Day 97...Narrows Lock to Poonamalie Lock

WEDNESDAY, JULY 4, 2012

     We left Narrows Lock dock at 9:00 a.m. after the excitement of the skunk.

     There were some very nice houses on Big Rideau Lake.  At 20 miles long it is the largest lake on the Rideau Canal.  The lake is very deep in some places.  We saw some depths of at least 329 feet on the chart. Look carefully in the trees for the houses.

     After we passed Sand Island, we entered Lower Rideau Lake.  We traveled by Turnip Island.  Does it look like a turnip to you?  Sometimes I wonder where these names come from.  We had a hitchhiker for a while.

     There was a loon in the water.  Usually as soon as I get my camera they dive under the water.  This time Gary cut the throttle so we wouldn’t make as much noise and Ta Dah…a picture of a loon. “The common loon is Ontario’s official bird.  They are large diving birds that spend their summers on open fresh water lakes and their winters on the seacoast.  During the summer they sport distinctive black and white breeding plumage.  They are 2-3 feet long, weigh about 10 pounds and have a wingspan of 4-5 feet.” This information came from a brochure about loons on the Rideau.  A swimming loon is on the back of Canada’s gold “loonie” coin that is worth $1.00.

     After the bridge we entered the Rideau River.  We will be in this river all the way to Ottawa. 

     Next we came to Poonamalie Lock.  There is an information board that says, “Poonamalie is a Tarnal (India) word meaning cat hill or cat mountain.  It is assumed that this area reminded one of the Royal Engineers of a previous posting in Western India where the word Poonamalie was used.”.  We pulled up to the little stone wall on the port side for the night.  We had traveled 20 miles in 3 hours and 11 minutes.  We have traveled a total of 1795 miles so far.  There is a three-trunked birch on shore next to the boat that is absolutely gorgeous. Other than the lock office and Lockmaster’s house there was nothing around.  It is an isolated lock that is very beautiful and serene.

     We got there early enough to visit with two of the lock guys, Braden (on the left in the first picture) and Sean.  They were hard workers but also very easy to talk to when they weren’t working.  Both of them go to university in Kingston.  Sean says he’s lived near Poonamalie his whole life. We talked about American football…professional versus college.

     We also had time to observe the long, brown snake in the lock.  It was swimming back and forth in the lock with a partially eaten fish in its mouth.  If you look closely, the bulge half way down its body is probably the rest of the fish.  We saw two more snakes in the lock but they weren’t as big as this one that was at least 4 feet long.  What do you think I dreamed about that night?