at Rockwood, which turned out to be an unusual site! We went on a night hike and saw bats and these giant potholes. They were about 12 feet around. We were impressed and only realized that they were on the list this morning driving away!
Rockwood Potholes, although very impressive.
Anyway we had to give them a break if we were going to keep them in this so we decided to whimp out and hit Elora Gorge only an hour away. That better buy us some mileage later on.
Elora Quarry
We figured the hottest day of the year could be spent floating down the gorge on a tube and we told them so. Ooops, no sooner had we explained our plan to treat them to a relaxing drift in visual heaven we discovered that the drift would cost us 25$ a head plus extras. WOW, we were looking at 175$ plus registration charges plus 75$ per person deposit on the gear. At the end the kids were expected to haul a 4 foot truck tube back the 2 km to where we started. Man we just can’t get a break, you should have heard Arthur start balling(maybe you did we’re not that far away) as if his life had just been altered forever. Either way this just wasn’t going to happen, that kind of money can be spent much more wisely especially with Josie’s birthday right around the corner. So we cheaped out and hit the Elora quarry where we could swim for free and enjoy a beautiful limestone quarry likely a hundred feet deep. Ginette thought it was so cool to swim in a quarry, after seeing that huge Marmora Hole quarry a few days ago.
Rules, rules,rules, no floatation devices which aren’t CSA approved, really, is that what the CSA does? I thought they tested light fixtures for safety hazards. So we left a few floaties behind only to find that no one follows the rules here anyway. Not only were people floating around on any dollar store item that had an air pocket but the rule about not jumping from the cliffs seemed to be confusing all the teenagers. Seemed they didn’t see the signs, so neither did I. I was the first one up in the group followed by Ruby the smallest. Scared the crap out of me but I have a rep to uphold so off I went and Ruby came right behind me. Shortly thereafter, Lily and Ginette, but to my surprise Josie mustered the guts to follow along too. Nothing shocked me about the Davies jumping off cliffs, Ginette has been known to do it nude, but when my spawn actually pull off something like this I’m always impressed. It’s usually Josie, she was so scared I could see her shaking from the water below. These were only the smaller cliffs. The rangers let the public get away with it. This nutso family started jumping off the 50 foot cliffs and they were booted out of the quarry. Josie and Charlie stick by the rules. This was a learning moment: break the little rules if it is safe and fun, but push the limit and you get will get caught.
So that was our easy day of little driving and a little diving, more chicken for supper and perhaps an aperitif after, nothing hard of course, there’s an alcohol ban at this park. But they promised they wouldn’t search the trailer.
A few pics of just chill in on the campsite, in the intense heat.
Lessons Learned
DAY 6
- When things are getting really bad, just hang in there, cause something good is about to happen.
Party Caravan Vacation 