Day 44: Kenora - Nestor Falls

km today: 116.6
total km: 3049.3



This route through northern Ontario was rumoured to be full of wildlife, and it did not dissappoint. Today alone, we saw two black bears. One was a cub on the side of the road who saw us first and ran into the woods leaving us only with the sight of a bear behind.The other bear was the largest that either of us have ever seen.

We also saw our first live turtles. Note the emphasis on the word live as we already saw a dead turtle on our way to Fernie, killed by a passing car. In fact, it seems like most of the wildlife we are seeing for the first time (for example porcupines) are in the form of road kill. It is highly unfortunate. So the sight of three live lake turtles sitting on a floating log was a welcome sight. We don’t have pictures of all three though because they wouldn’t let us get very close before diving into the water.

Note the clarity of the photo even with the use of the digital zoom.

We were treated to a very warm welcome upon our arrival in Nestor Falls. The locals were quick to strike up conversations, offer advice and invite us for a slushie rendevous at one of the town’s two stores. Brenda was the first woman we met in town. She was very excited for us, and seemed genuinely interested in our trip. She was apparently so impressed with our trip that she felt obliged to instruct the grocers to put our bill on her visa. We were speechless, and then felt like asses because we had decided to splurge and treat ourselves to coolers. We didn’t think to offer to pay for those ourselves until after we exited the store.

After setting up camp just off the shores of Lake of the Woods we downed some dinner accompanied by our refreshing splurge: Fresh homemade mexican salad and lime coolers. A perfect way to end a long hot day.

We decided to head down and check out the sunset from the docks. We were greeted with a beautiful scene. The only person in sight was an old man sitting on the dock with his guitar singing along to old country classics with his Hank Williams-esque voice. He seemed to favour Johnny Cash, playing his favourite tunes without pause.

B&K