Beautiful Elora

Just 1.5 hrs away from Toronto, Elora is a beautiful small village situated on the Grand river. If you are thinking that the name sounds similar to Ellora (Aurangabad)...Well, the village was indeed named after our very own Ellora. A British official inspired by Ellora named it so. (Source: Wikipedia)

We found Elora a perfect getaway, as it's so close to Toronto and the countryside is enchanting and refreshing. The village is so laid-back and people are very friendly. It's a good place to explore especially for people interested in arts/crafts, culture. We also saw tourists taking a ride in carriages driven by huge horses. We are planning to go back to this place again in Autumn for the lovely fall colors.

Apart from the village, the main attraction is camping/ picnic and water activites in Grand River. I was keen on going for tubing as it sounded something new. We reached the conservation area and rented a pair of huge tubes, helmets and life jackets. We had to walk for almost 20 minutes to reach the river. We thought that there would be a guide at the site to tell us how to go about it. But all we found was a bunch of spectators and hobby photographers waiting for us to take a leap into the river! The river looked kinda dangerous with fierce rapids.

The questions that popped in our brains...
What if we fall off the tube? Where is the end point? How to get out once we start off? What if there are huge fish inside ??? (this one was my concern :P)

Anyway, we let down all our inhibitions and ventured into the river slowly. I made S sit on the tube and pushed him through :D.... Off he went along with the flow. I couldn't spot him after some distance. Soon after, I tried maneuvering myself with my hands and feet. I was so bad at it that the tube kept going round and round instead of catching the stream. Absolute entertainment for the watchers! :))

Meanwhile S came back for his next ride down the stream. I was so relieved to see him! This time he helped me around with the tube and soon I was in rough rapids trying not to fall off the tube. It was a super cool ride and I loved it!
I realised that the water was hardly knee deep and we could get off and walk back at any point. This made me go for few more rounds of fun tubing. We were left completely exhausted.





The after Effects of tubing:
> I successfully got my first coat of tan for this summer
> My shoes got a nice, clean wash...:D
> We were so thrilled to jump in that we forgot that S had the digicam in his pocket. Yes...the digicam got soaked in water. It is not working but we are hopeful that it might after it dries inside.

We walked back to return the tube and accessories. S held the tube on his shoulder and carried it. I thought that was a bad idea and advised him to roll the tube along the road effortlessly. Brilliant eh??....actually not :( I was rolling the tube (like we used to when we were kids!) and the tube went "BOOM". It hit a sharp stone on the road and burst. And I stood there speechless...