Day 106 Toronto - Cardinal Onterio Canada
Trip Start
May 07, 2008
1
114
205
Trip End
Nov 22, 2008
Ottawa,
Ontario,
Canada
Friday, August 22, 2008
We chose to follow the freeway to by pass Toronto, head east towards a place called Kingston, we had read about an Early English Fort Henry that has been restored, it sounded an interesting stop over and look see.
The traffic moved at a reasonable pace along the freeway, at one point we were in a section that had 5 lanes with a small concrete barrier between another 3 lanes, all heading into the city. This gave a total of 8 lanes both ways in and out of the city, mind you, the population of the greater Toronto area, apparently, is 1/3 the population of Canada, so to service the greater area of a of approximately 10million people, it requires a good system to move them around.
We stopped at a truck/rest area and had morning tea, then continued along the freeway to Kingston. This turn off took us through a small town that has be held in a development time warp, from our short observations as we drove through.
The set out of the town had an English influence and the buildings and shop fronts were an era past.
We followed Mandy's directions to the Fort, she was being nice to us today, Except we wanted lunch and took a turn towards what we considered a river side park. WHOOPS! We were in a military area used as a museum as well as a training place for Cadets or military personal. We managed to find ourselves along side the parade ground and chose to present one of The Castles wonderful 3/4/5 point turns (without damaging the military parade quad) and headed back towards the river.
Found a park and had lunch, quickly before they called out the armed military!
Re traced our steps and found our way to Fort Henry, this was just in time to catch a tour of the Fort by a guide. The narration by the guide in old military uniform was presented in fast clip speech and at the end of each little point we were asked "Any questions?" Not many were game enough to ask any questions for fear of incurring the wrath of the guide, was a feeling we absorbed.
We finished the informative tour that described the life of the officers and soldiers during the period the Fort was Active(18 32 - 1880)
The restoration done is truly great to give us a glimpse of life at the time if you were in the military.
We also managed to catch the Parade presentation at 3pm, this incorporated a drum and pipe band as well as some militia men, dressed in period costume. A loading and firing of one of the Forts Cannon, was also enjoyed, the cannon were well preserved and mounted to give a wonderful arch to cover the approaches of the Fort.
This Fort was built to protect the Rideau Canal, and river of St Lawrence, The fortifications were and are recognised as a great monument of the era of the battle between the Americans and the English to attempt to control the interior of the American Continent.
The Canal was built(and still preserved) as one of the best preserved canals dating back to the era.
This Canal was built to enable the English to bring ships up the St Lawrence and Ottawa Rivers back into the St Lawrence, for supplies with out the requirement to go within the section of the border between Canada and USA that was only 1 kilometre apart at one point.
Well worth the time taken to absorb part of the history of Canada and the English development of this nation.
We left there with about an hour and a little travel to find our home ground for tonight, being a KOA park at Cardinal Ottawa south. Yes we are still locating ourselves within the KOA system, we have found them to be the most consistent parks which, we find suit our requirements.
Although it appears the net is a little touchy and we are not sure if this will managed to be posted today, never mind you all know we are safe and sound
