On Saturday, we decided to follow the St Lawrence seaway and to drive from Ottawa to Gananoque, one of the gateway to the Thousand Islands. The Thousand Islands is an archipelago around the U.S — Canada border, in the St Lawrence river. The total number of islands is said to be 1,793 but some of them are barely rocks above water, while some are home to castles and resorts.

Gananoque is a small Canadian town, with a population of about 5,000. A main street, a clock tower, a few churches and a nice little harbor is about all there is to see. The town was busy with a biker convention (?!) and we stayed away from the crowd (by crowd, I mean, 20 people max.) and hang out by the old locks and the shore.

The weather was pretty dark but it was hot and hazy. It made the shores look even more untamed…

We then drove to Rockport, a few miles away. A township located by the Thousand Islands bridge, it offers a great view of the islands. And yes, we almost got attacked by a family of hungry ducks.

We took the Thousand Island parkway and crossed the bridge to Hill Island, right by the international border with the USA. The island was very quiet and we took a small gravel road, deep into the forest. A few miles later, I spotted a deer in the wild. We stopped the car and I slowly walked towards it. We stared at each other (well, mostly I was staring, I guess he saw humans before… but I don’t see deers that often!) and I got a chance to take a picture before it escaped. Later on, we spotted something else on the road… yep, a big black snake. I got off the car and walked as close as I could (not afraid of snakes!). Funny enough, the road we were driving on was “the black snake” road, as the sign said!

Back to the entry on the island, I climbed the skydeck to get a better view. You can see the Thousand Islands Bridge below, as well as one of the many islands.

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