在Sibbald Point 公园度过第一个露营夜

Planning your first camping night at Sibbald Point Park

对于大多数在中国城市里长大的移民来说，公园无非就是清浅的池塘，种栽的花草和一些历史建筑，但是加拿大的公园之旅却让你对公园有了全新的认识和感观。虽然虽然加国公园中的野生动植物、自然美景和户外活动令你新奇和兴奋，但是欲饱览加国公园之美景却非象游览中国公园那么简单，甚至颇具风险。

For most immigrants who grew up in urban China where parks are made of superficial ponds, planted flowers, and historical buildings, Canadian parks have taken our park visiting experience to a completely new level. The wildness, natural beauty, and outdoor activities were new and exciting, but also challenging and intimidating.

为了能让游客们充分享受野外活动的乐趣，加拿大的公园会通过培训向游客们提供必需的知识和技能。虽然当地的加拿大人在童年时期就有很多机会通过学校课程或家庭露营探险学习相关技能，但是大多数移民却没有这种童年经历，不过现在开始学习也为时不晚。

To enjoy the wildness adventures that Canadian parks have to offer requires knowledge and skills, and these skills are gained through training. Local Canadians have many opportunities to learn during their childhood, through school programs or family camping expeditions, but for most immigrants will have missed these childhood experiences –but it is never too late to gain it now.

我在近期的一个周末参加了安省公园管理局在位于闪高湖南岸萨顿镇的Sibbald Point省立公园提供的新移民公园培训课程。

I attended some newcomers’ learning programs offered by Parks Ontario at Sibbald Point Park during a recent weekend – a provincial park located in Sutton – at South Shore Lake Simcoe.  

学垂钓

Learning to Reel

在学习安全快乐垂钓所必需的知识与技能的同时，你还有机会钓上一条鱼。尽管许多移民都有过钓鱼的经历，但我仍然震惊于我们对钓鱼知识的孤陋寡闻。在回答指导员提出的有关如何抛投钓竿和如何识别不同品种的鱼类等问题时，许多参加培训班的成年移民发现自己还不如学龄儿童。

You learn everything you need to know to have a safe and fun fishing experience, while having a chance to catch a fish. Despite the fact that many immigrants have had fishing experience before, I was shocked at how little knowledge we had about fishing as the instructor asked a slew of questions – from how to casting rods to how to identify different types of fish. Many immigrant adults at the session found themselves to be challenged as the school aged kids.

如何抓住钓上的鱼也是门技术活。如果你操作不当，那淌血的手指头会让你乐趣顿失。在指导员传授的大部分钓鱼技巧中，这可能是对我最有用的一个技巧，当然是因为我以往的不快经历了。但谁知道，对你来说，也许其他技巧更为有用，比如在你抛投钓竿之前，要先观察身后，以免出现不测的悲剧事件。

How to grab a caught fish is tricky. If you don’t do it properly, a bleeding finger would ruin your fun and excitement. Among most of the fishing tips offered by the instructor, this one probably the most useful one for me – due to my past grievances of course. But who knows, for you it might be a different one – how about to look behind you before throwing out your fishing rod to the water, so as to avoid unexpected tragic incident from happening?

Sibbald Point省立公园在冬天还会提供冰上垂钓，相关的培训课程亦吸引了许多新移民。这项充满乐趣的活动可以让你在严冬尽享户外活动之乐趣，而不必闷在屋里盯着阴霾天空中飘飞的雪花。

Sibbald Point Park also offers ice fishing during the winter, a program that has attracted many new immigrants in Canada. It is such a fun activity to enjoy in the frigid winter -- as oppose to being locked inside a room watching snowflakes falling from the gloomy sky.

露营夜不再令人胆寒

 Night Camping No Longer Intimidating

家庭露营是安省盛行的夏季传统活动之一，安省各地拥有100多个提供汽车露营的省立公园。Sibbald Point省立公园的营地设有火坑、野餐桌、还为夜宿露营者提供淋浴设施等。

Family camping is one of the great summer traditions in Ontario, and Ontario has over 100 provincial parks across the province that offer car camping. The Sibbald Point campsite has a fire pit, a picnic table, and shower facility for your night at the campsite.

但是对我们全家来说，夜宿露营似乎是极具挑战性的户外活动。因为在几年前我们曾在阿冈昆公园有过让全家人都痛恨不已的夜宿露营体验。由于当时计划不周，并且缺乏必要的烹饪和野营装备，此行程几乎没有任何乐趣可言，并几乎令我们对露营心有余悸。由于几层薄毯根本无法抵御野外地面的潮湿寒冷，在度过一个不眠之夜后，我们提前结束了行程，匆忙返回家中。

But night camping seems to be a particularly challenge outdoor activity to our family. A few years ago we had a one night experience at Algonquin Park, and we all hated it. With little planning and minimum cooking and camping equipments, the trip had offered barely any fun, and worse yet, it almost left us traumatized. After one sleepless night of lying on top of a few layer of blankets that separated our body from the cold damp ground, we cancelled the rest of our stay and hurried back home.

但是培训课程可以为你提供第一次夜宿露营需要了解的知识，包括如何搭帐篷和为气垫床充气，乃至如何准备食物和生营火。其还会提供一个8人帐篷、气垫床、餐具甚至垃圾袋等各种露营烹饪设备无所不包。

The program prepares you for the first night-camping experience, and the training includes how to pitch you tent and pump air mattress, and even food preparation and setting up a camp fire. It also provides an 8 person tent, air mattresses, and variety of camp kitchen equipment – from dinnerware, to even garbage bags.

我要是告诉你这是我第一次听说露营还需要气垫床是不是很尴尬？

Is it embarrassing enough to tell you that this was the first time I learned that we need an air mattress for camping?

毋庸置疑，许多参加培训班的人士，其中主要是从未有过露营体验的移民都感到这些课程让自己获益匪浅，并表示今后会将露营作为经常性的夏季活动。

Needless to say, many people attending the session, mostly immigrants who have never had a camping experience before have found the program is very useful and expressed their willingness to take camping as habit.

对于我们全家来说，如果曾参加“学习露营”培训班，那次令人心惊胆颤的露营体验将会截然不同。

As for my family, our prior camping experience would have been an entirely different one had we attended the “learn to camp” session beforehand.

除了钓鱼和夜宿露营，Sibbald Point 省立公园还提供其他夏季活动的培训课程，包括划船、沙滩游泳、野餐和丛林徒步等，而Eildon Hall则是该公园的宝藏。

Apart from fishing and night camping, Sibbald Point Park offers other summer activities, including boating, swimming at sandy beach, and a shaded picnic area and forested hiking trails, but Eildon Hall is the park’s hidden treasure.

Eildon Hall博物馆

Eildon Hall

Eildon Hall博物馆曾是Susan Sibbald女士居住的庄园，以其苏格兰的家乡命名，室内陈设着1600年代的家具，和她儿子从世界各地购置回来的稀有珍品。博物馆的一楼主要用来展示维多利亚时代的宝藏。在来自印度和中国的肖像画和纪念品中，还有一块从颐和园洗劫而来的金表。

Named after her family home in Scotland, this former country estate of Susan Sibbald contains furniture from the 1600s and items brought by her sons from around the world. On the first floor of the estate there are collections on display mainly of the Victorian era. Among portraits and mementoes from India and China, there was a gold watch looted from the Summer Place.

在这片区域成为公园之前的130年中，Sibbald家族一直生活在Eildon Hall。目前Sibbald家族的一些居民仍然生活在庄园附近。

For 130 years before this area became a park, Eildon Hall was home of the Sibbald family. Some of the residents of the family are still around and lived nearby the estate.

其实，夏季并不一定要出国旅行，安省的公园就足以让你流连忘返。虽然Sibbald 公园可能不如Killarney公园或阿冈昆公园那样享有盛誉，但也足可以让热衷户外活动的人士尽享自然乐趣。因此痛恨400高速公路交通的人士不妨走这条捷径，从Sibbald 公园开始体验第一夜的露营之旅。

In fact, summer doesn’t mean a trip overseas, our backyard Ontario has more than enough to offer. In fact, although Sibbald Park may be less popular than Killarney or Algonquin Park, it has similar features to offer to those who enjoy outdoor activities. For those who hate the traffic on highway 400, why not take a short cut and give a first night camping experience a try at SibbaldPoint.