Northern Canada Summary

This trip was always going to be very exciting. It included just about everything I had wanted to see in Northern Canada, or had missed in the past. When I went through the edge of the Yukon in 2016, I couldn’t see the Top of the World Highway  or the Dempster Highway (the ferries weren’t open because there was still ice in the waterways). As a result, I couldn’t see much of the Yukon in that trip. Most Canadian parks had been shut. The Icefields Parkway (Lake Louise to Jasper) was a whiteout. I’d never been to the North West Territories or Nunavut, Hudson Bay or Baffin Island, the Arctic Ocean... The major fossil sites in Alberta (the Burgess Shale and the dinosaur sites).

We decided to get a travel agent involved when we couldn’t find a way to get to Nahanni and Victoria Falls, and she found the tour we did there, and booked our stay in Nunavut as well. We went kayaking with icebergs and with beluga whales because she had booked these tours. Perhaps we would have done these things on our own, but possibly not. She also organised our flights. We organised almost everything else ourselves.

It was great staying with friends, meeting indigenous people and going on tours of closed sections of world Heritage areas with park rangers. It was fun doing a variety of things, using different forms of transport, and seeing what we did. It gave us a feel for just how big northern Canada is. We had a wonderful time together, and it was great having a travel companion (especially an excellent one).

While there were highlights that we have pointed out to many people, the whole trip was a highlight. There wasn’t anything that stood out as being better than everything else. Yes, we probably did a lot of things that are on people’s bucket lists, but that isn’t the purpose of a trip. We just had a thoroughly wonderful time.

Point Pelee

The southernmost point in mainland Canada is an important wildlife sanctuary, as it has quite a number of different plant communities, including extensive marshes and various type of forest. As there is an island chain across Lake Erie to Point Pelee, many migratory species of birds and butterflies  use this route. Although it was late in the year, we saw many butterflies there. Yesterday when we were at the point it was very windy and the surf was up. But today things were much quieter, and we visited the marshlands and walked along the boardwalk.

We went into the forest, through the dunes (which we really couldn’t see) and to the middle beach, which was much more storey than the point.

At the visitors centre they had a pond with lots of frogs.

Then we drove through Ontario to the airport to catch the plane home. The road is the main one from Detroit to New York, and down the Saint Lawrence seaway, so it was very busy with an enormous number of trucks going very close together and very fast. There are an large number of enormous greenhouses on the route.

The Northern Shore of Lake Erie

Today we wandered west along the shore of Lake Erie. It was very rough. And the lake was quite high. They have a lot of wind farms in the area.

Eventually, we arrived at Point Pelee - the southernmost point of mainland Canada.

Mennonites

It was Sunday, the day that Mennonites visit their friends in their horse drawn buggies. It was not the day that various Mennonite shops are open. We went to the Mennonite area in Ontario to see one and partake of Mennonite cooking and crafts. Sadly there was no food!

However, we saw many, many buggies - young men racing them along the road, family outings, grandparents and babies. No pictures though. You’ll just have to use your imagination.