23rd Oct day 10 on the road again

After time in the pool and jacuzzi we set off from Waterloo to Chatham which is very near the US border. Either we could drive straight down highway 401 or we could take the scenic route along the northern coast of Lake Eerie. Am sure you can guess which we chose. It was a beautiful day and the hotel receptionist kindly printed off directions for reaching Port Stanley, which is a small port on the lake with an unspoilt beach. It was a stunning drive on a bright day with breathtaking Autumn colours all the way down south on Route 4.

We had lunch in the grubbiest cafe there, it was an example of not judging a book by the cover, it looked so appealing on the outside. We then walked to the beach and stopped to look in the most fascinating art gallery. The art work was all from local artists and there were some beautiful creations across a whole range of mediums, both of us would have loved to buy something from there but commonsense prevailed.

Having been cheated of decent coffee (the coffee in Canada has been excellent mainly) we tried another place in Port Stanley. This time it was the exact opposite, the place looked tiny on the outside but was like Mr Ben's shop (that description will only make sense to those around 40 or with kids that age). It went way back and opened up into such stylish space but best of all they were serving hot filter coffee and warm, fresh apple fritters for just $3.25 that's around £1.70!

Our next stop was to have been Shrewsbury which is right along the lake before we needed to head north for Chatham and civilisation again. Carol and I thought we would have tea there but to no avail. It's a tiny hamlet with just a few houses. On the map it looks the same size as Port Stanley which is a thriving fishing community with all facilities. 

We have found Canadian maps and road signs are extremely lacking. For some reason in general they don't seem to see the need to put place names on signage, nor distances on maps. It's certainly made journeying around this stunning country a challenge. Also you can travel for miles before you come across the number of the highway that you are on, which makes checking you're on the right road interesting. 

We had a very funny trip when journeying to and from Tobermory a few days ago. I was driving so asked Carol roughly how far we were from a couple of places, she searched the area map for distances, when she realised they weren't on there she looked for a scale. Interestingly that wasn't on there either and the best she could come up with was which species of fish were in which lakes. We now know that Lake Sydenham has only 1 species i.e. brown trout, which would be good if it were the £1,000,000 question on Who wants to be a Millionaire but is useless when you are trying to find your way to highway 6.

I digress, as you know I often do. So back to Shrewsbury we came to the end of the road and had to turn around and drive a considerable way before there were any signs for the 401. But our trip was rewarded because suddenly out of nowhere, from between some small homes, leapt a fully grown doe. She bounded across the road just in front of us and disappeared into the cornfield before I could whip out my iPad.

Our onward journey to Pat & Gordon's was without further event and we received the warmest of Irish welcomes and hospitality, it was so good to arrive.