On the Road

We arrived in Toronto yesterday having driven from Calgary. The route we took was via the TransCanada highway leaving Calgary (Alberta) and passing through Regina (Saskatchewan), Winnipeg (Manitoba), across the top of Lake Superior through Thunder Bay, Sault St Marie and Sudbury in Ontario – total distance turned out to be 3380 KM. Some other statistics:

• time spent on the road (so excluding over night stops, but including fueling and lunch breaks) was 39 hours
• the average speed was 86.7 km/hr travelled
• wildlife seen included several pronghorn antelope, many deer, one adult black bear and four moose (a mix of adults and yearlings)
• the average fuel cost for premium gasoline was $1.44/liter
• average fuel consumption was 10.6 l/100 km or roughly 27 mpg (imperial) – which was not bad considering we were towing an eight foot long trailer, carrying three people plus lots of luggage, there were a lot of hills in the Ontario stretch (not to mention many slow downs due to road construction) and that the vehicle is a full size Volvo sedan which are not the most fuel efficient cars in the world.

For the most part it was an easy drive, although why Ontario speed limits are so much lower for similar road types than in Western Canada is a mystery (and to be honest, I didn’t notice anyone paying attention to them too much including the OPP). It was interesting to see again (this is the third time I’ve done this) the changes in vegetation, terrain, communities and wildlife. We would have driven longer into the evenings, but wildlife on the highways – especially in northern Ontario – is a real danger. Moose are really, really big animals, and given how many moose we saw during daylight hours, it would be really foolish to drive a car in the dark as they tend to roam about more at night. In addition to the damage done to the moose, the potential vehicle and passenger damage could be significant.

All in all it was a good trip – we will be attending my son’s graduation from university this week, and then return home via the US as gasoline is still relatively quite cheap there, plus we want to visit my brother and his wife on the US east coast where he has an old motorbike waiting for me.

Should be fun !