We arrived in Kingston, Ontario on Friday night and had dinner at their Holiday Inn since we couldn't board the "Kawartha Voyageur" until 8PM anyway. The name "Kawartha" by the way is Indian for "land of the shimmering waters." Now, for me and hubby, this boat was one of the most amazing things about this cruise. First of all, it was designed and built by the family who owns and runs the business ~ The Ackert's. It is the only cruise boat of its' kind and extremely unique at that! We traveled through 33 locks in 6 days and, everytime we had to go underneath a bridge, the nose of the bow lifted up from the front of the boat, the awning atop of the wheelhouse came down, and the wheelhouse itself lowered to about a quarter its' height! How? Well, they are all hydraulically built. Since the passengers were allowed inside the wheelhouse to chat with Captain John Ackert anytime except for when we were heading under a bridge of course, hubby and I were able to see the inside of it while the Captian explained the history of the Rideau (actually pronounced "reed-dow") and very graciously answered any questions we may have had. The wheelhouse has a square opening cut out of the ceiling above the Captain's chair so that when it comes down while going under bridges the captain does not get crushed and can also see outside the boat to navigate. It even has a fail-safe so that if something should happen to go wrong with the primary hydraulics, there will not be a problem.
This is a view from the top deck where we were allowed to sit and you can see just how close the boat gets to the bridge
Here you can see the opening in the ceiling above the Captain's head in the wheelhouse
We traveled from Kingston to Ottawa, enjoying every tree, native bird, animal, horsefarm, island home, etc. One of the birds which we had gotten the chance to see was the beautiful osprey who like to nest in the bridge structures along the canal ...
We also made a few historical stops and explored the nearby towns of Westport and Merrickville for a bit of sight-seeing and shopping. While strolling along in Merrickville, we saw a couple of "old school" telephone boothes which actually did work. Here's hubby clowning around with them ... LOL!
We were served breakfast at 8AM, lunch at 12, a snack at 3, and dinner at 6 every day. There was no television on the boat except for in the Captian's quarters in the wheelhouse which also had a large bed, a shower, and a desk and computer. There was also a laundry room for the crew, small galley, a mini bar, nice size dining area, a small library, and a communal PC. It rained for the first three days we were there, but we did have a couple of sunny ones as well ...
We arrived in Ottawa on Wednesday and had some time to walk around until the bus came to take us all back to Kingston. One of the things we enjoyed while in Ottawa was the beautiful "Hogback Falls" ...
The funny thing about this trip was that it took us 6 days to travel up the Rideau Canal and only two hours to get us back by bus to where we started in Kingston. Talk about taking the long way, eh? LOL!
Ottawa, Ontario
All in all, a very memorable trip and one well worth taking. I would definately recommend this trip to anyone!
