Aboard the Paula D.

CFUW-Ottawa's Diplomatic Hospitality Group invited diplomat families and friends to a cruise on the Ottawa River last week, on the Paula D., a river boat chartered from Paul's Boat Lines. About 130 people came along.

A Rockcliffe headland seen from on board

View from the Paula D.

The water was calm and smooth on a cold but very bright October morning, the passengers feeling the chill on the top deck, although it was cosy enough on the enclosed deck below where soup and sandwiches were being served. We sailed from the Hull Marina to beyond the confluence with the Gatineau River at Pointe Gatineau before turning back, but were too busy socialising to pay very much attention to the scenery, except for the Rideau Falls on the way out, which the boat approached closely enough for us to feel the spray.

With a D.J. on board the dancing soon began to dance and that and the sunshine warmed people up. Then, introduced by the Indian High Commissioner's wife Rina Gavai who was participating in the cruise, a special entertainment was provided by Indian dancers, demonstrating a classical dance in costumes meant for a warmer climate, and bare feet, with anklets of little bells.

Indian classical dancers entertain the cruise passengers

Guardians of the Ottawa River

On the Ottawa Riverkeeper website I linked yesterday* (expect it to pop up regularly in this blog), I've found a page about another writer who keeps an eye on our local rivers, Katherine Fletcher. The Riverkeepers have been around since 2000. The organisation itself publishes a blog and encourages interested people to get involved in its work.

Last summer our Diplomatic Hospitality group met a couple of representatives of the Riverkeeper team at a picnic in Britannia Bay, where a trolley bus used to stop at the park, bringing families from Ottawa to the beach for a day's outing. This was the last stop on the line. Under the roof of the former platform we spent a pleasant time there in our sunhats, sharing our lunch and then learning about the river.

Diplomatic Hospitality picnic, June 2010

* Thanks for the comment, Faith –– now it's a perfect storm because we're having an unusually hot and dry summer was a peculiar way of putting it indeed. I never noticed though, until you pointed it out.