3 June - Niagara to Sudbury - Day 30 of TCE

The stay in Kings Inn By The Falls had been extremely pleasant. Besides its location on the main road within walking distance of many eateries and grocery shops, the main attraction of the Falls was just a stroll of 15 minutes. The weather had held yesterday and it looked as if it would this day too. I left the Motel after the usual muesli breakfast even though I was tempted to try the buffet breakfast of ‘all you can eat’ next door at C$ 7.99.

The route from Niagara to Sudbury passed once again through Brampton and Toronto. Of course, the highway bypasses them. What I meant to say is that of the 510 km to Sudbury 140 km is the same I had done the day before. Once I went past the exits for Toronto the traffic eased considerably. I knew I was on a tolled road from Niagara because there were signs that non-Ontario number plates would be charged. There was also a request to keep the rear number plate visible and clean. I did not come across any toll booth or devices that required me to slow down. I am sure that high resolution cameras would have done the needful. Such a system ensures that costly infrastructure which actually impedes traffic is set up on roads whose capacity is reduced by it. These toll booths become costly to implement too. Moreover, there are no exemptions at electronic toll booths. Everyone has to pay. Since I do not own the car the rental company will receive the billing. When I close my contract with Hertz I will have to pay the tolls and fines that I have toted up during the rental period. Road works were on in many places to add additional capacity. But this did not impede the traffic flows. I was in the College Boreal hostel, Sudbury in less than six hours.

The hostels operate as a hotel during summer vacation. When I mentioned at the check-in that I had stayed in one such in North Bay the girl told me that the management has summer accommodation available in many cities across Canada. They even had them in Toronto. If I had known that I would have booked it instead of the shoddy North York University. The only shortcoming in the hostel accommodation is that while it has a common kitchen there aren’t any cooking and serving vessels or implements. The girl at the reception told me that customers often walk away with plates, spoons and whatever and hence, the management took the decision to keep them safely locked away! Such things happen even in a ‘civilised’ country. The two bedroom suite is quite large and comfortable with a fridge and microwave in a big sized living area within the suite. When I woke up after a short nap I felt extremely cold and brought this to the notice of the reception. She came to the room and showed me how to operate the thermostat. I turned it up and left for a short sightseeing trip.

Greater Sudbury is the fifth largest Canadian city by area. Situated near the Ramsey Lake waterfront is Science North, a museum, IMAX theatre and a planetarium. An initiative of the museum is Dynamic Earth, an interactive museum set up to highlight the city's mining heritage and focus on geology and its evolution. Many exhibits around the Dynamic Earth Centre, which was closed when I visited, educate one about rocks and the information they contain about geological evolution. After that experience I started looking at rocks as if they were in a communicative mood, wanting to tell me about the millions of years of their experience. For instance, one of the boards placed at the Centre said that the white stripes on the rocks are quartz veins that moved into cracks formed by tectonic shifts, cooled over time and hardened. The rocks are eroded mountains that form our landscape today. What Nature provided over billions of years man consumes in less than a lifetime and leaves behind non-biodegradable material that will harm the environment for generations to come!

The Dynamic Earth Centre is home to the largest coin in the world, the Big Nickel, a replica of the 1951 12 sided coin. The 30 feet tall coin weighs 13000 kgs and is more than 64.5 million times the size of the original coin. When the Big Nickel was first set up in 1964 as the initiative of Dr Ted Szilva it was part of five coin replicas set up in the Canadian Centennial Numismatic Park; the Fantasy Penny, Lincoln Penny, Kennedy Half Dollar and Twenty Dollar Gold Piece were the others. Unfortunately, they had to be removed for the development of Dynamic Earth. The Centre also has a tour of an erstwhile underground nickel mine. One of the notes on the premise pointed to a tree, which is remembered as the three millionth tree planted to counter the ill effects of mining. Later on the Ramsey waterfront I came to know that the city's commitment to the environment is exemplified by the 13 million trees it has planted in the municipality, a world record, as compensation for the vegetation that had been killed off due to many years of outdated mining practices. Sudbury is touted to be the nickel mining capital of the world and is home to the largest integrated mining complex in the whole world.

The Inco superstack at 380 metres is the largest chimney in Canada and the Western hemisphere. It stands proud atop the largest nickel smelter operations in the world, Vale Inco’s Copper Cliff. The complex is also the largest integrated mining complex in the world. The smokestack was built in 1970 to release harmful gases away from the population by releasing them high in the air. The Inco superstack is due to be decommissioned and dismantled in 2020, facilitated by a slew of emission reducing initiatives. Till the commissioning of the CN Tower in Toronto the Inco superstack had been the tallest freestanding structure in Canada.

The Bell Park is named after William Bell, a lumber baron, who donated his estate to the city. The municipal park is blessed by the large Ramsey Lake, which held the Guinness record for the world’s largest lake within the boundary of one city till the enlargement of the municipal limits that brought Lake Wanapitie into Greater Sudbury. The Jim Gordon Boardwalk along its ring that links the Park and Science North is an invigorating experience. The Park has an Amphitheatre, two gazebos, a beach, several flowerbeds and children's play areas.

The boardwalk seems to be popular with residents for exercise and networking. I saw many Indians during my boardwalk and most of them sounded like Gujaratis. Later I came to know that Sudbury is not only about mining. It is much more. Besides Science North that attracts researchers from all over the world to ideate their seminal thoughts and innovations, Sudbury is a leader in medicine and ecology. The Laurentian University has pioneered studies on acid rain and its impact on the Planet. The medical school attracts a large number of foreign students. Greater Sudbury also has over 330 lakes and 16.5% of its area is water!

While driving into the city I had seen an advertisement of Taj Bistro, an Indian restaurant. After the park boardwalk I was ready for a decent meal, a deviation from the usual noodle stuff. On the menu were mouth watering delicacies. But, I was not sure if I would get to taste authentic Indian stuff. However, when the young girl from Ahmedabad took my order she asked if I preferred to have medium or spicy food I knew that the restaurant was frequented by Indians looking for spicy Indian food. There was a fairly large number of Indians, mostly students, in the restaurant. One girl made a complete nuisance of herself trying to mend a friend’s broken heart over phone, speaking in her lingo, without any care that others were part of the restaurant experience, and later explaining to her boyfriend of all the troubles she was going through sorting out such matters. I think I heard her claiming that she knew Mahabharat and Ramayan at the age of four! The young man sitting in friend of her had his head immersed in the mountains of food she ordered.

When the Lasooni Palak Paneer and Masala and Garlic naans arrived they were delicious. It was authentic Indian stuff. The prices were quite steep though, as it is in most Indian restaurants. The short drive back to the accommodation was in the company of Indian spice that refused to leave the fingers, more because the restaurant did not give finger bowls. When I reached the room I found it unbearably cold. It was evident that the thermostat was not functioning. When I brought this to the notice of the reception I was given a change of room, into which I shifted for a quiet night of rest.