27 - Phase Two

We left Algonquin Trails the day before we had to hand over the RV, taking two and a half hours to drive the 200 kilometre journey to Toronto. We arrived back at Indian Line, the same RV site we had stayed at overnight when we first got to Canada, and hooked up for the night. The site was now a lot busier as the season was in full flow and the weather was fantastic, with sunny skies and temperatures in the mid 20s – a stark contrast to the snow we had had a week earlier.

We had planned to hook up the RV then take a taxi to the airport where we would pick up our hire car. The taxi was to avoid taking the gargantuan RV into the cramped lanes and spaces of the airport. However, when we were manoeuvring the RV into place at the RV site, a lovely couple got chatting to Fred and offered to drive us.

Carol and Ralph, a retired couple, were living in their caravan while they waited a few months for their house to be built. They were only staying at Indian Line for a short while before moving on to travel some parts of Canada and the USA.

We left Tala in the RV while Carol drove us to the airport. We were grateful for the air conditioning as the temperature had risen to about 30 degrees Celsius. We said goodbye to Carol, promising to pop in later that evening to say hello.

We were pleased to be given a Dodge Avenger which had a little bit of oomph! Fred adjusted to driving the smaller vehicle as we drove to the centre of Toronto to visit the Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC), an esteemed outdoor gear store from which we planned to get most of our dehydrated food and a few extra bits for our first Canadian adventure. The store was massive and we spent a good hour looking around. I was thrilled to get a hat which meant I didn’t have to wear my old one that I’d been wearing for years which made me look like Worzel Gummidge. Fred got a Joby, one of those flexible camera tripods which can be attached to trees or anything that’s available. We paid for two weeks’ worth of dehydrated food (yuk) which included some salmon jerky (yum) and headed back to Tala and the RV.

We had to clean up the van before its return to Cruise Canada and we were all too aware that the guy who had given us the RV had said we’d automatically be charged $175 dollars because we had a dog. We were determined not to pay this so made sure every sign of dog hair had been eradicated. It took us a good few hours but eventually we made it over to Ralph and Carol’s van for a Tim Horton’s hot chocolate and a nice chat before returning to our van at about 1am.

In the morning, we quickly exchanged email addresses with Ralph and Carol and left towards Cruise Canada; Fred drove the RV while I drove the new Dodge. We stopped off at the nearest petrol station where we did a little last-minute vacuum just in case, then we made it to the Cruise Canada just ahead of the 11am deadline.

We were nervous as the guy checked over the van but it turns out we needn’t have worried as he said it was immaculate and that some vans are brought back with a layer of litter on the floor!

We had our $500 deposit re-credited to our card and we left the place a little sad to be leaving behind what had been our home for the last six weeks. We were also excited, feeling that we had entered phase two of our Canadian adventure, as we were now heading to Huntsville where we would make final adjustments to our kit before heading out into the backcountry of Algonquin Provincial Park.

We arrived in Huntsville and promptly booked into the Econolodge, a reasonably priced hotel quite near the centre of town. We took all our kit into our room and began the painstaking process of making sure we had all the right stuff to survive two weeks in the wilderness. We also visited Walmart to get all of our lunch and snack foods. Fred had been struggling with a cold for a couple of days and, unfortunately for him, it was coming to fruition while we prepared and he could hardly think straight. However, we finally finished and slept well despite the excitement.

In the morning, we had the simple breakfast of toast and cereal before we headed off towards Algonquin Park.