After the successful conclusion of my Arctic journey in May 2023, I already had in mind to do another long journey by car, but one that was twice as long.
Just drive across Canada, the second largest country on the planet!
As is mentioned in the Home page, that plan was scuppered by a whole bunch of medical events, surgeries and ongoing treatments meant that the journey couldn't be undertaken in 2024 or 2025, so it's taking place now. But's here's what I wrote back in May 2023:
So, what’s next?
Sometime between March 6th 1854 and December 11th 1855, William James Robertson left the village of Old Machar in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, where he was born and crossed the Atlantic. His ultimate destination was Quebec in Canada East.
Why those dates? Because he got his Third Mate Certificate from the British Board of Trade on the first date, and married Mary Ann Kerr in Lachute, Quebec on the second date.
Over the next few decades, the family spread out, some remaining in the Argenteuil and Grenville districts of Quebec, while others settled in Sault St. Marie in Southern Ontario. By the time of my father’s birth in 1908 almost all the family were now in Sault St. Marie, Ontario.
The family of my in-laws also have some roots in Canada, but this time around Fredericton and Saint John, New Brunswick. So why not go and visit all these places in one journey?
But wait…. If I am going to go that far, then why not complete the Trans Canada Highway all the way to St. John’s Newfoundland? After all, that will only add 2,305 kilometers to the journey for a total of 7,343 one way – not much more than the total journey I just finished. Crazy? Maybe not:
When to leave? Well, this year I set off on the mainland on my birthday, May 1st, so let’s get a tradition going and leave the same day in 2024.