Tuesday 21st May 2019 We left Quetico this morning in glorious sunshine, prepared for a long drive. We had no destination in mind, deciding it was best to just see where we got to. We knew that if we found somewhere nice, we would stop, otherwise carry on in hope! Well we ended up driving 545 kilometres, which was more than anticipated and ended up crossing the border to Manitoba! The drive from Quetico to Fort Francis on the US Minnesota border was one of the most picturesque so far; kilometre after kilometre of blue water, dark green spruce, maple, cedar and silver birch, rocky outcrops and a few little homesteads along the way. We saw a moose today as well as two squirrels, seven red deer, a flock of Canadian geese and quite a few ... read more

Saturday 18th May 2019 It is now two weeks since we left home so we are a quarter of the way through our trip. In some ways the time has flown, conversely, it seems ages since we left home! It has been two weeks of varied and rich experience, some quite unexpected (like discovering there were bears around where we were camping): “Travelling is about finding things that you never knew you were looking for” Anon When we got to Red Rock yesterday, we slept in a beautiful heritage building, the Red Rock Inn, jacuzzi bath and all; we enclose some photos of the Inn here in this blog, just to prove that we don’t always slum it and are not entirely crazy souls! Only now and again! The journey from White River to ... read more

Yesterday was pretty special. We went to visit the Ojibwe Cultural Foundation at M’Chigeeng near Lake Mindemoya on Manitoulin. Artists work there, reviving traditional work like moccasin-making, beadwork and fine jewellery and painting on skins, wood and stone. Beautiful craftwork. They run free sessions for school children there too. These classes are so important following on from years of suppressed cultural identity. Manitoulin children were sent away to Catholic residential schools from the 19thCentury right up until 1958. At these schools, where they spent ten months of the year without seeing family, brothers and sisters were segregated from the age of five, beaten if they were caught speaking the Ojibwe language and also frequently abused. The idea was to obliterate Ojibwe culture and the Catholic Church failed to apologise formally until 1996! Many First Nation people ... read more

Tobermory! Not the womble who is second-in-command to Great Uncle Bulgaria, nor the pretty Scottish town in Oban, but Tobermory in Ontario, Canada; on the tip of the Bruce Peninsular, just 257 kilometres from Toronto but light years away, 4 degrees, “real feel” 1 degree according to Google! We decided to take the lesser-known route to get to the Trans-Canada Highway where we are heading, by coming up “The Bruce”, then taking a ferry across to Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron, which we shall do tomorrow. We are unusual visitors here; most are fishermen and hunters and also it is still winter! We collected our Nissan rental car from Toronto airport yesterday and five hours later, having stopped for lunch en route, we arrived at the Tober... read more

Our flight from Lisbon to Toronto yesterday was happily uneventful: no delays, no hassle, no turbulence! The flights take a northerly trajectory across the Arctic Circle, hence the relatively short flying time of seven and a half hours. Since Toronto is five hours behind Portugal (six hours behind Spain) we landed just an hour and a half after departure from Lisbon. I watched two good films to pass the time, Bohemian Rhapsody and A Star is Bornand then enjoyed watching the sun setting as we flew down towards Toronto on a SW heading, from our seats on the right-hand side of the plane. High above Lake Ontario, we were spellbound by the beauty of vibrant slashes of orange, gold and red, set against an almost translucent blue heaven, whilst below us lie ... read more