My family moved to Toronto when I was three and I feel very Canadian in many ways. All my formative experiences took place there, but as an immigrant; I was born in Guyana, South America. I’ve lived in the UK for 18 years now, but I still feel displaced.
For the quintessential Canadian wilderness experience Algonquin provincial park, 300km north of Toronto, is the place to go. It is enormous: 7,653 sq km. Huntsville is the major gateway, and a good place to stock up with camping and fishing supplies.
With more than 2,400 lakes and 1,200km of streams and rivers, the best way to get around is by canoe. You paddle across a busy lake – Canoe Lake or Opeongo, say. Then you portage for a couple of miles – your canoe on your head, your pack on your back – to the next lake. After two portages, there are very few people around. I’ve camped for a week without seeing a soul.
The lake is everything. You swim in it, drink it, rehydrate your dry food with it, cook with it and bathe in it (with special non-polluting soap). The water is pristine, so clear and fresh.
I’ve camped here from the age of five, but my first portage was with my boyfriend, at 19. It will make or break a relationship: you have to deal with each other on a primal level. Your worries are about food, weather, gathering berries and catching fish. The deeper you go into the wilderness, the more you strip off civilisation and delve into your subconscious.
At night, you have to hang up your food in the trees. If you keep it in your tent, black bears and raccoons will come in and take it. I’ve heard bears and had my food taken, but I’ve never seen one. I’ve seen otters, though, and a whole family of moose swimming across a lake. Algonquin is also home to the loon, Ontario’s provincial bird (which appears on the one-dollar coin, the “loonie”). Late at night, with the mist rising, they call hauntingly to each other across the lake.
In late summer, it’s possible to see the northern lights. They are shimmering, magical, otherworldly. When I first saw them, I thought something was going wrong with the sky!
Autumn is a wonderful time to visit the park. The yellows and reds of the maples, oaks and birch trees are extraordinary. In winter, the lakes freeze, and visitors can go skiing and snowshoeing and stay in cabins. This experience is the making of a Canadian, passed down through the family. As an immigrant, it was an initiation into Canadian life, an experience that forever ties me to the country.
Tessa McWatt’s latest novel is Higher Ed (Scribe, £14.99). To buy a copy for £11.99 including UK p&p, call 0330 333 6846 or visit bookshop.theguardian.com. Tessa is appearing at the London Lit Weekend on 4 October
