The CN Tower Toronto

As you may have gathered my now from My Sunday Photo's this year, I have a bit of a thing for construction projects, tall buildings and glass floors. You'll find a list at the end of this post of other places I've visited around the world.

The CN Tower in Toronto was opened on 26th june 1976 and until September 2007 it was the tallest structure in the world until the Burj Khalifa in Dubai was constructed.

I made my visit in July 2015.

The CN stands for Canadian National Railway who wanted to build a large TV and radio communication tower to demonstrate the strength of the Canadian industry.

There are now different categories to determine the official heights of buildings around the world. Freestanding, structure, building and tower. The CN building is a tower of which it held the record for being the tallest in the world for over 3 decades.

At 553.33m tall, with 1,1776 and 114 flights to the top.

There are 3 observation decks. Skypod at 447m. Indoor observation level at 346m and outdoor observation area at 342m.With 360 views of the City.

The world's first glass floor was also opened on June 26th 1994 and is accessed at 342m.

Load tests are performed annually on the 2 1/2 inch thick glass and measures 23.8 square meters. It is 5 times stronger than it needs to be and should 35 moose ever ascend the tower it would support their weight.

Week 158 Dubai Bluewater Islands and Dubai Eye. Man made island a 210m high Big Wheel
Week 159 Dubai Dubai Marina - Reflections
Week 160 Dubai Dubai Frame. A window between the Old and New Dubai and a 150m high glass floor.

Week 161 Dubai Dubai Marina 3 years apart.

Week 162 Dubai Dubai Water Canal Bridge Construction and reconfiguration of roads

Week 163 Dubai New Metro Line for Expo 2020
Week 164 Arizona and Nevada Hoover Dam 2002 - 2010
Week 165 Dubai Dubai Opera House What a difference a year makes
Week 166 Dubai Unfinished buildings. The Pentominium
Week 167 Coventry Mixing the old and the new. Coventry Catherdral
Week 168 Dubai New Dubai Metro Station 
Week 169 Dubai The new extension of the Dubai Mall and Burj Khalifa 
Week 170 Dubai Hotel fire After the Address fire 
Week 171 Dubai Unusual designs The Opus Building
Week 172 Dubai District Cooling. Keeping the desert cool.
Week 173 Dubai Can I visit the Burj Al Arab
Week 174 Dubai The Almas Tower
Week 175 Dubai The Cayan Tower

Camping in the wild in Algonquin, Canada.

Getting there.

It was a 4 hour drive from Hamilton to Algonguin. It was a further 4 hour kayak to reach the island we were camping on, with 2 portages to navigate. the scenery was stunning and we started off full of energy, which soon turned into 'are we there yet?' to which the response was 'just round the next bend'

Campsite

Facilities.

The walk to the loo

The loo

Food supplies

Washing up

Views.

Entertainment.

There is no phone signal, internet or electricity, in fact there is no running water, you have to boil the lake water for a drink.

Wildlife.

Sadly I didn't see a moose and thankfully I didn't see a bear, although there was evidence of both with foot prints and bear poo.
The loon bird was wonderful, it had a really eerie cry that started before sunrise, so not a lot of sleep was had. It was very graceful in the water but is rather clumsy on land.

Dragonflies and butterflies were numerous

I spent ages watching this inch worm climb up, down and around this stick.

Mosquito repellant was not enough, it was a case of cover up everywhere.

Being Bear prepared. Bear Poo found 100 metres from the tent, providing photographic proof for the question 'Does a bear shit in the woods?'

Food hoisted in the air, between two trees.

Bear repellant, your best line of defence to survive a bear attack.

Sadly not everyone removed their rubbish from the lakes, increasing the risk of attacks on humans.

Plants

The flora in Algonguin was stunning, it was hard to miss a thing, it was also hard to see everything, on the ground, in the trees, under rocks.

'Leaves of three, leave them be'

Poison Ivy

If the bear is brown, lie down, if it's black, fight back and if it's white, goodnight.

This is a phrase used many times on social media when I said I was going camping in the wildness of Algonquin in Canada last summer.

On arrival at the canoe launch we were warned of a heighten risk of bears around the campsites and portages. 

We were given information leaflets on the storage of food and to remove all garbage and food from the campsite on departure. 

We gathered up a discarded black bag full of beer cans and other rubbish that some selfish visitors to the area had discarded in the area where a bear sighting had been reported.

I'm very grateful not to have seen a bear on our visit, however we believe we had a close encounter with one at the camp site when we found bear poo within 100 meters of the tent, officially answering the question 'does a bear shit in the woods?'

We didn't go anywhere without a can of bear spray, even the short distance between the camp fire and the tent.

So what do you do if you encounter a bear? There are 4 types of bear encounters you could experience.

A fleeing bear.

Enjoy the sight of it running away.

An habituated bear.

DO NOT RUN. 

If the bear is fishing or foraging for berries, calmly leave the area.

If the bear is approaching you, stand still, face it, yell, throw sticks and rocks, use a whistle, make yourself as big as possible, wave your arms and use the bear spray.

If that fails, depending on how you reached your campsite either get into you car or a building on into your canoe and paddle away.

A defensive bear may see you as a threat to it's food source and it will huff and blow air through it's nostrils and swat the ground and make mock charges. Talk to the bear and back away and leave the area.

A predatory bear will silently stalk you, leave the area by canoe or car but DO NOT TURN AND RUN. DO NOT CLIMB A TREE.

If you cannot leave, do EVERYTHING you can to fight back. DO NOT PLAY DEAD. Fighting back with noise, sticks and rocks is the only way to halt the attack.

I'm glad I didn't see a bear, I'm not sure I'd react all that calmly faced with a situation like that.

One thing to remember is to camp in in groups, there have been no reports of bear attacks on groups of 6 or more people, most attacks occur when there are only 1 or 2 people.

Casa Loma, Toronto, Canada with City Pass

I spent 3 weeks in Canada last year, in Hamilton and had only 3 days in Toronto before flying home to Dubai, with so much to see and do I opted to purchase the Toronto City Pass, which gave me entry to 5 locations around the city, sadly the Zoo was too far out of the City in the limited time I had to visit, but I did manage to get to visit Casa Loma once I'd navigated the transport system from near the airport, where I was staying, by bus and train, I found Casa Loma easily, the directions in the City Pass were very helpful. Although it did involve a medium length walk up hill from the subway.

Casa Loma is North America's only full sized castle and a premier historical site in Toronto. Designed by architect E J Lennow in 1911 by Sir Henry Pellatt. It is an Edwardian Castle that took 300 men, 3 years to build. It covers 200,000 square feet and cost $3,500,000 to build and sits in 5 acres of land.

On arrival at Casa Loma you are directed down the stairs to collect an audio guide and a map, passing a cafe and well stocked gift shop, where you start the tour. Everything was well sign posted and there was lots of information available in several languages.

The tunnel that leads to the garage, stables and potting shed.

Dining room where many a function has taken place both then and now and there was a wedding photo shoot taking place the day I visited.

Originally designed as an indoor, heated pool, but never finished due to the Pellatt's financial difficulties.

The staircases were numerous, these are the ones leading to the servants quarters.

The Pellatt's had separate bedrooms.

The plumbing for the bathrooms looked quite modern.

Third floor full of military memorabilia.

Inside the tower.

I love a good mezzanine and this one was huge, can't help think about the heating bills though.

An exact replica of the Queen's Coronation Chair that sits in Westminster Abbey, carved by the choirboys in the 18th century.

You can see the Gardens of Casa Loma in a separate post with HDYGG? How does your garden grow?