Tuesday, May 16, 2023: You can never have enough islands! And what is an island anyway?
Info:
Kingston: This time I am not talking about Jamaica when I talk about Kingston, but about Lake Ontario. From 1841 to 1844, this Kingston was the first capital of Canada, then was succeeded by Montreal, Quebec City and Toronto, until finally Queen Victoria decided that the then insignificant village of Bytown (renamed to Ottawa) should become the capital. Today, about 130,000 people live in Kingston.
Geography: A drop of water falling into Lake Superior takes two years to arrive in Lake Ontario near Kingston. From there it takes another two weeks to reach the sea (and we are not having a discussion about the estuary now!), because at Kingston the St. Lawrence River starts as the outflow of Lake Ontario.
Thousand Islands: They are called Thousand Islands, but there are actually more, between over 1700 and 1864. This depends on the time of year, because the water level of Lake Ontario rises in the spring and falls again from June. Something is defined as a Thousand Island if it protrudes above the water surface, is completely surrounded by water, is at least 1 squarefoot (0.093m2) in size, and has at least one tree. The Thousand Islands begin at Kingston and stretch across the first 80 km of the St. Lawrence River, with one part belonging to the province of Ontario of Canada, while the other is in the state of New York of the USA. Some islands are 100 km2 in size, others are home to only one house. To have their own island, this dream has been fulfilled by many people here – with the necessary small change of course.
Geology: The granite rocks that make up the Thousand Islands are among the oldest rocks on earth. They are a billion years old.
My opinion:
Kingston is just cool, even if it’s not in the Caribbean. I went to the city a second time because I liked it so much.
The three-hour boat ride on a historic paddle steamer (powered by two 300 horsepower engines) was a bit boring at first because there wasn’t much to see, but when we came to the smaller islands, it got really nice!
Diary:
I spent three nights at the Thousand Islands KOA campground Kingston. I had pre-booked it, simply because KOA was already open, while many other campgrounds do not start their season until May 20. I was at KOA in Montreal and Quebec at for this reason, too.
So far I have paid between 30 and 50 Canadian dollars (about 21 – 35 Euros) for one night. KOA Thousand Islands charged over $80 (about 56 Euros), and then they wanted to charge extra for the Internet. That’s when I got very calm and clear in my reasoning for a moment, then I got it for free. Even more so, where the campground was neither in Kingston (15 minutes drive out) nor by the Thousand Islands (25 minutes’ drive to the lake). Aside from the fact that they had the most horrible showers I’ve encountered, the internet was down, and when I asked if there was parking in Kingston, they said I’d better take a cab. They did not know that there is very cheap parking in the city. This was my last KOA till October, when all other campgrounds might be closed again.
Otherwise: Two absolutely enjoyable days, Canadian relaxedness in the city, friendly people … I felt totally at home.
Now I also know that dog sitter is a great job that you can actually make a living from. And that either I’ve shrunk since last week – which is pretty unlikely in such a short time – or my jeans and favorite t-shirt in the dryer from Reviere-du-Loup haven’t shrunk – which is more likely.
And I also know that Reviere-du-Loup is really Riviere-du-Loup … and that it’s totally unlikely that I’ll ever feel like correcting it the many times I’ve misspelled it.
