17 October, 2006

Grand Rassemblement - let the season begin

The season started with the “Grand Rassemblement" of kayakers at Piopolis (at Mégantic lake). Some of the kayakers were members of the “Kayak de mer dans nouveau monde” forum, others never heard of the web-site and came to meet new people, try different boats, listen to the presentations, or simply enjoy a week-end outdoors.
The event took place late in May and the weather was rather wet and cold – the only glimpse of sunlight was 30 minutes on the Sunday afternoon (what a break from the constant rain and wetness). Despite the weather conditions the three days spend at Piopolis were fun.
I am not a big fan of “group camping” and it was my first experience being outdoors, surrounded by a group of ~60 unfamiliar people who spoke French!!!
We (Eric, Marie-Claude, Francois, his friend, and me) arrived at Piopolis late Friday evening. The place was full of tents, tarps, and people. They were all happy to see or finally meet Eric (he is a big celebrity in the Quebec’s and not only Quebec’s kayaking circle ;) ). As for me, I was pretty hungry after the road-trip so I found a pick-nick table and started my chili. Couple of minutes later people were drown under the tarp – the wonderful smell of frying onions, garlic, mixed with cumin and chili powder was quite irresistible.

From that evening on, partially due to the very emotional comments on my cooking skills of Charles-Alexandre, I was “known” as the cooking girl. I didn’t socialize much with the “kayakers” but enjoyed cooking all kind of meals. So here is





THE MENU

1st day
Morning:
Oatmeal porridge filled with dried fruits
Snack:
Miso soup with a sandwich
Supper:
Pasta


2nd day 
Morning:
“Pancakes” made with leftovers of yesterday’s porridge
Snack:
Wild mushroom couscous
Supper:
Soup

3rd day

Morning:
Scrambled tofu



That's right - I cooked a lot!!!! However, I managed to have some “fun” as well…. This is me trying to perform one of the greenlander’s kayaking maneuver – “Innaqatsineq”. The water was slightly above the freezing point and I did not have a dry-suit!!!! Yeah yeah crazy Anna.















And this is us (Eric and me) sitting late at night next to the camp fire...... mmmmm.....what a wonderful week-end it was!!!!















Photos: Nancy Parent, Marie-Hélène Duplain, Maxime Roberge

1 comment:

  1. Oh!.. This is going to be way cool!.. Love it..

    Éric.. or Qajaq.. or well... studmuffin!? :)

    ReplyDelete