The Camino Frances

The Camino Frances

Tuesday, November 1, 2016

Cottage Camino - last 2 days





Sunday morning, May 29 - Breakfast on the dock - at the cottage I never eat inside unless it is raining or freezing! I served coffee and egg on a raft - easier that eggs and toast, and no utensils required.

Not exactly as served

 It was hot when we started off at 6:45, but this section of the Victoria Rail trail south to Lindsay had more mature trees and therefore more shade than yesterday. However, there were more mosquitoes!
The first hour was familiar to me, as I have biked it, but as we headed further south it was all new. After 2 hours we arrived at Ken Reid Conservation area, but once again the signage was minimal, and we walked straight through the park, along their boardwalk, with no rest or picnic area to be seen.



Image result for image boardwalk Ken Reid Conservation





We stopped on the side of the trail and had part of our lunch.
We met many more people today than on the other days - perhaps because it was a Sunday. There were lots of bikes and 8 ATVs passed us along the way.
As we walked through the outskirts of Lindsay a woman with a dog told us that we were only 20 minutes from the Kawartha Dairy, our destination for the day.Image result for image kawartha dairy barn lindsay
 Hooray! We arrived there before 1 pm, Dave met us, and we rewarded ourselves with one of their wonderful ice cream cones - mine was "3 truffle chocolate".
Back to the cottage, had the rest of our lunch, a swim




 and were back in Toronto by 5 pm.


But we weren't finished the Camino! So in July, I invited all my pilgrim friends to the cottage, and the 3 of us plus Pat's cousin, who had done a Camino years ago, and Cathy, who was planning to walk in September,  completed the pilgrimage by walking the last stage from Fingerboard Road to Lindsay and the Kawartha Dairy once again.
It was hot, but this section of the trail was shadier, and the signage was much better once we entered the city of Kawartha Lakes.
This is their website.
http://ktct.ca/
While we were walking this section, we met a woman who had recently joined the board of this section of the trail. We gave her an earful of suggestions, including washrooms, water, more shade, picnic areas and signage showing the locations of all these facilities.
Once we arrived back at the cottage ( after another stop for ice cream for some of us) we found more pilgrims, and the rest of the day was spent eating fabulous food ( thanks to all, especially Ingrid),

A sample of the feast


swimming, sunning, and sharing Camino stories. That night there were 10 pilgrims sleeping over in my cottage/albergue,  also known as Pilgrims Rest.

Morning has broken - Ingrid


So finally, with the help of friends, I was able to complete a dream of walking from home to my cottage.



Image result for images trans canada trail lindsay