The Trent -Severn Waterway

The Trent-Severn Waterway - considered the "Jewel of Canada" and one of the top tourist attractions. It is a 285 mile system of lakes, rivers, man made canals and 45 locks . It was started in 1896 for the purpose of boat commerce and took 10 years to compete.  Most of it is still original!  It is so crooked,  with so many locks, that we are underway for hours (at 6 mph) and barely get further west.

We have stayed at Trent, Frankford,Hastings and Cambellford - hardly making any miles for the time spent on the water.  

On the day we travelled from Hastngs to Cambellford we did 30 miles, 6 locks, walked around a town,visited a chocolate factory, tied up to the city dock for the night and  went to a pub with new boating friends.  A big storm hit ( only lasted one hour)  while we were tied up at the wall (and in the pub) and broke our boat antenae.  Bill went to the hardware store and figured out a way to McGuyver fixing it. 

                                        Most of the lock gates are original and made of wood.

Each lock is hand turned to open by 2 people - not by us!  The lock operators love to talk and almost all stand next to your boat the entire time talking - we've learned alot!

Bass fishing boats like this are all over. There are also lots of people in canoes and kayakers.  There are no sand beaches- the edges are mud or rocks.

The trees aroend here are pine trees, weeping willows and hardwood trees.  There are tons of Canadian Geese and ducks.

The Canadians here speak English with an accent.   Quite a few of them have a French accent when speaking.  Everything is printed in English and French.

The  paper money is plastic, part of it is see through, and waterproof.  Their one dollar is a coin called a loonie and their 2 dollar is a coin called a toonie.

 giant fish art

top of the locks