13 - The Cold Weather Sets In

Despite all its faults, Moose FM had been right about the weather and the temperature plummeted. We had been pretty cold that night but all snuggled together to keep warm and in the morning found that the condensation on the windows had frozen. It didn’t reach higher than 4 degrees all day.
Consequently, more studying, watching Simpsons, playing cards and snoozing was in order. Another Cruise Canada RV had arrived late the night before, the occupants of which were a German couple planning to do a 7-week trip driving to the west. We chatted to the bloke later that evening and I couldn’t resist telling him all about the bear!
Then we dumped our tanks again as the Moose told us it was going to get to below zero with snow flurries all night. We also took our own new down sleeping bags out of the storage area because the ones Cruise Canada had supplied hadn’t kept us as warm as we would have liked the previous night. The next day was miserable with the temperature remaining around zero and snow and sleet falling constantly. A second day of being mostly stuck in the van with Moose FM had detrimental effects on Fred’s mental health as he took to frequent ‘Dad dancing’ and finding out how bright the van would be with all the lights on!
We did get out despite the weather and found another area to walk which I renamed Bear Plains (not for any particular reason apart from the fact it was more open than Moose Alley and I always felt as though I was being pursued by a bear). This area took us to the banks of the beautiful Magnetawan River where we took a few snaps then returned to the warmth of the propane-fuelled heater in the van. On the way, we spotted Woody again doing his thing.
Just before dark we also saw the beaver and then Fred went outside to undertake some male bonding with our new German neighbour and the son of the campsite owners, Jason. This gave me time to catch up with writing the blog which I began to really enjoy. I wrote three parts then after dark Fred returned. The weather had cleared up revealing amazingly clear starry skies unadulterated by any form of artificial light. It also meant that it would be below freezing overnight so we visited the Dump Station next to Woody’s house again and continued to do so every night until we left Britt.
For the last two days we visited Parry Sound a second time and did a bit more exploring around the campsite. During one walk up Moose Alley we spotted some moose tracks which were surprisingly massive. They were going in the same direction as us but halfway up the track they disappeared and Tala began acting twitchy. Her tail went down and she kept looking behind us nervously. We reached the end then turned around and noticed more
tracks which were, this time, going in the opposite direction and they hadn’t been there before!
We enjoyed being at Britt but felt that we could have moved on a couple of days before we had planned to. The time there did, however, give us time to recuperate from the all the work and stress of moving house and travelling to Canada.