Thursday, July 5, 2007
It was quite typical of what the world thinks of Canada. A kindly man with a slightly protruding belly, walks his dog. Set against a backdrop vista of blue sky, steep green hills and glistening river water, he politely says to a neighbour, "Nice day, eh?" Some of you may laugh at such a stereotype but that's exactly what happened. At least for Yovany and I on this early stretch of today's trek, this guy in Mattawa did just that.
Personally, this courtesy, simple as it is, registers as something saintly. To me it is so many levels beyond religious condescension that we sometimes encounter. Have you ever met someone with the 'holier than thou' attitude? It is another form of ignorance.
Now to go back to the topic of kindness. The generosity of the people just keeps on flowing. A woman gave a blue stalactamite as a gift, A man stopped to offer a bunch of rich and ripe strawberries, and Doug even received a discount on the campsite on the plea of 'monk rates.' Of course our hosts for the last five days in North Bay, the Ratra family, fed us and accomodated us so well until we left to continue our eastbound trek.
A portion of our afternoon was taken up venturing to the Brent meteotite crater. Apparently this 2 mile diameter depression on the north side of Algonquin Park is one of a few of such size found on earth. This one was the biggest one on the planet until about six years ago when a bigger one was discovered in Siberia. This occurred some 250 million years ago. Interesting!
40 kms
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