Storyline: Advantures in our back yard
Lunch in Paris, a whistle-stop in Scotland, a stroll through Vienna, a glance at Copenhagen and… we were parked for overnight camping in Port Stanley (Falkland Islands? – A) overlooking frozen Lake Erie….
A road trip through Southern Ontario has been on our radar for a long time. While still working, we had hoped to find time to tour it, locate a community and cheap property out of the frantically busy Greater Toronto and Hamilton Area, where we would retire. Alas when we retired, albeit a tad early, we found out that we need to be close to good hospitals because of Alex’s health conditions. So long, farm house with a small tractor, B&B (bed and breakfast), barn for a jazz club, and many more retirement dreams. We’ll stay in our home and travel around the world while we can.
And then… Covid hit. Most of you know that we bought a campervan we’ve named Doranya, in the fall of 2020. Doranya allowed us to do some road trips, being self-sufficient and self-isolated in our tiny home on the road, despite the almost perpetual lockdowns. We did intend to do more travelling during the winter; however, there was a “Stay at home” order until last week when many regions, including ours, moved to a less restrictive colour in the Ontario government’s rainbow scheme that nobody really understands. The weather forecast looked promising too. And so… I had and idea: let’s visit Europe.
For my European friends and readers not living in the New World, many places here are named after the old-world towns and cities. When I moved to Canada I was surprised and amused by it. In a way, though, it made sense. As people arrived from their native cities and towns, they named the location where they chose to settle after the place they’d left behind. Paris, London, Berlin…
I identified a few places in Southern Ontario named after European cities. Paris, Vienna, Copenhagen, Brussels, Lisbon. This was my initial itinerary map. Then Alex created a much bigger list. We decided to skip the British cities and towns. There are too many of them, and we’d never get back home in good weather. Which according to the weather channel was Monday, March 8 to Wednesday March10. Perfect, since Monday was when the Covid colour scheme changes to lighter one (less restrictions) for the regions we were planning to visit.
Mind you, we didn’t intend to leave our house on wheels, except for exercise; waking in parks or strolling in historical places, etc.
(Alex: The Ontario government website lists 1,953 municipalities, of which I estimate at least 1,500 to be readily identifiable as British communities or named for British historically important figures)
Doranya was winterized last October, just before the first heavy frost. For those unfamiliar with vanlife or living in warmer places, in Canada it can get pretty dicey. Temperatures below the freezing mark (often -20°C or even -40°C further north) can last for months. Any pipe or tank that has even a small amount of water can freeze and burst. And there are quite a few at risk in this little house. At the end of October Alex emptied the tanks and drained all the pipes. Then filled the pipes with RV antifreeze. Where we live, the temperatures below freezing at night can last well into May. Therefore, any travel before that time has to be without running water in the van. However, we have to use our WC. We pour RV antifreeze in the toilet which drains directly into the black water tank. This way not only can we use the WC, but we can pour any other water we use (brushing our teeth, washing ourselves or glasses, utensils, etc.) there too. We call this dry travel (no, nothing to do with alcohol: we love our little pleasures, cheers!).
I had planned our first day to the dot. There were not many places to visit and it would be our first night boondocking (this is how free overnight parking is called in North America) or dry camping (nothing to do with our dry travel mentioned above, because more often than not one still has their fresh water tank full and use the grey water waste tank as well). We’d have time for some walking through the towns, time to stop by historic places if we drive by some, etc. And perhaps because everything was well thought and well planned, we covered the ground and had extra time for more.
I wish I had planned the rest of the time too. Then I’d have known that we’d need at least one more day to cover all the locations we wanted without rushing it or without spending long hours behind the wheel. The rule, though, was to explore the beautiful scenery and farmland (what’s left of it) that only the small roads can provide. In hindsight, the second day was too packed, although we still had time to hike in the Pinery Provincial Park for a couple of hours, if tramping 6 km on the park’s paved roads, which were too many to our surprise, could be called hiking.
The last day was even denser in terms of places to visit, they were more spaced on the map and it took longer to drive by. We ended up skipping some in order to get home before rush hour. So next time, as we’ve said it many times, no more than four hours driving. One other thing to mention here is that due to Covid, Pinery Provincial Park was closed until March 8. Its first day of partial opening (only a few camp sites were open at the Riverside campground) was March 9 and I managed to secure one of them. Thus, on our second night we had electrical service.
And so, to minimize water usage and have some time to visit places, I precooked and froze the meals for 3 days. Our fridge and freezer are big enough to do this for a week. We packed a few large bottles of water that would last us during the trip, loaded the van with all necessities and some warm clothes and off we went exploring Europe in Southern Ontario.
We’ll tell you all about it in the next few posts. See you in Paris.
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