The Gentle Giant Residing At Charleston Lake Park

This road trip was for the purpose of going to see "Pumpkin Inferno" at Upper Canada Village near Cornwall, Ontario. We decided to make a weekend of it and to do one last year end camping trip. We chose Charleston Lake Provincial Park because it was the closest Provincial Park to Pumpkin Inferno that was still open at this time of year. 

We had scouted out the sites online ahead of time. We were surprised to see that there weren't many left. Usually at this time of year you practically have the whole park to yourself anywhere else. But not here. This place was pretty busy. From the pictures online we thought that site number 310 would be a nice site.  So when we pulled up to the gate after a long 5 hour drive, we asked for site number 310. 
   Unfortunately once we got to the site we didn't like it. There was not much privacy (but then we found out later that it seems most of the sites here do not have much privacy). It was on quite a steep incline and since my car is a manual, I was having difficulties keeping my car from rolling backwards when I went to turn it on. Luckily the lady in the office had said that if we didn't like the site we could change it and go back to let them know (I suspect she said that because she figured we might change our mind). So we scouted around for one that we liked better. 

We decided on site number 317. It is a corner site right across from a bunch of yurts.The yurts had a whole bunch of kids there with their parents. About 8 to 10 kids would be my guess. We were worried about the noise from a bunch of yelling kids.  We figured that we probably wouldn't even be on our site most of the time anyways, so we took the chance.  But in the end we didn't need to worry. They were well behaved and we hardly noticed they were there. 

We began setting up the tents. I had just bought a brand new 6 person tent (which of course means it only holds 4 people) at half price for an end of the season clearance sale. I was surprised to find that the poles come attached to the tent (which I figure would make it difficult to pack back up again, and I am not sure I would have bought it if I had known). For about $65 taxes in I figured it was a pretty good deal since my last big tent that I owned was on it's last legs and leaked pretty badly. This would be my first foray with this tent and I would have tons of room all by myself in it. 

An added bonus feature to this tent is that is has an air vent in the back of it. No more feeling all stuffy and having no air circulation when it rains. I really like this feature. 

All was going well until Carsten and Penny couldn't find one of the poles to their tent. I figured, no problem, I have a huge tent and we can all use mine.  They did eventually find the pole to their tent but since they had an air mattress and I didn't and there were two of them and only one of me, I let them have my big tent for the weekend while I used their smaller one. It only made sense and I still had plenty of room. 

​I finished setting up before Carsten and Penny so I took a quick walk over to the beach (which was directly across the road from us) to see if I could see the sunset. 

The sun was sinking low, but there were no vibrant colours that you usually get with a sunset. I had to settle for some pretty clouds instead. 

​It was getting dark by the time we finished setting up. We didn't feel like starting a fire so we had a quick bite to eat in the dark and discussed going up to the amphitheater. We are Pokemon Go players and apparently there was a number of Poke Stops in the park; the amphitheater being one of them. 
   As we were getting into the car our new neighbours to the left of us were pulling in and setting up camp. They were three french guys who were putting up their tents in the dark with nothing more that a couple of head lamps. I felt bad for them so as we got into the car I tried to help them by shining my headlights over their way for a little bit.  

We parked the car under a street light that was shining in the parking lot of the amphitheater and then climbed our way up a large set of stairs to the top of a hill. 

At the top of the hill we found our Poke Stop and played our game for a bit. The cell signal was a bit spotty but we managed all right. We spent a few minutes exploring the area in the dark but we decided that we would come back another time when it was daylight so that we could really look around. 

When we got back our neighbours were all set up. And to our dismay, they decided to turn on their music for all the world to listen to. 
Here we were worried about the kids being noisy (which they weren't ....their parents had them all tucked in bed quietly by 8 pm) and instead it was these guys disturbing the peace.   But at about this time it started to rain though so the sound of the rain drowned out the noise of the music and we retreated into the dining tent to play board games. 

After about an hour or so we all of a sudden heard a buzzing noise and saw a HUGE wasp flying around inside our tent. 

And I mean this thing was HUGE! I had never seen a wasp as big as this one before. It was about 2 inches long and half an inch wide. It had some red and amber colouring to it and I thought it must be a queen bee or something. We tried opening all the doors and screening on the tent to get it to leave but it did not really want to go. Carsten eventually got a stick and it climbed onto the stick and he carried outside to a tree little ways away. 
We marveled at how this was the second time this year we have had insects of unusual size flying about our dining tent. When I got home a few days later I looked up this bee on the internet. Turns out to be a European Hornet and is also known as the "Gentle Giant". The drones come out at night and unless you disturb their nest or swat at them, you are quite safe around these gentle giants. They are  "amazingly peaceful animals, even shier than honeybees" as some people describe them. 

When we went to bed at about 11:30 p.m. it was still raining. But fortunately, neither of our tents leaked and we had a good first night at Charleston Lake Park.