Lost Joe

Despite the rustic and rural nature of the outfitters, we were awakened by our rather noisy tent cabin neighbours packing up for their trip. AO kindly laid on breakfast for us before the girls began packing our bags with frightening efficiency. With their expertise we were able to get everything into two, albeit large, bags. One was the food bag, with every meal in its own named and numbered bag, along with pots, pans and the like. The other was the kit bag - personal kit, sleeping bags, tent and a bloody great saw (for firewood).

Our guide (we hired one for the first day only) had apparently got his dates mixed up. This was remedied by reallocating us a lovely guide named Vanessa. On the way out to the truck, I noticed a bunch of paddles signed by ULAS - small world.

We headed into the park proper, paid up our permits, and set out on Canoe Lake aiming for Lost Joe. Initially we were with quite a few boats but this quickly thinned out. The wind however made for tricky paddling.

The scenery was stunning. From big open lakes to rivers to shallow narrow channels, the sun shine and the vista was beautiful.

We did have to learn how to portage with so much kit. This entailed getting a huge kit bag each on our backs, upending the canoe and resting the seats on the top of our packs...from the side we would have looked very odd!

At camp, Vanessa showed us the ropes. A campfire already set up, we found a tent spot and we're shown the 'thunderbox' (toilet...sort of. A wooden box with a seat over a long drop...still more than I expected!). We had a quick swim in the lake before dinner which was surprisingly warm. For tea tonight, the luxury of fresh meat (lots of freeze dried coming up) - steak, broccoli, onion and potato. Despite the annoyance of an ever more blackening pan, the steak was delicious.

Ben toddled off to cut some firewood and set a fire, before retiring for a game of crib and bed.Read more