by: Geoffrey Crane/Questacon
After we got out onto the highway north we were served some Ontario wine that helps the Sudbury community. Each of the (plastic) bottles of wine sold contributes a tree to the town. This is important for Sudbury because the mining and smelting around the city resulted in the loss of all the trees. There are thousands of trees now, and our bus contributed two more.
Some lucky passengers saw a black bear north of Barrie - some people even saw the bear's cub! And while it probably doesn't count as wildlife, we saw lots of beaver dams along the way (these were another first for lots off us).
We had a coffee and dough-nut break in Parry Sound - some people even got ice-creams!
All along the way we saw little rock piles beside the highway, especially on the top of the many cuttings. Mia told me that they are called "????" and they are made in the form of little people. Apparently they're an Aboriginal tradition that has been adopted by the wider (highway travelling) community.
The scenery along the way was mostly forest. Deep, rich green forest (especially to my Australian eyes). It's hard to imagine that the landscape was under snow and ice just a few months ago.
We finally arrived in Sudbury and when we got to our rooms we found a wonderful gift from Science North - a gift bag with a small maple leaf shaped bottle of syrup, fresh fruit, chocolates, a Sudbury keyring, pin and pen and a porcupine quill!
Tonight's function at Science North was great. A welcoming line of "blue coats" clapped us into the foyer. We had drinks, dinner and "maple taffy" while we peeked at the White Water (?) exhibition. Then we took our coffee and dessert into the IMAX to watch Science North's latest large format production: "Mysteries of the Great Lakes".
Finally we all took part in a drum circle and then watched Celina, an Aboriginal hoop dancer who had driven all the way from Ottawa to dance for us tonight.