With the Wilsons in Peterborough days 18-19

We met Gilly (my first cousin once removed (great Aunt's daughter)) in the car park of our motel at around 9:30am and followed her back to their amazing home where we were offered the basement to stay in. We were greeted enthusiastically by their 2 dogs, Lulu, an American Cocker spaniel, and Storm, a huge Rottweiler Labrador cross. The house has the most amazing garden (which has achieved Canadian Wildlife status and has featured in the newspaper) it has a pond with a plethora of frogs (what is a group of frogs called? A croak of frogs?), toads and salamanders, the largest variety of plants, black squirrels, chipmunks, birds-a-plenty (including woodpeckers and hummingbirds) and an amazing array of ornaments such as a brass coloured pelican, a metal stork and a Buddha!
We were treated to a breakfast of bacon omelette, mushrooms, tomatoes and beans, followed by toast (pumpernickel bread, which I hadn't tried before but it's delicious) and marmalade, and then fresh raspberries and cream.
AND so we were set for the day....
we went off into town to go on a boat trip over the highest lift lock in the world. We passed first through a lock very much like the ones in England, except that the boats were tied to vertical poles whilst inside so that, as the boat moved either up or down, the rope just slid up or down the pole. Then we approached the lift lock; it was like one of those old weighing scales where when you push down one side the other side goes up. 2 huge basins were each atop an enormous piston; we entered the lower basin; we were in a 20 to 25m boat and another smaller, perhaps 5m boat, also entered at the same time and there was still room for more. A gate was closed behind us and a lift worker walked along the length of the gate unceremoniously dumping fish; that had been caught in a hollow at the top; over into the basin with us using a shovel.
More water is then allowed to flow into the top basin and because of the imbalance in mass the top basin moves down on its piston whilst the bottom basin moves up. We were raised through 19.8m in a matter of seconds. The lift has been in use for over 100 years and in that time there have only been 2 accidents when the back gate opened as the basins were moving so that all the water flowed out leaving boats hanging by their moorings! These accidents happened after modifications to the safety system on the gate closure mechanisms changing them from manual to mechanical hydraulic systems. They now have reimplemented the manual locking system as well as the mechanical one.
We passed the original Quaker Oats factory that has been on that site for nearly 150 years, and also learnt about the way that the canals are constructed over here. The banks look a bit like dry stone walling, with a series of flattish rocks sitting on top of each other... this system has been used as far back as in ancient Egypt where they used it along their irrigation canals. The energy from the wake of passing boats is absorbed by the cracks between the rocks and there is very little erosion. I wonder why we don't use this method in the UK instead of that boarding that is always put up, the bank is just eroded behind it anyway!
After a trip of about 2 hours we wandered around the marina for an hour looking in the shops and sitting in the shade in the park. The temperature has risen in the last couple of days to around 31C - a bit too hot to be doing too much (for me anyway).
We returned to the house (to yet another enthusiastic welcome from the dogs) and found Paul (Gilly's husband) had returned from his golf and we sat around chatting for ages and then all went out to a pub for supper and locally brewed organic beer.
We slept well!!!
Today, after another generous breakfast, we made sandwiches and boiled eggs and then took the dogs to go and visit Petroglyths National Park. Gilly and Paul were packing and organizing for their trip to the UK (they leave tomorrow), so it was just us and the dogs. The petroglyths is the site of ancient aboriginal rock art, some has been dated at around 1000 years old and consists of lots of snakes, turtles, fertility symbols, a rabbit like figure who is a sort of spirit of mischief and several large triangular shapes. It is a sacred site to the local Indian population and so we can't share any photos with you as photos were not allowed, and we had to leave the dogs tied in the shade of a tree nearby as they weren't allowed near the site either. There were a couple of offerings at the site but we didn't actually see anyone there at all. After contemplating the art we took the dogs on a hike to a nearby lake and ate our packed lunch in the shade of the trees whilst Storm raced around in the water collecting thrown sticks... Lulu, however, was far to regal to get involved in such nonsense.
At 3pm we met with Gilly (at a prearanged restaurant car park!)as we had been invited to Gordi and Tessa's (friends of the Wilsons) house on Clear Lake to go swimming and go out in their speed boat. What a great afternoon, even though the engine on the boat conked out and we had to wave our arms madly at a passing boat to get a tow. The water was warm, the sun was shining, the house was amazing. Celso has been enquiring about house prices.....
Back at Gilly and Paul's again we drank beer and ate a delicious supper of corn on the cob and shepherds pie, and now we are exhausted... again
What fantastic relatives I have!