Giant sand dunes with clear blue sky
在夏季，好像所有的加拿大人都会去露营。因为，如果现在不去，接下来就没机会了。
连读五，六年，我们的朋友 ，DM和 LM都不会放过夏季这个难得的露营季节。今年当然也不例外，定了一个星期的营地。听说，DM在六个月前就要上网预定。因为，他们要去的省公园Sandbanks是很热门的一个露营地。不早定，就肯定会失望。
By the camp fire. I was already in my PJ !
Ed呢，很狡猾。‘难度高‘的东西(早上7点爬起身来上网预定）让DM做。他就坐享其成，在他们露营的那个星期去‘探望’他们。 那我们就可以‘顺道‘露营两，三天了。
Sandbank公园离多伦多两个半小时车程，不算远。上路前，我们已听说天气不佳。虽明知下雨露营很没趣，可是不想错失机会，也累了城市生活，还是不管三七二十一，要‘勇敢‘地接触大自然。我们在星期五晚抵达。建好了露营的帐篷后，LM盛了美酒，起了营火，迎接我们。那晚，我们在满天星星下熟睡。
Our cozy kitchen tent
第二天，天气一点都不是天气预象台预测地糟糕。相反的，出奇地好。吃了丰富的早餐后，他们要带我到著名的沙丘堆见识见识。有些沙丘高至五，六十尺不等。这么大的沙丘，我还真是头一次见。我们一座一座沙丘地爬。还好，天气不太热，加上阵阵凉风，我也算有体力‘征服‘它们。这时，我想到我要去撒哈拉沙漠的年少无知的梦想。突然，觉得好遥远，也好像没那么振奋人心了。
爬沙丘爬累了，我们就到沙滩休息休息。在Sandbanks, 顾名思义，当然大部分的活动都与沙有关。我和LM难得清静地坐在沙滩上看看书，Ed 和DM则在暖暖‘湖‘水内游泳，。这时，我们已知道白天的好天气是假象。因为，预像台说，狂风暴雨会在夜晚降临。不敢久呆在沙滩， 我们提早回营地准备晚餐。
Yummy BBQ ribs !
露营嘛，哪可少了烧烤。排骨，牛扒，玉蜀黍，等，总之什么可以放在火上烤的，我们都放在火上烤。饱餐后，又是美酒加营火。可是，今晚就没那么逍遥了。 喝着红酒时，我们见到天上远处，闪电打亮了天际。渐渐地，越来越逼近。我们知大事不妙。赶紧收拾好，就躲进帐篷内‘避难‘。
那晚，就在我们的头上，雨唏哩哗啦地下，闪电轰隆隆地响。从没在狂风暴雨下露营的我在帐篷内担心 ：‘我们的帐篷建在大树下。闪电噼啪砍大树的话….’ Ed接下去说 : ‘那我们就完蛋啦！‘ 虽然如此，一天排满的活动把我累坏了。来不及多胡思乱想，我就倒头呼呼大睡了。
星期天早上，我被鸟叫声吵醒。大地一片潮湿。快快吃了早餐，清理好一切，带着已湿透了的用具，和装了很多沙的帐篷，我们向Sandbank 说，明年再见。
It is (still) summer here ! During summer, everyone goes to camp. Well, if you don’t do it now, you may not have any other time for the rest of the year.
Friends of ours have been camping in Sandbanks Provincial Park for the last 5 to 6 years. Being the only rare time that is ‘practical’ for camping, DM has to book at least 6 months ahead, and have to wake up at 7am to go online for the booking. Yup, it is that popular here. This year, it is no difference, DM and LM have booked for a week long camping in Sandbanks Provincial Park.
Climb two steps and slide back one step
Ed being cheeky, he takes the advantages of letting them to do the hard work (booking), and we joined them for a couple of days during that week.
So, we went last weekend – DM and LM’s last two days at the camp site. Unfortunately, the forecast was not great at all. Yet, we still went because we have not been out of the city since I came back. Tired of city life and needing a nature dose, we packed and soldiered on.
Sandbanks Provincial Park is only about 2.5 hours from Toronto. We arrived on Friday night. After setting up the tent, we finished our day with a few glasses of wine with DM and LM by the camp fire.
Was the tent sturdy enough for the rain storm?
The next day, supposed to rain, instead we had a gorgeous weather. They took me this newbie to the famous sand dunes. Some dunes are as tall as 50-60 feet. Never saw giant sand dunes before, I was amazed. We were lucky that the day was not too hot and had constant refreshing breezes. Hence, I survived well with the climbing of giant sand dunes. However, imaging myself going to Sahara dessert (one of my many wild dreams) climbing even larger sand dunes under the fierce sun, does not excite me like before anymore.
After visiting the sand dunes, we thought we deserved more sands, and some relaxing times. We went to a beach within the Park. Weather surprisingly was holding up for us. LM and I read, Ed and DM went for a swim.
Ed tried to shake off the sands in the tent
Knowing there would be a rain storm coming overnight. We did not stay at the beach too long. We went back to our camp, cooked a big feast (BBQ ribs, steak, BBQ corn and other veggies) and tried to enjoy more wines and camp fire before the storm.
At about 10pm, we could see lightning lightening up the sky somewhere far from us . Slowly, the lightning is moving closer to us and we knew up it was time to pack up and hide in our tents as quickly as possible.
It was my first time to camp in a storm. The frequency of strong lightning, the powerful wind and the amount of rain above our tent were not funny. We camped under the trees and I was worried what would happen if the trees struck by the lightning. ‘If it happened we would be dead.’ Ed said. Yup, he likes to do that to me. No matter how worried I was, after a full day of activities, I still slept sound.
I woke up by the singing of the birds next morning. Everything was wet and soaked. We quickly had our breakfast, then cleaned up, and went home with lots of sands in our wet tents and in our shoes. It is indeed a real experience with the nature.
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四海为家 from far south to far north 