A leisurely sail across Lakes Michigan, Huron and Superior proves an ideal way to explore these picturesque North American wonders.
To blank out the world. That’s how my fellow passenger Lauren explains what drew her to cruise North America’s Great Lakes, the series of interconnected freshwater lakes – Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie and Ontario – that straddle Canada and the mid-eastern United States.
I’m captivated by the idea of deleting, rather than highlighting, a destination. To keep an “un-map” that acknowledges the possibility of the unknown in a Google Earth world where everything has already been discovered. Other areas unique to the expedition category? The Finse, an outdoor terrace with sunken “fire” pit; plunge pools of varying temperatures – frigidarium, tepidarium and caldarium; and The Hide, the nearest thing to a speakeasy-style drinking den – Viking doesn’t promote it intentionally; locating it is part of the adventure.But discovery comes in not one but two forms: it seems the design of the expedition ships’ staterooms are based on a Norwegianhide.
Here, onboard geologists, ornithologists and other scientists regale their specialties. I learn how continental ice sheets melted and retreated and created the Great Lakes. And the difference between igneous and sedimentary rocks that form the Canadian Shield, a geological phenomenon that extends from the lakes to the Arctic Ocean.One morning at sunrise, keen passengers meet on deck to observe two scientists as they release a biodegradable latex weather balloon into the sky.
The deluge hits while we’re returning along the fjord. Choppy water forces a change of plan and we pull up beside Okeechobee Lodge, where we take refuge. This remote, wooden cabin, so the story goes, was the hideout for 1930s gangsters, and hosted two sitting US presidents, Truman and Ford. Later, safely back on Octantis, we’re grateful for our in-room drying closet.But if there were to be a highlight, it’s entering Lake Superior via the gravity-fed Soo Locks.
Kakabeka Falls on the Kaministiquia River, near Thunder Bay, Ontario – the end point of the Great Lakes cruise.
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