Fierce Creatures

It's been a while since I posted my last news, but I haven't had any chance untill now to get to an internet connection, but don't worrie I'll not forget you guys. At this moment a lot of things already happened, the last time you've looked I was still in Montreal, planning to get my next bus to Quebec city. The plans has changed a bit though and right now I'm sitting in a hostel in the farest Northern point of Quebec. The bus trip with the Moose network has been delayed for an unknown period and instead I rented a car with a friend of mine, who deceided in a moment of crazyness, to come overhere for 3 weeks. The first days of his arrival we shopped around to find a cheap deal and even tried to find a real campervan (but that wasn't for our budget and even not for our drivingskills, 30 feet is a bit to lang for 2 people). We ended up renting a nice American car with the company "rent a wreck", which isn't this bad as it sounds like. So 1000 dollars and 2 days later we finally started our roadtrip. The first stop was a National Park west from Montreal, Algonquin Park, where we camped for 3 days. Yep we also bought ourselves a really cheap tent, one sleepingmat (considering the size of our tent, one matrass was plenty enough :-) ) and something to cook some easy travellers food. The high touristic season starts in juin, so we had almost the all park for ourselves. It was great, the sounds of birds, the frogs, the stars in the sky and a nice campfire to warm us up a bit. We did a copple of walks, saw a lot of beaverdams (no beavers though), a lot of moose, squirls, snakes, turtles (who apparantly also live there, I even saved one from crossing the street on his slow paste), rabbits, some strange chickens who make a noice like a starting engine (this is something we found out after a one hour chase after a beaver, what in the end seemed to be a bird), ... and so on. The wildlife is indeed amazing here in Canada and on these 3 days I saw more animals then 6 weeks of holiday in Scandinavia (the landscape is a bit simular with Sweden, the lakes en the forest).
After this campingtrip we had to go back to the city life again and went on our way to Toronto again. Yes very stupid because I just came that way, but well my friend had to see the Niagara Falls as well. So my second visit in a short time, but defenitelly worth while. It has been only 3 weeks since I was there the first time but everything had already changed. A lot more tourist, everything was packed, the boots were working as well and of course now you had to pay a lot more then before.
On the way there we also passed a very pitoresk village, Niagara on the lake, where they have some good wine vinegards and an old village centre.
Spending the evening then in a city outside Toronto, Milton, where we had a small reunion with John and a friend of my travelcompanion (who know lives in America but was in Toronto for work) and where we had the chance to stay in a nice hotel for a change. The huge bed (American size) made it all worth while.
Enough civilasation for then and on the road again back towards Quebec, but off course first we got aqueented with the Highways of Canada. It's amazing how difficult they make it. On the Highway around Toronto they have 16 lanes (two ways) with so many different entrees and exits that it wouldn't be possible to drive the right way from the first time. The same thing in Montreal and Quebec where we also made a bit of a detour before catching the correct Highway and direction (because everything is marked with east, west, south and north but it's not always that logical).
Now after 2 days of driving, shopping for food and some other equipment to use during our journey (that's something we always figure out when it's actually to late) we managed to get up North of Quebec. The drive was very nice, along the coast line of the big St. Lawrence river that then ends up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Not only the landscape has changed but also the weather. Up here the spring hasn't really started yet, so it's pretty cold and you can still see some snow here and there. We wisely deceided then to sleep in a hostel during our stay here, because camping might not go that well here.
We spended 2 days here in a small National Park, Forillon, which is also great to see wildlife and to enjoy the ocean's fresh air. I've learned already some interesting facts about porkypines, who live here with heeps and apparantly also live in the trees. If you look at the creature it looks so clumpsy and slow that you can't really imagine it sleeping in a tree, but it does. Then we learned about he black bears who also live here in high amounts. On these 2 days we saw 4 black bears and believe me when I say it was a bit from to close by. I would never had thought it was that easy to see one, but everytime when we started our walks after 1km we walked into a bear on the path. The theory is to walk back slowly, not to look in his eyes, clap your hands a bit and then it should go away, but one of the bears was really interested and didn't want to leave us alone untill we got back to the car. Very exciting all to see it from a distance, but this was a bit to exciting. Beside the bears we also saw a moose again, some seals who were swimming along the coast and some speedy consales birds (who managed to get to a speed of 100km/h).
It's just all to much to talk about, but the pictures will say it all. I hope to be able to put them on my blog soon so that you all can enjoy these great animals.