This Canadian journey is going to be exciting but it’s something more. The backstory is that late last year I was awarded a #churchilltrust fellowship ( in memory of Sir Winston Churchill) to explore retention of rural and particularly remote doctors. Something I applied for because of the passion  I have for my remote Indigenous doctoring work and the difference I believe committed health staff can make to the remote communities we serve.

The award was handed out by the Queensland Governor at Government house. It pays our travel expenses but we don’t get paid. One of my employers has been very supportive though as the findings will be very beneficial to our work.

As you follow this blog I’ll focus on the fun parts of the travel and blog some of the outcomes of the study/meetings separately so I don’t bore those not interested in that aspect!

So here we go (yes Ron is coming – as my ‘support crew’ as he lovingly puts it…) into the wilds of Canada…

My amazing sister in law is looking after the house and ‘our’ boys so we can go together.

If we can actually get in..

Made the mistake of ticking ‘study’ on my entry card when it’s technically not formal study and as far as Canadian government goes it’s just a leisure trip. But I was trying to do the right thing and had no idea why my pink- pen-crossed entry card made the customs guy direct me down a different exit to everyone else??

When we found ourselves ushered into a massive lineup of people who were all holding Mexican, Central American and Asian passports we felt that maybe something wasnt right. Had no idea how it happened but worked out it was the study thing because we had two and a half hours in the line to think about it! We got quite a few strange looks from our fellow travellers who must have been wondering what these tall blonde, white, Australian passport holders were doing in this room?? Ron said they must be looking at us thinking “Wow you guys must be REALLY dodgy!”

Inbetween being quite cranky that someone would be dumb enough to think that an Australian would be trying to illegally immigrate we actually got quite sad seeing all the sad and scared people and the bad predicaments they were in.

Was interesting to experience ‘the other line’.

Ron did another stellar job of driving straight out onto crazy big city roads driving on a different side – I don’t know how he does it.

29 June

Headed off to Niagara Falls on the Canadian side today. Wasnt sure what to expect as most people say it’s worth going and great waterfall but also sounded like it could be quite touristy and cheesy.

Pleasantly suprised to find it wasn’t too corny at all. Maybe because it wasn’t full on tourist season yet. But if you didn’t look behind you at all the casinos and buffet restaurants you could look ahead at the beautiful falls and really enjoy it. It was very impressive.

We stayed overnight and if I could do it again I’d probably just come for a day, check out the falls, do the walk along the river that was lovely – and then avoid the overpriced ripoff accommodations and eateries around Niagara.

Dinner was lovely though as we took trip advisor forum advice to eat outside the 2km radius of the falls and ate at a local restaurant called Moose and Pepper Bistro where the food was delicious, good price and the people super friendly.

That is something we’ve noticed already- Canadians just seem very friendly and kind.

Ron has also noticed that Canadians seem to be allowed to turn right on a red light if traffic is clear. Kinda makes sense and Ron reveals it’s the way he’s always thought it should be but it’s not allowed in Australia – quite illegal really.

So Ron got quite excited when he got the chance to do it and yelled out “I’m  doing a Canadian!” as he swerved around the corner!

30 June

St Lawrence Food market and Distillery district

Can you really make a day of food markets? Yes if you’re Ron and Lara and it’s Toronto’s St Lawrence Food market.

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As is so often a theme of our travels Ron found himself in foodie heaven at Toronto’s St Lawrence markets. Don’t get me wrong I thought it was great too but honestly I think Ron would just be happy to tour the world’s food markets and see nothing else! Lucky he has amazing metabolism!

The Farmers market was on too and there was lots of lovely produce including fresh yummy raspberries. The main hall was full of endless rows of good, reasonably priced food. So we ate our fill for breakfast of cheeses, smoked sausage, olives, mushrooms etc and then decided to walk off to the Distillery district to work up an appetite for lunch back at the market!

The Distillery district is a quirky arty farty little area made up of the old distillery area and is quite atmospheric. Sampled some local beers, watched France smash Argentina out of the world cup and then checked out the amazing gallery of @jasonleobantle who takes beautiful wilderness photos of Canada with proceeds going to conservation.

Then it was back to the markets to fill up again and get some supplies for later before resting the remainder of the day as my laryngitis getting worse.

1st July

Happy Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day and wanted to celebrate it like the locals so we took in a major league baseball game – Toronto Bluejays Vs Detroit Tigers .

Was great fun and a great atmosphere with the very patriotic canadians.

Ron even got to fulfil his goal of eating a hot dog at the baseball.

Was lovely to see how they used the Canada Day game to honour their military and police- especially the ones that attended to the Toronto van attack earlier in the year. They were given a roaring standing ovation and treated like heroes.

The shores of lake Ontario are dotted with lovely parks and shady trees which were great to be under on this hot day which was billed as a record heatwave.

Topped off Canada Day with another local tradition by going to the Ribfest. It was bigger than we expected with acres of cars and having to park miles away. It was a festival of .. yeah you guessed it.. ribs! Multiple vans that looked like what we in Australia call ‘showies’ line up displaying their trophies for their BBQ ribs and other BBQed delights like chicken and pulled pork. We couldn’t believe how many people were there but we got into it too. Ate so much meat I felt like going vegetarian for a week but wow was it good!