On Beaches Travel Journal

The kids ran around for a while while the adults sat in the shade at the picnic table. We cleaned up and had some time to chat while the kids went offf doing kid things.

There are clean facilities across the road and I think they sell food on the water side. The building was labelled “Canteen” but wasn’t open when we were around in the middle of that Sunday. On the water side of the road, where the canteen is, there’s a wide open space with a well-kept lawn and some small flower gardens. The oldest two kids, the girls, came with me and wandered around a little. There’s a stairway to get down to the water’s edge. Apparently water levels have been low lately and the signs say the area is not safe for swimming.

Still we saw plenty of people wandering out on the rocky shore and into the water. I wouldn’t call it a marsh but it’s not a beach either. The scenery is worth taking in (you can see it in the day’s photo album) and it makes for a nice stroll.

After taking it all in we decided to head for the mountains to see the caves. There’s a tourism information center on the way out of town, I think it’s near 26 and Balsam (click here to see a map), but there are signs up if you’re looking for it. It was nearly four o’clock already, so we stopped in to check the hours before driving up there. It seemed like it would be too late to get out there, see all that we wanted to and still get back in time for dinner. Rather than rush, we decided to head back to the campground so dinner would be on time. I took the kids to the pool and Candace went to start dinner.

The pool a the campground looks like it can’t be more than a couple years old. We had it to ourselves because it was just opening up again when we got there (the hours had a break in the evening when it must’ve emptied out). It’s a little deep for the youngest. He’s four and he’s still working on learning to swim. The older ones had no problems and we played tag for an hour until someone called on the walkie-talkie to bring us back for dinner.

All-in-all, it was a great day with an exciting find in a town I didn’t expect to spend the day in. Oh, and there’s a Starbucks in Collingwood.