Water views ... the Rideau Canal locks beside Chateau Laurier.Credit: AFP
Lance Richardson cruises Ontario's aquatic highway - a 200-kilometre engineering masterpiece.
Leonardo da Vinci invented many things in his lifetime, including a winged flying machine and a crossbow the size of a large tank. He painted The Last Supper, drew the Vitruvian Man and produced studies of the human body unrivalled in anatomical clarity.
Take a trip down the Rideau Canal in Ontario and you'll also discover that, in a roundabout way, he helped safeguard Canada from the Americans, too. This odd fact occurs to me as I watch the water level rise in the Jones Falls Lockstation.
A boat has entered what looks like a holding pen, gates closing firmly behind. If a second set of gates in front of the boat were to open immediately, I'd witness a miniature tsunami and several deaths, the water on the other side being six or seven metres higher than the heads of a holidaying family. Instead, a worker fusses over a crank. The boat rises gradually until the water level is equal on either side, then the mitre gate slides back and the family carries on down the canal, oblivious to da Vinci's technological marvel that has afforded the human equivalent of salmon jumping up a waterfall.
The Americans enter this picture in 1812, when Britain and the US fought over, among other things, the ownership of Canada. Fairly attached to its colony, Britain saw that its situation after the war could be undone if the Americans besieged the Saint Lawrence River, used to transport goods between Montreal and the Great Lakes. So, beginning in 1827, they simply excavated a new one. Thousands of workers covered 202 kilometres, connecting the Rideau and Cataraqui rivers with 74 dams and 47 masonry locks using da Vinci's gate design.
Europe has the Mona Lisa but North America has one of the greatest civil engineering works of the 19th century. To this day boats can ascend 85 metres from Ottawa River, then meander south to Kingston Harbour, dropping 50 metres into Lake Ontario for a cruise around the Thousand Islands. Like two colours mixing to produce a third, the British-American conflict created an aquatic highway that is uniquely and thoroughly Canadian.
Before reaching the Jones Falls Lockstation, I take a turn about Ottawa, the Canadian capital, where points of interest are conveniently centralised around the Rideau entryway. Ottawa is perhaps most famous for the Gothic buttresses on Parliament Hill, or the curious cultural flux of ByWard Market, where a shirtless busker singing Bob Dylan greets my monetary appreciation with "Thank you, monsieur!" In 2009, US President Barack Obama bought maple-leaf cookies for his daughters at the Moulin de Provence bakery, sparking a cottage industry in red and white icing. Ottawa is elegant rather than hot-blooded but a night in the Chateau Laurier - an impressive castle sitting alongside the eight Ottawa locks - is a good base from which to slow the heartbeat to the requisite cruising pace.
Before cruising anywhere, however, the Bytown Museum, opposite the chateau, is necessary viewing for a full appreciation of the Rideau Canal's genesis and operation.
Lieutenant-Colonel John By's staggering achievement was largely taken for granted by the British; after discovering his budgetary blowout they recalled him to London, forcing him to face a parliamentary committee. The Bytown Museum champions his cause, showing By's foresight for steam-powered travel. UNESCO has been similarly congratulatory: in 2007, the Rideau Canal was named a World Heritage site. With a boat, visitors can traverse the full length of the canal, starting in Ottawa and moving through five distinct zones to Kingston and Lake Ontario.
It's also possible to kayak individual sections, such as Kingston to Jones Falls, or use the secondary road system to cycle alongside and approach the hiking opportunities on the way. In winter the canal freezes over, allowing dog-sled races and a 7.8-kilometre "skateway" - the longest in the world.
Were it maintained, one could feasibly skate the entire canal, although even the most ardent ice fanatics might find their hamstrings cramping at the prospect.
Exiting Ottawa by car, I follow the route of the canal south through Manotick and Kemptville until I reach Merrickville-Wolford, commonly described as "the Jewel of the Rideau" and Canada's prettiest village.
Think Victoriana and stone houses, with white picket fences and a citizenry fiercely devoted to crafts such as glass-blowing. My next stop is Chaffey's Locks, where I join Lance Jervis-Read on an electric-powered boat tour that travels quietly through the Rideau dams to Jones Falls and back. Jervis-Read wears a sailor's hat and points out estates hidden on the shores of Murphy Bay, then spots osprey gliding gracefully above the water in search of fish. His fondness for the past fits with Chaffey's Locks - though he has a point. Discussing the accelerated construction of the Rideau Canal in the 1800s, he notes: "We couldn't get it down on paper in six years, let alone build it in that time as well."
From the current capital to the original one, my last stop is Kingston, the first seat of politics in Canada. Now it is a vibrant university town, though the many limestone buildings create a picturesque vantage point from which to survey Lake Ontario and the Saint Lawrence River.
Kingston represents the end of the Rideau Canal, capped off with military bastions such as Fort Henry. The US state of New York is just across the border, after all. But while hostility once motivated the movement of vessels down from Ottawa, now a romance pervades the canal and its terminus. This continues out of the Rideau gates and into the Thousand Islands, an archipelago that links the countries and which visitors can explore with relative ease.
The conveniently named Heart Island, for example, is home to Boldt Castle, built in 1900 by the general manager of New York's Waldorf-Astoria Hotel as a gift to his wife. She died before it was completed, causing construction to be ceded to the elements for more than 73 years.
Today, however, the renovated property is a popular visitor's attraction - as well as an official port of entry into the US. From a symbol of conflict to one of attachment, it would be difficult to find a more fitting way to end the Rideau heritage trail.
Lance Richardson travelled courtesy of the Canadian Tourism Commission and Ontario Tourism.
FAST FACTS
Getting there
Air Canada has a fare to Ottawa from Sydney for about $1990 low-season return including tax. Fly non-stop to Vancouver (14 hours 10 minutes), then to Toronto (4hr 20min) and then to Ottawa (1hr); see aircanada.com. Melbourne passengers pay about the same and fly Qantas to Sydney.
Staying there
The castle Chateau Laurier in Ottawa is beside the Rideau Canal. Rooms cost from $C289 ($270) a night in high season; see Fairmont.com/laurier. See rideauheritageroute.ca for accommodation in towns along the canal.
Things to do
The Bytown Museum at the Ottawa Locks offers an overview of the Rideau Canal's history. Entry is $C6; see bytownmuseum.com.
Rideau Canal boat tours with Lance Jervis-Read leave from Chaffey's Lock and cost from $C62 a person; see rideauboattours.com.
Boldt Castle on Heart Island is accessible via boat from Canada and the US. Entry is $US7 ($6.75); see boldtcastle.com.
See rideauheritageroute.ca for information on towns, paddling and cycling routes on the Rideau Heritage Route. See also ontariotravel.net.
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