Est > Ouest. Driving Canada.
A road trip across seven Canadian provinces in the early fall was a chance to see, feel and understand North America anew.
Who doesn’t love a road trip ? The cliche of ‘freedom with the wind in your hair’ speaks truth.
As the finale of my six month’s travel I had fun, discovered immense natural beauty and expansive cognitive freedom on the looooong road trip across Canada.
American writer Henry Miller is quoted as saying “one’s destination is never a place, but rather a new way of seeing things.”
Moving west across Canada for twenty-eight days the late summer weather waxed and waned, a chance to experience my first real autumn every day.
After Nashville, I flew to St John’s in Newfoundland for a few days before a short flight across to Quebec City. I drove solo up to Tadoussac and crossed the Rivière Saguenay Fjord by ferry. I drove back down through Quebec to Montreal - complete with crazy highway interchanges, heavy wind and rain and all signs in French! I was on the verge of tears as I handed over the keys to the Parc Suites Hotel staff in downtown Montreal. The most stress of the entire trip - my confidence, and competence, as a driver was off the charts. I’d survived the drive.
After four days on foot soaking up everything fabulous about Montreal I was ready to pick up the keys again to drive across the border into Ontario - I’d planned a few days solo retreat on the Ottawa River at Dunrobin. I read books and holed up in the aircon from 35 degree heat - along with every other Ottawan. There was not a soul in sight except at dusk on jet skis coming home on the river from work and some low slow-flying geese.
I headed to Toronto via the Thousand Island Parkway and navigated city peak hour traffic. A great friend joined me to co-pilot the remaining drive to the West on the Trans-Canada highway to Vancouver.
The final odometer read 6,765 km when we arrived on the Equinox weekend.
“No road is long with good company.” Turkish proverb
Our peacock blue Hyundai Accent hire car at times felt like the smallest vehicle on the highway but served us well. We arrived with a healthy respect for space between trucks and RVs, bears, moose, elk and geese. We gave ourselves permission to regularly shout ‘KEEP TO THE RIGHT!!!’ and ‘PASSENGER IN THE GUTTER!!!.’
We kept our eyes peeled for First Nations’ Trading Posts for fuel and supplies, wildlife, border signs and turn offs for waterfalls, glaciers and lake-side picnic spots. The conversation flowed. Laughs, podcasts and playlists were shared. We marvelled at the natural beauty as the scenery changed from stressful city highway interchanges, to lakes and fir trees, grassy prairies and huge skies to snow-sprinkled mountains and tangerine-lemon coloured trees on the iconic Icefield Parkway.
I discovered that Life is a Highway is actually a Canadian song by Tom Cochrane and believe that a small carved soapstone bear was indeed a magical talisman. We didn’t spy a single hungry bear fattening itself up for the winter to come.
My camera roll is bursting, here are a few pictorial highlights from Newfoundland > Quebec > Ontario > Manitoba > Saskatchewan > Alberta > British Columbia.
I barely scratched the surface here sharing the experience and a month was not enough to see and feel all of this incredible country - I will return, that’s a promise.
Reading & Eating - (as co-pilot) google reviews for coffee and food in small towns about 2 hours down the highway.
Winner: Woodfire Deli - Souris, Manitoba.
Highly Commended: Zucchini Blossom Market & Cafe- Medicine Hat, Alberta.
Drinking - Coureur Des Bois Whisky a l’erable ie Quebecois Maple Whiskey
Listening - Parallel 69 by Quebec Redneck Bluegrass Project ; Sudbury Saturday Night by Stompin’ Tom Connors between Buffy Sainte-Marie, Joni Mitchell, KD Lang, Alanis Morissette, Avril Lavigne and assorted covers of Neil Young’s Harvest Moon and Helpless (as he removed himself from Spotify.)
FINAL #walkon2023 Step Count = 1,509,403
I am writing today from Ubud, Bali. A final week away to reunite with my husband before returning home to Brisbane, Australia. There is much to be grateful for and reflect upon from this six month #walkon2023 adventure. I have learned so much about art, the contemporary world, history and myself that will inform where I belong and how I navigate this next phase of mid-life.
Thank you to everyone who subscribed.
I plan on keeping this Substack active from time to time with short reflective missives.
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Thanks for reading! LdS x
Looking forward to having you back.
Congratulations- loved all your posts.