Category: Travel posts

Yes it sounds like a ropey band name…….!!!

Harvest Host time again at (https://www.badlandsmercantile.com/ ) Badlands Mercantile……….fabulous stop……admittedly we picked it for its proximity to Dinosaur park……( as we were booked in to Tillebrook Provincial park on the 11th…but we could not get the 10th so Harvest host was the solution again )

The lady in the store, Darlene, is a delight ….she used to work for Alberta Parks and is a wealth of both local and historical information.

First stop, as per Darlene was the Patricia Hotel. It has been there they reckon since at least 1909……it was originally the stagecoach stop before it became the railroad hotel when they built the railroad.

Decor has to be seen to be believed…..tripadvisor describes it as prairie style……but I would argue….that its not really a style thing…it is the honest, salt of the earth personality of the place. There is a whole wall of hand painted motifs , everything form bucking horses to buffalo running…..a huge stuffed buffalo head and all the tables have branding marks….we asked the hostess what it meant…’Oh’ she said…’the cowboys all came in one night and had a branding party…….they all marked the tables with their cattle brands’…..now tell me that doesn’t sound like a party and a half…….

We are in Alberta …so we ordered steaks…one bison, and the bacon wrapped tenderloin…..Ten minutes later the hostess came out with two large steaks…raw….on plates….and pointed us in the direction of the grill…!!!!!

Cook your own steak, texas toast, baked potato soup and salad…$32…..

A walk around the town of Patricia doesn’t take long…!!!

The big event in town is the Patricia rodeo…labour day weekend in September…we might have to plan going back there for it…..small town…..terrific cast of characters……

Darlene’s next recommendation was Dinosaur Provincial Park…..and that we should stop at the lookout just before the entrance to the park.

Dinosaur Park….though the name may seem disneyesque and uninspiring……is a UNESCO heritage site…….it’s the place where they excavated the fossils for museums worldwide…….and wow…I mean wow…it is a landscape that really must be seen to be fully comprehended…..

Imagine the impact on your brain the first time you stood beside Niagara Falls…this is tenfold the impact…….

The badlands..are like inverted mountains….you drive across a flat landscape…..big wide horizon…big big sky….and then…..stop at the lookout by the entrance to the park (as Darlene told us to do….) and you have the whole panoramic vista of the park…mountains sunk below grade…….its breathtaking…

I know I keep saying wow…….but we have been experiencing a lot of wows…and we are not at the mountains yet….

The deer was completely nonplussed by our presence……she looked over at us and continued munching even though we stood and watched her for a while. She was so close and so unconcerned…..

We did a hike through the valley floor, but we still had to get back and move the trailer to our next stop at Tillebrook Provincial park (https://www.travelalberta.com/ca/listings/tillebrook-provincial-park-1907/) about 30 kms away……we could not get a spot at Dinosaur park…which turned out to be a good thing because its about 3 to 4 degrees hotter in the valley….so Tillebrook was another win..!!!

After setting up we whipped over to the Brooks aqueduct (again…Darlene) another amazing structure……it was built between 1912 and 1914 as part of an irrigation system to bring water to southeastern Alberta…..its an extraordinary piece of engineering, when it was completed it was the longest concrete structure in the world.

There is a section where it crosses the railway….but it was not high enough for trains to fit under it…so they built a massive siphon under the railway…..its really quite something……The modern version also has a siphon….pretty clever…..!!!

The more modern replacement irrigation system is right next to it…we followed it down to the siphon and found these little creatures….

Muskrats according to google lens…….funny little beasties….

Scott……of course……….had to look it up….apparently they taste……”muddy”..!!!!

Second day of Dinosaur park we drove up from Tillebrook, totally the campground to stop at for the Dino’s. It’s quiet, all the sites are pull through and beautifully designed. Also very handy for Brooks which has everything you might need.

Along the road we just had to stop at this derelict gas station/gift store…..complete with its own Albertosaurus ( T-Rex’s smaller Canadian cousin ). There was something compelling about the dinosaur running towards the mailboxes…….

We picked out a series of smaller hikes to run together for this second day so we could do the Coulee lookout………

the path of the fossil hunters……………

There are three fossil sites that have had structures built around them to preserve them.

and the cottonwood flats……and it was hot……and dry……

The scale of the landscape is hard to communicate in pictures……

The cottonwoods…honestly …I had never heard of them before…….strange and lovely trees. The bark is actually soft like cotton flannel, quite surprising. They only reproduce successfully if the conditions are right at exactly the right time……and they self prune….by cutting of circulation to peripheral limbs when the conditions are dry……the big one in the pictures they reckon is 200 years old…….I know the sequoias are going to be impressive…but these were a lovely little surprise…..

Tillebrook was rife with these little gopher like creatures that looked kind of like squirrels without the fluffy tails….we were calling them ground squirrels until we looked them up….and found out that they are, in fact……ground squirrels……!!!

Left our shoes out overnight and the little dudes ate our shoelaces……….!!!!

Next stop High River Brewing….Harvest host again….but the first one, for us, that is a brewery…!!!

You can tell when you cross from Manitoba in to Saskatchewan because all of a sudden the road surface has been replaced sometime this century… A bit like driving out of a torrential rainstorm to suddenly completely dry roads……..did I mention…the roads in Manitoba are…..awful…….!!!

Oh Grenfell.. What a marvelous little town. Population posted at 1099….

Makes Wawa seem like a thriving metropolis……and also no internet…and no wifi anywhere in town…

The campground is close to the railroad… Actually… Everything in town…. Is close to the railroad…..it wasn’t noisy cos they don’t move very fast….and they are very very long….

The local museum has scale models of grain elevators outside it. And the largest building in town is the grain elevator… By the railroad..

We had booked the site online….and when we got there…..we were told by a random guy who was there with his dog….that because it is a municipal campground….you have to go downtown to the town office to pay…….( I forgot to take a picture before we left….but there is an honesty box on the wall by the showers for after hours check in and payment………!!!! this is such a charming little town…..)

So to the town office…….a block and a half from the campground….cos its not a big town…!!!

Now just over 2,600kms from home…the truck is in need of an oil change….and being in town for a couple of days…we think it might be possible to swing a spot at a local auto shop……”oh yes “says the girl in the town office….”you could try Slumps next door”…..(everything is next door in Grenfell..!!)

So….off we trot…..to this…..

Slumps…!!!..inside were about eight guys sitting round a coffee table….drinking coffee……….the response….no…they were way too busy to do an oil change……!!!

New experience…in Saskatchewan or in Grenfell anyway…the hardware store also sells liquor wine and beer…..!!!

Sunday morning I walked down to the laundromat……both it…and the town were deserted…..!!..But the laundromat was …an experience…..

It was like a 50’s film set…….those dryers were phenomenal,,,,,50 cents for about a half hour…….can’t go wrong with that…!!!!

While I was away doing laundry….back at camp the truck and trailer were having Manitoba removed……both were thick in dust and mud……

All clean and sparkly again……..

Back on the road to Swift Current……

Now…the big learning module for Saskatchewan….other than the fact that it is not flat……its a bit more like the Yorkshire Dales…..only…if someone copied and pasted the dales at least a dozen times….thats more like Saskatchewan…..and the road feels like its all uphill….!!!!or at least our fuel consumption indicated that it was….

Anyway…as you cross the middle……you Canadians probably already knew this…but it was fascinating to us…Chaplin…about halfway across sits on Lake Chaplin…which is the second largest salt water lake in Canada…….all the little lakes and pools are white around the edge from the water evaporating off and leaving the salt…(sodium sulphate) which is then used to make things like laundry detergent.

It is also a habitat for tens of thousands of shore birds……which is an extraordinary sight right in the middle of this enormous land mass.

Swift Current….again…not a big town….but such a very friendly place…….best curry house we have found on this side of the Atlantic…..

They took my favourite curry…dahl mahkani…and added butter fried paneer to it…..heavenly…..

Arrived at the campground to this……..!!!!

Luckily for us…our name was on the door….!!!

We had much better luck with the oil change……two minutes from the campground….when Scott came back I thought he’d forgotten something…….but that was how fast they got the job done…….no slumping here….!!!!

Two day stop then on to Alberta……!!!

The roads in Manitoba… Oh boy…

As soon as you cross on the trans Canada… The grades are gone… But the road surfaces… tho relatively straight… are far from even… Cat started complaining straight away… Bumpy…. Head wobblingly bumpy. With frequent dips that make the whole truck and trailer porpoise… Scarily…!!

No pictures, part cos it was looong straight roads….prairie flat…..and partly cos the vibration was so bad I’m not convinced there would be anything in focus..!!!

Heading slightly north from the trans Canada to Wasagaming, and Riding Mountain national park… GPS turned us left off Manitoba highway 6…onto the MB 227..(a main trunk road on the map…) gravel… Thick loose washboard gravel… 55 km of gravel… Not wide enough to turn around… We managed to find an alternate that GPS told us was 24 minutes slower… Google was not looking at the road we were looking at…. Manitoba ministry of transport sense of humor speed limit 100kmph…we reached a top speed of about 39kmph on it… Mostly at about 25..we still had to do 19 km of shaking, rattling, sliding and slithering… To the 430 south…. A road that was likely paved in 1930 something… And had not been touched since……but at least it was not gravel…..

Even back onto trans Canada… No big sighs of relief… Very scared that 10 north to Wasagaming might be gravel… Fortunately not… But rough, rough roads.

Riding Mountain National Park. Our first National Park….waiting in line to register………Urgh…bear trap….do they bait them with little pots of honey ?!!!!!

The site we booked online….which was the only open spot in the park for the dates we wanted……was daunting…..Had to be the narrowest spot in the park….but we got Xolo backed in…..go team Harvey/Macfarlane….Always use walkie talkies, bellowing at each other is never going to end well!!!

The people in the other sites came over to congratulate us on getting in…they were not sure we would make it (can’t say I was convinced either…!!)

Editors Aside. For our UK readers to give you an idea of the size of the park, it’s 3000sq/km. All of Fife and Lothian together would be the same area. Hence you can imagine traveling to other areas of the park can be a time consuming endeavour.

First order of business…Scott had spotted information for the Bison enclosure…… ( https://www.pc.gc.ca/en/pn-np/mb/riding/nature/animals/mammals/bison) and the best times to actually see the bison are either early morning or evening before the light goes…..no time like the present…we hopped back in to the truck for the 45 minute drive over to the enclosure…….anywhere else in the world it would have been a 20 minute drive I’m sure…..but they do like these gravel roads in Manitoba…!!!

Manitoba is a dust bowl….not because its dry…or because of the smoke……but because all the roads are gravel and the speed limit on them is 100 clicks……we made it to about 60….its like driving in thick fresh snow….!!!!

Anyway…the Buffalo enclosure…..is at Lake Audy……..man oh man it is beautiful…..

We stopped in a spot that was signposted as …the dam……and spotted a beaver…second picture almost……almost caught him doing a flip and dive….it is imprinted on my memory but unfortunately not on camera…I still like the image…!!!

We drove around the park first…hoping for a glimpse of this herd of 50 beasts…..Nothing out in the open, nothing on the road. SOooooo we stopped by the observation platform and walked from the truck was parked to where the steel gated raised observation platform is……..halfway there…we hear some branches snapping and rustling in the undergrowth………which spurred a hastier walk to the platform…….

We got there and closed the gate just in time to see these ginormous beasts trundling across the path we had just walked down…..

So….now we are trapped at the observation platform…as we are now surrounded by huuuge bison grazing.

we got the whole show…it was amazing….bonus was the barn swallow nests full of babies in the roof of the observation platform…

Awesome side trip…….and on the way back to the park we spotted a big multi point buck in the field…..and a bald eagle soaring across the road….I’m not quick enough on the camera …sorry…!!!

Bald Hill trail.

This Bald Hill trail looked like the most interesting one in the park……and it started out looking pretty good…nicely carved out trail……(we even spotted another black bear on the road on the drive over to the East gate of the park to start the hike….not quick enough on the camera again….)

The East gate, it turns out, is the original gate to the park…….

For a National Park which was fully booked……we spent a lot of the time feeling like there was nobody else in the world…..even travelling the roads….very little other traffic….actually ..in Manitoba generally…the roads were very quiet….(other than the bone rattling vibration of actually driving on the roads of this province…!!!)

It was humid in the forest……and very smokey…….

We decided to do the loop clockwise…..which turned out to be a veeery good decision….it was quite the climb…and along the edge of the ravine…..there was lots of evidence on the trail of mountain bikes…which just stops my heart thinking about it….!!!

About the mid point is the Bald Hill loop…

Its a nice little loop…the Bald Hill loop……but the observation deck was not a place I found particularly comfortable…..its called Bald Hill….because…well its bald….cos its all loose scree…

Admittedly…the view was fantastic…..360 degrees of breathtaking spectacular beauty…even with the smoke haze…….but I was still pretty glad to get back down……

From there….back down the other side of the trail was pretty tame….but as all trails do…a bit of down…then back up again…then a bit of down….and so it goes…….it was a long way….our longest hike so far….but so worth it……..

What a great day……..and the result of that hike was a realisation that we need to pull the trigger on the Alltrails app…….first order of business when I get back to a solid internet connection…..

Next day was a bit of recovery…so time to take the bikes out around Clear Lake from Wasagaming….and try out the newly purchased Alltrails app…!!!

Glad we came…….dreading what the other side of Manitoba looks like re pavement…!!!

Everything in the bed of the truck was coated in a thick layer of dust even with the bed cover tightly in place…..from the gravel roads…..the truck and trailer…..absolutely caked in mud……problem is…none of the parks will let you wash the truck or the trailer….poor Xolo…!!!

Well…next stop is Sasketchewan….so we will see what that brings…..

Packing up from Rainbow falls we headed through Thunder bay along our last stretch of North Superior. I’d like to say we checked out Thunder Bay…I have had several recommendations that we go to the Terry Fox memorial…..but the risk of heading into town with the big silver bullet seemed foolhardy without knowing the road.

Discretion being the better part of valour…we headed for Neebing…just south of the city to our first Harvest Host experience….https://harvesthosts.com/

Slate River Dairy ( https://www.slateriverdairy.com/ )…..nice level gravel parking lot…very friendly…….bought some milk butter and cheese…all quite excellent….

After what was also…correct me if I’m wrong Scott (Editors note, you are correct ) ….our first boondock night….back on the road headed for Wabigoon Lake RV park…just slightly east of Dryden.

Editors quick aside. Before we left, the large family sized Instant Pot was sold and we picked up the weenie 3qt size. When boondocking or dry camping ie. no services we are are on battery/inverter power. The Instant Pot only draws 800W so we can have a proper meal without heating up the trailer and let the sun recharge us.

Wabigoon Lake is approximately the halfway point on the journey from home to Bronagh in Calgary….1,781 kms from Paris…..

The road becomes slightly less challenging….and it was a day of considerably less smoke…so we actually got some sky…!!!

Wabigoon Lake RV Park is about 20 minutes east of Dryden….

Very friendly little park…..right on the Trans Canada….we stopped for a couple of days…good showers, good laundry, good fishing and full service pull through sites for $35 per night… (http://www.wabigoonlakervpark.ca/)

Some one..(pointing no elbows ) caught a pike…….not sure what else to do with it so it got tossed back in…..apparently they are not that great for eating anyway…!!

In the lake …the vegetation you see is mostly wild rice……the guy at the park said another couple of weeks before its ready for harvesting….!!!

Side trip to Oxdrift Farmers market on saturday morning…we had high hopes……..and met some nice people…….but I guess there is not a lot of produce happening north of Superior yet…!!!

Sunday it turned out there was a Dryden Road Runners get together in the park….

The local ‘convenience’ store in the town of Wabigoon is called Green Achers ….the first five times I looked at it I saw Green Archers…but no……we went in for milk one day…and had never seen the vast range of hostess old Dutch chips products…everything from jerky to nachos…products we had never seen or imagined…in the smallest, most “rustic” store you could possibly imagine……Oh…and it was also the local LCBO…….!!!!! The owner was serving the person in front of us and was gone for a while. Upon his return he was soaked to the elbows and handed the customer a couple of bags of minnows. Full service indeed.

Next stop Manitoba……..Stony hill farm…. our second harvest host. A jaunt north of the Trans Canada….but part of a loop to take us to Wasagaming and Riding Mountain National Park.

Stony Hill Farm.… ( https://stonyhillfarm.ca/) Beautiful place, lovely host……..and a super little store with fresh produce, a variety of organic stoneground flours, and a freezer full of bison and organic pork and beef sausage, steaks and ground meat.

Brenda, the host, is a grain expert ………so long discussions about sourdough ensued…….a child of our starter was given residence……..I do hope Brenda has success with the starter and the sourdough bread blog post from this site…we very much appreciated her thoughtful packaging of fresh greens already picked and washed…ready for campers….

Stony Hill farm has a large flat parking area close to the farmhouse, but Brenda gave us the option of pulling off further up the drive onto a flat area of grass…….which we did……(it was a little nerve wracking pulling off between the trees…but we survived…and it was well worth it….Thanks again Brenda…!!!

This spot is a bit out of the way…but we would recommend the spot for sure….

Back on the road again……..heading for Wasagaming……

Good bye to Wawa…it was a lot of fun…..despite the lack of promise initially….Back on the road for more long treacherous grades….and grand stone gateways……it really is scarier going downhill than up……both cos you don’t know what’s coming…and the fact that there’s a 30 foot trailer pushing us…!!!

Looking back at the pictures you really don’t get the sense of the grades…or just how BIG Ontario really is…!!! But it is…..what I also notice…is just how smokey it is …!!!!

And so to Rainbow Falls Provincial Park…our first camp at a Provincial Park….just the one night here..so we got set up quickly and set out for a trail hike to get our legs moving…big drive tomorrow…..

It turned into quite a phenomenal hike….not Bruce trail stuff….but some trekking across rocks…and the falls…well…..wow…!!!

I counted the stairs on the way back..181……it did not seem like that many on the way down……

Tougher hike than we had anticipated….and with a thunderstorm rolling in it was pretty humid…….so we hatched aplan on the way home….(shhhh…!!)

We found this great little secluded beach (weather was too unpleasant for anyone to be at the beach……)….and we both needed a bath…..!!

A bar of campers soap from the Lions Head farmers market soap lady…voila…the perfect skinny dip bath…….(highly recommended…!!😲)

Well worth the stop at this park….thoroughly enjoyable ……..but…the road goes ever onward………so time to get packed up and on the road again……

If you look it up on tripadvisor….Wawa’s claim to fame is a large sculpture of a Canada goose…….its true……..!!!!

We snagged a spot at Wawa RV resort…… a very nice back in spot with hydro and water. Nice park…nice people……phenomenal ( blistering..!!) water pressure in the showers…!!!!

No Wifi tho’….and very scant LTE….not sure if it has anything to do with the wildfires…but they told us at the office that they had been having problems with it and apologised…….No problem we thought….we will just whip in to Tim Hortons (which we had already spotted on the edge of town.)

Nope….no wifi to be had anywhere in Wawa….so….time to get out the old pen and paper to track our shenanigans ’til I can get some photos uploaded…..I guess thats the next thing on my learning list…is software to work offline…I’m sure this is not going to be the last place we have trouble with a connection…

Wawa……is …….sparse……!!!

Wawa is on Lake Wawa…….

There is a Canadian Tire..(yay)..but no gas bar..(boo)…and no wifi (double boo).

There is the Lakeview Hotel…which, my dear husband pointed out, if one were of a mind to hold a serial killers annual convention……it’d be the place to host it………no one would hear about it..!!

..and I had to smile at the solar panels on the church…….

oooo…..and the thrift store…(the Thrift Barn)…was closed first da we were there…but with a notice like this on the door…we just had to go back again….

But…..the funny thing was…when we went back…turned out it was totally the place to get an impressive variety of locally grown produce….(which we did….!!!)

But actually…Wawa…for all its tiny smalltown charm,,,,,,,turned into a fabulous spot…..

We stayed over at Wawa Rv Resort and Campground…..lovely spot….very nice park…..

And a couple of great hikes were undertaken…….first High falls to Silver falls…its listed on Alltrails as a moderate hike………it was at least that…..very pretty though….it starts at High Falls and finishes at Silver Falls….but both can be accessed by road if you don’t want to do the hike….

There was a clearcut section in the middle…..where the path became very unclear…we decided to walk back down and drive around to the other side……..which was good that we did…cos we also found Sandy Beach….

Silver Falls…

So the next day….the walk was along Sandy Beach……made famous by the whole Group of Seven connection to the north……..and the obligatory swim in Lake Superior……..It is fantastically beautiful

Interesting fun fact…….that I just found out……Lake Superior contains 10% of the worlds freshwater……apparently it has enough water in it to cover the entire North American continent……Canada included..in 30 cm of water….now thats a lot of water…!!!

Beautiful clear water…….but a little on the cold side for swimming….no matter…

There’s no pictures of me swimming…….cos I’m holding the camera!!!!!!!

As if this was not fun packed enough……the last adventure for this spot was finding out there is a ghost town here….finding it…and getting there……

Michicopoten Harbour was part of the first European settlement in the area……and so a harbour was built…and there was a town here……there are still some remnants of the buildings and the wharf……so we got the map out..to see if we could get there.

We followed the road…cryptically named Michicopeten Harbour Road……but it led to a gated road…

But you (one..!) could easily walk around the gate…and seeing no trespassing signs…no keep outs………so here we go……

A bit of a walk down the road we found a path that led down to the shore….from which we could see the remnants of the harbour…and could also see that we were as close as we were going to get…..

I included the little map just cos it gives an idea of where the place is…so we are actually in the bay across from the harbour……

So lots more fun in Wawa than expected….definitely a little hidden gem in Northern Ontario. Good friendly people…surprising myself that I can’t say enough good things about this little dot on the map…….

Back in the truck…heading for our first Provincial Park stay…at Rainbow Falls.

Back on the road again….pretty excited about getting a sighting of Lake Superior today…..as we drive up the east shore. We are also starting to drive into some smokieness…….a very distinct hazieness from the wildfires.

Yes I did check the map…there are no travel warnings or anything close to the road…just some air quality advisories.

Now…just north of the Soo…we started to get in to a bit more smoke…and a lot more grades…!!

The Trans Canada…other side of the Soo…is a collection of 6% and 7% grade inclines and declines……with lots of winding curves thrown in there for good measure…..a hairy drive for sure……the engine was working just as hard on the way down as up…..in an effort not to have the trailer crush us……..or at least thats how it felt a lot of the time….and I wasn’t even driving…!!!

Then we started picking up bits of the shoreline……pictures just cannot do it justice….it is a sight to behold…!!!

As you travel this section of Trans -Canada…the road has been blasted through many many rock formations…which results n these massive stone gateways that you pass through…..time and time again……never gets old……

As we passed through one of the many first nation reserves along this path……Agawa presented us with a stop…with parking spots for bigger rigs….we parked next to one that made us feel quite tiny…!!!

we were not quite sure…as they pulled out ….that they were going to make the corner without wiping us out……..they did…!!!

Lake Superior….more pix of the East shore from the truck….

It is a truly spectacular drive…many Wows were uttered……I have to admit ..I shut my eyes on some of the hills…!!!!

227 kms to Wawa……….

…and then there was Wawa………

We had grand plans of pulling over and stopping, lookouts…there were plenty…….but nothing pull through…or big enough to be able to tell if we would fit before it was too late to stop..!!!

This is not a highway I/we want to be having to back up a trailer onto cos the stop we picked won’t let us pull forward out of…..soooooo…..a lot of pictures in motion from the cab of the truck result..!!

It ended up being a longer drive than intended to Serpent River Campground …..our first campground …ever…!!!

Lovely place…..decent showers…hot water..nice people…….overall a positive experience….(wifi was pretty weak….not enough to sort my pictures)……..but overall we would recommend this campground……and it is just off the Trans-Canada.

Just across the road from the campground ….is Annette’s Diner….looks seriously sketchy…but you have to try stuff so we stopped for brekkie on the day we pulled out…..

It was pretty good….!!!….we kind of regretted not having their fish dinner as the fisherman walked in with a bag of fresh caught fish…!!!

Elliot Lake

We were here for two days…so we thought a little side trip to Elliot Lake might be in order….20 minutes north of the main highway. From what I knew of it…I have only seen the ads for high end retirement condo’s..so we thought it might have some interesting stores. (Having not really been in a store for…how long now?….I can find the automotive department in Canadian tire pretty interesting browsing…..!!!)

Elliot Lake……its a bare bones little utility town in the middle of nowhere…..(upside it has a Can Tire gas bar..!!)..and seems to have suffered greatly from the economic downturn. Reeeeeally nice people…..love to chat ….eager to help.

Scott suggested……next time we stop in a town with more than one horse….!!!

Back on the road across the north shore of Huron….cos the next two nights were booked at Glenview cottages just north of Sault Ste Marie.

Back on the road….

Glenview cottages just north of the Soo…second campground, but the first one with 30 amp service..(A/C here we come…!!) which turned out to be a bonus, cos we had mega thunderstorms pretty much the whole time we were here…..and A/C was definitely a benefit ( we have not really felt the need for it up to now..!!)

We were excited to get up in the morning for the Mill Street Farmers market…we love the Kitchener farmers market, and had a blast at the Lions Head market.

It was nice enough, very organised…very expensive…we left without any purchases feeling a little disappointed……made up for it with a breakfast stop….

Great little spot……excellent food……they were slammed busy but it was worth the wait (their waffles with browned butter and locally sourced maple syrup were amazing…!!!😋)

Next stop …Bushplane museum……now this is a treasure …and totally worth a stop ( $13.50 per adult entry fee..)

There’s also an insectarium in the museum…which looked really cool…but was packed with kids, as it should be, the whole time we were there. The staff were pulling giant bugs out of display cases and letting them crawl on kids hands..!!! (😮)

More than just the planes……there is also the history of the area and the bushplane/wildfire connection….which is very topical at the moment with over a 100 wildfires burning in Northern Ontario… Forest Fire Info Map (gov.on.ca)

It poured…poured with rain the whole time we were in here….another reason we were in no hurry to leave….

Next episode is Soo to Wawa….

Final day in North Bruce.

We have thoroughly enjoyed being here…met many tremendous people, hiked lots of great trails….and enjoyed a very positive start to this adventure.

First ferry of the morning is 9am…and you have to be there an hour ahead…..( and highway 6 north is being re-surfaced…so extra time..!!!…6 am start for us…..MUCHO earlier than we are used to these days….

We were smart enough to hook the trailer up the night before so all we had to do was pull out…..Cape Chin mosquitos said a fond farewell by eating us alive…..( many bad words were said..I will admit..!!!)

Goodbye Cape Chin..a wee bit sad because its been fun…

Chi Cheemaun translates to Big Canoe , I’m told…

We got in the queue…and yes…we were easily the biggest rig there this morning….

The ticket gates are not that wide……came pretty close to taking out one of the concrete bollards….yikes..!!!

Beautiful day to be on the lake……

They pack ’em in pretty tight….!!!

The RV in front of us…..!!!!

I was pretty sure he was going to be scraping the wall on the way off….but no…….unscathed..!!!

More entertainment on the boat was some of the incomprehensible signage…!!!

Coming off the other side……wow what a landscape…….and magnificent drive……and if you want to see it…you will have to drive it…..LOL.

Its narrow, its hilly ( and then some) and there is not really anywhere one can pull off with a 30 ft rig….!!! Hence…few pictures….

Little Current ( yes there is such a place….look it up on tripadvisor…!!!). The main attraction in little current is the swing bridge…..aka long narrow iron bridge only wide enough for one lane of traffic at a time……

And then more driving…..hilly, winding…..not great surface roads….and again…..no real opportunity to pull over with the rig attached. So we had to pass on some of the real beauty spots of Manitoulin….so we will have to come back to this spot…..

North, north then left turn onto the Trans Canada highway….

When you see, read or think the words “Trans-Canada highway”….it conjures a picture of a big , wide , flat multi lane highway does it not…..

The reality……is quite different……its a bit like the devils beeftub road…for those who know it…….only much much longer…..!!!

Entertaining driving……..

To our landing spot for the night at Serpent River campground…….lovely spot…..nice campground…..

I will have to add the pictures later…..my terrible internet connection in the Soo is making it difficult to upload pictures.

We have been to this market every Saturday for about 7 weeks now. Many of them were assisting at the Paris Brew/Tagwerk beer stall….but we have become quite accustomed to having the green crepe from Crepetown for breakfast, egg pies from Tina the baker lady, veggies from Pierce at the Easy farm and generally shooting the breeze with the very lovely friendly vendors at this market……highly recommend it if you are in the area on a Saturday morning 9 am ’til noon.

Paris Brew/Tagwerk

Paris Brew/Tagwerk beers. If you have not had their beer yet you need to hurry over to Wincey Mill in Paris…..or stop in at the Lions Head farmers market on Saturday morning. Bright flavour, clean tasting beers….I’d like to say I have a favourite….but I like them all…!!

Random Ranch Alpacas

Yes, I know….trust me to find the lady with the lovely yarn.

This quite lovely lady is Random Ranch Alpacas……….(http://www.randomranchalpacas.com)

I admit I had to buy some….and having started to knit with it…I had to go back and buy some more. Her alpaca yarn is sumptuous, wonderful to knit with…it’s buttery and smooth in your hands as you ( I !) work.

Crepetown

I’m really going to miss this green crepe…..I kept telling the lady, I almost bought the market morning crepe quite a few times….but at the last minute always defaulted to the delicious green one…..mmMMMMMMmmmm…

Tina the baking lady

The baking lady, Tina, I’m not sure if her stall actually has a name….cos I’m usually just staring at the baked goods on her counter, and praying that the person in front of me doesn’t buy the last candied ginger scone..(to die for…!!)……and those little egg tarts….mmmmmmMMMMmmmm….

The Easy Farm

Pierce the veggie guy…(hope I’m spelling it right…I went for the Pierce Brosnan spelling ’cause he’s quite the handsome guy.😃)…….his salad greens are the freshest and tastiest I have seen/eaten in a very long time…we had to buy extra on Saturday b/c we won’t be here for next market…..totally impressed by the quality of his produce.

Natural Soaps & Body Products

Who knew that I would need any more soap (Joanne S…you know who you are..!!😂)

But this lady…we first found her on the road to Dyers Bay (yes the day I barely survived!!!) She has a campers soap with citronella…..seemed like a great idea (re Bruce bugs.!)..so we bought some…it smells really good actually….

She has some really interesting and glorious smelling products

Maple Syrup guy

He has maple sugar for sale….I made pancakes with it……oh boy…why did I not know about this stuff before…!!!!

Three Trees Art

These are the guys we found on East Road the day we biked to St Margaret’s Chapel.

Dharma farmer

We bought some fresh garlic to give it the olive oil treatment (preserving garlic).

Wow it was nice stuff…..

Jordan Wood Turning

I’m a real sucker for these hand turned bowls…I just wish I could justify buying on for the trailer…..

Big Mama’s

Spicy sauces R her……

The Bread Basket

You gotta be there early, she sells out quick….

…….and then….on the way home, we saw an open sign on the Bison Builders farm on East Road……

Lovely man at the farm….I know that I keep saying it…but we have met soooo many truly lovely people so far……

I thought the two guys there were brothers…..but turns out they were father son…..super nice guys……bought the summer sausage and some pepperettes…will report on them along the way…!!!

This was our last trip to the Lions Head farmers market…we are pulling out north on Wednesday…taking the Chi Cheemaun over to Manitoulin and then on up around Lake Superior…I will miss this market and the great people here….we might have to come back some time….but ’til then….here’s to the next adventure……