Is it the Trans Canada or Highway 1? Well, that depends on where you are! The Trans Canada is a series of contiguous highways that stretch from Victoria at the bottom of Vancouver Island BC to St John’s Newfoundland. For much of the Western sections it is Highway 1, in Ontario it’s Highway 17 and in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland it’s Highway 104. From Vancouver to the start of the Selkirk mountain range it’s 2 lanes each side, but over the Rockies it’s mostly one lane until Calgary. Then it varies by Province
I left home at 07:30 with the car packed to the gunwales with clothes and everything I would need to survive in the wild and sleep in the car. I had a blow up mattress that just about squeezed into the rear with the back seats down, survival rations left over from my Arctic trip in 2023, first aid kit, spare car battery, bear spray and Bowie knife, tools and torches.
God only knows how much that all weighed and the extra gas it would burn!
To get to the Trans Canada Highway 1 I had to head East from home on 8th Avenue in South Surrey, BC but there was a slight problem… like many roads in the BC Lower Mainland, 8th Avenue wasn’t contiguous, so I would have to head North up to 16th Avenue and use that to cover the gap in 8th Avenue before dropping down South again to regain my original route. It turned out that this was clearly beyond dear Siri’s comprehension as she insisted on sending me up and down the highways, finally joining Highway 1 West of Abbotsford airport instead of East of it where the morning traffic was lighter.
By the time I got on to Highway 1 I was wondering why the sky was a strange burnt orange colour. By Chilliwack the sky was much darker and there was an acrid taste in the air inside the car even with the air conditioning on. Then the news came over the radio that Highway 1 was closed between Boston Bar and Lytton further North.
I wasn’t bothered by the road closure as I wasn’t going up that section of Highway 1, which heads North, then East like two sides of a right angle triangle, and Highway 5 was the “hypotenuse” shortcut. But I was bothered that the fires might hit Lytton again. At the end of June 2021 a wildfire destroyed virtually the entire town, two people were killed and hundreds made homeless.
These fires are particularly dangerous because of where they are – in the Fraser River valley. It’s a very steep valley so the wind coming down from the North accelerates and can cause the fires to move very, very quickly.
I had left home without eating breakfast, so I had a brunch in Hope, where Highway 1 and Highway 5 part company. I’m ashamed to report that I did indeed eat at a place that is known in my family as Macciedoodahs, but I confined consumption to a Big Mac, or two.
Highway 5 heads North to join Highway 1 again at Kamloops, where the South Thompson river and the North Thompson river join to form the Thompson river. That flows South into the Fraser river at Lytton. The area around Kamloops is obviously a periodic flood plain for the rivers so is very flat and covered in what appeared to be fruit farms.
The route took me alongside the huge Shuswap Lake and then into the start of the Selkirk mountain range. I stayed overnight in Revelstoke in a very forgettable hotel and fell asleep exhausted as soon as I hit the sack.
I got up at 5 am to do some email, then a shower, a cup of tea and on the road at 6 am sharp.
I was quickly into the mountains with some very beautiful scenery approaching Roger’s Pass in the Selkirks range part of the Rockies. I had a great view of the Columbia river, calm and with many islands and sandbanks exposed right now but imagine springtime and the snow melting.
Winters up here can be very cold and there's always heavy snowfall. Keeping the road open requires a host of resources and constant attention.
The railroad follows the river through Roger’s Pass, and it was for the railroad that the pass was first developed, having been discovered in 1881-1882 by Major Rogers.
Because of its size and topology Canada is highly dependent on the railroad.
There are very few places to stop on these mountain roads through the Selkirks, and the Rockies and the roads are mostly single track though there are frequent passing lanes when geography permits.
It seemed that at least half the vehicles I encountered were trucks. As I climbed, I noticed that the landscape changed to what definitely looked like the boreal forests that I had encountered on my way up to the Arctic in 2023.
This area of the mountains is at the base of the Boreal Zone so this wasn’t surprising. There were frequent signs to be aware of bear and elk.
I crossed into Alberta and had a break in the town of Banff, a famous ski resort. It was swarming with people and I heard all sorts of languages and accents.
As the mountains ended in a gradual decline to Cochrane and then Calgary, Siri managed to waste an hour of my time with misdirection!
Soon after Calgary I was on the prairies, which were as flat as the Holland I had lived in! I saw rapeseed (confusingly known in the UK as oilseed rape) and other crops that maybe included soya but I hadn’t seen wheat yet.
Finally, I reached a Holiday Inn Express in Medicine Hat, the Houston (oil capital) of Canada. The guy in reception refused to let me pay by points, refused to honor the US$129 in Priceline, then said OK and quoted me CA$200.
I said at even the greediest exchange rate that was nowhere near CA$200. So I went round the corner in the hotel and booked online using points and returned to the front desk. They had no choice to honour the online booking, but were very unhappy bunnies when I explained much better off financially taking my original offer!
Early to bed all while forgetting I had crossed a time zone!
I was up at 5 am to check email and be ready for breakfast at 6 am. Had a quick breakfast then gassed up, which is ~20% cheaper here than at home but then most of Canda’s oil is from Alberta. The sun is rising in the East into a slightly cloudy blue sky.
Once thru Calgary the journey was, well, mega boring, as I knew it would be. 500 miles of almost flat country and divided highway – great for zooming along at 75 mph. In Alberta the divided highway speed limit is generally 110 kph, so 120 kph is unlikely to get you pulled over. The cops aren’t looking for creepies who are just over the limit, but for the maniacs go well above it. That can be very expensive in Canada, including having your vehicle impounded.
I knew that there was a huge amount of wheat fields on the prairies but saw a mix – wheat, soya, rapeseed and a few areas that looked like peas. Elevators and silos are everywhere, and a two track railroad runs the whole length of the prairies close to Highway 1, so farmers can get crops to East or West coast ports quickly. They can also send truck loads as many of the loading / outbound docks are alongside Highway 1 too.
The prairies seem to be still predominantly green though some golden tips are starting to appear.
Trains around here are very, very long, often with multiple engines and a mix of cargo including wheat grain, other crops, oil and even salt! I’ll cover that more on the return through Manitoba. For crops there are side tracks off the main lines that route cars under the hopper feeder, with the side lines long enough to form a train or large section to be added to an existing train.
In the video on the right the train can be seen in the distance on the right and it them comes much closer to the road. You can see how long it is.
I saw more cars on the road today, and many caravans / trailers too, but even on a Saturday there were still many trucks.
The other oddity is that I was followed by cops in Q (unmarked) cars – three times! I know they were cops because I saw two of them pull out as I went by (slightly over the limit) and I saw cops in all three cars as they passed me. I guess they were just curious about my BC plate and unusual registration (IAN); or did they just think that being so far from home I wasn’t worth the bother? Then I realised that they couldn’t possibly have seen that I had BC plates at the speed I was going and the distance I was from them. I think they were after others in front of me and it was just a conincidence that I came next.
I’m in Brandon, Manitoba tonight, so I have crossed into another province and changed time zones again. I’ll do that again tomorrow as I will cross into Ontario (in fact I got this wrong as the time zone demarcation is near Upsala, 250 miles from the Manitoba/Ontario border).
The plan for today was to drive from Brandon Manitoba to Upsala Ontario, but as the Scottish poet Robert Burns once wrote “The best laid schemes o’ mice an’ men. Gang aft a-gley.”
Or in plain English “The best laid plans of mice and men can still go wrong.” And today they certainly did in a big way! Today my best laid schemes gave way to the best laid schemes of Mother Nature, who as you know, always wins.
I set off under relatively clear skies and rapidly rising temperatures that at one point during the afternoon would reach 36° C. There was very little traffic on the road and a marked absence of trucks. This was perhaps not surprising as it is a Sunday today.
Initially I was on a divided highway and making excellent progress, but within 15 minutes that divided highway became one lane each way. But 10 minutes later the highway divided again (being in Manitoba then it was still Highway 1). Another 10 minutes and back to single lane each way, and it stayed that way. And by now the landscape had transitioned into boreal forest with its distinctive shorter spruce trees. More rock crops lined the road as I was now driving through the Canadian Shield continental crust. I stopped at Dryden ON to gas up and get some lunch.
The woman at the gas station asked me where I was heading so I told her I was going to Upsala. She replied that wherever else I was going today, Upsala wasn’t it as there was a massive fire just North of Highway 1 at Upsala. Now that definitely got my attention! I quickly got back in my Subie to make some phone calls. First was to the accommodation I had booked in Upsala. That conversation didn’t take too long “don’t even think of coming here, it’s far too dangerous, always assuming you can actually see where you’re going in all this smoke. We’ve been told we must be ready to evacuate at 5 minutes notice.” OK, I am definitely not going there!
So, I checked all of the local hotels and motels in Dryden – nothing doing because they were all full of folks escaping the fires. So I looked further East and found a sort of camp/motel down Highway 1 at Shabaqua and rang them. She confirmed that Highway 1 was definitely closed from well North of Upsala and told me I would have to backtrack to Kenora, take highway 71 South to highway 11, then head East to Shabaqua where it joins Highway 1.
That would add a mere 180 miles to my journey, which left me a very unhappy camper – where is that map! I found a forest service road which ran from 45 miles Southwest of Dryden to join highway 11 just South of Atikokan. I knew that there were wildfires all over this region and that there may be one or more on 622, but no one had mentioned fires on that road.
In fact, that road had been closed the week before due to a fire. But I decided to go anyway. What I didn’t know was that there was a major group of fires immediately to the West of 622 and another group just South of highway 11.
I must admit the drive down highway 622 was nervewracking. I could smell smoke but I didn’t know if that was from the fires further North at Upsala or local to where I was. But about 30 miles into the 85 miles to highway 11 I came across a group of forestry workers, who didn’t seem at all bothered about wildfires and danger. Well you guys know this place well, if you’re not scared then I guess I’m not either!
Finally, I hit highway 11 and stopped for a few minutes to reflect on what I had just done. Had fires blocked my path North and South I think I would have been in trouble. But even though I was now on highway 11, I wasn’t totally safe. No one had mentioned the massive fire at Lac des Milel Lacs (Lake of the Thousand Lakes) between Upsala in the North and highway 11 to the South. This video of part of that fire was taken that evening. o see the full lhorror of whaqt was happening click the ⛶ symbol. If you are quick you can just see a lightning flash between 6 - 8 seconds into the video.
This is not a normal thunderstorm, it's one caused by the fire itself which sends so much heat upwards that a special type of clouds, called pyrocumulonimbus, forms and lightning strikes are generated. One reason why very large wildfires are so dangerous is that they can generate lightning strikes which start more fires.
I called the owner of the camp where I would spend the night and confirmed I would be with her at 6 pm. She said probably 7 pm, but I insisted it would be 6 pm. And it would have been had I just ignored the new time zone I would enter just before I reached Shabaqua!
My host made me a very welcome cup of tea, fetched some fruit and biscuits and expressed surprise that highway 622 had been opened. She thought it was still closed, which is why she suggested such a long diversion. I mentioned that I had xhosen Upsala as I wondered if there was any connection to the city of Uppsala in Sweden, which I had visited for work periodically in the 1980's. She confirmed that the town was started by a group of immigrants from Uppsala. I was completely shattered and fell asleep as soon as my head hit that pillow. What a day!
I didn’t hear the storm start overnight but its violent claps of thunder and the crescendo of the rain hitting the window certainly woke me up early this morning. I showered, shaved, dressed and packed ready for the off. I opened front door of the building to a horror story of frequent close lightning flashes and downpour of such magnitude that I could hardly see my vehicle 10 yards away. I got soaked loading up car and left at 6:15. I couldn’t see too much even with the wipers on full speed as they weren’t fully clearing the rain off the windshield.
I gingerly joined Highway 1, but I couldn’t see enough to go above 50 kph. The road went up into hills, and it quickly got misty at which point the rain eased off slightly. Then the mist thickened a lot, with cars taking turns to be the leader, then relieved after about 10 minutes.
Look at the four images below. The first is a 9 second video clip from the dashcam. Start the cip and immediately go to full screen. At around 6 seconds you will see what looks like a flash of lightning. In fact, it's three flashes that occur in ~2 seconds, and the three images are the flashes extracted from the video. If you're wondering why it's not "forked" lightning, it's because this type of lightning, technically "intra-cloud lightning", occurs within a single cloud.
This went on for two hours and the strain of driving in these conditions gave me a serious headache. It was still dark at 08:15, long after the sun had officially risen at 05:25. The road was flooded in some places, especially at the sides, but it was impossible to see standing water in these conditions, so keeping my speed well down was essential to avoid aquaplaning and loss of control. Having said that, my Subaru has an extraordinary traction control system which can detect loss of steering and traction control and kick in to manage power, wheel rotation speed and braking as needed.
The constant rain, darkness meant absolute concentration on the road and traffic around me and this coupled with some very bright and flashing lights at times encouraged the headache gremlins to wake up and start their day!
Stopped for breakfast at about 09:00 thinking rain might ease off while I ate breakfast. This must have pissed off the weather Gods as it stopped as soon as I parked and resumed again just as I was getting back into my vehicle after breakfast!
There was more rain and lightning later but cleared up quite a bit towards lunchtime. I decided to skip lunch (I rarely had three meals a day on this journey) but had to stop to take care of another problem.
The dashcam fitted to my Subaru records 4k video at the front and 2k at the rear, which is a whole load of data. The dashcam manages storage by simply overwriting the oldest files with the new recordings, and during a long day that means some files from the previous day will be overwritten even when, as in my case, there is a 256 GB micro SD card in the camera. So, each night I had to transfer the previous day’s recordings off the micro SD card to a 5 TB SSD drive, and I had forgotten to do that last night.
I got down to the Northwest coast of Lake Superior. There are very few places to get gas and big warning signs to that effect at the start of this coast road. Equally, there are very few towns, but there did appear to be lots of places to take photos of Lake Superior, except that my superior decided today it would be shrouded in mist and rain; hopefully I can get some good shots on the way back (I did).
A couple of hours later I approached the Nipigon Bridge which drains Lake Nipigon (30th in the world by area) via the Nipigon River into Lake Superior, but this is no ordinary bridge! Fully completed in 2018, it is actually two cable stay bridges supported by three cable towers.
The middle cables appear to provide common interlocked support for one side of each bridge. Further, the two bridges are not the same length because the width of the gorge is different where they land. Here's a video clip of approaching and crossing the bridge.
I was heading to Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. The word “Sault” (pronounced "Soo") is an historic French term for “falls”, but in this sense that word means “rapids”, and not the traditional English interpretation of a waterfall. The Ste. Marie is simply the French name for the St. Marie river which drains Lake Superior into Lake Huron. To enable navigation from Lake Superior into Lake Huron ships pass through a series of locks to drop them down the 21 feet difference between the two lakes. The largest lock is 1,200' long and 110' wide.
About 80 miles from Sault Ste. Marie the storms and rain returned, just in time for rush hour and a crawl through the city. But at least this gave me a chance to see something of the city beyond the area around my hotel. I have stayed at many Holiday Inn Express hotels in the USA, and they all seem to have restaurants where not only is a free breakfast available, but dinner (paid) is also served. But the Holiday Inn Express I was staying at in Sault Ste. Marie had no facilities for dinner, though I found a good restaurant less than a 5 minute walk away.
That evening I decided to book the nights I had planned to be in Toronto, where I worked at 18 Yonge Street for a few months in 1981. I planned to take photos of that building and get the ferry to Center Island where I had enjoyed many nights of beer and softball. The prices for a hotel were extraordinary at over $500 per night – wave as I pass by Toronto!
I don’t have any travel planned for tomorrow except to see the houses my family lived in from 1921 – 1940 and to visit my father’s and grandfather’s graves for the first, and probably last, time in my life.
As this was a day of rest from driving, I got up later than usual, had a leisurely breakfast, then went to find my paternal family graves. My paternal grandfather had bought two adjacent graves in Greenwood Cemetery on the North border of town – seems I had driven past it on my way into town yesterday evening. This was very forward thinking on his part as he died just 5 days after being diagnosed with the Spanish flu on the 5th of November 1918 at the age of 36.
The cemetery office was very helpful, but it still took a while to figure out where Section 18 East was and where the graves maybe might be in that section. I couldn’t find them using the directions given by the office so eventually went back there, but they were closed for lunch. So, I walked the entire section in the rain looking for the graves and found them, though I nearly missed them because gravestones were dirty and partly covered with lichen. I cleaned them up as best I could using the hotel room key.
It was an extremely moving experience… the first, and, given my age, almost certainly the last, time I will visit these family graves.
According to his birth certificate, dad was born in Wellington Street in Sault Saint Marie, but the house number is not shown on the certificate. Fortunately, the 1911 census also shows him and the family at 127 Wellington Street. Unfortunately, it no longer exists!
Next it was off to see 393 Bush Street where dad lived in 1921, 393 Bush street where dad lived with his two younger sisters, mother and stepfather, James Easter, in 1931. My grandmother had married James Easter in December 1926, and he joined the family in her house in Bush Street.
By 1940 dad, his first wife, his mother and stepfather were all living at 46 Spruce Street, Sault Ste. Marie.
Sault Ste. Marie has been a steel town since 1903 and just like him, many of dad’s relatives also worked at what is now the Algoma Steelworks. Ontario is a source of iron ore (though not as much as Quebec and Newfoundland), Sault Ste. Marie is on the Saint Marie river, part of the Great Lakes marine transit system, and it’s the site of a major rail freight terminus. What it doesn’t have locally is a source of coal, but of course with access to rail and the Great Lakes, coal could be shipped in by rail from Alberta and Saskatchewan or from the USA via the Great Lakes.
After grabbing a Subway sandwich for an early dinner, I walked around the area where the original head office was for Essar Steel Algoma – the original name for what is now Algoma Steel Inc. (Sault Ste. Marie is the seat of Algoma District). The main steel making plant and rail yard is just to the North of this. You can see the similarities between the surviving buildings and the original head office in 1903.
I also walked a short way down the Sault Ste. Marie Canal and got a grand view of the Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge that links Sault Ste. Marie in Ontario with its sister, Sault Ste. Marie in Michigan.
It’s been an emotional but interesting stopover in Sault Ste. Marie.
I got up later again as there was only 306 miles to drive today from Sault Ste. Marie to Mattawa, also still in Ontario. Lake Superior may not be named as a sea, that’s effectively what it is, so seagulls abound, and while I dreamt sweet dreams they had left little presents for me all over the Outback! I had to clean these “presents” off the car before setting off as they attack car paint rapidly, and even though the car has a “special” coating on it that garage attempted to make me pay $700 for, I didn’t want to take any chances.
There was better weather for most of the day though it started raining again as I got within 10 miles of leaving the hotel, but then the skies cleared and remained that way until an hour or so before I reached Mattawa.
About 40 miles East of Sault Ste. Marie, I stopped in the town of Desbarats to gas up. As I stood by the pump patiently waiting for the tank to fill, I could hear the distinctive sound of a horse with shod hooves rapidly approaching the gas station from the direction I had just come from. I instinctively stopped pumping gas and ran around the Subie to get to the passenger door and yank it open. Before I set off, I try to make sure that my Nikon has a full battery, is set to Auto and is easily accessible in the top of my backpack, and I had done so this morning.
I grabbed the Nikon and just had time to get a couple of shots of the old horse and buggy that had gone by me at quite some speed. There is a Mennonite community in the North side of Desbarats, and they sell produce and provide services from their shop there, but you won't find it on the web because their way of life, which one must respect, harks back to much earlier times.
A couple of hours out form Desbarats I was following the Northern shore of Lake Huron and kept looking for a posted lookout/photography spot like the ones on the shore of Lake Superior. I hadn’t been able to use those because of the mist drifting in from off the lake. I didn’t see any spots posted, so after a while I decided to head off down some of the smaller side roads that left Highway 17 in the direction of the lake. I hit a few dead ends but then saw a sign, not to a lookout/photography spot, but to a Provincial Park called Waltonen Park. I followed what was really just a dirt track for about half a mile and was rewarded with a wonderful view over Joe Dollar Bay on Lake Huron (nope, I didn’t make that name up!). The panorama is above and there are more photos and a video of the approach in today’s media.
The terrain was reasonably flat with gentle rolling hills, and lots of trees. Around 11:15 I pulled into a small indigenous Maamwesying trading post a few kms past the Serpent River settlement. The coffee was excellent, but the icing on the cake was gas at $153.9 per litre, compared with >$2 back home. Normally, part of the difference would be that this trading post is on Maamwesying tribal land so, just like in the USA, it’s exempt from collecting the Federal tax of 10 cents / litre on gas. But since the Federal gas tax is suspended from April 20 to September 10, that makes the difference even larger.
After lunch there was a noticeable increase in the roadside rock formations and there seemed to be an infinite variation on type, shape and colour. I was surprised by this so later did some research to see why this variation is there. It seems that much of Ontario is covered by the Canadian Shield, which is made up of many different rock types.
The afternoon was uneventful other than visiting Best Buy in Sudbury to replace a USB C, with music on it, which I had lost. The Outback has both USB A and C ports, but the A port can only be used for power, not reading devices.
By mid afternoon the blue skies had disappeared under a blanket of curly cumuli nimbus thunder clouds.
I reached Mattawa about 4 pm and found the hotel reception desk empty. I stayed in a hotel called Le Voyageur but despite its French name its run by a Thai family When I finally checked in, I found the hotel room was very small and the hotel in general very tired, but it has a decent Thai restaurant and I think that’s what the family is really focussed on. For dinner I ordered up a noodle dish, and the waiter asked me how spicy I wanted it 1-5. I said let’s try a 10 and off he went. It was a little warm but not really hot for me, but as the waitress cleared my plate away this woman walks up and asks me if I finished the 10 noodles, and I told her that I had. She looked at me in disbelief and said she and her mother had struggled to finish the same dish at 5, even though she had been raised in Trinidad & Tobago on spicy food. I had to explain my MC1R mutation, one effect of which is a high tolerance for spicy food.
The window blind in my room was battery operated by a button on a hanging rod, so I held the rod to close the blind and it came away in my hand. I went to inform the hotel and was then told that there would be no power in the main building tomorrow between 0900 – 1300, so I asked to be moved into the annex and was flatly refused.
I think I’ll give this place a miss on the way back!
Another morning with no need to get up at the crack of dawn – what a luxury! I did email for a while and then went down for breakfast which consisted of bread/toast/orange juice/coffee – and not much else. Then it was back up to my room to continue working on my laptop until the scheduled power outage at 0900. The battery on my laptop only lasted until 1100, so it was off to Tim Hortons just down the road for tea a cup of tea and power for my laptop. But first, I had to sneak past that wooden giant guarding the hotel entrance.
I went back to the hotel at 1330, long after the power was due to be restored at 1300, only to discover that there was still no power. I found the owner in the restaurant and asked what work required such a long shut down, I was told that the standby generator had to be serviced. How interesting….. we built a house in Texas, and given the frequency with which tropical storms, tornadoes and hurricanes triggered power outages, we had a mains gas fueled standby generator installed.
By their very nature, cutover standby generators are disconnected from the main circuits until they detect a power failure. Which means that they can be serviced without cutting off power to the property. Further, they don’t take 5 hours to “service”. At that moment the electrician come marching into the restaurant, so I asked him why it was taking nearly six hours to simply service a standby generator. He said, “I’m busy” and rushed out of the room.
The next thing I knew, the power came on in the restaurant. When I gave a sigh of relief, I was promptly told that power was being restored only to the restaurant. Good, I replied, I will sit here at this table and work on my laptop while you get me some coffee. Protests followed that they were busy, had no coffee and couldn’t fire up the expresso machine.
You have a choice…. I am going to sit here and work and you are going to get me a cup of coffee; or I shall make a claim on my credit card because you charged me card to provide me with a “working” room for 2 days and you have failed to do so. I was instantly invited to sit at the table I was already dumping my equipment on and a waiter was ordered to go get my coffee!
I had originally planned to stay in Grenville Argenteuil the next night, but finding a suitable hotel turned out to be not so easy.
I specifically wanted to stay there because it where my great-great-grandfather arrived from Old Machar, Aberdeen in Scotland, and two generations after him were born. I managed to book a hotel in Rigaud, Quebec, about 20 miles further into the Province of Quebec.
I decided to have dinner at a Chinese restaurant a short walk up the road from the hotel. On the way to the restaurant, I passed a classic cinema which appeared to be in pristine condition but didn’t seem to be still showing movies.
Still, everything started at 7 pm, so if I had a quick dinner, I could make the start of the movies that weren’t showing!
And then there was the realtor (real estate agent) that was advertising a property for sale. Realtors are always chuffed when they complete a sale, but in this case I think they will be over the moon if they pull it off. After all, it’s not often you see a realtor selling itself…. The building for sale was the one that they occupied.
I think I am looking forward to getting out of town tomorrow….
Got up late this morning around 7 am as I don’t have far to drive today, just 264 miles. I was originally going to stay for a couple of days in Grenville QC to see the farmland my ancestors worked when they first arrived from Scotland, but I couldn’t find suitable accommodation, so booked a hotel in Rigauld QC instead.
Mattawa would have been a natural place for a settlement as it’s where the Mattawa River flows into the much larger Ottawa River, which in turn flows into the St. Lawrence River at Monreal some 300 miles further East.
Since I was still in Ontario, that meant I was still on Highway 17 as part of the Trans Canada Highway, and this road more or less follows the Ottawa River into the Province of Quebec just before Rigaud, where I will stop for the night. But ever since Mattawa, had I crossed to the North bank of the Ottawa River, I would have been in Quebec.
About 40 miles East of Mattawa, I stopped at a gas station which appeared to be very close to a very pretty lake. I saw a sign to a boat ramp so decided to explore it to see if I could get some nature shots with my Nikon.
At the boat ramp I discovered I was in the small settlement of Head, Clara and Maria…. no… I didn’t make that name up, strange as it is, it’s on a sign at the ramp and shows up on Google maps too! The photos are in the media for today.
The road was single lane each way for most of the way, with boreal forest on either side. Most of Canada’s boreal forest is above the 50th parallel but there are patches of it here in Southern Ontario at 46 degrees. PHOTO
By 1 pm I was into the Southern suburbs of Ottawa, the capital of Canada. It’s not a very large city and sits only on the South side of the Ottawa River as the river is the boundary between the provinces of Ontario and Quebec. By now the roads were at least two lanes each way, increasing as I approached the Southern end of the city center. Although it was a Friday, traffic was light. The sky was blue with occasional wisps of cloud – a perfect day for driving.
The land to the Southeast of Ottawa is an alluvial plain between the River Ottawa and the St. Lawrence River, very fertile from centuries of silt deposits and perfect for farming. The land had flattened out and most of the trees were gone as I drove across this plain. PHOTO
Everything is in French now and the road signs are very different from other provinces, with considerable use of yellow & orange signs (get still from video). British Columbia has frequent distance signs but there seemed to be less in the other provinces, until I got to Quebec which has them in abundance.
Most of the road today has been two lane highway and although I am still on Trans Canada Highway, in QC the road is numbered 40 West of Quebec city and 20 to the East.
Finally, I popped down to the Rigaud local supermarket just down the road from the hotel to get some food for a light dinner. Of course, everything was labelled in French, so it was as if I had been ported 35 years back in time and I was shopping in my local Geant supermarket in St. Genis-Pouilly, but with the disadvantage of not having shopped in French on a regular basis for decades!
But the other thing that was clearly different was the method for returning bottles and cans. In 1991 in France, it was simple – you didn’t! But in 2026 you can do it by just dropping your returns into a machine, telling it when you had finished, taking the coupon that was printed for the value of your returns and presenting it to the cashier when you checked out. No need to scan anything, no need for a cash transaction or giving change and very, very fast.
I got up late (7:30) as it’s another non driving day. I did some washing, had a shower, lazed a little and did a lot of email and blog. I also spent a lot of time processing photos from the Nikon and video from the dashcam.
I managed to get good rate for tomorrow night at the Holiday Inn Express in the South of Quebec city; and for 2 nights in St. John New Brunswick, where I go on 27th.
Today wasn’t the most exciting day on earth, but it was spent catching up on some essentials.
You may have noticed by now that I haven’t once stayed overnight in my car as I had planned. Doing so, it turns out, is a really bad idea when going across Canada in July. Apart from a couple of days of torrential rain, it has been HOT! If you do sleep in the car, you can’t leave a window even slightly open as every insect on the planet will stop by to say hello and never leave and there’s no air conditioning unless you leave the engine running all night which is a terrible idea, not to mention a very costly waste of gas.
I shopped at a local supermarket in Rigaud for dinner and on the way passed a beautiful church just as I entered the center of town. – photo Nikon.
A peaceful end to a very quiet day.
I got up relatively late again as I only have 228 miles to drive today. As I left the hotel in Rigaut the sky was becoming cloudy, and in the distance the morning sky was a bright reddish orange. As the proverbial shepherd’s warning goes…. red sky at night, shepherd’s delight; red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning. It definitely looked as though it might rain today.
On this trip there were quite a few roadworks (construction), but in Quebec there has been a very large number of roadworks. Unlike Lower BC, it’s very difficult to repair and maintain roads in the winter due to the cold and the snow – you can’t repair a road you can’t see!
As I drove through the province of Quebec today, I was puzzled by the huge number of roadworks where the cones were to the side of the road, and no one was working on the site. This was particularly noticeable as I drove through Montreal. Then I had a brain fart and realised why this was the case…. Today is Sunday! Of course, I’d like to claim this was all good planning on my part, but……
I followed Highway QC 40 on through Montreal towards Trois-Rivières staying on the North side of the St. Lawrence river, but I noticed later on a map that another road with the Trans Canada icon but with no number, left Montreal to the South and continued up Northeast following the South bank of the river.
Montreal seemed to be festooned with junctions and road signs, so perhaps I simply missed a turning and continued on QC 40. In the end it didn't make any difference because both highways end up in Quebec City. Although I had been to Montreal before, they were always short trips where I had flown in, so I had never got to see much of the city, so I was surprised to see that much of the city is on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence river.
As I left Montreal behind me the land became flat and heavily farmed – I was on the alluvial plain on the north bank of the St. Lawrence River. This wasn’t quite like being back on the Prairies, but it did at least mean that the were few hills around.
I stopped at a rest stop which consisted of just a hall and a few vending machines, but at least I could get a coffee and stand around for a while. When I went back out to get into my car I noticed this row of EV charging stations. There are more and more popping up all over the place. I got back on to the divided highway – a nice change from most of Ontario.
I have also noticed flashing green traffic lights and wondered what the protocol was. There are also flashing green traffic lights in BC, and they mean that the lights stay green in your direction but can be made to change by a pedestrian waiting to cross. Same in Quebec? Of course not, two provinces in synch on something as important as green traffic lights? Don’t be silly! In Quebec that flashing green light means you have priority over oncoming traffic if you want to turn left. Every other province I’ve driven in uses filter green lights for this purpose, but in Quebec…….
Despite the ominous signs first thing this morning, the weather remained quite good except for a few spots of rain from brief showers on the way.
Soon, I was passing through the city of Trois-Rivières (Three Rivers). Now, if there was ever a global award for the most misleading city name, then the city of Trois-Rivières would easily win it outright. Why? Well, there are actually four rivers in the immediate vicinity of the city, but only two that I could find names for – the great big St. Lawrence river, and the Saint Maurice river that runs into the St. Lawrence. So, it’s not four rivers, but it’s not two either? No, actually it’s just one – the Saint Maurice that flows into the St, Lawrence. But just before it enters the St. Lawrence it splits into three channels, so this area has been known as the Trois-Rivières since the 17th century, and the city is named after it. Obvious really, isn’t it!
The land continued to be flat all the way to Quebec City as I was following the North (Left) bank of the St. Lawrence river and still on it alluvial plain. Add that I was on a divided highway and progress was quick.
When I got into Quebec, I wanted to pick something up at Best Buy – just 4 minutes from the hotel. But the road Best Buy was on was being dug up so I was advised to go in the back way. Over the next 30 minutes I went the back way, the front way, side way, any way and even did it my way, but still, I couldn’t find a way into Best Buy. In desperation I parked outside the main mall and went in to see where Best Buy was. I walked 50 meters and saw the entrance to Walmart and wondered if they had what I wanted – they did!
I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Quebec City South. It is 5 minutes North over the St. Lawrence river from the Trans-Canada Highway, or rather, it should be. Today it was more like 35 minutes because there were roadworks on virtually the entire area of the largest junction in Quebec city; where five major roads meet. The hotel would normally be approached from 175 North, but that road is closed. If you’d like a tour of the five road magic roundabout get in touch because I know the bloody thing quite well now.
For dinner I researched restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. Almost all were way over what I wanted to spend, only the Pizzeria was reasonably priced…. But of course, being Sunday, it was closed! MacDonalds to the rescue.
I left at 0630 anticipating possible heavy traffic to leave the city, but the traffic was quite light. To get from the hotel back on to the main road I had to cross two car parks, head South and then West to come up to the hotel again to bear left before getting as far as the hotel. I was quite familiar with this particular route, having gone round it three times yesterday, trying to get to the hotel!
That heavy traffic that I had anticipated never materialised. There was not much traffic at all heading North into the city over the Pont Quebec, and even less heading South like me to leave the city. Yet it was a Monday, not a weekend, and not a public holiday either. Perhaps the Traffic Gods were on my side today!
The video of my departure from Quebec City is just over four minutes long, much longer than other videos in this blog, but it’s worth watching to see all of the roadworks, last minute signs and multiple turns needed just to get on to the old Pont Quebec (Quebec Bridge) to cross the St. Lawrence river and head East towards New Brunswick.
Two lanes each side for almost the entire journey today – 424 miles. Initially Apple maps showed 226 miles, but that was the distance as the crow flies. This is because of the “Battle of The Bulge”, where the US state of Maine pushes up between the Provinces of Quebec and New Brunswick, with no easy way to cross Maine at that point – there’s no choice but to go around it.
Driving through Quebec I was surprised at how agricultural it is. My great-great-grandfather would have got off the boat Quebec and probably got granted some farming land, as was common at the time. Later they moved to Grenville West of Montreal and finally to Sault St Marie in Ontario.
All signs now are solely in French and everywhere I go folks speak French to me, not English at all.
Soon I was driving alongside Lac (Lake) Témiscouata with the sun more to my left, which meant that I had “turned the corner” of my right angle journey from Quebec to New Brunswick, which I would enter in ~ 30 kilometres. There was no sign to tell me I was leaving Quebec and entering New Brunswick, the only clue being that road signs were now in both languages.
St. John NB is full of one way streets but, with a noticeable scarcity of signs, come to a junction and it’s best to look at which way all of the vehicles are pointing and follow their lead! The street my accommodation was on was in two halves, so naturally I went up and down the wrong half looking for it.
It was a beautiful old single family mansion, called Mahogany Manor, built between 1902 and 1905 by William Cross, a local Saint John businessman who was a deacon in the Germain Street Baptist church next door. It’s been converted to a boarding house, but it still contained much of the old furniture as if it was still an old family mansion. Look at today’s media to see many more shots of the interior of the house.
The afternoon was dedicated to finding the house where my wife’s grandfather was born here in St. John New Brunswick.
I had previously retrieved both his birth certificate, which doesn’t show the house where he was born, his birth register entry which does show the house but is illegible and finally the doctor’s return to the Registrar which showed clearly the exact address. I was determined to locate the house and take some photos to show my wife and her family.
I had briefly mentioned to the owner of the B&B I was staying in that I was searching for this specific house and why. He smiled and then disappeared, only to return later with a book.
That "book" was a huge Volume I of a two part set, which gave a very detailed history of all of the historically important buildings in St. John. It was open at the page for the house I was looking for and gave the history of who built it (my wife’s great-grandfather) and when. In fact, he built two houses, not one, but only lived in one of them. The image above on the right is how the house looked shortly after it was built in 1889. It is the left hand house of the two. The family stayed in the house until 1935.
The next thing to do was to find the street that the house was on, so I asked my host if he could give me directions to Germain Street. "Certainly, you're standing on it now. Go out of the front door, turn right and walk about 300 metres!".
The image to the right shows what the house looks like today.
I decided that after all that effort I would treat myself to a slap up dinner at Britts, a short walk from the B&B and almost on the harbour front. It had a pavement terrace which was full of diners, and the interior was fascinating for it’s artwork on the brick walls.
It’s in the Brodie Building which was built in 1878 and the ground floor was the studio of a very famous Canadian painter called Miller Brittain, hence the name Britts and those paintings on the walls. You can see the pavement terrace and one of the paintings on this page, but there are more images, including another painting, on today’s media page.
During this trip I have been blown away but how more expensive accommodation and food has been, and it seems to correlate with the fact that Canada has had a large increase in overseas visitors and Canadians taking their vacations in Canada. And that applied to this dinner! A steak, and not a particularly large one, cherry crumble, a couple of beers and a tip was over CA$100 though the food and service were excellent.
But at least I got to walk around town and one of the harbor areas and take some interesting shots. Here’s an evening harbour panorama.
There are many more shots in today’s media.
Today was dedicated to finding my wife’s maternal grandfather family graves here in St. John New Brunswick.
I knew from my prior research that the family was buried in the Fernhill Cemetery in St. John, and like many other cemeteries, it is located on the outskirts of town, though when it was created in 1848 it would have been really “out of town”. I couldn’t get a map off the web, so I called into the office and asked if they could let me have one. I ended up looking at every grave in a very large section, but I did eventually find the family graves.
I initially took photos with my iPhone, but it was extremely hot for St. John (~31C) and I had got quite toasted walking through the plots. It was very difficult to see what I was shooting and to make things worse, the sun was very strong and naturally from the wrong direction! When I got back to the B&B and looked at the photos on the iPhone, they were not the best I have ever taken and I’m sure having my thumb in some of them didn’t help. So, later in the afternoon, when it was cooler and the sun was cooperating, I drove back to the cemetery and shot again, but this time with my Nikon Z7ii.
There is no media for today as all of the photos are of my wife’s family graves and it is very important to respect the family’s privacy.
There were lots of one way streets in St John, but I don’t remember seeing any signs indicating a one way street. Sometimes I’d go down a one way street, cross a four way junction and suddenly find myself in a two way street with no warning! Not for the faint hearted. To be fair, New Brunswick does have One Way street signs – the one on the right is lifted directly from their Road Signs Manual. These signs are placed horizontally to indicate direction of travel, but if you are already on the one way street, you can’t see them as you approach a junction. I couldn’t find one that faced the direction of travel.
Dinner was from a local supermarket and didn’t amount to much because I had far too much to eat yesterday evening!
Early to bed anticipating an early departure tomorrow morning.
I set off in a lingering mist – which continued for quite a while even though I was heading inland. This didn’t seem to be a sea mist, but more like radiation fog, which is formed when warm air sits above cold ground and there is little or no wind. These were exactly the conditions I was driving through. It was quite early in the morning and there were few people or vehicles around.
As the morning went on, every now and then the fog would clear slightly, and the sun would burst through the mist and clouds for a minute or so and then close in again.
Finally, the mist and cloud disappeared revealing the New Brunswick rolling hills for miles on end. Being still in New Brunswick meant all road signs were still in French and English. There were two lanes each side all the way so far – long may that last!.
My original plan had been to drive from St. John NB to the province of Prince Edward Island (yes, it really is an island!) and stay overnight at Wood Islands on PEI, close to where the ferry leaves to Caribou in the province of Nova Scotia (NS). That’s just 170 miles from North Sydney, where the overnight ferry to Newfoundland & Labrador (NL) leaves from. I had no idea that in the summer the two ferries to NL get booked up at least a year in advance, so I wouldn’t be getting on any ferry on this trip!
That meant I had to fly from Halifax NS to St. John’s NL, and even then, I got the last seat on any flight on the 30th and the last rental car in St. John’s too. Having to do these two things increased the cost of the entire trip by 25%.
But I didn’t want to miss seeing at least something of PEI, and in particular the 8 mile long Confederation Bridge that connects PEI to the mainland, so today I’m going over to PEI and then back to the mainland to drive down to Halifax. Here’s a short 1 minute video of crossing the peak of the bridge. If you look at a 30° angle as I move back into the right lane immediately after the roadworks you can see the shore of PEI far off in the distance, and I was only halfway across.
Here's a view of the bridge looking back towards New Brunswick. The sharp edges you can see at the waterline are the top half of specially shaped sections designed to deflect or break up ice floes that hit the bridge in the winter. Needless to say, it's constructed of super strong reinforced concrete
Is the bridge an airline? If you're a pedestrian or cyclist who wants to cross it, you could be forgiven for thinking so. You have to go over the bridge on a shuttle service, and that will be separate charges for you ($4.75), your bicycle ($4.75) and for each piece of baggage ($4.25) after the first one. And for God's sake don't even think of running out of gas on that bridge because that will cost you $108.25!
But it's not all bad news.... crossing from the mainland to PEI will cost you absolutely nothing, so if you plan to stay on PEI for the rest of your life, you're home and dry. You only pay to leave the island! Finally, I couldn't help laughing myself to death when I saw the bridge authority's FAQs. Not sure why they added that "s" given there's only one FAQ - the cheekiest reason I have ever seen in my life for not giving any discounts, and I've seen a few.
Then I crossed back over the bridge and set off for Halifax, NS where I will spend the night before flying to St. John’s NL tomorrow. It was relatively flat land and blue skies most of the way from PEI to Halifax, though no longer 2 lanes each side all the way.
Many provinces have left turn green arrow lights, Quebec has no arrow but flashing main lights means turning left has priority over oncoming traffic. Other provinces have flashing green left turn arrows! Just in case you are confused by this, here’s a breakdown of traffic light states and meaning you might encounter in Canada. Paracetamol is recommended over naproxen as it acts directly on the brain to ease the pain!
It didn’t take too long to get down to Halifax and find the Holiday Inn at the airport, though of course it wasn’t at the airport but about 1 ½ miles away. Another free night on points though that drained the points bank dry.
Parking at Halifax airport would be $25 per day but because I was staying at the hotel, even just for one night, they let me park there for $10 per day, shuttle to/from airport included. They also let me have late checkout tomorrow at 13:30.
There was no restaurant in the Holiday Inn Express but there was in the Hilton next door, owned by the same company, so I treated myself to a dinner and a glass of wine there.
I spent the morning and early afternoon doing email, writing up blogs and processing photos for later addition to the website. I also checked in online for my Porter Airlines flight to St. John’s just to make sure it was still scheduled for later today. Whilst beavering away at the desk, the left side of my glasses fell apart - again. Naturally, I know how to fix them but there is one important requirement - if you can’t see what you doing……. A kind lady at reception screwed them back together again temporarily but I’ll need to get to an optician when I get to St. John’s.
I got the 3:30 pm shuttle from the hotel to the airport. Security was extremely busy, possibly because of the increased number of tourists and Canadian visitors this year? But the whole place is kitted out with the latest CT-Xray baggage scanners. Unlike the 2D images produced by X-rays alone, these scanners produce a full 3D image which can be rotated to any angle. This means there’s no need to take anything out of your bags – very handy, and very quick.
I warned security that I would light up their walk through arch like a Christmas tree, but the guy just smiled and said “probably not sir, it’s nothing to worry about”. 30 seconds later he’s scanning me manually and asking how I knew that would happen. Well…. all that metal in my neck, two metal hips and all that stainless steel wire holding my sternum together is a bit of a clue!
I was looking forward to spending some time in Air Canada’s Maple Leaf lounge, but when I checked I found it was closed for 18 months “while we expand and renovate the lounge”. Really??? I could have had a whole house built in less time than that (in fact I did back in Texas).
The flight was due to depart at 6 pm. At 4:30 pm Priceline emailed me to say it would leave on time and FlightAware showed the same. Then the fun began…over the next hour it was leaving 30, 45, 30, on time, 50 minutes late. At about 5:15 the gate agent announced it was late, would leave at 6:35 pm and that this was caused by the delay with the incoming aircraft and so beyond Porter Airline’s control. Naturally, that inbound flight was a Porter flight so why was it not within Porter’s control?
The great thing about FlightAware is that you can track details about the incoming flight too, so I did that all the way back to 1 pm, which showed a steadily increasing delay in all of the flights since then. That’s makes it very difficult to see how our inbound flight delay was not down to Porter. In fairness, all of the airlines play this game.
I previously mentioned that I was pleased to have made the last time zone change on this outbound leg, but I hadn’t! It seems that Newfoundland & Labrador has its own time zone 30 minutes ahead of Nova Scotia time. I also mistakenly thought Canada had only 4 time zones but in fact it has 6. But it’s not quite that simple… none of the provinces in the PST, MST, and CST areas on this map change their clocks twice a year anymore, and some provinces, such as Ontario, have areas in two time zones, just like Texas does down South.
When I arrived at St. John’s airport the car rental desks were fully manned and busy, even though it was now almost 10 pm. When I couldn’t find any rental car company with cars available, I had tried Priceline and they managed to get me a car with Avis, a car "of Avis choice” at ~ twice what I would expect to pay for a car for four days, so I had no idea what I would get.
I was tired but the final words of the Avis agent had me in fits. “You must check the car for damage, if there is any, take a photo and email it to us at this address”. First, that assumes I had a smart phone – not everyone does. Second, it was very dark in the car lot, pouring with rain and very cold, but you want me to drop everything, walk around the car carefully trying to find damage in the dark, and possibly get very wet while taking a photo and then send it to you? I don’t think so.
Outside it was foggy, dark and cold; and the road out of the airport was in full construction mode. Driving through that in a strange car in the dark, rain and fog was not fun.
I was staying at guest accommodation at the Memorial University of St. John’s, or MUN as it is locally known. It’s a huge campus and at first, I couldn’t find the entrance to the Hatcher accommodation block, so I called the number I had been given, expecting to get a message saying the staff were not available. I got a student working at the registration desk who was most helpful and guided me in. I was actually just 300 metres away but behind some other buildings. I should have researched what the building looked like before I got there very tired in the rain late at night!
It was a bit of a haul to my room, but when I got there, I dumped everything, abluted and went to bed. I went out like a light.
I slept well last night and got up around 7 am. The communal ablutions room was empty, as it was for most of my stay, and the shower refreshingly hot. I went down to reception to find out where I should go for breakfast, and that turned out to be go back up on to the 4th floor you have just come from, go down a different corridor then take an elevator back down to the 1st floor. It seemed that the part of the building I would normally have gone through from reception was being renovated. The breakfast didn’t include any hot food, but it did include just about everything else you could think of for breakfast, croissants, cereals, toast, muffins, fruit juice, tea and coffee.
After breakfast I went to get into my hire car to drive to the nearest opticians to see if they could do a more permanent fix on my glasses. But as I approached my car, I noticed a group of your children and a couple of adults walking towards what appeared to be a playground area. What got my notice was what at first I took to be plain old graffiti until I took a closer look. Whilst the images were a bit haphazard, there was clearly some artistic talent at work here! I think this was an area set aside for artistically talented youth to express themselves.
The nearest optician was ~ ½ mile away, so I called in there on my way down to the Terry Fox Foundation office in St. John’s. I followed the directions in the car navigation system and ended up outside what appeared to be a block of apartments. Then someone came out of the elevator, so I asked them where the optician was, which was all the way around the back of the building – silly me, why didn’t I think of that? I found it, went in and asked the only person I could see if they could fix my glasses. No… I’m on my own, the doctor is away on vacation, and this is a real optician’s practice, so we don’t fix glasses. I smiled, said thank you, bowed my head and retreated backwards as if it was 1402 and I had just upset the Prince of Yan of the Ming Dynasty.
Next, I set off for the offices of the Terry Fox Foundation at 90 O’Leary Avenue, not too far away. Terry Fox is a Canadian legend and has become part of our national heritage, representing a true Canadian virtue – helping others, even when life isn’t exactly treating you fairly. I got to know about Terry when I worked in Toronto in the 2nd half of 1981. I was greatly moved by his story and vowed to donate to the Foundation. He was the inspiration behind this trip, and I decided that instead of simply mailing in a cheque, I would go to St. John’s NL where Terry started his Marathon of Hope, a run across Canada, to raise money for cancer research, and hand in the money in person.
When I have finished writing up this blog, I shall be adding a Terry Fox page with more information on Terry and links to the various websites where you will be able to see more of his story and donate to the causes that he cared about so much and raised money for. If you want to know more about Terry's story now click here. I got to the Foundation office only to find a notice that someone will be back at 13:45 – I will come back.
There are statues and memorials of Terry all over Canada, but I selected just two to visit on this trip. One is at the Terry Fox National Historic Monument on the Trans Canada Highway just before entering Thunder Bay, Ontario from the East, near where Terry sadly had to end his Marathon of Hope. I drove through Thunder Bay on the way here and will stop off at this memorial on the way back.
Next stop was at 2 Water Street down in the harbour, but before I cover what’s there, I’d like to cover some houses in St. John’s on the way down to the harbour. On the cover page of this web site, The Story, there are two beautiful photos, one of the White Rock at White Rock, and one of the pastel coloured house in St. John’s.
I took a route to Water Street that took me past some of those beautifully coloured houses, though the overcast weather did its very best to try and spoil the occasion. It failed, because even on a dull overcast wet day these houses still look spectacular. If I ever move to St. John I think I will be living in one of these houses!
The second, Terry Fox Mile Zero Memorial Site, is here in St. John’s NL at 2 Water Street. St. John’s Harbour. It’s called Mile Zero because for many years it was thought that this is where Terry started his Marathon of Hope, but later Doug Alward, his companion that day 12th April 1980, revealed that Terry had filled his two bottles with Atlantic Water at Outer Cove Beach, Logy Bay 6 miles from Water Street. He planned to keep one bottle as a souvenir and pour the other one into the Pacific when he got home. So, it’s off to 2 Water street now and to Outer Cove Beach tomorrow.
It’s a shame about the weather – it’s overcast, cold and raining on and off, and was to stay that way until the day I left St. John’s, at which point the sun came out. I will let the pictures for today speak for themselves, but I was greatly humbled by visiting Terry’s memorial, especially when I think of how long I would not have lived with my melanoma in 1981.
The text on the Water Street Terry Fox monument reads “I wish people would realize that anything's possible if you try; dreams are made if people try”
Next, it was off to see the National Historic Monument at the Cape Spear Light houses, the furthest point East not only in Canada, but in the whole of North America. The furthest point West? That would be the border between the Yukon Territory and the State of Alaska on the 141st Meridien. In 2023 I got close to that border, Dawson City, YT which is at W 139.44.
The original lighthouse, commissioned in 1836, is the square building with the red & white dome. There’s no light in that dome – it was moved to the new lighthouse when it went operational in 1955. The lighthouse was not only to warn ships of the rocky coast but also indicated the entrance to St. John’s harbour ~5 miles to the Northeast.
The inside of the old lighthouse is now a museum showing how the lighthouse keeper and his family would have lived. As far as I could tell, the only means of heating was the large fire in the kitchen, which must have been coal fired because there weren’t any trees in the vicinity.
And the volume and variety of stores seemed to indicate that replenishments didn’t happen very often. But what caught my eye was the signal flags locker with its multitude of different flags neatly rolled up and stowed in pigeonholes. Living here in the winter must have been bleak and lonely indeed.
During WWII a gun battery and barracks were built alongside the new light houses. Unfortunately, I didn’t catch this in my research, and they weren’t obvious as I walked around, so I missed seeing them. I should have paid more attention to that Navy yardarm just below the new lighthouse sitting on top of the hill.
Then it was time to drive back into town and try the Terry Fox Foundation office once more. This time there was a delightful and very helpful gentleman in the office, who was I think taken back a little by the story of why I had driven all the way from the Pacific coast to hand him a donation, 45 years later than originally planned. I think for a few seconds he didn’t quite believe me – until I showed him my BC driver license.
For my donation I was kindly offered a very special picture of a pair of running shoes, matching those worn by Terry on his run, placed at the bottom of his statue. But it seemed to me that having just given his Foundation a donation, it made no sense at all to then effectively take some of it back in the value of the picture, so I insisted on paying for it. But then when I mentioned that I had been treated for a fairly serious bout of melanoma, a red Terry Fox tee shirt was immediately produced on the basis that every cancer survivor who visited was presented with one. Not wanting to offend in any way I graciously accepted the tee shirt and now wear it proudly when I am exercising.
The last call of the day was to Walmart to get some food for dinner for the rest of my time in St. John’s as none of the MUN food facilities were open and I didn’t fancy eating out. As I walked into Walmart what should I spot – an optician’s practice! I cheekily walked in, explained that my glasses kept falling apart and asked if they could temporarily fix them until I got home. They asked where I lived and were amazed to hear the story of why I wouldn’t be home for a while - well another 17 days to be exact. I left with glasses fixed (for another 8 days) and staff insisting that I pay nothing for their services.
Time to return to MUN and have some dinner. After dinner I continued to watch Midsomer Murders on Prime TV, but just not on TV as such because there were no TV’s to be found anywhere in the block. So I logged on to Prime on my laptop and watched that way. It wasn’t quite the same as watching on my 60” OLED at home, but beggars can’t be choosers…
Another day of not driving any long distances, so no need at all to get up early. Just like yesterday, there was almost no one else around the accommodation wing that I was in on the 4th floor, so I had the ablution facilities to myself.
Breakfast was just as good as yesterday except that this time I knew how to get to where it was being served, so didn’t have to go all the way down to reception as I had done yesterday.
The plan for today was very simple, go to Outer Cove Beach in Logy Bay where Terry had filled his two bottles, and then come back to MUN to get some emails and blogs done. As I exited the building, I came across a form of transport that I had not seen before but would see more on the return journey. I had seen motor tricycles before but always with the single wheel at the front; these trikes had the single wheel at the rear. One of them was even towing a small trailer!
The Outer Cove was only about 7 miles from MUN so it didn’t take to long to get there.
To get to the beach itself you have to turn off the paved road and drive down a track just before a T junction that goes under the main road.
There are two murals in this passageway under the road. A local artist, Sarah O’Rourke Whelan, painted both of these murals.
The one depicting walking back up from the sea with one of the bottles filled with Atlantic seawater to pour into the Pacific Ocean when he got home was completed in 2019.
The other mural depicts the history of Logy Bay as originally a fishing town through fisherman tending their nets outside their fishing and was completed in 2021.
After quick snack lunch back at the accommodation block courtesy of the Walmart shopping yesterday afternoon, I decided to head out to the main campus library, the Queen Elizabeth II Library, as I felt sure that there would be computers there that I could use. Actually, I didn’t want to use a computer as much as a large screen and full size keyboard; my laptop computing power was just fine.
But first, I had to get to this library… no worries as my Aussie friends would say, just ask Apple Maps on my iPhone. I wish I hadn’t because it turned out that Alexa didn’t know her way around much more than I did. And just when I thought it couldn’t get worse, after 40 minutes of wandering around, it did. None of the four students I asked knew how to get to that library from where I was either. Clearly I was on The Long and Winding Road!
And then I spotted the sign in big bold letters, Queen Elizabeth II Library, on a low cast building on the other side of Prince Philip Drive – a fenced off four lane highway that divided the campus. I spotted gaps in the fences on both sides… clearly, I was not the first to be in this predicament and wouldn’t be the last either! Red arrows = Siri route, yellow arrows = library security guard route back to accomodation.
I was right.... the library had a huge computer area with what I estimated to be more than 100 computers in it. I showed my temporary pass to security at the door. I set up my laptop, connected the full size keyboard and turned the screen around to connect that to my laptop too. Decades of wondering all over the world with the need to connect anything to anything meant I had an impressive collection of cables to do so. But it seemed that my collection was not impressive enough.
Every computer in that hall was a Dell. That shouldn’t have been a problem, after all I want to use the screen, not the computer. Then I met Mr. Displayport. I knew he existed, but I had never seen one in the entire 25 years they had been in existence. And given how many computers I have seen or used in that time, that is truly amazing. Displayport was designed to future proof display interfaces, so it’s not surprising to see them being used in an education establishment that has 1,000’s of computers.
Every single one of the Dell screens in that hall was connected to the Dell PC via Displayport. No problem…. Just use the screen HDMI port instead. But every single one of those screens had only a Displayport port and no other means of connecting to0 it. No USB C or HDMI. That was the second thing I had never seen before. I have witnessed many generations of video interfaces since 1972 but over the last 30 years screens have always given at least two choices.
On leaving I asked the security guys the fastest way back to my block – I walked it at a slow pace in just under 7 minutes!
I enjoyed another dinner courtesy of Walmart and then more Midsomer Murders before turning in.
Today I decided to do something I very rarely do…. Have a day of doing virtually nothing. At this point I am halfway through this wonderful journey, and tomorrow I will set off on the return leg, so a rest isn’t such a bad idea.
I got up late at 07:30 am, that is quite late for me and had a slow leisurely breakfast. After breakfast I was waiting for the elevator when something on the wall caught my eye, a Naloxone emergency kit.
So far in 2026 on average nearly 5 people a day lose their life due to narcotics overdose in British Columbia, so the government has a Take-Home Naloxone Kit program. That’s why I recognized this kit and why I have one permanently in my vehicle.
I pottered in my room all morning and had a small lunch from the salad & stuff I bought in Walmart on Friday.
Then I went for a long walk around the campus, then returned to write up more notes for the blog.
Dinner was another salad, thank you Walmart, supplemented with some cheese and cold meat. Then I packed for leaving tomorrow.
There being no TV’s at all in my accommodation block, I logged in to Prime TV on my laptop to watch Midsommer Murders and then got an early night.
My flight from St. John’s to Halifax wasn’t departing until 14:05 so I got up around 07:30, showered and then went down to the 2nd floor to get breakfast. This is advertised as a “Continental Breakfast” but maybe that depends on which “continent” you’re referring to. I think the phrase originated in the UK from travelers who went to “the continent”. i.e. mainland Europe, to distinguish breakfast there from the traditional “full Engish breakfast”. A full English is basically a big fry up of eggs, sausages, bacon, mushrooms and baked beans with toast and tea or coffee, whereas a continental breakfast was a cold meal of bread, pastries, cold meats, cereals, fruit juice etc.
I stayed in my room as long as I could doing email and blog, then checked out and drove to the airport to return my hire car. There were no instructions on how to do this, no specific return area and no one to hand the car over to. I went into departures to see if there was an Avis return desk there – there wasn’t. No need to panic, decades of returning hire cars in some very strange places had developed a process for this situation. I did an all-round video of the car, noted the bay I had left it in on the paperwork and went to the desk in arrivals where I had picked up the keys when I flew in. I handed everything over; told the guy I had videoed the car (you never know!) and then had to trudge all the way back to the other end of the terminal for departures.
I would have requested special assistance form Air Canada when I had checked in before leaving the accommodation except that there didn’t appear to be any way to do this. So, I approached an Air Canada person in the check in area to ask where I could arrange special assistance. He quickly waved in the direction of the general check in area and said, “they do it in there”.
I went into the area and realised it was just the economy check in line. I was flying economy, but I have a lifetime Star Alliance Gold Card so I could check in where I wanted. I returned to the same guy who simply said “you didn’t say you were Gold” to which I replied, “did you ask?” I said I had shown him my disabled card when I made the request then he claimed not to know what the card was.
When I asked him for Special Assitance he had pointed me to the Economy check in on his right, knowing full well taht the Special Assistance desk was at the opposite end of Air Canada check in. I’ll skip a large section here or I will run out of space!
Now I am standing next to a check in desk where the duty manager is offering to put everything right. Air Canada had a reputation for not looking after passengers with special needs and since I had indicated that I would be complaining to Transport Canada, he was very keen now to make sure that I didn’t. When I showed him my disabled card he explained that here in Canada a different symbol is used, not the one I was showing him. I then suggested that he look at who had issued that card while I get something out of my wallet – my driver’s licence. I then explained that both were issued by the Province I live in, British Columbia, and that I was fairly sure that our Premiere David Eby had not yet taken us out of the Federation.
The look on his face was priceless! But he was genuinely trying to help and arranged for the assistance I had requested. I got the sense that he felt his staff could have handled things very differently, and he wanted to put things right. This the image on my card is deep blue, and while it is slightly different to the one used in Newfoundland & Labrador, I think the images are so close as to be obvious that they serve the same purpose.
The flight left on time and was completely full, as the flight into St’ John’s had been. I had tried to get on an earlier flight too but every flight out of St. John’s that day was completely full. Thanks to Donnie the Orange Man Canada is awash with tourists domestic and international.
That duty manager had also arranged for special assistance off the flight to and this was waiting for me on the tarmac as I got off the aircraft. I waited just about 10 minutes for the hotel bus and was soon in my car back at the Holiday Inn and set off for Moncton New Brunswick where I would spend the night. So, I started the day in Newfoundland & Labrador, flew to Nova Scotia and will end the day in New Brunswick.
The drive to Moncton was 135 miles through horrendous rain which at times meant slowing down to 20 m.p.h. as even at the fastest speed my windshield wipers could clear the rain fast enough. Everyone else on the road took the same precautions.
Perhaps in compensation for a while the NS 102 was a three lane highway North to Onslow where I joined NS 104, which became NB 2 at the Nova Scotia/New Brunswick border. These two highways were part of the Trans Canada system, and I was heading towards Moncton NB, my destination for tonight.
At Lantz NS the weather cleared a little briefly, a pattern repeated occasionally. The journey was just a little boring until I saw I was approaching what appeared to be a toll plaza, and that’s exactly what it was – the Cobequid Pass Toll. Not having come along this road on the way down to Halifax, I didn’t know it was there. “Pass”? Then surely there must be some mountains nearby? There are – the Cobequid Mountains, and they peak out at 1,198 feet, the toll plaza is at 804 feet. This is not a “pass” in the sense of say Roger’s Pass in the Rockies, it’s just a stretch of highway that was built by a public/private partnership recouping the cost of building it. In fact, the whole route was mostly flat or rolling hills.
Vehicles registered in Nova Scotia don’t pay any toll, and since Trump started his trade war with Canada US registered commercial vehicles have been charged double the normal tariff.
Shortly before I would leave Nova Scotia for New Brunswick, I decided to gas up in case it was more costly in NB. What I didn’t know was that the four Atlantic Provinces operate a highly regulated gasoline market – the only one I know of in North America. And of course I had bet the wrong way! NB’s provincial tax on gas is only 2/3rds of that in NS.
Soon I knew that I had crossed into New Brunswick as suddenly the road signs were again in both French and English. I was at the turn off for Fort Beauséjour, which was originally completed by the French in 1754 to defend against the British. They captured the fort in 1755 and renamed it Fort Cumberland, and finally abandoned it in 1835. Today it’s an official Historic Site and known by both names.
My hotel for the night was the Thriftlodge by Wyndham – I had never heard of this Wyndham sub brand before, but they gave me the room closest to reception and the hotel had an Indian restaurant, which I took full advantage of. I flopped into bed and fell asleep immediately as I had an early start in the morning.
I got up very early, showered and was on the road by 06:10. I was heading to Montmagny in Quebec. Like the journey down from Quebec City to St. John NB, it’s a strange route of many more miles than as the crow flies.
This is because the USA pokes up in the way and there is no road “across the triangle” so the route goes around it. Point 1 is Moncton, 2 is St. John NB, 3 is the top of that “hump” of the USA poking up and 4 is Montmagny.
When I set off from Moncton the sky was a deep blue without a single cloud in sight.
The road had recently been paved and was as smooth as glass. My Subie Outback is a quiet vehicle at the best of times, so the almost complete absence of any noise in the cabin, even at high speeds, was very eerie.
For the first 200 miles it was fairly bright, some sunshine but with winds from the West that were strong enough to keep pushing the car to the right. I saw even fully laden trucks being pushed over too. I hadn’t encountered side winds that strong since I was in the outer bands of a tornado when we lived in Houston.
The terrain was reasonably flat with lots of medium height boreal forest, cleared back from the road for ~30 meters. This reminded me of driving through 100’s of miles of boreal forest in BC during my trip up to the Arctic in 2023.
Again, there were roadworks everywhere, in some cases going on for more than 10 miles. But they just can’t do this work in the winter, so they have to get as much as possible done in the summer when the days are long and the weather (mostly) kind. PHOTO from video
The good news is that there wasn’t much traffic on the road at all and very few trucks. I thought this was odd, so when I gassed up, I asked the woman cashier why there was so little traffic. It was New Brunswick Day, an official holiday in NB. She added that it was a day “reserved for not going to work, having fun, going to parties and getting pissed”. So. there it was…. I had chosen the best day to drive through NB without any planning at all!
At one point I passed a giant of a truck/trailer combination transporting a giant of a machine. I’ve seen a few big loads being moved in my time, but I think this is the biggest I have ever seen. I have extracted a clip from my dashcam showing me passing this beast, and I have also extracted a still photo from that video which was shot at 4k resolution. But even blowing up the image I still haven’t figured out what this piece of machinery that is being transported actually is.
My hotel was in the town of Montagny on the South bank of the St. Lawrence River about 50 miles East of Quebec City on the 100 Rue St Jean Baptiste East, so naturally there is also a Rue St Jean Baptiste West and equally naturally I went to the wrong one because I hadn’t paid enough attention to the address. It was the Auberge du Libraire ("The Bookshop Inn"), originally a large single family house in the town center next to the beautiful church. It’s owned by a delightful couple called Guillaume & Claudine who have recently taken over the building and opened it in May. Guillaume and Claudine both speak English and they are extraordinarily helpful. They also own the town bookshop almost next door to the Auberge, and I had an opportunity to walk around inside the shop.
It took me back to my late teens when I could "go up West" from home in Southeast London to browse through books at the famous Foyles book shop on Charing Croos Road.
The town is delightful and I took the opportunity to go for a walk through the old town with my camera, before calling in at the local restaurant for a very tasty dinner. The outside terrace was packed with people and families of all ages clearly enjoying the food and each other’s company. I kept forgetting I was in Canada and slipped into thinking I was still living in France.
I walked around the town center, which was quite small, taking shots of buildings, streets and a fascinating set of murals. Be sure to have a look at the media for today as there are many more shots that I took as I wondered around the town. Fortunately the weather was till good and even as the sun went down it remained quite warm. I would loved to have been able to spend more time here.
As I approached the front door of the Auberge after dinner an elderly lady was looking at the bicycles in the front that were for guests to use.
I said good evening in French and that was the start of a fascinating 20 minutes as we walked down the street a little and she recounted the history of some of the buildings in the street. We mostly conversed in French though she also spoke sometimes in English. I just don’t have the fluency in French that I once had so I found it hard, but very satisfying. She was 85 so she knew a great deal about the town and its history, and everything about the local scandals!
I showered before going to bed as I wanted an early start in the morning…. The town, the meal, my elderly town history guide and the conversation and left me feeling calm and peaceful so sleep came easily.
Early rise today as we are off to the capital of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario. Getting there will probably not be fun as it means going through the Quebce City suburbs on the South bank of the St. Lawrence River, through Montreal and then on to Oattawa.
Montagny appeared to be mostly still asleep as I crept through its streets towards the highway. Today’s journey will be ~250 miles from Montagny QC to Ottawa West ON. We'll pass to the SOuth of Quebec City and follow the St. Lawrence alluvial plain to Montreal where we will cross to the Northern side of the St. Lawrence, drive through the center of Montreal and cross the Ottawa River to head into Ontario.
Quickly on to dual carriageway. Initally forest on both sides, but then opening up to flat lands of the St. Lawrence alluvial plain. The tips of the wheat off to the side of road were turning yellow under deep blue skies.
Entered Lévis suburb of Quebec City, a reminder that flashing green traffic light means left turn priority. I have processed this video to run at normal speed until just before the traffic lights, and to then run very slowly as I drive through the lights so that you can clearly see the flashing green lights and stopped oncoming traffic. It returns to normal speed once I am through the lights. I was stopping at a Tim Hortons for a coffee & break.
As I got to ~ 25 miles East of Montreal I noticed what appeared to be a mountain which looked very out of place on the St. Lawrence alluvial plain I had been following almost all day.
This is Mont Saint-Hilaire, one of a chain of similar standalone mountains on the St. Lawrence Plain that form the Monteregian Hills.
I had no idea these existed and hadn’t noticed this mountain on the way out even though I must have driven past it! This mountain is owned by McGill University and is a rich source of some extremely rare minerals.
Just as I started to pass to the South of Montreal, I saw something I had been looking for over the last few years. There’s a couple of programs that have become very popular on Canadian TV over the last few years; one called Highway Thru Hell and the other called Heavy Rescue 401.
They are each about the rescue of heavy trucks on a specific key highway. “Hell” is on the section of BC 5 that runs from Hope to Kamloops over the Coquihalla Pass (known locally as simply the "Coke") and “401” refers to Highway 401 through the GTA (Greater Toronto Area). I took this photo on that pass in July 2025 - it seems you don't always need winter conditions to run a very large truck off the road!
Keeping both of these roads open is a must, even in the middle of winter, so accidents involving even the largest of trucks must be cleared as quickly as possible. It’s not always possible to just pull such vehicles back on to the road – sometimes that must be lifted from where they are, and that’s where a “Rotator” come in useful. It’s a tow truck, but one that can rotate its arm and extend that arm too so that it can reach over and haul really heavy vehicles up from down in the ditch or pull it back on to its wheels. And finally, I got to see one in real life.
Many roadworks on outskirts of Montreal backed up into Louis Hippolyte tunnel Roadworks everywhere on the Montreal cross city route. Looking at the map in the evening I realised that Siri had taken me by the shortest route, the Trans Canada through the tunnel and the city center but that taking QC 30, while slightly longer, would have been much faster with far less time in heavily built up areas.
But once we got into the Montreal suburbs the roadworks ceased and I entered what appeared to be a very well organised network of partly elevated main routes with timely, clear signs and never less than three lanes. I transited Montreal between 4 pm and 4:30 pm so expected stop/start conditions as the build up to the rush hour got underway. But although traffic slowed down on and off, I never encountered stop/start conditions at all going through Montreal. Hats off to whoever designed this road network.
I also encountered the REM (Réseau Express Métropolitain / Metropolitan Express Network infrastructure that crossed the highway.
Once out of Montreal the road was not busy at all, and I made good speed towards Ontario. As usual, there were roadworks everywhere. This photo is of those at the Pont de L’Ile Aux Tourtes over the River Ottawa just before it merges into the St. Lawrence River. It looks like capacity is being added to this bridge, which would make sense since this highway is the Trans Canada over which so much of Canada’s surface freight moves.
But this isn’t an isolated occurrence of a major infrastructure improvement – this is part of a very deliberate $5 billion plan, Trade Diversification Corridors Fund, to improve infrastructure right across (and up and down) Canada to enable goods and commodities to be exported to markets around the world. China has its Silk Road – ours is made of concrete!
I crossed into Ontario 70 miles East of Ottawa at East Hawkesbury where my great grandfather had farmed back in 1860. Now I was on the alluvial plain of the Ottawa River with rich flat farmland and few trees.
Was now enjoying two very rare things on the Trans Canada in Ontario – a dual carriageway and a speed limit > 90 kph! Terrain no longer completely flat – we were leaving the alluvial plain and were midway between the Ottawa and St, Lawrence rivers. The sky had remained clear and blue all day.
Finally the highway widened to 4, and in places 5, lanes each side – I was definitely entering Ottawa. It is the capital of Canada, but it’s only half the area and population of Vancouver, so it’s not a very large city.
I was staying in the Holiday Inn Express Ottawa West in the Bells Junction suburb, close to the Trans Canada Highway and almost out of Ottawa completely. There was hardly any traffic and what was on the road was moving quickly, so it didn’t take long at all to pass through the Southern side of the city.
As I pulled into the car park I saw that my beautiful blue sky that I had enjoyed all day was now being spoiled by gathering wisps of cloud.
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