During our time in Canada we visited every province
    of this beautiful country. We traveled coast to coast
    and departed St Johns Newfoundland for USA. Our
    Arrival in St Johns Canada meant we had circumnavigated
    The world West to East by the greatest landmass, namely
    The west coast of Ireland to St Johns Newfoundland.

   
Sign Post Forrest Watson Lake Yukon Canada. The locals will tell you there are over a million signs from around the world located in a small community called Watson lake. The story goes, a soldier working on the Alaska highway all those years ago who was home sick and so he put a sign in the ground with a big arrow and text pointing in the direction of Florida. Then his friends followed suit with signs pointing to there towns and as they say, the rest is history. Monika here pointing to a town in the Czech republic.
   
   
Wild Brown Bear Canada. Common site in Canada and Alaska. Often seen scavenging for food by the road side. They look cute and cuddly but extremely dangerous.
   
   
Visit Uncle Peter and Aunty Joan - Edmonton Canada. We departed Alaska and headed down to Edmonton Canada to meet for the first time in 20 years my Uncle Peter and Aunty Joan. They have a beautiful home on the south side of Edmonton and is was great to see our family for the first time in 18 months and be the recipients of Joan's home cooking. We visited the famous shopping mall in Edmonton reportedly the biggest in the world.
   
   
Uncle Peter Edmonton Canada. Brother of my dad Norman and avid Manchester United fan. Shared many a hour watching and talking about Manchester United football club as Peter Manchester born and bred is also a avid United fan.

   
   
Depart for crossing of Canada. We departed Edmonton, destination St Johns Newfoundland some 3000 miles away.
   
   
Manituba
   
   
Ontario was our favourite Canadian province. Similar to Alaska and famed for the great lakes. We decided to drop south into USA to visit Michigan so that we could knock of another of the 49 states.
   
   
Free camping Ontario - Terra Nova Tents.

   
   
Moose Cull. Twenty miles North of the USA border we stumbled across American and Canadian hunters who had just returned from a successful few days hunting. Here you see four moose which had just been gutted and weighed.
   
 

 
Michigan USA. We rode south from Ontario into USA to visit our 40th State of the USA. We stayed only ten minutes to get a souvenir picture then returned North into Canada to continue with our transit to Newfoundland.
   
   
Ms Doris Piddle - Toronto  Canada. Former Government minister and friend of my farther. Doris kindly offered us a room in a her beautiful home situated west of Toronto. We stayed three days and visited the world famous Niagara falls and enjoyed a night out in her local village which included a film festival in the newly renovated shopping centre.
   
   
Niagara falls. Just two hours ride South of Doris home was the world famous landmark Niagara falls. We toured this famous landmark and took the customary souvenir pictures. The following day a Canadian tried to commit suicide by throwing him self over the falls. His attempt died and was duly rescued whilst hundreds of bewildered tourists watched on. After a psychiatric tests and a formal warning from the police and lots of coverage on Canadian television. It is reported he then joined a travelling circus act headlining as the only person ever to freefall from Niagara falls without the any buoyancy aids and actually survive.
   
   

Monika Niagara Falls
   
New Brunswick October

We find it difficult to believe that, despite earlier plans to be clear of adverse weather conditions before the onset of winter, here we are still in Canada at the end of October. There are as yet still no signs of any significant snowfalls, and everyone we meet keeps telling us how lucky we are. However. we did get some light snow in New Brunswick few days ago and the real Canadian winter cannot be too far away.

Newfoundland  25 Oct 03

We had a sleepless night on board the ferry between Sydney (Nova Scotia) and Port aux Basques in Newfoundland. We would like to thank Atlantic Marine who gave us a 30% discount on the crossing. We reached Newfoundland at 7am and found ourselves in a rain storm with strong winds, facing a daunting 600 mile journey to St John’s, the most eastern town in North America. Ever conscious of the worsening weather we kept our stay in St Johns to just two days. We visited the city's most famous land mark, 'Wireless Hill', where Marconi installed the first commercial trans-Atlantic Wireless station to establish radio links between Europe and north America. Many tourists gathered around our BMW bikes, eager to know more about our trip, and their strong Irish Accents revealed the city's predominant ancestry. We received many gifts from the townsfolk including everything from T-shirts to badges to celebrate our visit to this historic town. We had one more goal before heading west to Nova Scotia and that was to visit Cape Spear, the furthest point east in North America. It was a short ride from St Johns taking only ten minutes. We stayed just a few moments, but long enough to enjoy magnificent coastal views of the Atlantic and admire a beautiful white, wooden church which stood in splendid isolation amongst wild open countryside.
We arrived at the ferry terminal at Channel Port Aux Basques after a two-day ride and waited six hours to board the night ferry from Newfoundland to Sydney, Nova Scotia. Our ferry crossing west was much better planned than the one we made previously. This time we rushed on board, determined to find a quiet location where we might catch a few hours sleep during the six-hour crossing.

Nova Scotia 30 Oct 03

Gale force winds and thunderstorms delayed the ferry's arrival in Sydney, Nova Scotia by 30 minutes. After disembarkation we had breakfast in the ferry terminal. We travelled eight miles into the town of Sydney where we stayed in the Delta Hotel. Delta had very kindly agreed to sponsor us for one night's accommodation. We didn’t do much -- just enjoyed the rest and relaxation of the hotel room. The 600 mile ride across Newfoundland, battling against their famous winds, had really taken its toll on us, so we just rested and enjoyed the magnificent hotel views of the harbour. The following day we met up with James, a Member of the local BMW club, who had kindly offered his home garage so that we could change the oil and filters on both bikes. This done, we said our goodbyes and headed north to Cape Breton National Park and one of the most beautiful trails in Canada, if not the World, to ride the famous 'Cabot Trail'. The Cabot trail Is 185 miles long and loops around the Cape Breton highland. The Cabot Trail could easily be completed in a single day but a few miles into this incredible journey revealed the stunning natural beauty of the location, making us wonder why we had not allocated at least one week to fully enjoy this wonderful location. The souvenir shops had all but closed for the season and the small fishing boats had long ago been pulled ashore. The main source of income for the local community is tourism and it would be a few months yet before the tourists returned in force. Most of the Souvenir shops and bed and breakfast premises were closed for the off-season but a stop for gasoline at a local petrol station revealed a pleasing community spirit. After topping both bikes with fuel we went inside to pay and the lady owner insisted that she treat us to a coffee and some chocolate biscuits. Six elders who were playing cards in the far corner of the room, stopped and enquired as to our well-being asking if we needed anything. The owner insisted on looking round the bikes and, like many others before, said how lucky we were to be participating in such an adventure. We said our goodbyes and rode a further 30 miles to Cape North, a small community where we had been invited to stay with Douglas and Sandra, a retired couple who also had a love of motorcycles. The following day after two tremendous home cooked meals in their beautiful coastal home we continued south West to complete the final 100 miles of the Cabot Trail and then continued onwards to Pictou, our ferry departure point to Prince Edward Island -- our ninth province of Canada.

We had a two hour wait so we decided to go for coffee at Tim Horton’s Coffee and Bagel House, an establishment we had never heard of until we visited Canada but to our surprise they appear to me more popular and just as ubiquitous as McDonalds. We parked the bikes and were about to enter when we were approached by a short, middle-aged man who introduced himself as the Deputy Mayor of the town. Like others he enquired enthusiastically about our trip and after two minutes made his excuses. Then, one hour later, he returned and beckoned us to come outside with two short taps on the coffee shop window. He thanked us for visiting his town and insisted we return in the summer when it would be much more beautiful. Then he ceremoniously presented us with two souvenir breast badges which we donned straight away. After a souvenir picture with one of the town’s senior dignitaries, we said our goodbyes and caught the ferry to Prince Edward Island. Once again, we move on with some pleasant memories of kind people and places visited, to add to the now many hundreds we have had the pleasure of meeting on this journey.