Our bikes were in the canvas shed, next to the sleds.
We slept in a guest cabin with its own cedar-lined sauna.
The outhouse next door had a solar light and a sink with water pumped up from the lake.
The pontoon dock, overlooked by a veranda, had 3 canoes and a speedboat.
A speedboat.
The speedboat had 8 coffee-cream leather seats, inbuilt speakers, and an array of intriguing dials.
“It’s the most comfortable thing, this boat”, Barny said. He was right. We were sitting in it as I wrote this.
Sam, Barny and Kristian planned a 40 minute swim across the lake, and I jokingly said I’d canoe alongside, offering morale support and/or paddle hits of ‘encouragement’. I was thrilled to find out this is actually a necessary role, as swimmers aren’t always visible to boats.
Near the veranda there is a shed full of life-jackets, water-skis, floats, paddles, cushions, parasols and other paraphernalia necessary for a good time waterside. There is a bar being built too, with an old boat next to it that will be buried vertically in the ground and the top half used as drinks shelves.
An old ornamental well nearby is awaiting conversion to a beer tub.
The beginnings of an Ewok-village inspired treehouse complex hangs in the trees above.
Stone plinths dot the shallow waters in the lake, and hand-made boats that were cast adrift dot the shores, in various states of repair.
Everywhere on this plot of land something well thought out and fun is built or being planned. It’s the coolest, most inviting place, owned by the coolest most inviting family.
The scenery is beautiful too. After a month in Canada it doesn’t hit you straight away just how beautiful it is, but if I cast my mind back to UK cities, the difference is astounding.
Our time there was filled with new activities. We ‘tubed’, which is where you’re dragged behind a speedboat on an inflatable disc: a mix between wake-boarding and laying on an inflatable sofa. We paddle-boarded, we canoed, we kayaked. Kristian wake-boarded while I sat in the boat with a beer basking in the sun.
The cabin at Catastrophe Lake, where we spent two nights, definitely didn’t live up to its Murder Mystery-esque name.
It was wonderful.
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