June 18 6,000KM -Thank you to Tracy - Leaving London heading for Niagara

Thanks Tracy for hosting us in the middle of your pretty cul de sac for a few nights, it was great to see you again and meet the boys. We look forward to seeing you more when you move back to the coast. Good luck with the move.

Arrived at Niagara and had a quick drive around. Stayed down town until 10.30pm.....looking every inch the small town family stunned by the tack and the bright lights of this gaudy, grab your money town.

Kids loved it, of course. Mini golf, midways, ferris wheels, house of horrors, mazes, casino's & cuban cigars - absolutely no shortage of people willing to take your money.

June 17- Thank you Colete & Mark in Chatham,ON

Rhianna and I left the boys in London with Shawn's former roommate of 8 years, Tracy, and drove down to Chatham to visit Colete and her family. I met Colete 27 years ago at Stockport College, she moved back to Ontario, then I moved to Canada and we lost touch. Colete found me 15 years ago, when she saw me on a TV documentary. We re-connected but have only managed to see each other twice in the last 15 years. Ours mum's live almost back to back on Meadway in Bramhall. Lot's of reminiscing, waterslides and icecream later, I am left wondering about the O'Riley family and whatever happened to Bernadette and Phil O'Riley - does anyone know?

June 16 Visiting Bruce Power - A Nuclear Power Station

It is not everyday that you get to visit a nuclear power station and leave with a souvenir uranium pellet. The tourist centre was closed when we arrived at 4pm, however Bruce Power is blessed with a spectacular communications officer called Patricia Mullen. Patricia, who was already at her car and ready to go home, re-opened the visitor centre for us, gave us a well informed fascinating insight into how a nuclear power station works and even let us watch a short video in the movie theatre. Needless to say we were extremely impressed and learned lots. Patricia makes an excellent case for nuclear power. This plant supplies about 20% of Ontario's power, with nuclear supplying around 30% in total. Interestingly they can't make nuclear isotopes here as their reactors are too powerful. You need much less powerful reactors to do that!!!

June 16 - Sauble Beach, Beautiful Beach at Southampton

After leaving the Bruce Penninsula, we followed the shores of Lake Heron south, through many small holiday towns, some with spectacular beaches. Sauble Beach is huge, miles of beautiful sand. I imagine it is a zoo in July and August with Torontonians, but for today we had the beach almost to ourselves. We should have stayed longer. We thought all the beaches would be a big on this stretch of coast down to Sarnia but they were not. Sauble was the best.

We continued south and stopped for lunch at Southampton. Very pretty town, great sandy beach with lots of picturesque lighthouses to framing the view of the lake.

Met some lovely and very helpful people from Hamilton. Hi Jim if you are reading this and thanks for finding the attractions brochure for us. It saved us $10 each at the waterslides in Niagara!!

June 15 Happy Hearts Campground - Tobermory

Stayed a second night and enjoyed a lazy day, playing mini golf and cycling around the area.

June 14 Sunday - Tobermory, Bruce Penninsula ON

Stayed a second night at Tobermory, scuba diving capital of Canada, they claim...Very pretty harbour and village and nice old lighthouses to look at. At the campground....Go Carts and Mini Golf entertained Rhianna and James. With the lack of mountains, Parks Canada build look out towers here so you can climb to the top to enjoy the views, which we did last night and it was worth the climb to watch the sun setting over Lake Huron and Georgian Bay. We are now off down the Bruce Peninsula, following the Niagara escarpment all the way to Niagara.

Rhianna wants to be in Hamilton for the biggest water slides in North America for her birthday on June 19.

June 13 Saturday Back on a Ferry!! Owen Sound Ferry

After a free night, camping in a hidden clearing at the side of the road, just outside Blind River, which remarkably makes it onto a national road map of Canada, we set off toward Espanola and a hop over Manatoulin Island to catch the Owen Sound ferry across Lake Huron.

This will save us about 350Km driving and looks like a nice route over to the Bruce Penninsula.

We are getting into Greater Toronto's holiday country now, more touristy and more expensive.

Staying two nights at a very green and lush campground in Tobermory that has a wonderful perfume of lilacs and cherry blossoms.