It's common to get generalised questions on Canada on this 'ere board from posters who don't appreciate just how bloody big the country is. I did something I've only done once before yesterday and flew from one side to t'other. It took 8hrs flying plus a 2 hr stopover in Toronna. To put it into perspective, living on the edge of the North Atlantic, it only take 4.5hrs to fly to London. Which is why you Vancouverites really do seem to be living in a different country to me.

As it happens the 10 hr cross Canada bit was merely the warm up for another 14.5hrs to Sydney. But thats worthy of another thread entitled "Australia - a long way from anywhere else. Except New Zealand." I'll probably post that somewhere else though.

Yours jetlaggedly,
AX

Sounds like a short route. I went Toronto-Atlanta-LAX-Seoul-Sydney-Adelaide. It took a long time. Nice beach though.

No direct flights from St John's to Vancouver?

I'd certainly like to drive it one day.

Yes, AX, it is big. Really, really big. I cannot wait to get back to my bit of it. I've been laid up with a stomach bug the last couple of days. If I am going to puke/vomit repeatedly, I'd really rather be doing it at home and not in some hotel.

Pretty much everything West of Toronto involves a stopover or change of plane in Toronto. St Jon's to Toronto is 3.5hr flight itself. (For comparison, St John's to London is only another hour). St John's really is the Far East!

Oh dear. Comiserations, I know that's no fun. Last time I was ill on a business trip I was in NOLA and that was before I went out to Bourbon Street. Where are you?

Oh Souvy, get well soon. My son had projectile vomiting once in The Crown Plaza in Fredericton.....I should have seen it as a sign It is so horrid when not in your own home.

My brother-in-law phoned from Calgary this morning and is coming to stay with us for Christmas It is an incredibly long way. Everywhere from Fredericton is a huge drive through miles and miles of nothing but forest before you get anywhere...sometimes I find the thought of the big vast nothingness, with nobody between, really scary, most times actually

Yes.

I drove all the way out to Guelph on the weekend.

It doesn't hurt to leave Toronto once in a while even though it is at the epicentre of everything that is good about the universe.

We did that trip in reverse so I know you must be exhausted. I hope you had an SUV with a snorkelly exhaust and spare wheels on the top.

A lesser man would have starved to death if he didn't know how to navigate the slip lanes to one of the rare half a dozen Tim Horton's drive through's en route.

At one point I had to run my wipers on full blast.

This is why I don't like crossing the 427, 401 or DVP. You are waiting for mother nature to pray on your human vulnerabilities and take you out.

I know you are all wondering how I managed to carry on??? Man versus terrain and all that.

Thankfully my cousin is a safari ranger in Africa so I've learned a thing or two on survival from his Instagram pictures.

And, when you've Daktaried to Guelph, what do they know? They know horses, they know cows, they know manure managment; human vulnerabilities don't get a look in with them Aggies.

I'm in south London. Just forced a sandwich down me and it hasn't come back yet, which is good.

My first wife is called Nola......

When we first arrived in North America in 1977 we flew London-JFK on the original no frills airline Laker Air (50 quid one way fair). We had bought an Amtrak rail-pass in the UK for even less than that and traveled all the way to LA via New Orleans by train.

I've always been pleased we did that because we immediately clued in to the vastness of the US.

Canada of course is even bigger.

Laker Air !

Did you have a Kerouac in your backpack too? It must have been a memorable trip.

Laker Air !

Did you have a Kerouac in your backpack too? It must have been a memorable trip.