Driving

The Canadian rode network can be compared favourably with the UK - for the most part.

That...is not the problem. Every country has different driving conditions - in the uk, people (especially on motorways) tend to drive fast, close together. Not so much drifting along the road but a Pack - a pack of wolves, seeking to overtake and feed their lust for speed.

In comparison, in Canada there doesn't appear to be that bloodlust. Mostly.

The problem here is lanes. Lanes on a motorway - the outside lane, at least - seems to become an off ramp at random intervals.

f you don't know, and you weren't paying when it did so, you can rapidly be moved off a motorway, unable to do anything about.

This means that Canadian drivers arn't quite as predictable as their uk equivalents. In the UK, if someone is sitting in their lane, quietly driving along at a set speed, its usualy fair to say they'll keep doing this.

Not so in Canada. And the french orientated Quebec is worse.
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Anyway, right now as I type, we're on the way to Montreal, we decided to take a small sidetrack...to see some waterfalls.

Even now, in the depths of winter-
Not a very cold one though.
Shut it you.

In the depths of winter, the falls haven't frozen. So we trundled down a side road to have a look...

The roads grew steadily worse, the passable road growing narrower as the hamlets grew rarer. The snow was banked up on either side...a foot here, three or four there.

Across the road the biting icy winds blow - not mist, but a fine fog of snow in gusts. The breath of winter.

Still, we persevered. Until we reached the falls. Pulling into the uncleared car park, just off the road, we could see from the car that the place was closed. But that's not a problem, we can walk there - its almost in sight!

This idea lasted till Isabelle tried to open the door....and the snow was deep. Ten or twelve inches - a foot by most definitions.

Deciding that we really needed different shoes, we tried to turn the car around.

The snow wasn't co-operative.

After about five minutes of playing around, a kindly local stopped by. Perhaps 60 or 70, he nether the less grabbed from his 4x4 a snow shovel. Shoveling away the snow from underneath the tires, he then aided in pushing the car off the ice layer it had melted underneath its wheels.

We were free! And with a wave and a shake, he throw the shovel in the back and drove away, his good deed done.

And still the misty snow blew.