Day 11 - Kakabeka Falls (Thunder Bay) to Neys Provincial Park - 297km

Last night I wrote our journal on the road with the expectation that we would make it to Thunder Bay. However, we pulled into Kakabeka Falls, 26km before Thunder Bay and decided to stay the night so that we could see the falls in the morning. It is a Provincial Park and the camping sites were in the woods so the mosquitos were bad. Jen cooked a lovely skillet dinner of sausage meat, tomato and bow tie pasta. 
Unfortunately, the handle bar of one of the mountain bikes smashed one of our back windows so now we have some added ventilation. I didn’t take a photo because I was too angry:

1. at my not putting the cloth over the handle bar to protect the window,
2. the mosquitos were driving me mad as I was trying to put the broken glass in a garbage bag.
3. I was tired, hungry and cranky after a very long drive.

This morning we woke up at 8:00am which is early considering that we are now on Ontario time (5:00am in BC). We took a walk down to the falls and they were spectacular. Apparently, the third largest falls (by volume) in Ontario. When I heard this, I thought ‘big deal’ until I remembered that Niagara Falls is in Ontario.

Kakabeka Falls, ON

The falls were tea colored I guess due to the high water.

I have to say at this point to all the people thats ay driving through Ontario is boring. They are wrong. So far, Northern Ontario has been beautiful, no spectacular!

Kenora was amazing, Kakabeka falls, awesome and the place we are staying now stunning! 


The drive from Thunder Bay (along Highway 17) was over gently rolling hills following the northern tip of Lake Superior. There is an alternate route along Highway 11 that goes up through Timmins which is supposed to be very flat but much faster. Lake Superior, when you see it for the first time is breathtaking. It is huge! I guess it would be as it is the largest lake (by surface area) in the world. 

We stopped at the Terry Fox monument. This is the place where Terry Fox could not go on any further after starting from St Johns, NF, five provinces and 3039km before. It was very moving reading about how he had touched the heart of so many people across Canada and the world.

Jenny ‘facetimed’ Anita to find her wearing a winter jacket at home in BC while we were in t-shirts with blue sky behind us. Jemma facetimed her teacher and said 'hi' to her whole class, who were getting ready for the grade 7 grad. It was lovely to see our friends after so many days on the road..lol.

Terry Fox Monument, Thunder Bay, ON

We ran out of steam after only 300 clicks today. We read about a Provincial Park called Neys and pulled on in. We were surprised when the attendant asked us if we wanted a beach front spot. We are now parked on a beautiful sandy beach right on the shore of Lake Superior!

Jemma and Ryan went for a swim and we explored and biked along the shore. 

What a great few days! We will see how far past Saule Ste Marie we get tomorrow.

We are booked in to the camp site in Ottawa on Saturday night so we have a few days to get there yet.

Neys Provincial Park, ON

Neys Provincial Park, ON