Riding Mountain National Park
We have spent two nights at Riding Mountain National Park. This park is a mix between forest and plains. The highlights of our time here has been seeing the herd of bison and spotting another bear on one of the trails.
We have been camping at a place called Lake Audy right on the banks of the lake. The nicest part of our time in the park has been the early evenings when it has been really warm and the number of insects seems to die down a bit. We’ve had a barbecue both nights and we also built a fire which has been nice.
We did have our first encounter with one of the nastier little beasties in the Park. On returning from a morning of cycling/hiking we discovered that Sarah had picked up two ticks – well we dealt with these but it was a bit horrible – fortunately we spotted them before they had time to really embed themselves.
The other misfortune that hit us was that one of the pedals fell off my bicycle. The threads are completely worn through so its not fixable without new cranks. The good news was that it happened only about 3k away from the campsite so it wasn’t too bad to get back with a mixture of free-wheeling downhill and walking the bike.
Hooking Up
Before getting to Winnipeg we passed over the Continental Divide. From this point forward all rivers will be running into the Arctic rather than the Atlantic. Pretty exciting and shows that we are getting there in a trip across Canada to get to Alaska.
When we got to Winnipeg around lunchtime we had had just enough of driving so thought we should take care of some chores.
On the way in we passed an RV service centre so thought this was the ideal place to check in and see if we could work out our hookup issues.
A chap named Scott was incredibly helpful and we worked through all the combinations that we could until working out exactly how to hook up to electric over here. Turns out that we can’t cope with a 30 Amp supply and only one of our input sockets works. But with 15 Amps we are good to go. Now we will just have to check it out for real somewhere. The really good news was that I had managed to wire the lead correctly so it wasn’t just me being a numpty.
So thanks very much Scott from Leisuredays RV for taking some time out to help us.
From Pukaskwa to Emo
Today should have been pretty uneventful with the plan being to just drive all day and get as many km’s under our belt as possible before we were too tired/bored to go any further.
Well about 10 km into the drive, we had just turned onto the main highway and a black bear comes strolling out of the undergrowth and straight in front of us. Just our luck that this is probably the first time so far that we didn’t have a camera handy. Anyway this is our first proper bear sighting of the trip (we saw one a couple of days ago but way in the distance and disappearing into the trees).
Then later in the day we were driving along and just standing at the side of the road was a moose – again our first. We’d spent ages in Algonquin hunting for one.
Towards the end of the day we decided to try and stop in Fort Frances – in a Walmart – I know, but it is free. Anyway we got there only to find signs up saying “No Overnight Camping”. Bugger – it was getting dark – a bit prematurely we thought but we had changed time zones during the day.
We drove about 20km’s out of town and got to a small village called Emo where we found a friendly petrol station who are happy for us to stay in their lot. Just as we parked we discovered the reason for the darkness. The wind rose from nothing to gale force in seconds, rocking the camper from side to side, the heavens opened and lightning criss-crossed the sky. This was one of the biggest storms I’ve ever seen. Mr Bulos – if you were here it definitely wouldn’t have been your thing. Half an hour later it had seriously calmed down and the setting sun came out and a bea
utiful rainbow formed over the Beast.
Pukaskwa National Park
After leaving Pancake bay we have motored around 200 miles North and West to a small National Park called Pukaskwa. This is also on the shore of Lake Superior – a lake so big that it holds 1 tenth of all the land freshwater in the world.
On arriving at the park we set out to explore and hiked two of the trails here: The Beach Trail and The Southern Headland Trail. Both of which have given us lovely views of the lake. The beaches here are covered in driftwood. – I mean absolutely covered – making walking along them quite difficult at times. The weather has been glorious as well which made our hikes very enjoyable. No mosquitos to worry about either. This has been Sarah’s favourite place we’ve been so far.
An amusing story for those who know me happened when we went to the visitor centre. I went to go through the patio doors to go outside but didn’t notice the mosquito screen over the door which I walked straight through – it fell off with a great crash – as I kept going and walked right over the top of it. Just a little bit embarrassing for me although the nice park ranger woman was very nice about me trashing her place. Anyway I was fine – we didn’t manage to fix the door !
Pancake Bay
We had the best intentions to drive all the way from Greater Sudbury to Pukaskwa National Park today. However after around 4.5 hours of driving we got to a beautiful beach on Lake Superior for our lunch stop and were seduced by the idea of an afternoon in the sun. So we settled on staying in Pancake Bay Provincial Park for the night and went for a lovely walk along the beach. It really feels like you are on the beach of some tropical island – until you feel the water that is ! Quite Cold !!
Niagara Falls
We had always wanted to make a quick swing past Niagara Falls even though it was out of our way. From Algonquin we headed South, skirting Toronto and made it to Niagara for the evening to free camp in a Walmart about 3k from the falls. The next morning we got our bikes down, left the beast in Walmart car park and cycled down to the Falls.
The falls are split into two the main Horseshoe Falls and the American Falls but the best view of it all is from the Canadian side of the border. You are only a stone’s throw away from the USA though.
We wandered up and down the viewing area and then decided to fork out for the Walk beneath the Falls which was CAD15 each. This takes you down in a lift to a platform right next to the bottom of the falls and then lets you walk through a tunnel with 2 viewing areas right behind the falls themselves. They give you very natty yellow ponchos made of plastic to wear which make everyone look like wet canaries. To be honest this was a little disappointing because the two viewing areas behind the falls all you can see is a mass of crashing white water. I was hoping to get more of a sense of the size of the falls from here but all you see is a very small portion.
After this trip we headed back to the Beast and settled in for the drive back North and made it to Greater Sudbury on the banks of Lake Huron for the night.
The highlight of Greater Sudbury was our first police stop. Almost at our destination we heard the distinctive Whoop-Whoop of a siren and saw the flashing lights behind. After racking my brains I couldn’t think of anything I’d done wrong. We stop and the policeman approaches asks for licence and insurance. Then asks what we were doing. Turns out he was just interested in the Beast ! It hadn’t stopped my stomach doing a couple of flips though – I am going to have to get used to this and not let it phase me. It may be the first but there will be much more difficult ones later in the trip !
Algonquin Provincial Park
We’ve spent the last two nights in a Park called Algonquin. We parked the Beast up in a campground (Pog Lake campground) overlooking a lake. As we arrived the heavens opened and a massive thunderstorm hit – it felt like it was dusk ! However just over an hour later the sun came out and it turned into a lovely evening.
When the sun came out we got on our bikes and did The Old Railway bike trail in the park which goes along an abandoned railway track. It was good to get some exercise after a week of driving and cities.
The next day we woke to a damp depressing day but not to be deterred we cycled 2.5km to a nearby trailhead and did a walk called Centennial Ridges. This was just over 10k long with only 300m of climbing but had a fairly varied scenery with high ridges interspersed with lakes. The ridges were good with better views as the walk progressed and the rain stopped. The lakes, although nice, were absolutely infested with Mozzies – we just didn’t want to hang around.
We didn’t see too much wildlife on the hike but the highlights were a woodpecker and a couple of Peregrine Falcons.
Montreal
After overnighting in a Walmart just outside Montreal we drove into Longueil which is a suburb of Montreal but off the main island. The good thing about Longueil is that it has pretty cheap parking (only CAD 8 for all day) and a metro station. The journey into town from there is under 10 minutes and costs CAD 3.
We caught the metro into town and arrived at Berri-UQAM which is in the Latin quarter of town. We walked from here down to the old town and the quay side. We wandered around for a bit and then made it into china town.
In Chinatown we found an awesome all you can eat buffet for only CAD 9.95 each, so filled our boots and then walked up to the downtown area. We explored the underground city briefly – its just a mall really, and then walked up to the Montreal International Jazz Festival. There wasn’t a huge amount going on but there were a couple of bands playing and some street performers.
After that we headed back through a really dodgy area with some great graffiti to the metro and back to Longueil. Two cities in two days and I think we are done with cities for a while. Our overall impression of Montreal was that it was a bit dirty and run down and needed a bit of money spending on it (the downtown is very shiny but you don’t have to go far for it to get pretty grubby). One thing I did like about Montreal though is they have their own version of London’s Boris Bikes.
In all the cities we have visited in Canada we have noticed a lot of homeless people. There seem to be a lot more than London which has surprised us.
We then set out for Algonquin Provincial Park and got stuck in a massive traffic jam for the next hour. We only made it as far as Renfrew (about a 100km short) where we free camped for the night.
Reflections on the Beast
Well we’ve now driven 1000 miles and spent a few nights on board. There are a few things to note:
1) The Beast leaks: one of the windows in the camper has a leak and the gun hatch in the cab leaks. I’ve bought some sealant and I will go crazy with it when things dry out a bit.
2) Top speed is 54 miles an hour but the Beast is much happier at a bit less.
3) Hills are not our friends. On a steep hill you have to drop right down into 3rd and about 20 mph on the motorway some hills require 4th and a speed of around 30mph. Can be a bit of a problem.
4) I can’t get the electric hookup to work. I’m going to have to visit an RV dealer for some advice. We’re just waiting to get out of French speaking Quebec to do this !
5) Living in a camper means you have to be Oh so ordered. Something that is not my forte – but I’m working on it.
6) We are getting about 12-13 miles per Gallon. A bit less than I expected but I think this is because we are steaming along at top speed along the motorway. We’ll see how this pans out. Diesel here is expensive at CAN1.29 or so per litre. That works out at around 82p a litre, so cheap by UK standards but the Americans all think it is getting prohibitive to go to Canada at that price.
From Fundy to Montreal
Before leaving Murphy’s Cove we were treated to a stunning sunrise – But as they say red sky in the morning – shepherds warning – and this certainly proved true.
We’ve started to get some driving under our belts and have moved around 1000 miles across Canada from the East Coast to Montreal in the last few days.
Our first stop on the way was Fundy National Park. The weather was so horrible though that we just stayed the nights and moved on. According to all the Canadians that we have spoken to this has been the worst spring/start to summer that they can remember and it has been constantly raining for weeks.
We discovered on the way to Fundy that our Sat Nav does not function like you would expect in the UK. Minor roads here can mean terrible roads or even unpaved roads and we ended up doing almost 100 km on them this morning. No problem for the Beast but you just have to go slow or be really bounced around.
We did stop off on the way to Fundy at Hopewell Rocks, according to a visitor information centre “The premier attraction in New Brunswick”. We duly paid CAN$9 each to go into the park. The rocks consist of a number of stacks on a beach which are fully exposed at low tide and become small islands at high tide. The tidal range in Fundy Bay is the biggest in the world. The park isn’t really that great and we felt a bit ripped off for our $9 each.
After Fund NP we put in our first big days driving where we managed 467 miles. Bear in mind that the Beast is really only comfortable at 50 miles an hour. We arrived at Quebec City in the early evening and found a Walmart to spend the night. Walmarts are happy with RV’s staying overnight in their 
parking lots and the real advantage to this is – It’s free !
An observation that I made is that all through New Brunswick the signs were in two languages: French and English – very fair. As soon as you cross into Quebec not only do the roads deteriorate but the signs swap to only French. Seems typical of the French to me.
After spending the night in Walmart we headed into the centre of Quebec City and found a parking lot right on the docks next to the old town. We then spent a few hours walking round and exploring what is a very pretty small city. The old town is very small and only 
takes a short while to walk round. It feels like you are in France and doesn’t feel like anywhere else I’ve been in North America.
After lunch in a French bistro – like something off the Champs Elysee, but cheaper, we got back on the road and drove through torrential rain to Montreal. We’re now in another Walmart car park spending the night before going into the centre tomorrow to explore.
FromAtoB 