Travelling Past Time: 1. Our Canada Experience

After a couple of years planning we finally boarded a plane for our Canada experience.

We picked to fly with Qantas as they provided the shortest time line with our bottoms in the seated position. We left Adelaide at 6.10 am 24^th July 2017 boarding three different planes along our route arriving at Toronto Canada at about 7.45 pm still on 24^th July but some 27 hours on from our departure time.

Hiccups are one of life’s guarantees no matter how thorough your preparation. Four weeks prior to our departure we were on a bush walk when Mary slipped on a rock falling and breaking her strong side wrist. Steve’s work load doubled at that point in time providing a positive outcome for Steve who slept well at night in the build up to departure time.

Continuing with those hiccups our second flight (at Brisbane) was delayed by over three hours due to mechanical issues which had a knock-on effect where our third change of planes having departed prior to our arrival at Los Angeles. Luckily, we had booked our flight from Adelaide to Toronto with Qantas which made them responsible for organising a replacement flight which eventuated with Air Canada, different from original flight with American Airlines. Continuing with those hiccups we also nearly missed our Air Canada flight due to issues with American customs.

Initially we queued up with hundreds of other people to complete customs forms, provide finger prints and have our faces photographed as well as speaking with a customs officer. Next, we queued up at the carousel where all the other passengers collected their luggage leaving us alone at the carousel. We were starting to get quite anxious not knowing what to do with no officials in sight when finally, our 2 bags appeared, thank goodness. (at our accommodation, we found a note inside our luggage advising our bags had been opened and inspected by customs.) From the carousel we went to the next customs point to find literally close to about a thousand-other people waiting with the large room full and people spilling out into other areas of the terminal. This is where we had a stroke of luck. An official at the entrance quietly informed us we were special needs with Mary’s arm in her sling and we were directed into another line with only 5 people in front. After clearing customs, with our baggage in tow we walked about 2 kilometres to the Air Canada terminal where Mary was put through a full screening and drug swipe on her broken wrist brace.

We arrived at our Airbnb accommodation at Toronto, (people provide a room in their homes at a reduced rate $65 per night in this instant,) rather late and we were grateful for the provided large bedroom on the 11^th floor with views of the city centre some 30 kilometres away with our own ensuite.

Toronto had a population of about 5 million people making it a rather busy place. We viewed the landscape from the CN Tower some 147 stories to view the sights of uninterrupted views. We walked about viewing the city lifestyle, took a 2 ½ hour city bus tour, a boat cruise on Lake Ontario and toured the Casa Loma Castle viewing some of the castles 198 rooms.

We found the Toronto public transport system to be the most efficient transport systems we have ever experienced. As a general description for our experience, at one stage we inadvertently got on the train travelling in the wrong direction. We alighted off at the next station and within two minutes we boarded a train travelling in the correct direction.

There was quite a lot on offer at Toronto but we found the hustle and bustle of city life was not for us.

We hired a vehicle and drove to the famous Niagara Falls. This was our first experience driving in a foreign country on the opposite side of the road. After getting lost twice negotiating at times 8 lane wide roads with turn off lanes for 3 different locations at the same time we finally arrived at our next Airbnb accommodation. We parked in the driveway and didn’t move from the vehicle for half an hour as we needed to get our breathing and heart rate back to normal.

Our first view of Niagara Falls dissolved all our built-up tension leaving us in awe for the magnificent spectacle watching thousands of tonnes of water tumble over Horseshoe Falls filling the air with a fine misty spray saturating us standing some 300 metres away.

We were due to visit our daughter Judith and partner Corey in a weeks’ time who lived about 500 kilometres north but it seems they may have got caught up in the hype of our arrival in Canada and couldn’t wait another week to see us, so they drove to Niagara Falls after work on the Friday night to visit. We had an absolute glorious weekend enjoying their company and beautiful scenery.

We rode the Hornblower boat into the spray at the base of the falls, looking up at the thundering water falls was one of those sights that will stay with us for many years, we walked the white-water walk walking alongside of the roaring rapids, walked the streets of Niagara On the Lake, spent an afternoon visiting the historic Fort George and viewing many locations along the 20 kilometres of the Niagara Parkway between Niagara On the Lake and Niagara Falls. Fort George was a special experience with ongoing demonstrations of the various activities of fort life back in the 1800’s which Mary fitted in quite well. When we were viewing the officer’s kitchen, they were making a peach and blueberry fruit cake but were having some issues with its cooking. Mary provided some advice which the two lads (cooks) followed and not long later we got to sample some nice fruit cake.

Niagara on the Lake township

Niagara in the evening

For us we could have easily stayed at Niagara Falls for 1 – 2 weeks where we could explore the area at our pace. As it turned out we spent 3 nights there and due to the furious pace trying to fit in as much as we could we found our bodies were exhausted.

Leaving our accommodation, we viewed some of the good variety of stores available at Niagara Falls where we had our first experience at Walmart. We purchased a tent and various other camping gear items in preparation for us to experience up close, some Canadian wilderness. It was 2.30 in the afternoon and time to seek some accommodation for the night. We were looking forward to our bush experience and decided we would drive to our next wish list location of Algonquin Provincial Park some 400 kilometres north arriving at about 7 pm. We were allocated a camp site (the park office was open till 9pm each night,) set camp and stretched out our legs with a walk around viewing the nearby lake. The sun rises at 6 am and sets at 9 pm during this time of the year.

With the need to adjust with a vehicle steering wheel located on the left side, having to comply with opposite hand driving regulations, messing with 40 plus years of a driving mindset, speed signage, “Max 100,” where everyone drives around 20 kilometres plus above the sign posted speed limit whilst contending with very congested traffic conditions we finally started to adjust to the driving conditions after around a week. Even seeing highway police patrol vehicles parked at various locations along the highways not reacting to all the vehicles travelling at 20 kilometres above the posted speed limit was an eerie sight.

The Canadian country side was awash with water with thousands and thousands of lakes full of water, very different to our dry Australian continent.

We spent 5 nights at Algonquin Provincial Park enjoying many walks viewing different locations in the nearby area. We saw a moose in the distance and wished we had our good camera with us (left back in Australia due to its weight and bulk). Camped amongst the Canadian bush was just what our bodies were in need of with a marked return to our well-being provided by the beautiful nature environment. We loved it.