Ontario: 23 hrs total, 2100 km
Northern Ontario, which is the part of Ontario you enter when coming from Manitoba, makes up part of the Canadian Shield. Most of the roadways are blasted through exposed granite, but parts of the Canadian Shield are eroded belts of volcanic rock that date back as far as 4 billion years. In hindsight, we should have explored more of this region, and taken time to appreciate it. This same glacial erosion left behind about a bazillion lakes. It’s impossible to describe how big a bazillion is, but here’s what a small region of northern Ontario looks like on google maps:
The first thing I noticed when we crossed the border, apart from the dramatic change in scenery, was how Ontario seems to be extremely dangerous. They indicate this danger through road signage:
- “Speed kills”
- “Fatigue kills”
- “Arrive alive, Don’t drink and drive”
- “Seat belts save lives”
- “Daze, Doze, Die” signs. (Yes, exactly this wording on a sign.)
- “Night Danger”, included with a silhouette of either a Deer or a Charging Moose
Are they in competition with Australian for things that can kill you? Although, truthfully, I’m on board where moose are concerned. Newfoundland similarly had tons of explicit road sign warnings about the dangers of hitting a moose. Being Newfoundland, they had tote boards showing moose vs human deaths. This is not a lie.
Lots of people will tell you that the drive around Lake Superior is long, and it is, but I also found it to be beautiful. From Kenora and Lake of the Woods all the way to Sault Ste. Marie (“the Soo”) you drive through trees and wilderness and Canadian shield.
The car gives you a sense of scale 
Blasting through granite to make a road 
Nothing but wilderness over the hill 
You can see the drill holes from blasting the rocks
I have a crush on Lake Superior. Its size defies reason. It is the largest freshwater lake in the world, and the second largest lake overall (the winner is a Caspian Sea, a saltwater lake *three* times as big). It’s also featured in the Gordon Lightfoot song The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. This is all to say that I was very excited whenever we caught a glimpse of the lake as we drove by.
Can you spot the tanker? 
As far as the eye can see …
In fact, the one and only off-plan stop that we made the entire trip was to walk out on a Lake Superior beach and touch the water. We found a stunning little beach in the Lake Superior Provincial Park to fulfil my dream. Unfortunately there is no picture of me actually dipping my hand in the lake.
The nicest part of the drive through Ontario ends at Sault Ste. Marie, once you leave the provincial park and the shores of Lake Superior. We drove on through some pretty boring countryside, through North Bay to the popular summer town of Huntsville in the middle of “cottage country” where we stayed for one last night on the road.
Quick aside: I’m not sure what’s up in Huntsville, but it seems like someone should have mentioned that summer starts July 1 because their main downtown street looks like this:
Huntsville is a mere 4 hours from our new home, so the final day of driving was a short one. We took the Algonquin Park route for something a bit more scenic, and then a straight shot down Highway 62. Interestingly, we hit some of the worst traffic of the entire trip in downtown Belleville, 25 mins from home.
And there you have it. 4,722 kilometres across about 2/3 of Canada to our new home in Prince Edward County! Good news: all of the precious whiskey cargo survived!
Friends and family we wish we could have visited: too many to mention! But now that we live here, we’ll be able to make it up to them.
Love all the photos. Welcome to your new home! Hopefully you will have lots of time to explore Ontario!