There’s nothing like waking up at 2am to the deafening sound of rain, continuous flashes of lightning, and the realization your tent roof has a hole in it.

Welcome to our first – and last – night of camping in northern Ontario. After a sunny day in Kenora and Finnish pancake feast in Thunder Bay, we settled into Neys Provincial Park on the shores of Lake Ontario. The site is known both for its serene wilderness, and because it was home to an internment camp for Japanese-Canadians and German POWs during WWII. We were going to visit it in the morning, but things went awry.

The evening we drove in, we made ourselves a tasty whitefish dinner by the lake, finished up the last of the whiskey we’d picked up in Saskatchewan, cozied into our sleeping bags, and went to bed. Three hours later a thunderstorm started, and it was a doozy.

Not only did it keep us up during the night, but by morning, our tent (and everything in it) were soaked.

Unceremoniously and without even considering breakfast, we packed up our things, crammed our useless tent into the car, and drove 13 hours straight to Midland, where we had friends willing to take us in.

Along the way we fuelled up at quirky roadside stops, including Wawa, Ontario, a place known for its multiple statues of giant Canadian geese.

The thunderstorm caught up with us for the last six hours of our journey, and when we finally tucked ourselves into bed in Midland, we were soggy and overwhelmingly glad to be there. We got to sleep under a roof, visit with wonderful people, and eat great food at Ciboulette et Cie.