We got back to central Toronto around midday. We travelled along a 20 lane highway on the way; quite scary; and only got slightly lost! Having dropped of our hire car we crossed the road and entered the Fairmont Royal York Hotel, one of the poshest hotels in Toronto. When it was built in 1928 it was the first place in Toronto with elevators and flush toilets! It is absolutely huge and has an oppulence of its own with a lobby, mezzanine and then upper mezanine floor all lavishly decorated with chandeliers, thick carpets and amazingly ornate ceilings and walls. We felt a little out of place with our back packs and hiking shoes! However we had decided to see how the other half live and used our airmiles to book in for 2 nights. We were too early for check in so we left our bags in a checked bag room and went off to explore in Path (the underground shopping centre).
At around 3pm we went back to the hotel and went to our room; the bell boy brought up our bags from the checked bag room and showed us how to work the telly! Celso immediately found the snacks and scoffed down a Mars bar. When we looked at the price list it was $4.50 so we decided we would have to go out and buy one to replace it (they cost around 90c in the shops). We took a look at the laundry list as we had quite a pile; the cheapest item was underpants at $6... so we would have to look for a laundromat too.
We went out and explored the hotel (see the photos) and then went to look for a supermarket to buy some fruit and a Mars bar. We ended up in Buskerfest; a Toronto street busking festival with artists from all over the world; and had fun watching various acts such as Elvis (who only moved when money was placed in his bucket), a Japanese chap who played digeridoos and lots of jugglers and jokers.
I tried to write the blog in the eveneing only to find that the hotel charged for internet access; all the cheap places we have been have given us free access; so I had to log in to a system that was down the road a few blocks, but the connection wasn't very good and I gave up.
On the Saturday we visited Buskerfest again, went to the laundromat, wandered the streets and generally hung out. We had an amazing Mexican meal and then Tris and I spent a couple of hours in the hotel pool whilst Celso went to the gym.
Today (Sunday) we left our bags in the checked luggage room again and went on the ferry over to the Toronto Islands where there are beaches (one a nudist beach, where we were treated(?)to a full frontal of a rather podgy middle aged man!); a huge park; an 18 hole frisbee golf course and a small funfair. We rented a 4 man bicycle and explored the islands.. Tristan was determined to do the steering so we had a couple of hairy moments!
Then we collected our stuff and made our way by subway and bus out towards the airport where we are staying in a motel that gives us a free airport shuttle for our flight to NY tomorrow at 8.50am and free internet access!
Sunday, 30 August 2009
Thursday, 27 August 2009
exploring 26 & 27th August
From Collingwood we drove up into the Blue Mountains to go to the Scenic Caves (seems like we've been doing a lot of caves recently. This is a site that was used by the Deer Tribe of the Petun (Tobacco) Indians. They grew tobacco for both trade and for ritual purposes. The Petuns used the rock formations as a fortress for protection from their enemies. Their first contact with Westerners was with Jesuit missionaries in the first half of the 17th Century. Again the cave systems were formed at the end of the last ice age, but here there were also extensive crevices between rocks that made passageways along which you could walk. Fat Man's Misery was a narrow tunnel / crevice that joined two such areas, it was only 36 centimetres wide and quite a struggle to get through as it also rose up as you squeezed through it sideways. The fortress was a crevice that had 4 entry points, the Petun used to lure enemies there and then trap them. The Indian Council chamber was a piece of cliff separated from the rest of the cliff by a deep crevasse. Apparently the council of chiefs used to meet there, crossing over on a tree trunk, then pulling the tree trunk over so that no one could disturb them in their deliberations. Fortunately for us there is now a bridge with handrails!
The site is also a native Indian passageway to the Village of the Souls. At the point of the Balancing Rock, Oscotarach (the Head Piercer) would remove the brains of the dead. Afterlife would then be happier because the souls could no longer remember their earthly existence and those left behind!
Just down from this site a large suspension bridge has been built which allows amazing views out over Lake Huron and Georgian Bay; but it doesn't really go anywhere so it is a little bit odd!
After a round of crazy golf... we drove about 2 hours south the Orangeville. Ate the leftovers of the large steak dinner that we had the other day and wandered around a shopping mall.
Thursday we went to find the Bruce Trail. It is a 800km trail along the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara in the South to Tobermory in the the North West; it also has 300km of side trails (declared a World Biosphere Reserve in 1990 by the UN. Amazingly not many people seemed to know where it was and we had some difficulty finding a place where we could join it; but once found we were treated to 4 hours of fantastic woods; grasslands and river trails. We only saw about 5 other people the whole way and didn't cross one road. You just have to look at the photos. We found asparagus plants growing wild and picked a couple of shoots which we will try later, there were also blackberries, raspberries and apples. We had taken along a stock of fruit too so we were pretty well stuffed! We didn't see any large wildlife but there were plenty of fascinating insects; huge dragonflies, caterpillars, spiders, spider eating wasps; and several frogs, toads and birds.
We return to Toronto tomorrow and have to give back our car; we have booked into one of the poshest hotels in town using our airmiles. A little bit of upmarket snobbery before we leave Canada. I'm now off to study our exam results that Laura has kindly sent me!
The site is also a native Indian passageway to the Village of the Souls. At the point of the Balancing Rock, Oscotarach (the Head Piercer) would remove the brains of the dead. Afterlife would then be happier because the souls could no longer remember their earthly existence and those left behind!
Just down from this site a large suspension bridge has been built which allows amazing views out over Lake Huron and Georgian Bay; but it doesn't really go anywhere so it is a little bit odd!
After a round of crazy golf... we drove about 2 hours south the Orangeville. Ate the leftovers of the large steak dinner that we had the other day and wandered around a shopping mall.
Thursday we went to find the Bruce Trail. It is a 800km trail along the Niagara Escarpment from Niagara in the South to Tobermory in the the North West; it also has 300km of side trails (declared a World Biosphere Reserve in 1990 by the UN. Amazingly not many people seemed to know where it was and we had some difficulty finding a place where we could join it; but once found we were treated to 4 hours of fantastic woods; grasslands and river trails. We only saw about 5 other people the whole way and didn't cross one road. You just have to look at the photos. We found asparagus plants growing wild and picked a couple of shoots which we will try later, there were also blackberries, raspberries and apples. We had taken along a stock of fruit too so we were pretty well stuffed! We didn't see any large wildlife but there were plenty of fascinating insects; huge dragonflies, caterpillars, spiders, spider eating wasps; and several frogs, toads and birds.
We return to Toronto tomorrow and have to give back our car; we have booked into one of the poshest hotels in town using our airmiles. A little bit of upmarket snobbery before we leave Canada. I'm now off to study our exam results that Laura has kindly sent me!
Tuesday, 25 August 2009
Doggy days in P'boro then to Collingwood 23-25th Aug
We spent a couple of days doing nothing but walking dogs, having home cooked food and generally catching up on sleep! We found a couple of great parks in and around Peterborough, went to see a film (Shorts) about a magic wishing stone .. good fun; went on a search across the town for more medicine for Stormy who takes a liquid glucosamine medicine for his sore joints. Finally early on Tuesday we set off for the Blue Mountains. We stopped of in a park in Orillia for boiled eggs and carrots. There was a small beach by the lake and we spent about an hour making a waterway for the water from the beach shower to get down to the lake water's edge. Since Tris had such fun on the beach we decided, once we had found a motel in Collingwood; to go down to Wassaga beach. Tris and Celso went for a swim in Lake Huron. Close to shore the lake bed is really slimey because the sand is so fine, and the waves mean that the water is full of sand all the time, but further out the water gets really clear but the bottom is still slimey. The sun shone, the wind was blowing so that it wasn't too hot and we had a grand afternoon.
Later we went to a steak house and were fed obscene amounts of food. Tristan started with snails in garlic (see photo), followed by the biggest child's meal I have ever seen, a huge pork chop (enough for 3 people), chips (enough for at least 2), and a help yourself salad. Celso and I both had the special, soup, salad, the biggest steaks you have ever seen, pie and tea. Most of mine went into a doggy bag. It's rediculous the amount they give you... but Celso was in heaven!
Later we went to a steak house and were fed obscene amounts of food. Tristan started with snails in garlic (see photo), followed by the biggest child's meal I have ever seen, a huge pork chop (enough for 3 people), chips (enough for at least 2), and a help yourself salad. Celso and I both had the special, soup, salad, the biggest steaks you have ever seen, pie and tea. Most of mine went into a doggy bag. It's rediculous the amount they give you... but Celso was in heaven!
Sunday, 23 August 2009
Warsaw Caves - 22nd August
What a great lie in... apart from Lulu who kept on climbing on the bed and collapsing on our feet or Stormy snorting in his sleep. I think we're going to shut them out tonight!
A relaxing breakfast and then we got ready to head off to the Warsaw Caves National Park about 1/2 hour out of Peterborough. We packed nuts and fruit and water for the dogs and headed off. It wasn't what we expected at all. The caves are up to 100m long / deep and are not guided at all you just take a torch (which we had) and head in on your own exploring as deep and as far as you want. These caves were formed in the same way as the Bonecherre caves after the last ice age, but most of the system has collapsed. There are trees perched all over the rocks; their roots are really shallow because of the rocks so they tend to fall over really easily. We didn't go too deep as it was really slippery inside from the rain last night, but there were a few very muddy explorers around. We walked along a trail to the kettles; evidence that the whole area was once under a huge river. The kettles are holes drilled into the limestone rocks by whirlpools and eddies carrying debris in a river. They ranged from a diameter of around 5cm up to over a metre wide and about 3m deep (see the photos). We ate our fruit and nuts by a river whilst Storm (once again) played in the water. A really beautiful place to spend a few hours as you can see from our photos.
Tristan found the most beautiful millipede; on our way back to the car; with go faster stripes in vivid orange.
Then back home and another home cooked supper. We watched the Importance of Being Earnest (again), which I love and generally slobbed about. MARVELOUS!
A relaxing breakfast and then we got ready to head off to the Warsaw Caves National Park about 1/2 hour out of Peterborough. We packed nuts and fruit and water for the dogs and headed off. It wasn't what we expected at all. The caves are up to 100m long / deep and are not guided at all you just take a torch (which we had) and head in on your own exploring as deep and as far as you want. These caves were formed in the same way as the Bonecherre caves after the last ice age, but most of the system has collapsed. There are trees perched all over the rocks; their roots are really shallow because of the rocks so they tend to fall over really easily. We didn't go too deep as it was really slippery inside from the rain last night, but there were a few very muddy explorers around. We walked along a trail to the kettles; evidence that the whole area was once under a huge river. The kettles are holes drilled into the limestone rocks by whirlpools and eddies carrying debris in a river. They ranged from a diameter of around 5cm up to over a metre wide and about 3m deep (see the photos). We ate our fruit and nuts by a river whilst Storm (once again) played in the water. A really beautiful place to spend a few hours as you can see from our photos.
Tristan found the most beautiful millipede; on our way back to the car; with go faster stripes in vivid orange.
Then back home and another home cooked supper. We watched the Importance of Being Earnest (again), which I love and generally slobbed about. MARVELOUS!
Saturday, 22 August 2009
Bonnechere caves 21st Aug
A quiet day today. We got up and went to have breakfast in the restaurant attached to our motel. It was supposedly famous for schnitzel, so we had to try a schnitzel breakfast and a normal fry-up breakfast between the 3 of us. They were enormous; each had 2 eggs, ham, 2 rounds of toast and sauteed chips, and then the schnitzel had schnitzel (of course, which is pork tenderloin, tenderized, then covered in breadcrumbs and spices, and fried) and baked beans. The other breakfast had 2 sausages and bacon. We stuffed ourselves but could not finish.
We drove for 3/4 hour to the Bonnechere caves near Eganville and wandered along the river that had formed the caves for about 15 mins waiting for our tour time. John took us and another 10 or so visitors through the history of the site; they had an amazing fossil collection from way before the dinosaur period when there were no land animals yet and that area was under the sea. Then we went down into the caves (which are very young in geological terms) formed after the end of the last ice age about 11,000 years ago. The stalactites were small (the largest about 15cm) and the only stalagmites were ones that had started in 1965 when the person who found the caves pumped out the water that was flowing through and built some dams to keep it out. They were about 2mm high! The story of the caves discovery was a great one. In the mid 1800s when the river was mapped it had been noted that some water from the river went into a cave and no exit of water was noticeable but nobody had done any further investigating. In the 1950s a local man, Tom, found a copy of the map and decided to investigate. He didn't tell anyone where he was going but he found a sinkhole (where a cave roof has collapsed) and lowered himself down on a rope. He couldn't get very far because if was so dark and the water was so high but he decided to come back the next day to explore further. This time (again not telling anyone where he was going) Tom brought a small dingy, a flashlight and a camera (which he had borrowed from a neighbour). He tied the rope to a tree and round his waist and down he went. Tom sat in the half inflated dingy (the tunnels were to tight to allow him to inflate it fully) and he let himself drift down a tunnel full of small brown bats; he threw glass flash canisters against the walls to give himself light to take photos. Suddenly the water became a violent twisting whirlpool and he could see that there was no further head room above the water, the water and he in his little dingy was being sucked down. He had to grab hold of something to stop himself being sucked under, flashlight or camera had to be sacrificed.... the flashlight went as the camera was not his.... and he grabbed onto a stalactite. Tom then had to drag himself in the pitch black up stream, through the now very angry Little brown bats, to the sinkhole to escape.
We were treated to the darkness he had experienced when John turned out the lights. You couldn't see your own hand in front of your face.
After his escape Tom decided to try to empty the caves of water and he built dams to prevent most of the water entering and set up pumps to get rid of the water. He pumped for days and days but the water level didn't seem to be going down. Eventually he called in some divers to try to find the source of the leaks. Down they went and they found that the pump piping had been cut clean through with huge teeth marks.... a cave monster? ... no ... just a pair of beavers who had made their lodge inside the cave and who obviously objected to the drainage attempts. The piping; with teeth marks; is now a proud exhibit in the little shop attached to the site!
Our adventure over, we started our journey back to Peterborough. We are going to take up the Wilsons' kind offer of the use of their house whilst they are in the UK to have a few lazy days with home cooking and a few lie ins!
Of course the dogs were mighty pleased to see us and we went for a good walk before chicken stew and rice, shower and bed. (Lulu is a very determined little madam, she had to be removed from the bed several times before she realised that she was not going to get a moments peace!)
We drove for 3/4 hour to the Bonnechere caves near Eganville and wandered along the river that had formed the caves for about 15 mins waiting for our tour time. John took us and another 10 or so visitors through the history of the site; they had an amazing fossil collection from way before the dinosaur period when there were no land animals yet and that area was under the sea. Then we went down into the caves (which are very young in geological terms) formed after the end of the last ice age about 11,000 years ago. The stalactites were small (the largest about 15cm) and the only stalagmites were ones that had started in 1965 when the person who found the caves pumped out the water that was flowing through and built some dams to keep it out. They were about 2mm high! The story of the caves discovery was a great one. In the mid 1800s when the river was mapped it had been noted that some water from the river went into a cave and no exit of water was noticeable but nobody had done any further investigating. In the 1950s a local man, Tom, found a copy of the map and decided to investigate. He didn't tell anyone where he was going but he found a sinkhole (where a cave roof has collapsed) and lowered himself down on a rope. He couldn't get very far because if was so dark and the water was so high but he decided to come back the next day to explore further. This time (again not telling anyone where he was going) Tom brought a small dingy, a flashlight and a camera (which he had borrowed from a neighbour). He tied the rope to a tree and round his waist and down he went. Tom sat in the half inflated dingy (the tunnels were to tight to allow him to inflate it fully) and he let himself drift down a tunnel full of small brown bats; he threw glass flash canisters against the walls to give himself light to take photos. Suddenly the water became a violent twisting whirlpool and he could see that there was no further head room above the water, the water and he in his little dingy was being sucked down. He had to grab hold of something to stop himself being sucked under, flashlight or camera had to be sacrificed.... the flashlight went as the camera was not his.... and he grabbed onto a stalactite. Tom then had to drag himself in the pitch black up stream, through the now very angry Little brown bats, to the sinkhole to escape.
We were treated to the darkness he had experienced when John turned out the lights. You couldn't see your own hand in front of your face.
After his escape Tom decided to try to empty the caves of water and he built dams to prevent most of the water entering and set up pumps to get rid of the water. He pumped for days and days but the water level didn't seem to be going down. Eventually he called in some divers to try to find the source of the leaks. Down they went and they found that the pump piping had been cut clean through with huge teeth marks.... a cave monster? ... no ... just a pair of beavers who had made their lodge inside the cave and who obviously objected to the drainage attempts. The piping; with teeth marks; is now a proud exhibit in the little shop attached to the site!
Our adventure over, we started our journey back to Peterborough. We are going to take up the Wilsons' kind offer of the use of their house whilst they are in the UK to have a few lazy days with home cooking and a few lie ins!
Of course the dogs were mighty pleased to see us and we went for a good walk before chicken stew and rice, shower and bed. (Lulu is a very determined little madam, she had to be removed from the bed several times before she realised that she was not going to get a moments peace!)
Thursday, 20 August 2009
A day out in Montreal - then the road to Renshaw
We the made our way; on the very efficient and frequent Montreal metro system; to Viau on Eastern side of Montreal where the Olympic Stadium is situated. We went into the Biodome, a climate controlled building with 4 different habitats inside representing the 4 different climate areas in the Americas. First rainforest.. really humid and hot and with Capybara, parrots, a two toed sloth, caymen and a multitude of fish, trees and plants. Then temperate forest with otters, beaver, more birds, plants and trees. Then tundra.. cold and dry with puffins and other sea birds, an enormous aquarium with the most gigantic sturgeon and other sea fish and a rocky sea shore with an enormous variety of different sea cucumbers, crabs, anenomes and starfish. Finaly arctic (fortunately behind glass so we didn't freeze) with penguins, Rockhoppers and Humboldt. The best bit for me was the above and below water veiwing of the beaver swimming around and finally going up into his/her lodge. He/she looks like she has her lips pursed into a kiss and she holds her front paws close to her chest as if holding the reins of a pretend horse (or praying), then a lazy flick of one back webbed foot propells him/her smoothly but with speed through the water. The penguins also put on a show in their above and below viewing tank too, whizzing around making leaps up out of the water and finishing by leaping up onto the shore to land neatly upright (except for one that toppled over and then looked around self consciously, reentered the water, did one loop and repeated its exit, perfectly this time; as if to prove that really it could be done!)
Following this we walked about 10 minutes up to the Botanical Gardens and spent an engrossing 1 1/2 hours in the Insectarium with the largest collection of creepy crawlies I've ever seen (heaven for Celso). My favourites were the scarab beetles in green and orange (I've seen them in films of Egypt before and always thought how fake they looked but they really are that brightly coloured and really shiny.)
Celso insisted on buying a packet of crickets (dead and roasted, cheese and bacon falvour) to eat, and Tristan reminded me how I'm always telling him to give new things a try, at least a small taste I say; and so I couldn't really back out of having a little nibble... tasted like dry cardboard and the boys didn't think much of them either.
We headed down to the old quarter and wandered around the streets filled with market stalls, street performers and artists. The grand hotel was being worked on with scaffolding covering it but, because it is meant to be one of the finest buildings, the scaffolding was then covered in a sheet with a picture of the building on.. Weird. There were street cafes, a man playing the accordian and an old woman trying to do some sort of sexy dancing to accompany him (but she looked more like she was having some sort of fit). Celso spent an age looking at wrist bands whilst Tris and I wandered the shops and listened to an Andean group playing traditional panpipe music.
We then walked up to the Chinese district and looked in loads of little shops. There were loads of Bhuddas (whose tummies we had to rub) and Celso wanted to get a Samurai sword but fortunately we have to fly into the US and I convinced him it would not be allowed. We found a Chinese restaurant filled with Chinese people so we went in and had an enormous meal, half of which we ended up taking home in a doggy bag. My fortune cookie said that I was going to travel!
Thursday. We left Montreal and headed back West towards Ottowa. About half an hour into our journey we saw a sign for the Arbraska adventure forest, with a picture of a man balancing on a rope strung between trees. We decided to go and investigate. You'll have to see the photos to really get the picture! I actually managed to get up into a tree, cross ropes and ladders and other wobbly obstacles in between trees and descend by zip wires. Celso and Tristan did a further 3 courses that went far too high for me to even contemplate. Exhilarating, scary, tiring, hand aching (from all the gripping on) and great fun. 3 hours later we were on our way again and finally we reached Renshaw having driven through Ottawa and deciding that we really didn't want to spend any more time in the city at the moment.
Following this we walked about 10 minutes up to the Botanical Gardens and spent an engrossing 1 1/2 hours in the Insectarium with the largest collection of creepy crawlies I've ever seen (heaven for Celso). My favourites were the scarab beetles in green and orange (I've seen them in films of Egypt before and always thought how fake they looked but they really are that brightly coloured and really shiny.)
Celso insisted on buying a packet of crickets (dead and roasted, cheese and bacon falvour) to eat, and Tristan reminded me how I'm always telling him to give new things a try, at least a small taste I say; and so I couldn't really back out of having a little nibble... tasted like dry cardboard and the boys didn't think much of them either.
We headed down to the old quarter and wandered around the streets filled with market stalls, street performers and artists. The grand hotel was being worked on with scaffolding covering it but, because it is meant to be one of the finest buildings, the scaffolding was then covered in a sheet with a picture of the building on.. Weird. There were street cafes, a man playing the accordian and an old woman trying to do some sort of sexy dancing to accompany him (but she looked more like she was having some sort of fit). Celso spent an age looking at wrist bands whilst Tris and I wandered the shops and listened to an Andean group playing traditional panpipe music.
We then walked up to the Chinese district and looked in loads of little shops. There were loads of Bhuddas (whose tummies we had to rub) and Celso wanted to get a Samurai sword but fortunately we have to fly into the US and I convinced him it would not be allowed. We found a Chinese restaurant filled with Chinese people so we went in and had an enormous meal, half of which we ended up taking home in a doggy bag. My fortune cookie said that I was going to travel!
Thursday. We left Montreal and headed back West towards Ottowa. About half an hour into our journey we saw a sign for the Arbraska adventure forest, with a picture of a man balancing on a rope strung between trees. We decided to go and investigate. You'll have to see the photos to really get the picture! I actually managed to get up into a tree, cross ropes and ladders and other wobbly obstacles in between trees and descend by zip wires. Celso and Tristan did a further 3 courses that went far too high for me to even contemplate. Exhilarating, scary, tiring, hand aching (from all the gripping on) and great fun. 3 hours later we were on our way again and finally we reached Renshaw having driven through Ottawa and deciding that we really didn't want to spend any more time in the city at the moment.
Monday, 17 August 2009
On route and in and around the St Lawrence river - days 20-22
After a cup of tea sitting out in the garden we said our farewells and got on the road (we intend to go back to Paul and Gilly's in a week or so to take the dogs for some long walks - they are going to be fed by neighbours for the 3 weeks the Wilsons are in the UK).
After about 1/2 an hour we passed the Indian River Reptile zoo and of course we had to stop and take a look. It is the only accredited reptile zoo in Canada and gets rescue animals from all over the country. It also has a pair of Tamarind Marmosets for a breeding program.
There were an enormous number of snakes, lizards and turtles; Celso would just look at them and say their name and a bit about them, however I had to spend longer looking at all the info on the enclosures. The best bits, I think, were the American alligator and a Central American crocodile. They each had inside-outside enclosures, but fortunately for us they were both inside in their swimming pools on the other side of floor to ceiling glass. It meant that we could see them just floating in the water from both above and below the water line and get up nose to nose with them.
There was a small encounter with a baby alligator (called Chomper I think) and a 2 metre Boa called Friendly. Not as good, or hands on, as the encounters that Celso does back home.
After about 2.5 hours we were back in the car and we made our way East to Kingston, where Lake Ontario meets the St Lawrence river. We drove around to take a bit of a look, stopped at the tourist office to find out what we shouldn't miss and visited a shop selling fair trade goods. Many of the carvings in stone were by a man from Zimbabwe, we watched him at work and marvelled at the amazing detail in his pieces. In the shop they also had defunct trillion dollar notes from Zimbabwe which they sell and then ship American dollars back to the country in the hope that it won't devalue.
We found a motel and Celso and Tristan went for a swim in the pool whilst I read my book. Then we went out for an amazing lobster, shrimp, scallop and crab dinner in a restaurant called Red Lobster.
Finally at 9pm we went on a guided ghost walk of central Kingston by lantern light. We learnt about all the ghost sitings and some of the facts behind them. There are several haunted B&Bs, one in which young children are found crying in peoples rooms in the middle of the night, another in which an old lady goes through all your things. A hanged man leaning against the old gaol wall, always in the same spot, when they tore down the wall about a decade ago, a coffin with a hanged man inside was found bricked up in the wall at that exact spot.... since the body was given a decent burial there have been no further sitings. There is also Theresa, a woman who approaches people in an alley and asks them to help her find her bone. She has also saught the help of people in the local buildings, she tells them she was murdered whilst pregnant and that her body is in the basement; she asks for their help in giving her remains a decent Catholic burial.
Tristan was a little bit spooked by the end of the walk, but some curious things happened during the walk... as we passed one house a man was standing behind an open door sharpening a knife.. the noise and his sudden appearance made quite a few of us jump. Another woman fell over for no reason at all, and the dark alleys we walked through were stinky enough to give anyone a shock!
The next morning; after a breakfast in our motel; we hit the road about 40km East up the St Lawrence river to a curious little town called Gananoque. We bought tickets for a boat tour around the 1000 islands (in fact nearly 1900 islands that are situated in the first 20km of the St Lawrence from Kingston eastwards) but we had about an hour to kill so we wandered around the town which was full of artists studios and curio shops. We found a gallery with beautiful Inuit carvings and Celso couldn't resist... and so our first package is wending its way back to the UK by sea-post.
The cruise was amazing; it included islands with nothing on them at all, small outcrops of rock with a solar powered mini lighthouse complete with occupied Osprey nests on top, islands with a single weatherboard residence, larger islands with several houses and a supply of electricity from underwater cables and then there was millionaires row... the most bizarre of which was Boldt castle with a silly looking fake castle and the most enormous boathouse... it was built by the owner of the Waldorf Hotels for his wife but she died before it was completed. We passed under the most enormous bridge that crossed from Canada to the US, I don't think I've ever seen such a high bridge but it has to be that way to allow the sea fairing ships to get through down the St Lawrence and then into the Great Lakes.
Seagulls accompanied us on the boat flying in the updraught over the ship, they just seemed to hover there without having to put in any effort, I suppose it's a bit like dolphins riding the bow wave.
It was Tristan's turn to decide where to go, so he took us East along a small road that hugged the bank of the St Lawrence to a further bridge that crossed over to the States. We found a little family run motel that had access to a river flowing into the St Lawrence where Celso could go fishing... and at last he caught a decent sized fish (as well as some tiddlers) and he cooked and at it that night. We also cooked up sweet corn and feasted. Whilst fishing he was visited by an American mink (Celso had to do lots of internet research to find out that that was what he was... it is also the same animal I saw in Algonquin) who hissed at him and swam past slightly further along the bank. Celso chucked him one of the tiny fish that he had caught and he sat munching under the rocks making a terrible racket cracking through the bones and chewing loudly like a teenager chewing gum with their mouth open!
Today we drove to Montreal along the tiny country roads again. We stopped at Campbell conservation area and took a walk through some marsh land where there were abundant frogs. They had green tops and yellow throats and were up to 15cm long. They looked like some sort of porcelain imitations because the colours were so bright! Half of the walk was over a boardwalk through the middle of the marsh. We saw an amazing fluffy headed, curve beaked, small heron like bird and another small wading bird (a bit like a coot) that could run over the surface of the water. I was also shocked by a snapping turtle that poked its head up under my feet. We sat and ate boiled eggs, carrot, celery and cucumber sticks, cheese and yoghurt and fresh fruit in the middle of the marsh and then wandered on our way.
Montreal reminds me of Paris in that it is really poorly sign posted and frustrating to find anything. Signs are only posted right on junctions so if you are in the wrong lane their is nothing you can do about it. They also have signs that disappear for a long time. e.g. you follow a sign for an information office and they have a sign at each intersection for quite a long way and then the road splits in 2 and their is no indication of which way you should go.... SO FRUSTRATING. Any way we are now ensconced in a motel and ate VERY well in a local Vietnamese restaurant for under £20. Tomorrow we will go and see the sights and decide whether we agree with Montreal's claim to be the most cosmopolitan Canadian city.
After about 1/2 an hour we passed the Indian River Reptile zoo and of course we had to stop and take a look. It is the only accredited reptile zoo in Canada and gets rescue animals from all over the country. It also has a pair of Tamarind Marmosets for a breeding program.
There were an enormous number of snakes, lizards and turtles; Celso would just look at them and say their name and a bit about them, however I had to spend longer looking at all the info on the enclosures. The best bits, I think, were the American alligator and a Central American crocodile. They each had inside-outside enclosures, but fortunately for us they were both inside in their swimming pools on the other side of floor to ceiling glass. It meant that we could see them just floating in the water from both above and below the water line and get up nose to nose with them.
There was a small encounter with a baby alligator (called Chomper I think) and a 2 metre Boa called Friendly. Not as good, or hands on, as the encounters that Celso does back home.
After about 2.5 hours we were back in the car and we made our way East to Kingston, where Lake Ontario meets the St Lawrence river. We drove around to take a bit of a look, stopped at the tourist office to find out what we shouldn't miss and visited a shop selling fair trade goods. Many of the carvings in stone were by a man from Zimbabwe, we watched him at work and marvelled at the amazing detail in his pieces. In the shop they also had defunct trillion dollar notes from Zimbabwe which they sell and then ship American dollars back to the country in the hope that it won't devalue.
We found a motel and Celso and Tristan went for a swim in the pool whilst I read my book. Then we went out for an amazing lobster, shrimp, scallop and crab dinner in a restaurant called Red Lobster.
Finally at 9pm we went on a guided ghost walk of central Kingston by lantern light. We learnt about all the ghost sitings and some of the facts behind them. There are several haunted B&Bs, one in which young children are found crying in peoples rooms in the middle of the night, another in which an old lady goes through all your things. A hanged man leaning against the old gaol wall, always in the same spot, when they tore down the wall about a decade ago, a coffin with a hanged man inside was found bricked up in the wall at that exact spot.... since the body was given a decent burial there have been no further sitings. There is also Theresa, a woman who approaches people in an alley and asks them to help her find her bone. She has also saught the help of people in the local buildings, she tells them she was murdered whilst pregnant and that her body is in the basement; she asks for their help in giving her remains a decent Catholic burial.
Tristan was a little bit spooked by the end of the walk, but some curious things happened during the walk... as we passed one house a man was standing behind an open door sharpening a knife.. the noise and his sudden appearance made quite a few of us jump. Another woman fell over for no reason at all, and the dark alleys we walked through were stinky enough to give anyone a shock!
The next morning; after a breakfast in our motel; we hit the road about 40km East up the St Lawrence river to a curious little town called Gananoque. We bought tickets for a boat tour around the 1000 islands (in fact nearly 1900 islands that are situated in the first 20km of the St Lawrence from Kingston eastwards) but we had about an hour to kill so we wandered around the town which was full of artists studios and curio shops. We found a gallery with beautiful Inuit carvings and Celso couldn't resist... and so our first package is wending its way back to the UK by sea-post.
The cruise was amazing; it included islands with nothing on them at all, small outcrops of rock with a solar powered mini lighthouse complete with occupied Osprey nests on top, islands with a single weatherboard residence, larger islands with several houses and a supply of electricity from underwater cables and then there was millionaires row... the most bizarre of which was Boldt castle with a silly looking fake castle and the most enormous boathouse... it was built by the owner of the Waldorf Hotels for his wife but she died before it was completed. We passed under the most enormous bridge that crossed from Canada to the US, I don't think I've ever seen such a high bridge but it has to be that way to allow the sea fairing ships to get through down the St Lawrence and then into the Great Lakes.
Seagulls accompanied us on the boat flying in the updraught over the ship, they just seemed to hover there without having to put in any effort, I suppose it's a bit like dolphins riding the bow wave.
It was Tristan's turn to decide where to go, so he took us East along a small road that hugged the bank of the St Lawrence to a further bridge that crossed over to the States. We found a little family run motel that had access to a river flowing into the St Lawrence where Celso could go fishing... and at last he caught a decent sized fish (as well as some tiddlers) and he cooked and at it that night. We also cooked up sweet corn and feasted. Whilst fishing he was visited by an American mink (Celso had to do lots of internet research to find out that that was what he was... it is also the same animal I saw in Algonquin) who hissed at him and swam past slightly further along the bank. Celso chucked him one of the tiny fish that he had caught and he sat munching under the rocks making a terrible racket cracking through the bones and chewing loudly like a teenager chewing gum with their mouth open!
Today we drove to Montreal along the tiny country roads again. We stopped at Campbell conservation area and took a walk through some marsh land where there were abundant frogs. They had green tops and yellow throats and were up to 15cm long. They looked like some sort of porcelain imitations because the colours were so bright! Half of the walk was over a boardwalk through the middle of the marsh. We saw an amazing fluffy headed, curve beaked, small heron like bird and another small wading bird (a bit like a coot) that could run over the surface of the water. I was also shocked by a snapping turtle that poked its head up under my feet. We sat and ate boiled eggs, carrot, celery and cucumber sticks, cheese and yoghurt and fresh fruit in the middle of the marsh and then wandered on our way.
Montreal reminds me of Paris in that it is really poorly sign posted and frustrating to find anything. Signs are only posted right on junctions so if you are in the wrong lane their is nothing you can do about it. They also have signs that disappear for a long time. e.g. you follow a sign for an information office and they have a sign at each intersection for quite a long way and then the road splits in 2 and their is no indication of which way you should go.... SO FRUSTRATING. Any way we are now ensconced in a motel and ate VERY well in a local Vietnamese restaurant for under £20. Tomorrow we will go and see the sights and decide whether we agree with Montreal's claim to be the most cosmopolitan Canadian city.
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