Canada - Ontario part II

Ontario Plate

I’m spared a 5 km walk to the supermarket from Sibbauld Point when Gary stops to pick me up. He takes me to the shop and then back to the park. Half an hour later he comes back looking for me in the park. He sees me and Simon scoffing down some ice cream (I promise that we don’t always eat ice-cream, it was an odd sneaky treat).

Campfire marshmallows at Sibbauld Point

He knows we are waiting for Mark to come and pick us up. He tells us that we can all crash around his place that night. He cooks us dinner, plies us with nice expensive Canadian Rye whiskey, and we all share stories, mostly about girls. Gary was 69 but looked 50 and was the coolest guy.

Gary and the boys

He wanted to take us out on his boat, but the weather wasn’t so nice. So after cooking us omelets, we say our farewells and begin the first leg of our mammoth journey.

Common sight along the Trans Canada Highway

The map shows us that crossing the province of Ontario will take at least 3 days. We decide to stop off in various national parks along the way. The first day is spent skirting Lake Huron, where we end up spending a night on St Joseph’s Island.

Eerie Lake Huron (get it?)

The island is situated just south of Sault St Marie a town which has a large Indian population. The girl who picked us up back in Toronto was originally from here.Welcome to Sault St Marie!

From one great lake to another, we visit the pictographs of Agawa Rock inside Lake Superior National Park.

The Agawa PyctographsHundred years old Native drawings

Further down the road we see an isolated beach where we stripped off and went paddling. Mainly as a mode for showering (our trip consisted of keeping clean by dousing ourselves in soap and dipping into freezing cold lakes). Only we hadn’t considered that all the cars on the highway could see our naked butts. We bailed before the rangers caught up with us.

Lake Superior - not big enough to hide our nakedness)

That night we found an airstrip and asked a fireman if we could camp in the bushes on the property. He said there would be no problem. I asked him if there were bears in the area to which he replied:” Oh yeah, loads”!

Simon finding a distraction from bringing food into the tent

I tried to enforce a strict NO FOOD IN THE TENT policy. But the boys were lax, and tried to sneak food in. They weren’t as perturbed at the prospect of being mauled by a bear as I was. The next morning, behind the tent we found 4 mutilated carcasses and bones. I can only hope they weren’t human. One thing we do know was that a hungry bear had recently passed through here.

Probably what the carcass originally looked like

We made a fleeting visit to Rainbow Falls then a walk through the massive Ouimet Canyon before heading down to the "Sleeping Giant" National Park.

Indian Head in Ouimet Canyon

English head in Ouimet Canyon

On the way we were so lucky. Right in front of us a massive black Bear crossed the road. He slowed down, took a look at us, made a sniff in the air, decided we were no good for the tasting and continued on its way through the forest. I was only a meter or so away from it. Scary, but exciting.

The Great Big Mauling and Fiercely Dangerous Black Bear

That night Mark was feeling generous and bought us all an A&W (a company that makes a delicious root beer, and more recently hamburgers and fries etc), which was a welcome break from our staple diet of tuna and mayonnaise, or peanut butter and jam sandwiches. Up until Mark’s treat, a crisp sandwich had been a luxury. Breakfast (and sometimes dinner) had been to get boiling water in a cup from a garage or something, then empty a 20cent packet of noodles into it and hope the heat would simmer them enough to make them edible. Everyday without fail we would indulge on these packaged MSG luxuries. Hey ………when you’re traveling on a budget!!!!!

Mark making his third tuna-mayo sandwich of the day

The morning’s sun rose for us over Kakabeka falls – dubbed the “Niagara of the North”, as we headed away from the great lakes and toward the interior.

Kakabeka falls

Our last treat in Ontario was tiny Blue Lake where the water was so clear you could see 6 meters deep.

Blue Lake

Over 2000km had been completed and it was time to leave behind the scenic Lakes, cliffs, forests, wildlife (on the road we had seen many a deer, moose and bears) and enter into many a Canadian’s nightmare: THE PRAIRIES.

Leaving Ontario sunset