Peterborough Lift Lock © Lucy Izon

Peterborough, Ontario - It’s not very often that you stand on the bow of a boat and look to a spectacular countryside view, and then when you glance down - it’s a dramatic 65 ft drop. You can experience this in Peterborough - it’s where you’ll find the highest hydraulic lift lock in the world. You can ride up and down with the lock on a cruise boat, on a two-hour tour from town. It’s like being in a boat in giant bathtub, which is able to raise or lower your boat from one level to another - like a type of giant open-air boat elevator.

This lock, Lock 21, is a National Historic Site and it’s located right at Peterborough. Peterborough is on the Trent Severn Waterway, a 386 km water route with 45 locks.

The city of Peterborough is in the scenic Kawartha Lake region, just 90 minutes east of Toronto. It has hundreds of shops and services, more than 60 restaurants, and accommodation ranging from bed and breakfasts to hotels. Each summer you can enjoy more than 300 festivals and events in Peterborough & the Kawarthas region. The
region of Peterborough and the Kawarthas, which has more than 134 lakes, is the historical home of wooden canoe craftsmanship, offering everything from the Canadian Canoe Museum, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, boating and swimming, and cruises on the Trent-Severn Waterway.

There are delightful summer theatre productions in the region on Winslow Farm in Millbrook. What make 4th Line Theatre so cool is that it’s performed on an open air barnyard stage and sometimes the surrounding fields incorporated as part of the setting. Also in the region, Elmhirst Resort on Rice Lake, family-run for over a century, is a comfy place to enjoy a lakeside meal or setting in for a few days and enjoy the water, spa, etc.

National Paddling Week is celebrated annually in late June in Peterborough in conjunction with the Canadian Canoe Museum, which houses the largest collection of canoes and kayaks in the world. Currently the Canoe Museum is in discussion with Parks Canada about moving the museum’s location to a new facility at the Lift Lock.

Peterborough & Kawarthas Tourism has published the ‘Come To Our Table’ Culinary Guide. It showcases 12 resorts, restaurants, etc., in the region, with each describing how they use local foods, and each provides a recipe using local ingredients. A companion online site can be found at VisitOurTable.com You can pick up a free copy at the Peterborough & the Kawarthas Tourism Visitor Information Centre, 1400 Crawford Dr., RR5, tel: 705 742-2201, or 1 800 461-6424.