Thursday 23 November 2023--I'm leaving Prince Edward County today, happy with my stay. I know an awful lot more about it than I did a few weeks ago, and think it would be worth returning to learn more. For now, onward...my destination is Westport, about halfway to Ottawa. I leave the county via routes 2 and 62, over the Norris Whitney Bridge, named for the MLA who represented Prince Edward County from 1951 to 1971. On the other side, I drive up and down the main blocks of Belleville, one of a number of Ontario towns I've driven past on the 401 but have never seen, the largest in the 120 miles or so between Oshawa and Kingston. To be honest, I don't find it terribly attractive, but there's only so much you can see on a drive-through.

I continue on east on route 2 (the provincial route 2, not the county route 2 I drove out of Wellington), once again eschewing the faster highway. The road passes through the large Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory on the way to the town of Deseronto. The only clue I get that this is First Nations territory is a couple of large plazas with gas stations and shops selling tobacco and cannabis. Deseronto, a sleepy little waterfront town, is outside the currently recognized boundaries of Tyendinaga territory, but the townsite is the subject of a decades-old land-claim case, and it has been established that the land was never properly ceded. I've seen a number of places in Canada in which businesses have posted signs acknowledging that they occupy unceded First Nations land. The Crown (that is, the government) recognizes that compensation is due, but the form and size of it are matters of considerable argument.

On I go through Napanee, which is larger than I expected, and looks like a lively burg. Then northeast an hour or so along mostly minor roads, toward Westport. Along the way, the topography changes from the farmland of the St Lawrence Lowlands to the roughly-wooded and lake-dotted Canadian Shield, where glaciation exposed ancient Precambrian rock during the last Ice Age. The transition is not clear-cut, but is rather a patchwork in places.

Arrive in Westport, check in to the Cove Inn, and take a walk around. It's a small place, but like Wellington, it has everything you might need: grocery, bank, brewpub. No Tim Hortons, though. The town sits on the westernmost bay of Upper Rideau Lake; the waterfront must be very lively in summer, but just now everything is being put away for the winter. I have a pint at the Westport Brewing Company and dinner at the Cove. I have three nights here.