71 On to Niagara

Canada
Québec & New Brunswick
Nova Scotia & Newfoundland
Québec & Ontario
Manitoba to the Pacific

60 Ferry to Québec
61 Back in Québec
62 Drive to Tadoussac
63 Tadoussac
64 On to Québec
65 Québec
66 Québec
67 On to Ottawa
68 Ottawa
69 Ottawa
70 Ottawa
71 On to Niagara
72 The falls
73 Canadian wine
74 Behind the falls
75 Morty goes home
76 On to Toronto
77 CN Tower
78 ROM
79 Stocks, tower and dance
80 Toronto Saturday
81 Off to Florida
82 Coping with Wilma
83 SeaWorld
84 Back to Canada
85 Casa Loma and shoes
86 Killarney
87 To Sault Ste. Marie
88 Goulais River
89 To Thunder Bay
90 Thunder Bay

Canada: Ontario

Thursday 13 October 2005

I was still not feeling great today but was a lot better and we decided to head on down past Toronto and on to Niagara, another long drive. We opted again for an easy drive along the motorway. Our route took us through Kingston and past Brighton before we reached the outer suburbs of Toronto. Here we encountered Whitby, Pickering and Scarborough before reaching the main down town area. This we took not just as a sign that this area was settled by English people but that they were from Yorkshire.

Stef has been after a different lens for his camera which is why we headed into the centre of Toronto rather than staying on the main motorway bypass. We found the place, Henry's, he had called before who had put various lenses aside for him. I think that Jessops in the UK is pretty good but they are not a patch on this place. I have never been into a shop so big that it only focused on photography. They have everything from the equipment and films through to what you need to see the end result. They are just about to widen their stock range to also include plasma screens as with more and more people using digital cameras this is becoming the playback method of choice.

Whilst the stop kept Stef happy because he finally has the lens he has been after for a while, the downside was that we hit rush hour traffic on the way out of town. After we had been in a solid crawl for about an hour, we pulled off for a bit of a break and a coffee. The stretch of motorway around here is horrid. There is a main motorway but then along side this there is another part just as wide and then more beyond it. In each direction there were about eight lanes of traffic. Pretty hairy stuff, especially as it had become dark again by this time.

We have decided not to stay in Toronto yet but to first head down to Niagara Falls. We followed the road down to Hamilton and through Grimsby and St Catherines before finally reaching Niagara. At Niagara we took a bit of a wrong turn and headed into town rather than out of town to the campsites. It was worth it though for a taste of what is to come. We have never been to Las Vegas but I imagine this is a small version of Vegas. Everywhere you look there are neon lights and it has a bit of a sleazy feel. In the main down town there are now lots of high rise hotels. Heading out of town it is low rise motels, inns and massage parlours!

We had expected that there would be no one at the campsite to check us in but they all have a fixed routine for this. At our first choice campground, Campark Resorts, there was the usual set of instructions but no "sorry we've missed you" or "please" or "thank you". To me they created an unfriendly welcome and as there were other options we moved on and tried the Koa campground. Koa are a chain (American I think) but we have not so far stayed at one of their sites. Again here the office was closed but there were friendly instructions and a warm feeling was created so we opted to go here for the night.

Having stayed at hotels for the last few days we were again out of food and headed into town to get something to eat. Not knowing where the centre really was, being tired and also knowing that it can be tricky parking if there are no open air car parks we played safeish and stopped at the Falls Inn Motel. A big sign outside was advertising their Hungarian Sausage Steak so we thought we would give it a try. It came piled with fried peppers, mushrooms and cheese but was really just a burger. Nothing special but it did the trick and was a cheap meal into the bargain.

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