Kayaking the Sandbanks

Hi Blog! Today is Tuesday, September 9, 2014. We've recovered form our weekend with William & Company and are looking forward to doing a little more touristy stuff. We have a couple days before we move again.  The weatherman says we are in for rain and colder temps later this week, so this just might be our last chance to kayak until we are down in Florida this winter. We decided to go back to the West Lake region, so we could visit the sand dunes again at the Sandbanks Provincial Park. We rented our kayaks from Westlake Watersports. They are directly north across the lake from the Sand Dunes Day Use Beach. It should make for a great kayak adventure.

We started the day with long sleeve shirts and long pants. However, just before we hit the water, the sun broke through the clouds and began to warm us up. Here Kathy is coming up to a small dock to ask a local how the fishing has been.

There are a number of vacation houses and cottages around this part of the lake. We took our time paddling across the lake taking note of the various types of houses, boats and docks. Kathy was particularly interested in the home-made kayak stand made of PVC elbows.

Despite the fact that school started this week, there were still a number of families with kids on the beach.

We decided to pass by the public beach and look for something a little more secluded.

We worked our way along the far shore passing through the shadows of large dunes.

It wasn't long before we found the perfect beach to landour boats and enjoy peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on fresh apple bread. In our retirement, we have truly come to enjoy the simple pleasure that is peanut butter and jelly.

After lunch, we took the opportunity to hike up some of the dunes.  If you look closely, you can still see our kayaks down on the beach.

From the top of the dunes, we could see out over West Lake and Lake Ontario.

Time to head back to the boats. Here is Dave heading down the dune. Unfortunately, there was no path back to our beach, so he had to climb back up.

The name of this blog is "Kayaking the Sandbanks." All I can say is that it was much easier paddling down the dune than it was paddling up it!

Before long it was time to hit the water again and head back to the marina.  We stopped at one more secret cove to converse with a large flock of Canada Geese (yes, they call them Canada Geese even in Canada).  However, before we could get there, some jerk in a speed boat decided to buzz the flock. Just goes to show you there are just as many idiots in Canada as there are in the States.

We had a little bit of a south wind off Lake Ontartio. We did a good job hiding from it by sticking close to the East side of the lake on the way south, but on our return trip, we had to try and keep the wind at our back while working our way west across the lake.  It really made the paddle back exciting.  As we came down the west side of the lake, we noticed several homeowners built concrete retaining walls to protect their properties.  When the wind pushed the water up against the bulkheads, it created a reverse wave that collided with the incoming waves. It was like paddling in a washing-machine. The waves were high enough to make it exciting, but not so high as to swamp the boats.

Before long, we were back on dry land.

On our way back to camp, we stopped at several farm markets to fill up on fresh fruit and veggies.

Did someone say Happy Hour?  Got to go.  See you next blog.