damo & kath get lost: toronto & lac a la luotre, canada

8 - 15 October, 2014

We're in Canada! The land of maple syrup, ice hockey and at this time of year, lots of pretty autumn trees and pumpkins for thanksgiving! It's also the home to some of the friendliest people in the world (right after Australia of course), and a whole bunch of cheeky animals like squirrels and chipmunks. Damo and I spent 3 sleepless nights in a crack den in Toronto (their website said "rustic b&b"?!), 1 night in an authentic Canadians' cosy spare room and 3 nights in a tiny lakeside cottage just near Mount Tremblant.

The highlights
Toronto

Niagara Falls! Woah. We did a full day trip and learnt everything we possibly could about this natural wonder. Here are our four fave facts:

1. Every half second the falls spew out enough water to fill up an Olympic sized swimming pool.
2. The first person to ever go down the falls was a 65 year old school teacher. A lady. In a barrel. With her cat. And she survived.
3. The second person to go down the falls in a barrel also survived. But died a few years later when he slipped on an orange peel. Talk about bad luck.
4. Unsurprisingly, most people don't survive the falls. We decided the most crazy attempt was the dude who jumped them on a jet ski with a rocket parachute.

Exploring Toronto city on a couple of push bikes! With only really a day or so to sightsee, we cruised around the city, checking out the groovy Kensington Markets, Lawerence St farmers markets, downtown toronto, the distillery district and more. Bikes are the best.
Seeing Damo's extatic little face when he realised I was taking him to cirque du soleil! An amazing show too.
Its not exactly a highlight, more of an "experience", but our guest house in Toronto is worth a mention... As is the mystrious owner who held Damo's ipad to ransome for a night and the lady nextdoor who spent another night screaming at her inner demons. It was not the best. In fact, it was probably the worst placd we've stayed so far.
Catching up with old friends from home - Bec and her man Jeremy, so lovely to see you two!
Catching up with new friends - Catherine (who I met on my yoga course) and her hubby Jeff. We were completely spoilt by these two for a whole day in their quaint home town of Niagara on the Lake. While Jeff took Damo golfing (on the oldest course in North America), Catherine took me to a bunch of stunning vineyards and distilleries for wine tasting and (my first experience of) beer tasting! The Canadians have some seriously tasty wine and beer. Then, we all met up for one fun and hilarious evening in their home and back garden, overlooking their own orchard?! They plied us with delicious pumpkin beer and local wines as well as homemade pasta sauce, meatballs and apple pie! We also got to sit around their campfire and stew in their outdoor hot tub. It was rad. And if that wasn't enough top notch Canadian hospitality for us, C&J got up before dawn (after a mere 3 hours sleep) to drive us all the way back into Toronto in time for our bus to Montreal! They absolutely spoiled us and we can't wait to return the favour when they come visit us in Sydney...

The highlights
Lac a la Loutre (a tiny little lake in the Laurentines, Quebec)

Living in the Canadian wilderness! From the comfort of our little lakeside cottage, we saw squirrels and blue birds, Damo fed chipmunks scrap pieces if bread, we watched the sun go down behind the lake and mountains from our porch and we got to enjoy out cottages hot outdoor shower in the chilly evenings! It was pretty special. And just so so quiet and peaceful.
We did a 5 hour rock climbing adventure up an epic cliff! It was incredible. And kinda like an obstacle course with bridges and skinny planks and tight ropes to walk across some 220ms high in the sky. The views were spectacular. I will let our pics explain.
Cruising our hire car around winding roads, along bubbling rivers, past still lakes and through firey coloured autumn leaves. Damo did a great job as chief driver, and I did an amazing job as chief navigator. :)
Without tv or wifi to entertain us we spent most of our time playing a variety of board games (including the usual suspects like Wizard, scrabble, scategories), paddling around on the silent lake in our boat paddle thing, cooking up yummy foods (including our version of Canadian Thanksgiving dinner!) and chatting on our porch. Nice.
We went to Omega Park, the place where the Canadian wilderness meets an African game drive experience! We got to drive around in our car and friendly elk, mousse, oxen and more would come up to your window and demand to be fed carrots. It was actually kinda terrifying. If you weren't careful you'd have a huge mousse stealing carrots from your lap. We also saw bears! And wolves! And coyotes! It was rad.

The Summary

Weather: it's definitely getting colder..! But still very mild for this time of year. Our weather highlight was prob the -3C morning that we did the rock climb - I thought I was goimg go lose a finger.
Surf: No surf. But lots of bike riding, rock climbing, outdoor yoga, board games and one paddle on that boat thing. I think we need to change this criteria item to "activities".
Food: Plenty of home cooking! Lots of fresh meals in the cottage and not to mention thr amazing homemade spread put on by Catherine and Jeff.

Beverages: Did you know that Canada serves take away beer in jugs called "grizzlies"?! Amazing. And that their wine comes in one litre bottles?! This place is out of control. They also make everything in pumpkin flavor. Except for - fun fact - roast pumpkin?! They make pumpkin cakes and drinks and they roast pumpkin seeds, but they don't make roast pumpkin for dinner?! They roast the seeds and throw out the pumpkin flesh! I have made a deal with Catherine that she will roast pumpkin if I roast the seeds.

People: Wonderful! Aside from the awful folk at our crack den, everyone is just lovely. Catherine and Jeff, Bec and Jeremy, our host Jason, everyone.
Accommodation: Do yourself a favour and don't stay at Minas Guesthouse in Toronto. It's hideous. But all our other accommodation was lovely!
Budget: About 30% over. Gah. But as always, totally worth it.
Overall: We like Canada a lot. Toronto was a big city, and it's continuing to grow - there are construction sites everywhere and 50% of the population are immigrants. It's booming. The falls were incredible and the surrounding Niagara villages were so quaint with their vineyards and orchards and stunning houses. Quebec countryside was also beautiful - the lakes, mountains and wild animals. In just over a week, we've seemingly seen it all!

Not quite though, next on the itinerary is Montreal and Quebec City...

Until then,
Kath (and Damo)

Toronto

Weeeee! Check us out. We're IN the falls!

Drying off afterwards is long and arduous work. I think we need a beer.

Double rainbow!

So. Much. Water.

Hello Toronto!

The best sightseeing is done from a push bike.

Cruising the streets, like a couple of bikies.

Kensington Markets were groovy.

Lunch with our fellow bikies.

Night on the town with these two locals. See you kids back home soon :)

Bike time again!

Surprise! We're going to cirque du soleil!

Sneak preview inside the circus tent.

Check out this grizzly! Oh and the huge beer jug too. Just kidding, that's Catherine. She's my fellow yogini. A beer loving yogini. And she's holding what she and her fellow Canadians like to call a grizzly. A huge take away beer. Mind. Blown.

Catherine and I went wine tasting. And beer tasting. This is inside a church that's been converted into a brewery! Best.

Beer hats by the campfire.

And check out the spread these two put on for us! Big love to you two Jeff and Catherine! Xx

Lac a la Loutre

Our lakeside cottage, complete with jetty, our hire car, porch (for wine, cheese and squirrel watching), outdoor shower and campfire!

Cheese and g&ts!

Board games. Damo losing this again. Ha.

Squirrels! Here he is feasting on damos latest treasure hunt of bread scraps.

We paddled this thing about for ages in search of beavers. No luck.

Our wheels.

Did lots of beautiful walks through the pretty leaves.

Mount Tremblant. Soon this whole place we be covered in snow!

Rock climbing day! A balmy -3C.

What a pair of groovy climbers.

Damo scaling a cliff like a pro.

Me belaying my way about the rock face. Just a 220 mere metres above ground with nothing but that little red string to catch any misplaced step. Too easy!