10.7.2012 – 10.7.2012  32 °C

After a tasty Canadian home cooked brekky (French Toast drenched in Maple syrup) we headed northward towards Montreal. Our hosts, Lee and Mac, had advised us to avoid Toronto (can you believe that there is one intersection in Toronto that more than a million cars use each day???) as it is another big city and to go north into the Algonquin Park. All three of us liked the sound of this as we are a bit museum/ art galleried out and all of us prefer the mountains and lakes to a concrete jungle.

Our drive took us thru much of the farmland of Ontario. This meant that we passed thru small town after small town surrounded by corn fields. We passed thru the Mennonite area again so we saw more horse drawn buggies making their way along the roads. We also passed plenty of barns and grain silos. I guess during the winter you want plenty of ways to keep your stock alive!

I forgot to mention yesterday about an interesting conversation I had with Mac. He was explaining some fundamental differences between Canada and Australia. He explained that one of the things that first struck him about Australia was the location of houses on blocks of land. In Australia, we typically have our houses back from the road usually with long drives and walk ways. Here in Canada, all of the houses are bang smack on the side of the road with very short driveways and walkways. He explained this is because of the amount of snow that falls in Canada. Canadian’s don’t want long driveways or walkways.. the longer the driveway the more snow you need to shovel!!! He also explained that Aussies have a tendency to say goodbye at least twice whenever they leave someone’s house.. Often in the house and then down at the car (or on the way etc).. He explained that Canadian’s rarely do this, again because of the winter. When the temp is 20+ deg below, you don’t want to be having extended conversations outside!!! Small differences, but they really highlight the differences in the weather and therefore the impact on our ways of life!

Our morning tea stop today was at a Canadian institution called Tim Hortons. We had seen plenty of these stores on our journey but had thought that it was just a cheaper version of Starbucks (which it is by the way). Lee and Mac explained to us that we just had to test out the donuts and coffee at this Canadian institution as this is the ‘thing you do’ as a Canadian when travelling… I guess it was like us ‘going to McD’s at Coffs’ when we were little kids on the long drive from Kempsey to Tweed Heads.. So we did the Canadian thing and stopped in it at Timmies…. I was disappointed. As I suspected, it was a Dunkin’ Donuts minus the American slogans.. Coffee was ordinary, donut ok…. Would I stop in at this Canadian institution again? Probably, when I’m desperate for a loo or a donut but not for the coffee! J

Our lunch stop today was in this little town called Orillia where we had crisp bread and cheese whilst complaining about the heat! Our afternoon drive was up to Huntsville along a scenic road. The road was interesting for the fact that it was scenic if you like farms! I swear Nth America is one big farm!! The sad thing is we are struggling to identify the crops! Plenty of corn and plenty of this wheaty sort of crop (but it isn’t tall enough for wheat?) pepperd with beautifully painted farm houses, barns and grain silos. In all seriousness, although there were plenty of farms to see today there were also plenty of lakes.. This part of Canada in some ways reminds me of Nth Finland with the amount of lakes and rivers it has! (Canada doesn’t have the monster mozzies though that Lapland has!)

We arrived into our stop for the evening, Huntsville, late in the afternoon. A funny anecdote about staying in motels here in the US and Canada…. All (well nearly all) motels in this part of the world are run and owned by peoples from the sub continent.. D has a field day talking to them about cricket! Tonight was no different, we discovered this evening that VVS Laxman has retired from the Indian Cricket team.. J No matter where you are in the world.. find a man from the sub continent and don’t be surprised if they want to talk to you about cricket!

Anyway, back to the blog, so yes, we arrived in Huntsville and went for a little drive around town. It’s a pretty nice town, nestled in some small hills surrounded by plenty of lakes. It reminded me a bit of Ouray in Colorado.. Just a nice little town in the hills… To get a better view of the town we drove up to the top of one of the small hills that surround the town. Gosh its pretty to see a tiny town on the banks of a huge aqua coloured lake just as the sun is starting to go down!!

Our dinner was in the downtown on the banks of one of the lakes. We bought a piece of pizza each and sat out on a picnic table just watching the sun sink into the mountains.. One of those beautifully warm evenings where you are happy to just sit and wait for it to get dark!

Song of the Day- The Go- Betweens, Streets of your town