Here again!



Although it's Wednesday, we've been in Canada since Friday last.  I'll note down stuff now and come back and revise this entry as I make time!

We flew Transat from Gatwick to Toronto this time.  We were very good; Iain came to drive us from home to the Bus station and from there, we took coach to Gatwick, stayed overnight in the Hilton no less ( on a deal!) and walked across the bridge in to the airport at 06.30!

But it is SUCH a long flight!  7.25 hours from a 10.00 am take-off.....  Anyway, Toronto airport was super-efficient and we were away within 3/4 hour of landing; away to our slightly strange accommodation.  Not that there was anything wrong with it; it's just that it was fitted in above and behind a series of shop-fronts and had a long staircase  to all of the bedrooms.  But it was just what was called for; feet up in a cool room in the pre-storm heat of a +34 degrees afternoon!
At about 5.15 pm we caught a trolley bus / tram to Guy and Julie's.  They hadn't been in long by the time we arrived.  Julie was cooking a very welcome supper (Transat do generally poor meals; a pity because the rest of the service is fine) and we left at about 10 to drive back to the hotel, Guy having collected the car for us earlier in the week.

Of course, we woke at about 04.00 - then again at seveninsh, and dozed for a while before we drove back to G&J&L where they were breakfasted and all set for the day.   J had a long-arranged "Yarn-crawl" (Think pub-crawl with knitting shops) so, after we'd stopped at a house in a leafy suburb, remarkably doubling as a retail outlet for Spanish food and goods, to buy a paella pan, the rest of us headed off to Toronto Island for the day.  Sort of like a go-as-you-please Hyde Park without the rules, and a ferry-ride away.

We hired a bike for four and L sat in a special front basket with a safety strap and surveyed all around her for a full hour!  Just a lovely, relaxed day with lunch (amazing pulled-pork sandwiches) in a gentle restaurant under the trees before home for a sort of Paella for supper and (for us) a fairly early night.  We'll be back!

Sunday we left the hotel at about 08.00 and began the long, gentle pull up Route seven to Ottawa, via a couple of stops for coffee and a breakfast Subway (NOT brilliant) and P&N for cups of tea (absolutely brilliant) before the last run along the 50 and up to home.

And as we arrived, J&R&B&L had decamped about a minute previously!  They're here for the week to wild camp on des Mauves.  House open and ready for use in about 10 minutes; they pitched a tent outside the tunnel to the basement.  Supper was a huge Greek Salad and a blueberry pie that we bought along the roadside of the 50.  Sleep came soon after.

Monday - well; the grass has grown, and I hadn't made myself to clear about asking Gilles to cut it ready for our arrival.  But K&D turned up (when do they not!  Such wonderful neighbours) with weed eaters and a lawn mower and all of us got going to tidy up.  Meanwhile L&B took rides on Denis' quad bike; along the trail to the back track then up our down and back in via the drive.  They thought they'd died and gone to heaven!

 
In the afternoon, MORE kindness; we all went for a ride on Karen and Denis' pontoon boat, with a stop for a swim and standing on the sunken log.  Later, R and I made a HUGE Paella and the whole working party reconvened for supper in the fly-tent.

Tuesday - a slow start with a nip to the village for more bread and breakfast goods, and other necessaries and then J and Co took off on push-bikes to a local lake with a beach.  Ali followed later and met up with them on their way back;  I sanded some of the new little canoe.  The epoxy is now very hard - it's going to take some effort!

Supper was Paella revisited (it was a really big one!) and J and Co took down their big tent (thunderstorms were predicted, in fact it only rained during supper) and slept int he blue room.

Wednesday will get a new page!