Killarney Camping Trip Pt. 3

Otto the otter at the Killarney Harbour.

After taking some night shots at George Lake, Peter and I headed back to our campsite. The campfire was out and the girls were already in bed. We readied ourselves and hit the sack soon after.

As usual it took me awhile to get to sleep. I normally toss and turn for a bit. I can't remember if I actually fell asleep or not, but at what I later believed to be 2:00 in the morning I felt a drip of water on my face. Then another... and another...

Our tent was leaking...

...And outside was an intense thunderstorm.

I grabbed my glasses from the pocket on the inside of the tent and turned on my flashlight. Above I could see water seeping through the mesh covering of our tent. Above was our tent fly which we quickly learned wasn't meant to hold back such heavy precipitation.

My camera bag, clothing and other things were spread out beside me inside the tent. I quickly rounded them up and put them in plastic bags to try to keep dry. Luckily for me I had brought a good number of them.

I couldn't quite roll up my sleeping bag tight enough fast enough to keep it from soaking up water, so I placed it on top of my backpack and placed Emily's sleeping pad on top of everything to keep them from the water seeping in from above. Then I sat while water dripped down on and around me.

I suppose I caused enough of a commotion to wake the others. From the tent next door Emily asked us what we wanted to do. Her tent was holding fast so she and her mother were unaffected by the rain.

She said if we wanted to go she could pack everything up in the morning. That was something I had considered, but I don't know if Peter or Fiona wanted to do that.

In short order I made a mad dash for the nearby comfort station. I had to go to the bathroom. I waited as long as I could and the rain had let up slightly, so I didn't get too wet.

Besides the mens and ladies bathrooms, the comfort station had 7 shower stalls and a small laundry room. That's where I stayed until the rain let up. Sitting alone under buzzing fluorescent lights with moths and other flying insect flitting about outside the double doors.

It was unpleasant to say the least. But, as far as I was concerned, much better than the alternative of lying in the dark in a wet sleeping bag not knowing when the rain was going to let up.

After an hour or two the rain stopped. I could still hear it dripping from the trees, but that was it. I went back to the tent and flipped the sleeping pad onto the dry side and tried to place my sleeping bag directly on it so it wouldn't sop up too much water from the floor and tried to get some rest.

In the morning we assessed the damage. Everything was soaked. We had left all our gear out overnight - The folding chairs, the bug screen, our tent, some towels on our makeshift laundry line... everything was wet.

We disassembled it all and threw most of it, dirty and wet, into Emily's trunk. We didn't have the time to let it air dry. That would have to wait until later.

For breakfast Peter cooked up the remaining eggs and bacon making French toast again.

After that Emily and her mum headed back to the city. They had to meet up with Emily's brother by 6:00 in the evening.

Peter, Fiona and I weren't restrained by any time schedule so we headed into the town of Killarney to look for the fish and chips truck and to walk around.

The main drag is along Channel Street at the western end of Highway 637. That's where the harbour is along the Killarney Channel.

We hung out there taking some pictures. That's where Fiona noticed the River Otter swimming around the docks. I have to say it was pretty elusive. It would only poke it's head out for a few seconds before ducking under and resurfacing somewhere else.

With a bit of luck I managed to get a couple of shots of him. The rest of the time he submerged himself beforehand. Peter never actually saw it (let alone get a picture of it). That was too bad.

Afterwards we had our fish and chips from the Herbert Fisheries truck. We followed that up with a cup of ice cream from the nearby trailer corner store before Peter drove us home.

In spite of the rain, I'd have to say it was a good trip overall. A big thanks goes out to Emily for all her hard work in organizing and to Peter for driving and helping with the food.