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Lying between Lake Ontario's northern shore and the Ottawa River Valley, central Ontario is largely defined by the Canadian Shield, whose endless forests, myriad lakes and poor soils dip down from the north in a giant wedge. This hostile terrain has kept settlement down to a minimum, though latterly the very wildness of the land has attracted thousands of Canadian holiday-makers, who come here to hunker down in their lakeside cottages. The centre of all this holiday activity is the Muskoka Lakes , a skein of narrow lakes and rivers whose main supply towns - Gravenhurst and Bracebridge - lie on Hwy 11. Staying in a cottage is the one sure-fire way of appreciating the beauty of the area, but passing visitors are better off heading further north to the wondrous expanse of Algonquin Provincial Park with its abundant wildlife and extraordinarily large network of canoe routes. The implacability of the Shield breaks up as it approaches the St Lawrence River and it's here that you'll find a string of interesting historic towns. The pick is Kingston , founded by United Empire Loyalists and renowned for its fine limestone buildings, not to mention its good restaurants and quality B&Bs. Kingston is also useful as a stepping stone on the road east to either Montreal or Ottawa , Canada's engaging capital city, which boasts some of the country's finest museums. Public transport along the St Lawrence River is excellent by bus and quite good by rail. Things get trickier in the Muskoka Lakes area, but there are buses along Hwy 11 as far as Huntsville.
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