Cold War Ottawa

Deep underground - Diefenbunker

After leaving NB we had two one night stays in Quebec. The first at Rivière du Loop, east of Quebec City, and another on the outskirts of Montréal.

Rivière du Loop

The first had lovely views over a bay on the St Lawrence River and the second, a KOA campground had washrooms befitting a five star hotel. Thursday was the beginning of a three-day stay, close to Ottawa at Thompson's Black Rock Campground, close to Carleton Place where some good Coast friends have their main home.

Thompson's is a large farm and producer of Maple Syrup. A walk through their woodland trails is like navigating a spiders web of small, medium and large sap-gathering lines that flow from the taps in ever-increasing size to storage tanks that hold the raw sap in the Spring before it is boiled down to produce the prized syrup.

The campsite was in a woodland setting on the side of a lake. It was a bit of a challenge to get the trailer in and out with the owner Farmer Thompson guiding me in! Driving down a long trail, a three point turn at the bottom and then back up the trail to back in to the angled camp spot.

Maple sap gathering lines

We spent the weekend exploring Ottawa with our personal tour guides, starting with a trip to a craft brewery (of course!) then to Canada's former Cold War bunker, the 'Diefenbunker'. Commissioned by the former Canadian Prime Minister John Diefenbaeker whose name was used as the nickname for the bunker by the opposition parties of the day.

Started in 1959 it was fully operational by 1962. Built to withstand a 5-megaton bomb from a distance of 1.5 km; which fortunately, was never put to the test.

Ninety feet below ground four subterranean levels totalling 100,000 sq ft, were expected to accommodate government leadership in a nuclear attack for 90 days.

It took 32,000 cubic yards of hand-poured concrete and 5,000 tons of steel to build.

Diefenbunker

Decommissioned in 1994 it is now a museum and a fascinating insight into 1960's and 70's emergency defence planning and technology. I particularly liked the communications and broadcast systems.

The bunker was a few hundred yards up the road from the award winning Kin Vineyard where we sampled the wines and had lunch. It's situated on the Carp Ridge, in the Ottawa Valley. We left with half a dozen bottles, three of their excellent "Decanter" award-winning Chardonnay (and I am not a great chardonnay drinker), and three Pinot Noir to add to the Coast cellar. I fear they may not last that long. Lunch was tacos, plus a famously local ice cream delicacy that one just had to sample - a Chocolat Favori -whipped icecream dipped in a wide variety of hot chocolate sauce) which filled us up for the rest of the day. We were all a bit too full to enjoy the pulled pork supper that our dear friend had prepared.

Kin Winery

Sunday was downtown Ottawa and the Canadian Police College (CPC), the seat of Government, the Rideau Canal, a Beaver Tail and, you guessed it, another brewery. Twelve kilometers later we were 'done in'.

The CPC is home to the RCMP Mounted Police training school for the Musical Ride, a police college, forensics school, bomb squad school and a wide range of other specialisms. The grounds are open to the public and hold events in the arena in the grounds. Our friend who was our personal tour guide for the day was a former RCMP officer, so it was an insightful visit.

The Parliament buildings feel more extensive than those in the UK and some of the architecture was not dissimilar to the Palace of Westminster.

Centre Block being photobombed by
some tourists and a tour guide

The iconic main parliament building, unglamously named the Centre Block which normally houses the Commons and Senate, is in the middle of a ten year refurbishment programme so the two chambers have been moved to other buildings in the parliamentary estate.

The walk took us down to the Rideau Canal, a historic man-made waterway in Ontario that connects the Ottawa River to Lake Ottawa, running for 202 kilometers through a network of lakes, rivers and 24 locks. Designated a National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Rideau Canal is famous for its preserved 19th-century winch technology for the operation of its historic locks, and its recreational uses, including boating, cycling, and the world's largest naturally frozen skating rink.

On to the Beaver Tails, a sweet pastry, offered with a variety of toppings and probably a 1000 calories a slice. Fred and I shared one! By this time we had built up a bit of a thirst and retired to a pub with views over the Parliamentary library behind Centre Block (which is still open), the National Arts Centre and the river.

As we wandered back to the car, Doug recounted the headlines of his work as a forensics officer on the parliamentary shooting in 2014. You can read more here.

It was such a delight to catch up with our Coast friends, enjoy their warm hospitality and explore their home part of Canada.

The first Monday of September is Labour Day, a public holiday across Canada. It marks the end of summer and schools reopening. As vacationers were heading back to the cities, we drove in the opposite direction to Huntsville. A town we first visited from the UK in 2000 when we had a two week holiday on Lake Vernon. It has changed a lot in the last 25 years though still retains its traditional charm in the old part of town.

Tuesday morning the Tundra was serviced (the main reason for stopping in Huntsville) and on Wednesday we hiked around Arrowhead Provincial Park lake trail, before retiring to Huntsville for lunch. We ate at the same "On the Docks Pub' we dined at 25 years prior, overlooking the water. The only difference this time was we didn't arrive by boat and 'park' outside the pub.

No boat this time!

The Huntsville camp is set alongside a rather low Big East River, though deep enough for Jack to maintain his plan to swim across Canada.

As well as the river the camp has some lagoons that are filled when the river is higher. In fact we learnt that the whole lower campside is a flood plain and can be filled with water. The pavilion has height marks designating the various floods that have occurred over the years.

I was standing at least six feet above the current water level and the highest flood mark was at least 2 feet higher than me! I'm 6ft.

The lagoons are home to the local population of Painted Turtles, toads and other wildlife, though the turtles were quite skittish when I went get some pictures. They were not easy to photograph.

Our journey on from Huntsville was to Sudbury to visit Lizzie's mum. We had a lovely couple of evenings and day and a half together before packing up and starting some of the longer 'distance-driving' days to get back to BC. Sudbury was wet and windy. Sunday morning high winds buffeted the trailer.

It was only after that we learnt there was a tornado warning running to the west of our campsite. No wonder we were 'rockin'!

From Sudbury onwards, we are going to be averaging around 450km a day, booking each site a day or two ahead. With the schools now back, the likelihood of camps being fully booked is remote.

Our next stop was one of the best camps we have been to. A new concrete hardstand, paved patio with a round picnic table and chairs, a campfire with adirondack chairs and our own private dock on the lake with two more chairs.

We awoke with rain and 5C so there was no way we were going to enjoy the facilities. This weather is 'not normal' the camp owner said as he showed us to our site. I found I'd left the snow chains in the truck when we left BC, I am now thinking that may not have been such a stupid idea. It was one of the best sites we have stayed at during our trip. Top class!

Sunday and we set off westwards on Hwy 11 for a 390 km drive to Wild Goose Lake some 300km east of Thunder Bay. It was raining on and off the whole journey, but the road was empty, straight, no phone signal, very few gas stations and lots of trees.

Hwy 11 just us and lots of trees

It really did emphasise not only the size of Ontario, but Canada as a whole.

I've got into the habit of downloading off-line maps for each sector. Just as well given the absence of cell coverage for most of this part of the journey. The remoteness and isolation of the route apart from occasional small towns and settlements was quite extraordinary.

Many of the roads joining Hwy 11 were unpaved and out of curiosity we checked how much of Canada's road system is actually a paved surface.

Initial research suggest that only 40% of Canada's one million km of roads are paved - some 415,600km. We've driven on a few of them!

Monday Sept 8th and we have ahead of us one of the longest sectors on the return journey, 6 hours and 528 km to Sandbar Lake Provincial Park, close to the Manitoba/Ontario provincial boundary.

Some more pics of the last week: