Day 25 Thurs- The Long Winding Road!

What a buggar of a night ….I am sure I will leg John’s snozzell before long…sleep is a luxury at present…which in turn makes my happy state of mind nil.

Anyway with only a few hours sleep yet again…I set the Alarm for 5.15am but was up before that…pretty sure had we been able to stay put for the day would have gone back to sleep and woke feeling refreshed…instead I am like a bear with a sore head and nine to pleasant to travel with I know John can attest to that…

Anyway went down to reflection to ask for our little Brekky bags and my bag of iced water bottles and ice bricks I gave them 2 days ago to put into their freezer… well it would appear someone ripped open my plastic bag and took 4 of the 6 frozen bottles out of the bag…leaving me with far less than I needed to keep all out cold goods healthy…I was nine to pleased and being a bear with a sore head the poor little,r Indian night Porter who had done his very best to help copped my displeasure…. I had to go away while he tried to sort out the issue but as we had to get going..I went back again, once more letting him know I wasn’t mad with him but was mad that my personal items had been taken…even if it was frozen bottles…my perishable foods were relying on it… so I packed what I could and off we set…

Tim had texted at 6am to say him and Jess were not coming with us tonight to Thunder Bay and even though they had paid for it they wanted us to pick up their key and have it for them the following night…in the mean time they had booked another motel on the 1/2 point so they could do some bush walking and exploring of places on the way…

As it turned out we couldn’t see hardly any of the massive Lake Superior due to e trembly heavy fog which was with us most of the morning even up to after 1 pm in some places…sometimes it lifted and then just when you thought it was gone you would come over a rise then in the lower sections it was thick again……
So the chance of seeing much as we tried at many spots to look at the sights were getting dashed by the kilometre….

We did do some stops…Sinclair Cove, no fog very pretty spot….One to Old Women Bay..it was here I got the hugest fright think it was a coyote (which I don’t even know if they have them here 🤔🤪😂…. But it was a tall fox 🦊….he got as big a fright as me….we couldn’t see a thing here due to the thick fog and just as we were about to go Tim and Jess pulled up…they had managed to see the falls I had wanted to look at…but in his hurry missed the turn and it was too much of an issue to turn around…they took a pic and sent it to us.,.The other spot we were supposed to stop at was to buy an Apple Fritter which was apparently the must do on this Hwy…the place looked closed as John wizzed by…so I thought it was t worth going back…Luckily Tim and Jess had bought 2 big ones so he gave us half of his….It was like a big crusty donut maybe a little softer inside with apple cooked through the batter…then coated in cinnamon and sugar…it was very tasty…

Our first Morning Tea stop we tried to find something at Wawa yep that’s it’s name and no nothing opened this early or like so many places along the Hwy shut up for good…
The only place we could get a coffee and so thing to eat was Tim Horton’s and No our Tim did not partake ….to make matters worse Tim Horton’s due to staff shortages only was doing drive through…my goodness was there one heck of a line up…surprisingly the staff were chopping them through pretty fast…..So with a very burnt Americano which is a long black, a Cappuccino and x2 Farmers bacon wraps we were set…. Neither of us had had a proper Brekky so this was good even if 11 am and we had departed at 6.55 am… While in Wawa Tim managed to obtain. Bear Spray….bear sorry you ask…yep it is recommended if bush walking to have bear sorry to scare them off before they attach you…@$40 a can and it had to be signed for he bought us both one…crazy my goodness….in one way we wa t to use it to cover the costs, in another way we don’t really want to be confronted by a bear….😳😱🥴 thankful he bought it…gosh you should see the size of this can it’s the size of a good bug spray…I am thinking how do we carry it then if we get in to an emergency of coming face to face with a dear… anyway we are BEAR ready….

Up the road a bit further at White River we found Winnie…..Winne the Poo….
Story as follows why Winnie was in Whiteriver…

(The beginnings of Winnie The Pooh. Did you know the real Winnie The Pooh was a black bear originally from our Northern town of White River, Ontario? What's even more fascinating is that he is named after the Canadian city Winnipeg, Manitoba. The real Winnie The Pooh was adopted by a man in White River from a trapper and then eventually given up to the zoo in London, England. The real Winnie The Pooh was a female bear cub who brought much joy to zoo visitors from all over Canada and this is where she met her soon to be best friend, Christopher Robin Milne. Christopher's father was a writer, and the rest, as you know it, is history! Writer A. A. Milne published children's books based on Winnie and Christopher's special bond and in 1961, Disney purchased the copyright to Winnie The Pooh.)

Our next stop was a little town called Marathon that had heaps of Tiny Square homes all very neat. I told John I bet they were originally Forestry houses also after going to see Pebble Beach we came across heaps and heaps of Dongers in what looked like a miners camp…I told John that I believed this was for a Gold mine close by…And yes on doing a goggle search I was spot on, on both accounts…The square homes were very tiny except 2 story and kept Nat and tiny…just looked so devoid of personality on,y have a set of stairs to the front door some did have a closed in foyer built on the front…but all in all 100’s of very basic but comfortable looking homes…I said to John well at least no neighbour envy with flash homes they all looked very similar so no one could say they were keeping up with the Joneses or 🤔maybe they were 😁!

The Hwy when not covered in Fog got more and more spectacular with its craggy Rocky outcrops this the roads would have hard to blast through…unreal how thick some of the side rock walls have been on some of the cuttings…The trees went from mainly Forrest pines to a real mixture of different lighter coloured trees with the lines just dotted amongst them…And hundreds of lake, river and smaller lake scenes one after the other…I started taking them because it was just so unreal to see the sheer amount of water that this area has to offer… everywhere we looked there was sodden wet land and water, water, water… such a blessed country to have so much water…

At one stage John spotted an Moose but it was very dead 💀 ohh dear….
Our next stop was Terrace Bay were we hunted for somewhere to have lunch…Finally after chatting to the local Visitor centre man who wanted us to buy his scones or his chocolate cookies or his ice cream he pointed us in the right direction of the Drifters Restaurant..Bonus…John had the special of chicken with plum BBQ sauce and chips…I had the French Onion soup.. yummy it was too…Except the cheese on top was so stringy I was having a huge fight with it until I gave up pushed it to one side and just had the soup…From here we headed to Aguasabon River Gorge and Falls…Tim and Jess had apparently hike down to the bottom of them and they looked truly impressive…We only had time to see the top of them and just as we got there the heavens opened so quick pics and hightail it back to the car…
The Hwy got better and better the further West we have gone,..We finally made it to our accommodation at 5.30pm in Thunder Bay the Nights Inn that looks like from dursville in the boondocks and feels like it…but the need seems comfortable and it as cheap so what do you expect…But no darn kettle 🤨 really who doesn’t have something to heat water…well we do have a microwave… so guess it will have to do…to make matters worse we are right next to a Train yard so guessing it will be another long night…both very tired…these long hauls even with heaps to see are very tiring…Les mer