Category: Canada

Toronto

torontoferryAfter our kayaking trip in the wilderness we were driven to the subway and took the train to Toronto. Really these few days have just been a time to chill out and prepare ourselves for the return home. We are staying in an apartment in Church St just down from Bloor , an area called the “Village”.The street signs all have the Rainbow flag. Apart from walking round the City shopping etc we on one day took public transport to Vaughan Mills outlet stores and on another took the ferry across to the Toronto islands.
Australia here we come.

McCoy and Mink Classic

Following day we drove to Parry Sound to White Squall to start our kayaking adventure . After meeting our three young guides , Erin, Carson Ethan and the other members of our party , Jim,Kelly, Lynne,Susan and Phil , we loaded up and drove to the starting point of Sand Bay . First day we headed out to the Island of Big McCoy after a lunch stop on a small island halfway . Lily and I went on one of the tandems ,which were well loaded with gear. The afternoon paddle was steady going into an 8- 10 knot breeze .After arriving at Big McCoy we set up our “base camp”. Now this is the the way to camp – chill out while your guides cook and prepare your meals for you – and they did a great job . We did assist where necessary and shared the washing up .
The pattern for the next two days was simple – get up , have breakfast , have a swim , load the kayaks , paddle somewhere and stop for a swim and lunch , paddle back ,go for a swim , have dinner , watch the sunset , go to bed . The second day was a paddle over open water with and increasing breeze pushing us back . The next day was a weave between the islands , and discovering a shipwreck after lunch . We rotated to different kayaks throughout the trip .
The weather stayed pretty much perfect for us with it raining overnight on one night only . On the final day , we stopped again for lunch on the same island as the first day before returning to sand bay and heading “home”.

(For those waiting the Gopro videos are going to be a couple of weeks )

Aylmer

After our stay at the beautiful town of Niagara on the Lake it was time to meet our friends ,whom we had met when they were in Wonthaggi for a year , John and Lori from Aylmer . Our host from the bed and breakfast kindly drove us in to the bus terminal at Niagara Falls from where we caught the bus to Hamilton. From there John picked us up and drove us to Aylmer. The town is about the size of Wonthaggi and set in a farming area . The major crop in the past was tobacco but the fields now are mainly other crops mainly of corn, wheat and soybeans. John and Lori are part of a group of about 140 people with a share in a “sharefarm” , growing various vegetables .We went with them for their weekly pick up of produce . This is spread out in equal shares of what has been harvested. The shareholders each take a turn in helping out on the farm . Prior to this we went to the Aylmer market which is small farmers’ market along with a “flea” market .The Portugese fellow selling his bread and pastries was particularly entertaining , telling us how bad the North American bread was while breaking off bits of his produce to try .Eventually we were able to buy something from him.
On the Wednesday we drove with John and Lori to Lori’s parent house in Midland on Geogian Bay where we would stay prior to driving to Parry for our kayaking trip. Lori’s mum put on a very tasty and substantial meal .