And what a relief! Leaving Niagara to come north west means driving through Toronto, although we did make a small detour through Kitchener to visit Andrew's friends and pick up a couple of items. You would think that Sunday morning would be a quiet day to travel. Not so! The traffic was pretty bad, with jams on the freeway, until we got well up the 400 away from Toronto, and three quarters of the way to our destination, Parry Sound.
The season hasn't yet started here, it is quite quiet, and Parry Sound is a small town situated on Lake Huron, in Georgian bay, where there are reputed to be 30,000 islands. We could have taken a cruise through some of them. The town sits at the junction of old Indian Canoe routes and the route of the early settlers from the St Lawrence to Canada's north and west, where they trapped furs. It was named in honour of the English explorer William Parry in 1820. I climbed the 130 steps of the fire watch tower to get these two pictures!
From there we made our way two hundred and thirty miles north to Manitoulin Island. As the crow flies it would only be about 70 miles, but by road...... The only way onto the island other than by ferry is over a single lane swing bridge, which opens for 15 minutes every hour. Originally a railway bridge, it was opened to traffic in about 1930 when the railway was withdrawn from the island.
It is very much a "First Nation" region, which is what the Canadians call the Indian people here. Although they no longer live the primitive lives that they did, like aboriginals everywhere they like to take advantage of the tourists. And who can blame them? They are probably better integrated than any other that we have seen throughout the world.
Bridal Veil Falls.
We did a tour of the island, the largest in a freshwater lake anywhere in the world, and which itself contains 110 lakes.With a total population of only 12,000, it is very quiet in the winter, but in the summer swells to 50,000, when the economy peps up. Fortunately it hasn't yet, just getting going. The weather remains mixed though, two good days, followed by a cooler one.
Tomorrow it's back to the mainland, continuing North and west.
Gore Bay, our car in the foreground
Janet Head Lighthouse, built 1879, can be seen 11 miles out. The original keeper's home is part of the building, and there are others of similar design dotted around the north of Lake Huron.
A split log fence, typical of the area
A view across one of the larger lakes on the island, the small island in the foreground has a house on it, only accessible by canoe or boat.
Little Current, our base to visit the island. The large ship is a cruise boat for 250 passengers, from Chicago to Toronto in 11 days.
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