Beyond Australia: Trent-Severn Waterway, Canada

We arrived at the Peterborough lock in Ontario at the same time as a busload of school children. Sometimes we would prefer not to arrive at a spot at the same time as a tour bus or a school group but in this case it turned out to be a bonus.

The lock at Peterborough is on the Trent-Severn Waterway that is now a National Historic Site. The canal system is 386 km long and has numerous locks and swing bridges as well as the Big Chute Marine Railway but we had come to see Lock 21 at Peterborough. It has a hydraulic lift lock that is one of the tallest in the world, lifting boats 20 metres. The whole process only takes a few minutes.

At the height of summer quite a few watercraft go through the lift each day but in autumn only one or two a day. So we were lucky to be there when the school group went upstream in a canoe.

School bus at Peterborough, Ontario

Peterborough lift lock

A school group preparing to go up the lift lock in a canoe.

The canoe is about to enter the lock.

The lift has now reversed, lifting the canoe up 20 metres.

View from the lift lock, looking back towards a fountain in Peterborough.

View from the top of the lift lock.

We then drove down towards Lake Ontario and crossed the same canal several times. The countryside was looking very beautiful with the trees starting to turn colour. And we enjoyed seeing the different architectural styles of farm building and houses. At Ranney Falls we walked across the suspension bridge, had a look at the swing bridge and checked out another set of locks on the Trent-Severn Waterway.