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Aug 27-28
And then we were back in Ontario where the friendly hills of the Canadian Shield and the forests felt comfortable. We had been ‘out of province’ for 78 days.
This time we did not take the by-pass but decided to visit Kenora, on the north shore of Lake of the Woods. It is far from Milton, but so much like it. “Smalltown Ontario” has the same feel no matter which one you visit. Kenora has the added advantage of sitting by Lake of the Woods, a beautiful, very large lake. Kenora is worthy as a holiday destination someday.
We camped near Sioux Narrows on Lake of the Woods, on the slightly longer (and more southerly) route to Thunder Bay via Fort Frances. At the Laughing Water campground, our trailer was 10 m. from the water – and we went swimming. Later that evening the loons called - ‘welcome back’.
Fort Frances was disappointing – a town in decline; right across the US border from International Falls, Minnesota. Many stores had closed on Main Street, though the outside of town was well kept. The parks – on a Saturday – were surprisingly empty.

Aug 29 This time we by-passed Thunder Bay; westbound we had stopped for three nights. It still surprises us that the Atlantic Watershed and the time zone change is just west of Thunder Bay; almost 500 km east of Manitoba. One stop at a small campground and the next day brought us to one of our favourite sites, Agawa Bay in Lake Superior Provincial Park. Crystal clear water! And – warm enough to swim. It was just like our visit four years ago. (Lake Superior contains more water than the other four Great Lakes combined! ) Ontario provided four campgrounds with lakes for swimming, though these were the only times on the whole trip that we were in the water, except the feet in the Arctic Ocean and a dip in the hot springs.

On September 1st we arrived home; 1900 km from the Manitoba border to home. No injuries, accidents, tire punctures or other mishaps; only four windshield cracks to repair. We are very thankful. There is nothing we can add to the words of praise for Canada that you have read in this blog, and it is our sincere wish that you too can experience a trip like this at some time in your lives. We learned so much from and about the people who make up our land. We are different and yet we have the same love and pride in our country, and the First Nations people have much to teach us, if we could only learn to listen.

We are grateful to all with whom we shared great visits, to those of you kept in touch by e-mails and to all of you who travelled along with us on this blog!

Finally a few statistics:
• The car travelled 19,233 km (11,950 miles)
• The trailer covered 15,590 km (9,687 miles)
• Average fuel consumption 18.3 litres/100km; 15.4 mpg.
• Total fuel 3,520 litres; 774 Imp. Gallons; 930 US gallons.

Two interesting distances:
Milton ON to Nelson BC (all Canadian route) 3,750 km.
Nelson BC to Inuvik NWT (shortest route straight north) 3,880 km.
Just to give you an idea of how far north it is to Inuvik.

Latitudes and Longitudes:
• Milton, ON 43.51349; -79.88280
• Furthest north: Tuktoyaktuk (“Tuk”) 69.50
• Furthest west: Dawson City -139.405518

WE ARE THANKFUL AND HAVE BEEN SO VERY FORTUNATE !!

25 Ontario again