Day Two Hundred and Ninety Eight - Trouble On The Gardiner

Dear all,

Darren and I took a trip down to the big city today on the quest to find a lawyer to help us with my visa application. Darren had taken the helm in finding the best in town and we scooted down after breakfast for a meeting at 1pm to discuss our case.

After a very successful meeting, we got straight back on the highway without a blink of an eye to try and beat the rush hour traffic out of the big smoke. Darren took the Gardiner Express, a large highway that cuts across the bottom of Toronto beside the lake and meets up with the Don Valley Highway for all those heading north. We were doing fine until we hit a 'wall' of traffic as we were hitting Don Valley (I love the Sheffield link )

Turns out there was a horrific 'leak' of sorts [there was a lot of *sand* being thrown liberally across the now abandoned lanes) and it caused a frighteningly terrible build up of traffic coming from the opposite direction. It was total shut down and our lane was also going at a snail's pace as people were slowing down to 'see what was going on'. Gaaaaaa.

We were driving past all the commotion feeling deeply sympathetic for all the drivers, now climbing out of there vehicles to see what was going on, when the most extraordinary thing happened: The cars started to turn around and drive *the wrong way* back down the Highway from where they had come from. The Transport Police were sectioning off the highway to try avoid total gridlock, so the frustrated commuters were driving back to try and find an exit!

It was quiet an extraordinary sight and I was trying to document the event using Darren's phone but got flummoxed by the various commands being fired at me from his android ( I blame me entirely, I love Darren's phone, it's a thing of beauty). It was stunning! And made us glad to be peeling out and away from the big smoke after having seen the major traffic jam that we left behind, I love Collingwood and it's beautiful, long, straight, empty roads!

And in other news:

1. My photo is being published!!! In a 'Hard Back "Best `photographs of the year' Boulevard of photographers compendium". Eeeeeeeek. Angus and Mac are doing me proud. I am short listed in the top 300 to win $6500... ooo lalala.