15th June 2018

Our destination today was Sudbury, with the Satnav estimating a journey time of around three and a half hours. The sky promised a clear, bright day. We left the motel just after 9:30 am, once the rush-hour traffic had eased.

We hadn’t travelled far when we made our first stop in Bruce Mines. Passing a small museum, we quickly turned around to find that it was open. The Bruce Mines Museum is a compact local museum showcasing artefacts from the town’s main industry, copper mining (hence its name). It also contained an eclectic mix of items donated by residents.

After donating $7, we were given a personal tour by a well-meaning lady who, as she explained, was standing in for the usual guide. We politely overlooked her lack of knowledge and presentation skills, smiling and chatting appropriately. Still, we were grateful to finally find a museum open before the 1st of July!

We spent around 45 minutes browsing the exhibits, but perhaps the most intriguing aspect of our visit was unfolding outside. Local Mennonites were passing by in their horse-drawn carriages, dressed in traditional attire, on their way to the large superstore across the road. Our guide, with a hint of wistfulness, mentioned that they owned many of the farms and much of the surrounding land. I suspect that might be a source of local irritation.

Moving on, we covered quite a few miles before stopping for lunch at a Chinese-Canadian restaurant.

The traffic remained light all the way to Sudbury, making for a smooth drive apart from a couple of roadworks, where workers were busily replacing the road surface. Unlike in the UK, where roadworks are typically controlled by a traffic light system, here they prefer to have flaggers, people waving flags and holding Stop/Go lollipops to manage traffic. The seemingly unusual aspect was that these controllers were predominantly women or Indigenous, and often both. It made me wonder whether there was an element of ‘ism’ at play.

We found our accommodation, The Richard Lake Motel, without any difficulty, checked in, unpacked the car, and then set off to see Sudbury’s famous Big Nickel. Standing at 9 metres (30 feet) tall, it is the world’s largest nickel and sits outside the Dynamic Earth Centre, a technology museum featuring an underground nickel mine tour.

Unfortunately, we were significantly delayed by heavy city traffic and arrived at 4:00 pm, only to find the museum was closing. The last group of visiting schoolchildren were just exiting as we approached the entrance. We made the best of it by photographing the Big Nickel, reading the information boards around the site, and then rejoining the congestion to head for Plan B, Moonlight Beach.

Returning to the motel, I realised that at some point during our travels, I had misplaced the room key. Thankfully, the reception provided a replacement free of charge, phew!

We asked for a recommendation of a good restaurant and were pleased to discover it was just five minutes away by car. The meal was excellent, though it was something we didn’t order that left the biggest impression. I dubbed it “Death on a Plate.” It was an outrageous dish of potato chips, fried and coated in cinnamon sugar, topped with two large scoops of ice cream, and smothered in chocolate sauce.

When we enquired about it to our waiter, he revealed that the entire concoction contained a staggering 1,450 calories! He was particularly amused to hear about the UK’s sugar tax, seemingly bemused by the idea that such indulgences could be regulated.

On the way back to our accommodation, we paused at Richard Lake to admire a stunning sunset reflected on the water. Such a peaceful and fitting end to the day.

Back at the motel, we settled into our usual routine of relaxing on the bed and watching TV until sleep inevitably took over.