I recently completed different take on "Tour of Southwest Ontario", which is one of the my club's 600 km brevets. That brevet begins and ends in Erin Mills, in Mississauga, just west of Toronto, heading west and then south through the tobacco belt of Ontario, along the north shore of Lake Erie through Port Stanley, the turns north around the west side of London, up to Stratford and the eastward back to Erin Mills.

In this case, I did a 6-day bike camping tour on a loop starting and ending in London, and exploring some of the area along the north shore of Lake Erie around Rondeau and Point Pelee. I did this tour with my friend Henry Furlott. We drove from Toronto to London, and spent the night at a friend of Henry's. We starting on Sunday from London to C.M. Wilson conservation area near Chatham for our first night of camping. This was our longest day, at 127km. We made a yummy stop at Park's Blueberry Farm, which had an interesting country store and bakery, and indulged in coffee and butter tarts. The campground at C.M. Wilson was most memorable for the water which taste like a swimming pool and the constant drone of truck traffic on Hwy 401. At least the chap looking after the place was nice and he didn't charge us.

Typical sight of tobacco drying sheds. This one not far west of Blenhein, near the north shore.

The next day worked our way southwest to Wheatley Prov. Park. At first we stuck to Hwy 3, but finding it overly busy, decided to turn a bit north, and wound following various roads, some paved, some not. We were initially to spend two nights at Wheatley, but decided to make it more relaxing with three. While there, we made a day trip to Pelee Island via the ferry, though the schedule restricted the time we could spend on the island and we only explored the very south end. We stopped in Leemington for dinner, each ordering a fish dinner. We then had a nice night-time ride back to our campsite.

View of the ferry that has just taken us to Pelee Island.

It was then on east to Rondeau Prov. Park for one night. We stayed close to the lake, following Hwy 3 back to Blenheim. Along the way we found an interesting country market where we bought some local fruit. In Blenheim we stopped at the local Sobey's superstore for some food, then carried on to the park not too far away. We were treated to a lovely sunset.

Henry standing by some of the bounty we found at a country market along the way from Wheatley to Rondeau.

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As with Wheatley and both Pelee Island and Point Pelee, this had nice stands of Carolinian forest, more characteristic of that in the southeast U.S. and had both plant and animals not see elsewhere in Ontario. Next it was on to Dalewood conservation area, near St. Thomas for a last night of camping. On the way there we caught sight of someone who was also riding a similarly loaded bike. We caught up to the other cyclists and stop to chat. Turns out he was a 71-year old American, who was riding from Seattle WA to Patterson NJ, and had left 40 days earlier. Sure put us to shame . We wished him well, and went on to get a campsite at the park. Last day of riding took us into St. Thomas to check out the Elgin County Railway museum, and at my request, the Jumbo monument (a giant elephant statue). Seems the famous circus elephant met his untimely demise in St. Thomas when he was hit by a Grand Trunk locomotive (I'm not making this up!). Then north on rather busy and unpleasant Wellington Rd up to London to finish the tour. Finally, the Mariposa was doing what it was built for - carrying a heavy four-bag load of camping gear, cloths and food. Not sure of the total distance we did - I think it was close to 600km.

Henry in front of Pinnell's Pasteries, a nice bakery in Ridgetown, on our way to St. Thomas.

The fellow we met doing a tran-continental tour, just outside Talbotville, near St. Thomas.

Here I am at the Egin County Railway Museum in St. Thomas.