Temagami - Ottawa - Montreal - North Hatley

The last few days have taken me rather a long way from a region labelled by its inhabitants Northern Ontario (despite the fact that geographically it is well south of the halfway point!) to southern Quebec. Romeo (his real name) picked me up in his taxi at Smoothwater and drove me to the gas station where I waited for the bus. It arrived on time, I hopped aboard and we arrived at the terminus in North Bay a couple of hours later. Compared to Britain, public transport here (where it exists!) seems to be cheaper and much less hassle. I couldn't just turn up at a bus or train station in Britain and buy a ticket to travel several hundred miles for less than 40 quid! After changing onto the Ottawa bus I spent a pleasant journey dozing and gazing out of the window at the changing scenery. To my eyes the shop fronts and advertising look old fashioned, like something out of an 80s American movie. Although I thought exactly the same when I visited New York last year so it isn't that Canada is behind the times! Arriving in Ottawa just before 9pm I was lazy and took a cab to the hostel, Ottawa Backpackers. I had deliberately chosen an independent hostel rather than Hostelling International and in the morning I quizzed the owner, Martin, about how he had got started. It turned out that his parents run the independent hostel in Thunder Bay so he grew up in the business. At first they ran the HI hostel, then there were some political shenanigans and they got chucked out of the organisation. So they decided to start up independently. Martin's father put an advert in national papers asking if there was anyone else out there who wanted to run an independent hostel. The response was phenomenal and so Canada's independent hostel network was born. Martin reckons that HI must have come to regret falling out with his parents...there are now twice as many independents as HI hostels in Canada! Yesterday morning (Wednesday 6th) I borrowed some ice skates from the hostel and went skating (slowly and not very gracefully) on the frozen Rideau canal - the longest ice rink in the world. In the afternoon I took a bus to Montreal Trudeau airport where I met up with the friends I'm now staying with in North Hatley. I also bought flights to Deer Lake, Newfoundland. I thought of going there a long time ago, during one of the many iterations of planning this trip. Now it seems that it is going to happen! The plan is to fly there on Sunday evening and hire a car. Over the weekend I'm taking part in the Canadian Ski Marathon... whether this is a good idea remains to be seen...I haven't been doing much exercise this trip so I'm more than a little bit apprehensive. It will be an experience!