GO! Girls Outdoors

Oh Canada!  Land of ice and snow which is a great novelty to us Australians.  Land of the most polite, friendly and helpful people in the world.  Land of hockey (I mean ice hockey of course), skating on outdoor rinks, curling and lacrosse.  Where every second backyard has a Canadian flag flying and a homemade ice rink.  Where every second person is carrying a Tim Hortons coffee and a donut in a paper bag.  Where all you have to do is stand still and someone will come up and ask you if you need directions, and where you make friends on trains, buses, planes or just by standing on a corner. 

We’re working on blending in by carrying around cups of coffee from Timmy Ho’s along with the Canadians.  They actually have a cool competition on at the moment and we’re carrying the cups in the hope of winning a car, driving across the country then selling it at the end of the trip to pay for our adventures.  So far we’ve won a donut and a coffee so we’re confident that the car is the next step.  Keep watching the blog on GO! Girls Outdoors to find out when we win!

As I write I’m on the way to Thunder Bay in northwest Ontario and as I look out the window of the plane I can see an enormous lake covered in great drifts of icebergs...and this is late March!  It’s supposed to be spring!  In Southern Ontario where we’ve been visiting my family for the past week, spring is on the way - while we were there the pond and swimming pool melted and a few spring flowers popped up through the grass.  Up north where I’m headed, it looks like Canada is still in the grips of winter.  Luckily warm clothing is super cheap here otherwise poor old Dave the Queenslander (and until very recently the owner of just one warm jumper) would have to stay in Toronto and join the bums who sit on the vents that blow up warm air from the subway.  I feel sorry for these homeless people and feel like buying them a ticket to Florida or Queensland or somewhere.  Unfortunately all I can do is give them a few dollars to buy a coffee - but hey, maybe they’ll win the car instead and that will be ok.

I have a very loving family who are hilarious and love to take the piss out of people.  Dave is getting the Great Morgan Tour of Canada while he’s here, getting to meet all my Dad’s brothers and their families.  In Southern Ontario he met uncle number 1, Paul (owner of the biggest cat in the world), who lives near Niagara Falls.  Soon he’ll be continuing the GMTofC to Sioux Lookout in Northern Ontario to visit Jon, uncle number 2.  Then he’ll go to Calgary, Alberta to meet with uncle number 3, also called Dave.  Having already met and spent some time with my Dad (the fourth brother in the family), Dave was used to the piss taking, making fun and hilarity and was therefore pretty well prepped for meeting Uncle Paul.  Luckily he excelled and can move on to location number 2 on the GMTofC.  All these uncles have families and friends which means that we are incredibly well looked after, and the Great Morgan Tour of Canada has been a blast so far.

So the plan so far is this - planes, trains and automobiles will take us from Southern Ontario to Northern Ontario, then over to Edmonton, then down to Calgary via Jasper, the Kootenays and Banff, then across to Vancouver via wherever takes our fancy, then over to Vancouver Island - which concludes our Canadian adventure.  If you know of people, places or events that would look good on GO! Girls Outdoors (or that are just cool), make sure you contact me and let me know!