23rd September – Sudbury, ON, Toronto, ON, Saskatoon, SK

Seeya Sudbury. We packed up this morning. Dan and I pack very differently when we travel. Whilst he just screws everything up and crams as much as he possibly can into his pack, I like everything folded and rolled (my pack is 10 litres smaller than his) and is inevitably becomes bulkier. Case in point, Dan lying on my pack trying to get the thing zipped up.

After finishing packing, we then the hire car back and went out to the airport to catch our plane to Saskatoon via Toronto. The plane was one time (oh yah – another prop) and we were off back to Toronto airport for our fourth time in a month. We only had around an hour wait at the airport and we boarded another plan for the three or so hour hour flight to Saskatoon. So what do when the bulk of your day is spent either at an airport or sitting on a plane? Well, have a few drinks of course, to the point you start getting a bit rowdy and a bit stupid on the plane. Not to the point of waking Mr Excitement asleep on his tray across the row from us though! So we arrived in Sudbury, (it was 8 degrees) to our hotel. We went next door to the Shark Club which is like a sportmans bar but had (count them) 18 TV’s. Even each individual booth had it’s own individual TV. We had a few drinks and dinner and called it a night. Now, whilst it may seem like we have been living in a pub for the last month, remember that we are going to a dry camp on the 25th – so no alcohol. Thankyou for your emails concerning our livers.

22nd September – Sudbury, ON – Kilarney, ON

There was no way in hell we were staying in Sudbury today. So we hired a car and decided to head to the highly recommended area of Kilarney. The “short walk” I was promised to Budget to collect the car turned into a nearly 7km treck. But we made it and we were away (from Sudbury – yah). Of course, Dan was in such a hurry to leave, he burned rubber around the corner again – hoon!!


We headed to Kilarney. The drive in (about 100km) was full of autumn colours, again the oranges, yellows, reds and ambers. We kept pulling off the side of the road to take numerous photo’s. Each spot was more beautiful than the last.

Along the way we decided to make a romantic sidetrip to the rubbish dump. Yep the dump!! The guy at Budget had GUARANTEED us that we would see a bear if we went to the dump. We wound up the windows, noted the keep out signs – dangerous bears around sign (promptly ignored) and drove in. I was slightly crapping myself. I am terrified of being eaten alive by a bear. I had visions of a bear coming up to the car, opening the door, coming in and eating me (do bears know how to unlock the door?). But, we didn’t see one, NOT A SINGLE BEAR. Geez.


Anyhow we went to the world renowned Herbert Fisheries for fish and chips by the water. Now this place in summer, you can apparently wait for up to two hours for your order it’s that popular and that good. Personally, I thought the fish and chip shop at the end of our street in Mt Pleasant was better. Lunch done with, we went back to the dump, desperate to see a bear. Again, not a bear in site. Even after Dan undid the window trying to terrify me further!!!!

We drove to a bay and a dog came down to play with us (after scaring Dan to death thinking it was coming after him). He was a cute puppy and just wanted us to throw sticks for him to bring back. Which we did for a while. He chased the car back along the road, only veering off to go to his house.
We drove to Georgian Bay to the lighthouse considered to be the sixth great lake. It was freshwater and we tasted the water. It was great, even though later we read that the lakes are so clear due to acid rain! An old lighthouse was in the area and we shielded from the wind for a while and enjoyed probably the last bit of sun and warm weather that we would see for some time.



We headed back home stopping at various bays along the ways and lots of fall colour shots and Dan insisted on taking me to “The Big Nickel” as I had missed out in the week. Yes, very exciting looking at a big coin…. We did see more amazing rocks which had turned smooth from the glaciers.

Sudbury has one of the biggest Nickel Smelters in the world. It has a massive stack but the housing sits right underneath it where its emissions disperse. Would you want to live here??? Check out how close the houses are to the stack.


After covering some 350km’s we headed back late in the evening. Here’s Dan downloading Star Wars for me to watch up on site - a deal is a deal (as well as Anne of Green Gables Two)….

We are leaving Sudbury tomorrow... pass the tissues.

21st September – Sudbury , ON

Where about in Canada are we? Check it out below. Red stars show where we have been so far (including Sudbury), green shows where we are going on Tuesday.

Canada is similar to Australia in that it is split into a number of provinces (similar to states). We are currently on the east coast in the province of Ontario and will be leaving here to enter the province of Saskatchewan on Tuesday (central southern province). So far we have covered the provinces of Newfoundland, British Columbia and Nova Scotia as well. So as you can see with Canada being a similar size to Australia, we’ve covered quite a bit of ground over the last few and a bit weeks.

Unfortunately our plans to head to Toronto for the weekend haven’t panned out. Air Canada who has a monopoly on the flights here, decided they would charge us an additional $1700 CDN to overnight. Thanks but no thanks. Oh well, we will make other plans.

Last night we decided to go for a two hour walk around Sudbury back to the Ramsay Lake and its surrounds. However, before we got there we took a few shots of Sudbury, just to prove we weren't lying when we said originally it was a crap hole.

View out of our hotel room (no wander we want to keep the curtains shut).
What we were told was the local gay pub… err.. we don’t think so somehow.


More colours of Canada (sorry if we’re boring you but these are just amazing).

A big lump of Nickel Ore from Sudbury Basin which is what the town is founded on.

Mining statue – a tribute to the miners who founded the town.

Geese – yes we’re off terrorizing the local wildlife again. We only stopped chasing them when they almost ran across the highway across traffic… hehe. (Of course we checked no one saw us behaving like five year olds first!!)

20th September - Sudbury, ON

OK. So we were wrong. Sudbury isn’t the biggest craphole.

We walked a suggested boardwalk down along the river and look what we found. Ramsay Lake and it was beautiful with the sun setting. Dogs and people were out enjoying the warm evening and we got stopped a number of times with people hearing us talking and asking if we were from Australia. Everyone in Canada either knows someone in Australia or desperately wants to go there themselves.

Half way along the boardwalk we met up with Tom who we were going out to dinner with. The rocks here were interesting (even for me). Apparently this one along the boardwalk was formed by glaciers rubbing on it (or something more technical than that description I am sure).

Keeping an eye on things and a fall colour picture because... well I can.

At the end of the boardwalk I demonstrated my brilliant knowledge of wildlife when I said this “Oh, look it’s a baby squirrel”. Of course it was nothing of the sort but a chipmunk. Dan made some joke I found funny about Alvin and the chipmunks. I don’t think Tom got it. We had an awesome meal and Tom was great company.

When we got home, we were discussing our new purchase of -20 degree sleeping bags and would they be adequate for the cold weather? Dan and I had the following conversation.

Tan: “Dan, where exactly is camp, like what suburb?”

Dan: (almost wetting himself at this point). “Well you saw me email KM241 as the address for our sleeping bags to be delivered”.

Tan: “Yes, but what is the name of the suburb”

To which Dan pulled up the google map showing a highway.

Dan: “Well KM241 means its 241 km’s along the highway so the trucks know where to pull off to find us”.

Tan: “Dear god, we really are in the middle of nowhere aren’t we” (Tan remembers at this point the fact that the food truck missing the turnoff the highway and Dan was forced to eat cereal with yogurt for breakfast as the truck disappeared for another week and prays the sleeping bags will be there when we arrive on Tuesday).

We checked the weather again on this website. Three words O.M.G. Check it out here. We arrive on Tuesday. The daily temperature will be six.

So I decided to post the following:

The Four Times We Have Been Freezing When We Have Travelled But Are Nothing Compared To Where We Are Going.

1.Kleine Matterhorn, Zermatt – Switzerland

This was the first time I had seen snow and it was enchanting. However, note the blue skies and the fact it was by Swiss Alp Standards – relatively warm.

2. Jungfrau, Interlaken - Switzerland

Fabulous, beautiful. Half the fun was the train ride to the top that kept stopping to give you breakthaking views through the holes cut in the side of the mountains.

3. Germany - Zugspitze (the highest mountain in Germany - 2962 m)

Freezing – it had freshly snowed and it was windy. I had to go to the toilet to defrost myself under the hand dryer. We were traveling with friends.

4. Gallipoli, Turkey (Anzac Day)

I think we wore every layer we owned plus sleeping bags. Possibly the coldest we have ever been we agreed. We were right near the water with the cold air blowing off it for about three hours before the dawn service.

19th September – Sudbury, ON

This afternoon we went to have a walk and look at the some of the sights of Sudbury, so therefore this should be a quick post!!

Firstly, there was the watertank… wow! (think Hedland and you got it) Then the International Bridge (which actually had an Australian flag on it)
And the breathtaking scenes of the trains transporting nickel or something. There, now you don’t have a need to come to Sudbury, you’ve seen it all!! Oh, Dan actually saw the “Big Nickel” a stainless steel 5 cent piece... woohoo.. but somehow managed the smash the lid on his phone he took them on so don’t know that we can get it off. I know you will all be devastated missing that one!!

Hang on, managed the find one on the internet. It’s Sudbury’s biggest attraction – need I say more…. Today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day. We went out for dinner with Sandeep who is on Dan’s course and all the staff were dressed as pirates and we had to say pirate things like umm… AARRRR or AHOY!! Anyhow, our pirate language was greatly enhanced by the delivery of a basic pirate language sheet with pirate pick up line such as “Avast me proud beauty!! Wanna know why my Roger is so jolly?” and “That’s some treasure chest you’ve got there”.
Spread the word, something tells us “Talk like a Pirate Day” is going to be huge!!

18th September – Sudbury, ON

How we love thee Facebook. Today we received a Facebook message from friends that we used to live and work with in South Australia in the lovely mining town of Roxby Downs for three years back in the late nineties and early noughties. I still look at this photo in amazement and can't believe we lived here for three years! However, we lost contact over time.

As luck would have it they are both now living in Toronto. So, fingers crossed, we are going to leg it out of Sudbury Saturday morning and head to Toronto to see them on the weekend if we can swing flight changes etc. Otherwise, Sudbury it is (sigh from both of us) for the weekend.

We went to Respect is Burning for tea for the most fabulous meal. This is one of the finest restaurants in Sudbury with modern italian cuisine and big serves.
Who knew that Sudbury had it in them. Back to Peddlers for a drink and then walked home where we had to wait what seemed like ages for the worlds longest train to cross. Oh well, the boys had fun with a short ride.