Tuesday 10 November 2009 - Pretty River Valley Country Inn, nr Colingwood, Ontario

... And what an impact we had! Heading into the last round, we were firmly in last position which was hardly surprising as this was a Canadian 1980s themed quiz. We didn't have a Canadian in our team, and we were all young children in the '80s (which made the sports round which was all about ice hockey and baseball particularly tough). Fortunately the final round of the quiz allowed teams to gamble some of their points on a final question with the team that got closest to a perfect answer doubling their gambled points. Since we were in last place we had nothing to lose and gambled everything. Then came the final question 'What are the full names of the four Ghostbusters? (character names not actor names)'. My face lit up, I scribbled down the names Peter Venkman, Egon Spengler, Ray Stanz and Winston Zeddemore and since no-one else in the room knew the answer, it came to pass that a team made up of three Brits and a Frenchman won the pub quiz at the Admiral's Rest in Collingwood, Ontario (and took home the $70 prize). I'm certain the story will pass into local folklore.

Since that euphoria, life at the Inn has continued as usual but as always there is lots of interesting variation in the work that we have been doing. Since the last entry we have worked on making outdoor Christmas decorations, cooking up some apple and lavender jelly, helping cleaning the rooms at the Inn (which are very swanky indeed) and cutting back the garden ready for winter. This morning we helped with the particularly tricky task of convincing the farm's three pigs to get into the horse trailer for their trip to the abattoir (or the piggy holiday camp as it's euphemistically known around here). It was a job that required eight people and at times resembled a game of American football played played between pigs and humans in knee deep mud. In the end, inevitably, the humans were victorious.

Yesterday I went for a short hike on Ontario's equivalent of the Appalachian Trail, the 500 mile Bruce Trail. It was nice to be back hiking again (and following white blazes) and we walked through quiet forests stripped of leaves (much like those at the start of my AT hike) and then down into some impressive caves. Tomorrow we are in for a special treat - a trip to the local Scandinavian spa - lots of outdoor hot pools and log cabins await!

Wednesday 4 November 2009 - Pretty River Valley Country Inn, nr Collingwood, Ontario

Toronto was a lot of fun, it had much the same liberal spirit as Montreal. We stayed at one of the most outstanding hostels I've ever visited - the Clarence Castle. Located right in the heart of downtown Toronto, it was newly renovated with flat screen TVs and very plush communal areas (which just about made up for the very loud snoring in our dorm room).

We spent a day walking around Toronto taking in the atmosphere in the different neighbourhoods (including the wonderfully named Cabbagetown) before taking a day trip to Niagara Falls on Wed 28 October. Our morning started a little frenetically as I slept through my alarm meaning that we had 40 minutes to make it from our beds to the train. Fortunately a quick sprint through the rush hour packed streets of Toronto meant that we made it on time. Niagara exceeded my expectations by some distance. I had repeatedly been warned that it was a tourist trap and had imagined something like a north American equivalent of Blackpool (albeit with a big old waterfall). As we arrived in the area close to the Falls, it seemed that these preconceptions were going to prove true - the streets were lined with video game arcades and gaudy tourist attractions. However, once we approached the riverside, the tackiness faded away and was replaced by a pretty spectacular natural phenomenon as two separate falls (the American and Horseshoe falls) pound water down into the large river basin. We paid to enter the 'Journey Behind the Falls' attraction which was worthwhile as it allowed us to get close to the base of the falls and see the raw power of all that water.

For our final day in Toronto, we had a mission - Lisa and I had decided to buy ourselves a small laptop. Having been repeatedly frustrated by the limits of available internet terminals at libraries and hostels we reached the conclusion that our own little PC would make life considerably easier and so we took the plunge (on the Samsung N110 to anyone interested). After trips to several computer shops, a lengthy phone call, a train journey and a bus ride, we secured the little beauty. That evening we celebrated our purchase by tracking down a genuine fish and chip shop (like real Brits abroad) that demonstrated it authenticity by serving some outstanding mushy peas (although there was a distinct lack of battered sausages and Pukka pies).

The next day took us towards the next part of our adventure - and something quite different to our travels so far - our first experience of WWOOFing (see here for more details). During our time in Montreal, Lisa did some internet research into some alternative ways that we could spend some of our travelling time. She came up with the idea of volunteering as a worker on an organic farm in return for our room and board. We contacted several potential hosts and settled on spending three weeks at the Pretty River Valley Country Inn near the town of Collingwood, a couple of hours north of Toronto (you can see the website here). We figured this would give us some substantial time in one place and also provide an opportunity to get off the well trodden backpacker trail from one Canadian city to another.

We have now been at Pretty River for 6 days and are having a blast. Linda and Paul, our hosts, have been very welcoming and it's like Lisa and I are members of the family. Tasks that we've got involved with so far include:

• Feeding the animals (horses, reindeer, pigs and chickens);
• Picking apples in the orchard;
• Digging out overgrown plants and replacing them with new shrubs;
• Building fences and hanging gates as part of a new horse enclosure.

Last night we went for a group trip to the cinema with Linda and Emanuel (another WWOOF volunteer, from France) and tonight we are going to try to take control of the pub quiz in Collingwood. We'll see if we can make an impact...

Photos

For anyone who hasn't seen my Appalachian Trail photos, they are available online at:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=117126&id=722472306&l=616d0ff5bf

For other photos from our trip, see the links to Lisa's blog at the very bottom of this page which includes link to many more beautiful crafted photo albums.

Monday 26 October 2009 - A bus from Ottawa to Toronto

For all of those people back home who have said that they are jealous of what Lisa and I are doing on this trip, take comfort from Exhibit A: Friday 16 October 2009. We awoke in the town of Augusta, Maine having driven down from Bar Harbour the previous evening. Our itinerary for the day was as follows:

• Drive from Augusta to Portland Airport to switch one rental car for another (because of some complications with our original booking);
• Drive from Portland to Burlington, Vermont to drop off the car at the airport;
• Take a taxi from the airport to the bus station to meet the 3:00pm bus to Montreal;
• Arrive in Montreal and check in to the apartment we had reserved for the week.

The day started badly when, as we were leaving Augusta, we realised that the drive to Burlington was more like four a half hours rather than the three we had allotted. This meant that our times were very tight. I drove to the airport where we switched over the cars (at speed) and drove on to Burlington. The drive was very stressful as we knew that making or missing the bus was going to be decided by only a few minutes either way. We dropped off our second car of the day at Burlington airport and hastily got a taxi. "How long is the drive to the bus station?" we hurriedly asked. "20 to 25 minutes came the response" - we had only 15 minutes until the bus departed. I felt like Jack Bauer in a particularly dull and stressful episode of 24. The taxi driver using all of his years of experience took us on a labyrinthine route and somehow delivered us to the bus station in all of 12 minutes. Inevitably after all of that stress, the bus was half an hour late, but at least we were on our way to Montreal.

Unfortunately as the journey had been progressing towards Burlington, our accommodation situation had been deteriorating. During our time in Winston-Salem I had found an advert online for a perfect looking Montreal apartment and had contacted the owners about renting it for the week. We had confirmed that we wanted to stay and spoken to them numerous times on the telephone. We agreed to send them a deposit of $115 to secure the reservation. As the date approached for our rental the contact with the owners went dead. They were not responding to our emails and the phone number which we had previously been able to contact them on came back unavailable. As I continued to try the number during the drive to Burlington it became increasingly apparent that the owner of apartment (if indeed any real apartment existed), one Akko van Aelst, had conned us into parting with our money. Despite our growing unease at our accommodation situation we both agreed that we could not be certain that this had been a fraud until we stood on the doorstep of the address we had been given (4321 Christophe Colomb).

Our bus arrived in Montreal and we took the metro to the address where we found no lights on and no-one home. After an hour or so of waiting (and some valiant attempts at detective work by Lisa, knocking doors and interviewing neighbours) it became clear that we had been diddled. We were stood on a dark suburban street in Montreal at 8 at night having driven for more than 6 hours (plus a two hour bus journey) and we now had nowhere to sleep. The pressure and calamity of the situation got to both of us - Lisa had a bit of a sob and I was upset and frustrated. Although we were dejected, we were not beaten. I used my cell phone to get the number of a hostel in Montreal and within 20 minutes we had secured a bed for the night. We arrived at the hostel and I was ready to eat something and turn in for the night, putting off any planning until the next day. Lisa was having none of this and instead suggested we got on the internet to identify another apartment for us to stay in for the week. We had planned Montreal as a special week for the two of us, where I would show Lisa some of my old haunts from my time there in 2002, and she wasn't giving up on that idea easily.

We went online and within the hour Lisa had identified an apartment, contacted the owner and secured us a place to stay for the coming week. It felt like a football team finding themselves 3-0 down with ten minutes to go and coming back to earn a hard fought 3-3 draw. When we arrived at the apartment the next morning, the 3-3 draw became a stunning 4-3 victory. It was owned by a designer who had renovated it himself and was huge with wooden floors throughout, a huge walk-in closet in the bedroom, a study and dining room (in addition to a very generous kitchen and living room) and a wet room shower. There was even an internet ready computer, a movie projector and satellite television. It was awesome.

With our accommodation finally sorted for the week (and how!) we were free to enjoy Montreal, and enjoy it we did. Highlights included:

• Attending a storytelling evening on the theme of love and sex as part of the Quebec-wide international storytelling festival;
• Visiting the botanical gardens' stunning Chinese lantern festival including hundreds of incredibly intricate illuminations;
• Eating the Montreal classics - poutine (chips with cheese and gravy) and Schwarz's smoked meat (unbelievable as ever);
• Watching the Montreal Canadiens ice hockey team batter the New York Islanders 5-1;
• Seeing some seriously huge bugs at the Insectarium;
• Watching two movies - Where the Wild Things Are (Lisa loved, I was luke warm) and A Serious Man (both of us enjoyed but found a little slow and very odd);
• Visiting Old Montreal and our second pirate museum of the trip so far.

More than anything though, we relaxed in our apartment made lots of plans (and some delicious meals) and recharged our batteries for the push west across Canada. Montreal was fantastic - it remains one of my favourite cities in the world - so it was with a heavy heart that we left our beautiful apartment and boarded a bus for Ottawa on the the afternoon of Saturday 24 October.

I think that Ottawa exceeded both of our expectations. It was a compact handsome city that reminded both of us of Edinburgh. As part of making plans for the next stage of our trip I called my friend Mac to make arrangements to stay with him in November when we arrive in Alberta. I knew that he was travelling but was shocked and delighted to that when I called he told me that he too was in Ottawa. So, after another visit to the cinema (Cairo Time - a distinctly average Canadian movie) Lisa and I met up with him for a few beers. Having not seen him for close to a year, it was great to catch up, plan our trip to see him and, most importantly, begin to plan our joint best man's speech for the upcoming and much anticipated Godwin-Simms wedding. Beware Mr Godwin, beware. Really looking forward to seeing Mac again in a few weeks time.

Next morning it was time to pack our bags and hit the road again, which is where you find me now - on a 5 hour bus journey to Toronto next to a sleeping Lisa Richardson (hence this epic journal entry).