CANADA AT ITS MOST COLOURFUL
FIGURES FROM the Canadian Government show that 679,000 Brits visited the Great White North in 2019, which sounds like a lot until you learn that seven times as many holidayed in the USA that year.
Relatively speaking, then, Canada is unexplored by us lot, but Bruno Leunen of Destination Rally is doing his bit to change that with the Maple Road Classic, a 19-day journey beginning on 15 September in Halifax and ending in Montreal. The event is timed to coincide with the arrival of the spectacular autumn colours, when Canada’s trees put on their glad rags, green leaves turning bright yellow, burnt orange and fiery red.
Pre-1976 cars (no more than 25 of them) will initially head south from Halifax to the fishing town of Lunenburg, considered by the folks at UNESCO to be the best-preserved example of a planned British colonial settlement in North America, but more importantly a place where delicious seafood is plentiful. Having eaten their fill, the crews will turn back in the direction of Halifax and begin the 3800km route proper, which roughly follows the coastline of the Gulf of St Lawrence (the outlet of the Great Lakes) and then the path of the St Lawrence River.
The pretty Cabot Trail (named after the Italian explorer John Cabot, a contemporary of Christopher Columbus) will take the convoy around Cape Breton Island before the cars are loaded onto a ferry for the short crossing to Prince Edward Island.
In contrast to the mountainous Cape Breton Island, ‘PEI’ is relatively flat, with gently rolling farmland and 800km of beaches. The sand ranges in colour from tropical-island white to vivid red; the surreal colour of certain beaches is caused by iron-rich sandstone, which oxidises upon exposure to the air. Be warned: the red sand will stain light-coloured clothes!
With luck, a stop in Tadoussac will give everyone an opportunity to see the whales that are drawn to the area by swarms of krill. Brown bears might well be spotted, too, at Saugenay Fjord National Park, where crews will spend the night in a secluded lodge. Further highlights will include two nights in Quebec City, a drive through the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve, and an opportunity to cut loose on the Circuit Mont-Tremblant, the racetrack that belongs to Aston Martin F1 boss Lawrence Stroll.