Day 2 found us in Thunder Bay, Ontario. It’s a city of a little more than 100,000 inhabitants and is the most populous municipality in northwest Ontario. There was a highly dense fog when we got up and it took about 2 hours before we could see the shore; and we were docked!
We spent most of the day touring Fort William Historical Park that contains a reconstruction of the Fort William fur trade post as it existed in 1816. It was the location of Hudson’s Bay Company. The reconstruction was phenomenal and the artifacts were amazing. The guide spent quite a bit of time in the medical building explaining the use of rustic tools.
We received a good overview of the fur trading business and the different kind of pelts. We also spent a bit of time in the canoe building where they are constructing functional canoes in the historical manner; birch skins were the fundamental material.
There were also some stunning carvings in the lobby of the main building that were about 12 feet tall.
From the fort we headed to Kakabeka Falls, a waterfall on the Kaministiquia River, located about 19 miles west of Thunder Bay. The falls have a drop of 130 ft cascading into a gorge carved out of the Precambrian Shield by meltwater following the last glacial maximum. Because of its size and ease of access, it has been consequently nicknamed "the Niagara of the North".
From there we headed back to the ship just in time for our Special Operations Boat trip. The boat is a military grade highly-maneuverable boat that had been advertised as high adventure. The seats had shock absorbers and hand grips. We were all set for an adventure, but it turned out to be a simple boat ride. Nonetheless is was a beautiful afternoon and we were able to see some birds and the ship close up.
You can see from the photos that the boat we were on loads directly into the stern of the Octantis. As we moved around we could also see where the other watercraft are stored and how they are launched.
Dinner was super casual in the World Café which is a number of food stations representing all types of cuisines. We stumbled upon the grill that was cooking proteins to order. I’m a sucker for a bone-in pork chop and it was excellent.
After dinner we found a quiet-ish place to sit. It was directly above the main bar so we sat in what turned out to be a private bar for us and listened the live music from the space below.
