Kejimkujik National Park protects the inky dark waterways and
Acadian forest at the centre of Nova Scotia.
The coffee-coloured lakes, rivers and brooks are some of the
darkest waterways I’ve ever seen, having been stained by tannins as the water
seeped through bogs to form them.
The canoe we hired for half a day from Jake’s Landing glided
over the top of this dark, often mirror-like surface and though we knew the
waters to be quite shallow and the aquatic creatures to be harmless, it was eerie
not being able to see what lied just beneath the surface.
We paddled our way up the Mersey River past water lilies and
banks lined with red maple trees (some of which are already starting to show Autumn's approach) and were lucky enough to see a painted turtle
sunning himself on a log.
After a picnic, we headed back downstream and this time out
on to Kejimkujik Lake and across to Kedge Beach.
The boys had fun testing out the buoyancy of their life jackets
floating around in the shallows at the lake’s edge and had a play in the
playground beside the beach.
We thought it might be fun to meet some fairies and so
hopped back in the canoe and paddled our way over to Fairy Bay as the winds picked
up.
While the waves added some excitement to our mission, we
were disappointed to see an anchored sign indicating the area was restricted so as to
protect petroglyphs found there.
Dropping the canoe back we all agreed that it had been a cool adventure and we understood why most campers in our very busy campground had their
own canoes.
The previous afternoon when we’d arrived, we had walked the 1
km loop to Rogers Brook and had seen half a dozen leopard frogs.
The day after our canoeing we walked the 2 km return trail to the
Mill Falls, following a very beautiful path beside the Mersey River.
Here the look of a long black coffee becomes more like a latte thanks to saponins, natural soaps in the water that form foam.
Our campsite, one of few that were available from the
hundreds there, was very close to a playground where Indy and Dash had a couple
of great sessions.
I even got a jog in, along the 6.4km return Slapfoot trail
skirting the lake from the campground over to Jake’s Landing. I couldn't have asked for more - a fairly-flat trail, beautiful scenery, no bears – happy days!
We can see why this National Park is a favourite destination for Nova
Scotians.
