Where Are The Romans When You Need Them?

We have now reached Little Current on Manitoulin Island and are heading in a southerly direction towards Toronto. It's not the most direct east west route across Canada but this trip has never been about taking the shortest distance. To date we have covered 4601km. 

From Saulte Ste Marie we have travelled on Highway 17 which is essentially the main road east-west through Canada and that's hard to believe. For a country that relies on road transport for an increasingly mobile population and huge, huge trucks to transport goods, a single carriageway with no paved shoulder is increadibly poor.  

The shoulder on the left is a gravel and so the poor cyclist :( has no option to cycle on the road.  This picture was taken on a quiet early morning and soon after we were constantly passed by trucks, vehicles towing overly wide trailers, motorhomes and cars.  This road is totally unsuitable for this type of traffic and, to be honest, it's no place for bicycles.  However, this is Canada and there is no alternative to cycling this road. 

Furthermore, in every country we have people just shouldn't drive.  In Scotland we call them 'eejits' (English translation 'idiots'). They drive too fast with little care and attention for road conditions or other users. What do they do when they get wherever they are going two minutes earlier by driving like an eejit?  

As we are in Canada we will call these people 'moose heads'.  Well Highway 17 has it's fair share of 'moose heads'.  Nowhere in Canada, to date, have we witnessed such bad driving and discourtesy.  Time after time cars came too close and on three occasions we were so nearly side swiped. I have now learned to jump up and down, throwing my arms about, gesticulating, whilst continuing to cycle.

We also had 20km road works where they have stripped the surface of the road.  The contra flow is controlled by an individual at either end with a stop/go sign. They are supposed to communicate over the radio to let the other know the last car/bicycle through.  At one such contra flow we found the oncoming traffic had been given the green go whilst we were still not through.  We were met with ongoing trucks. 

When I reached the chap with the sign he was eating his sandwiches holding the sign. We had a one sided conversation and I'm sure his colleague with the other sign a kilometre away also heard my thoughts.

So we looked forward to the town of Massey where we could take the Lee Valley Road to Espanola, our destination. When we left the 17 we celebrated with two ice creams and set off the 24km down a quiet country road.  However, after 15km the Tarmac disappeared to be replaced by gravel for a kilometre. Gravel that you can't cycle on! 

Come on, even the Romans built better roads than that! 

What's it all about? 15km Tarmac, 1km gravel, 8km Tarmac!  We also know from other cyclists that this isn't just a temporary situation.  It's the permanent situation! 

So bring back the Romans and tell them there's plenty of country over here just waiting on some good straight roads.