CON'T Trans-Canada highway dash 5000 km/10 days

britgirlintoronto — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 23:18:20 +0000

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Rossport to Saulte Ste Marie Michegan to Toronto (home)

Breakfast is delivered to our room in a small floral chest (juice, yogurt and muffins) coffee-making facilities are already in the room.

Fog and drizzle thwart the coastal part of our journey at this point. So much so that we have to pull off the road several times. Becomes clearer . Inland into Algoma and then back onto the beautiful coast of Lake Superior at WAWA (try saying that over and over – very satisfying. Stop at the Visitor centre there to pose by the HUGE swan statue – built by an eminent Wawa citizen to encourage passing Trans Canada travellers to stop off at Wawa and maybe spend some money in the town – it worked.

Fog clears long enough for us to enjoy this spectacular coastal section of the highway. Stop at Katherine Bay Visitor centre for some information on the area. Watch a film, have a coffee and explore some of the lovely sand covered spruce lined beaches. As we continue, the fog catches up with us yet again. Torrential rainforest downpour accompany the fog – once again we pull over a few times to let the lorry drivers with X-ray vision and no brains to speed past – indistinguishable from one another as moving spray.

Into Sault Ste. Marie where the sun is innocently shining as if it’s been out all day!Cross the massive iron and steel bridge spanning the huge Locks that link Lake Superior to the top of Georgian Bay. We stay virtually underneath this bridge on the US side at Soo Locks right opposite the heavily guarded Visitor Centre (open till 9pm), watch a couple of Great Lakes freighters negotiate one of the four enormous Locks, Stay at Askwith Lockview Motel. Chosen only for it’s location – though some idiot (me) hadn’t realised when she booked this place that it was on the US side (good job we had our passports with us!!) it was cheap and spotless. Again, pre-season Sault Ste. Marie on a Sunday night was a tadge soulless despite the cheerful weather, It was apparent from the range of kiss-me-quick shops that lined this street ( all closed) that it probably gets a lot of tourists in-season. We did eat in a very jolly fisherman themed (all nets and glass buoys) café that specialised in local fish from Lake Superior. Fresh whitefish with a squeeze of lemon, plain, simple and delicious….

Day 10

Breakfast was a re-enactment of supper the night before – sans vegetables – in above café and now the long stretch south to Toronto loomed before us. Only the top stretch of the highway to North Bay was unfamiliar to us although brighter weather accompanied us across to Sudbury and then weather was business as usual with torrential rain and even some bolts of lightning thrown in for good measure. Even at this point we just wanted to continue driving east across Canada rather than return home.

Stop off at Parry Sound for a spot of supper and then uneventful drive back to Toronto

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CON'T Trans-Canada highway dash 5000 km/10 days