Chasing a BOREAL Autumn

We embarked on this road trip to chase down the Autumn colours we anticipated would be exploding in Ontario and to 'shake down' the performance of our new 300ah Advanced Lithium Battery by GoPower. 

We dry camped at several provincial parks and mooch-docked with friends. We were off-grid for 3 weeks, relied solely on LOAF's 12v electrical system and propane with a large percentage of our cooking done on woodfires. The new battery performed flawlessly in weather conditions that were sometimes overcast and at sites that did not always offer the best solar gain.  

ROUTE

Wellington > Burks Falls > Arrowhead Provincial Park > Chutes PP > Pancake Bay PP > Agawa Bay Campground (Lake Superior PP)  > Chapleau > Haileybury > Kiosk CG (Algonquin PP) > Arrowhead PP > Mew Lake CG (Algonquin PP) > Pog Lake CG (Algonquin PP) > Bon Echo PP > Wellington 

CURACAO ... Corals are Animals

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   Yes   ...   CORALS    are    Animals

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Readers: The Blue information links are clickable

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How We Got ... HERE

It's a 4.5 hour duration (by car and trains) from our home in Wellington to a hotel room in Toronto. Dry driving conditions and almost balmy weather for our car shuttle but a VIA Rail train delay from Belleville; added about an hour to our total travel time. 

The flight to CURACAO was on schedule but Dann's personal suitcase didn't get on the 'dang' plane from Toronto.😒 Once we realized the baggage carousel was empty; it took us 30 minutes to register the issue with Westjet before we could take our shuttle to Papagao Beach Hotel and Resort and then another 45 minutes to travel across the island from Curacao International Airport. We were contacted later by Westjet and informed the missing suitcase had been located and would be sent on an Air Canada flight arriving the next day. Arrangements have been made to have it delivered to our hotel. UPDATE: 😁My luggage arrived within the next 24+ hours.

CURACAO is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Together with ARUBA and BONAIRE, it forms the ABC Islands. 

 ... here's a map.

A Land Tour of BONAIRE

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On FOOT  &    By TRUCK

🦶 & 🚙

... a short travelogue. 

We're also here to dive and snorkel; for that go here.

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Readers: Blue links are clickable

BONAIRE is a Caribbean island in the Leeward Antilles, and is a 'special municipality' of the Netherlands. Its capital is the port of Kralendijk. It's a small island, covering roughly 111 square miles, with a width that ranges from 5 to 12 kilometres and a length of approximately 40 kilometres. It is located approximately 80 kilometres off of the coast of Venezuela. Population, approximately 23,000.

The 'Fringing Reefs' of BONAIRE

 

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BONAIRE ! ... Just the Diving 

🤿 🐢

But, we will do an island driving tour later; for that go here.

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Readers: Blue links are clickable

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GETTING HERE

Our very accommodating neighbour, Tony (once again) drove us from our home in Wellington to the Belleville train station at around 11:00 am. We were on the VIA Rail train by 12:30 pm and in the Sheraton Gateway Hotel in Toronto by 4:00 pm; after a couple of additional shorter commuter and airport train travel segments between. We'll overnight here. This is a very relaxed way for us to travel and eliminates the hassle of winter driving on Hwy 401 into TO. We had some snow overnight so unfortunately we were not able to completely escape shovelling the driveway out before leaving. 

We departed for BONAIRE the following morning at 10:10 am. It's a 5h 30m direct flight to Flamingo International Airport, (also called Bonaire International Airport). The airport is located near Kralendijk on BONAIRE's west coast. We had an overall delay of slightly more than 1.5 hours; waiting for a replacement cabin crew member, tug truck difficulties pulling the plane out of a frozen puddle, de-icing the plane. 

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PHOTOS ONLY

If you prefer to skip over all the boring, diving-related text that I've written to accompany this post; click on any image or photo. That will launch a minimized gallery on your screen that you can just scroll (< >) through.

AND, just in case you wondered where BONAIRE is; here's a map.