Born in 1958 in in Winnipeg, at age 8 Fox moved with his family to British Colombia where he became an avid basketball player. In 1977 constant pain in his right leg was diagnosed as osteosarcoma, an aggressive form of bone cancer. His leg had to be amputated above the knee and Fox underwent an intensive program of chemotherapy.

He retained a positive attitude throughout his treatment, recovery and adaptation to the use of an artificial limb, particularly when he learned that medical advances boosted his chance of survival to 50%, whereas a couple of years earlier it would only have been 15%. He pledged to raise money for cancer research in an effort to help others with various forms of the disease.

Despite a pronounced limp and pain from the replacement leg, Fox trained for and completed a marathon in Prince George, BC in August 1979. Inspired by this he developed the plan for the Marathon of Hope – running across Canada 42 km every day (the standard marathon distance.)

He started on April 12th 1980 in St John’s, Newfoundland, with a low-key ceremony in which he dipped his artificial leg in the Atlantic ocean, intending to repeat the act when he reached the Pacific thousands of kilometres later. There is a small monument near where he did this.

Many people feel this monument deserves more attention – it is not promoted by St John’s tourism authorities, it is hard to find and the area around it is often unkempt.

Terry Fox started the Marathon of Hope with the goal of raising $1million for cancer research. As the journey progressed across the country the public attention – and donations – grew significantly so he upped the goal to be $1 for each of the 24 million population of the country at that time.

However, after 143 days and over 5,300 km he was forced to abandon his effort when increasing pain resulted in a diagnosis that the cancer had spread to his lungs. There is a large monument and scenic lookout at the point on the Trans Canada Highway outside Thunder Bay where he had to stop.

Chemotherapy was unable to halt the spread of the disease and Terry Fox passed away nine months later, prior to which he became the youngest person to be named a Companion of the Order of Canada.

Fundraising efforts in his name continue, with annual Terry Fox runs taking place in thousands of communities across the country, and around the world. To date approximately $500 million has been raised and donated to cancer research programs.

There are roads, schools and other buildings across the country that bear his name, and he was commemorated on a $1 coin in  2005. The province of British Columbia named a mountain and provincial park in his honour.

The westernmost monument is a statue in Beacon Hill park in Victoria, the ‘Mile zero’ location where the Marathon of Hope would have ended if he had been able to continue. It features a quote from Terry: “Dreams are made possible if you try.”

A much more detailed history can be found at Wikipedia or the CBC which has many articles and videos, while the Terry Fox Foundation website has full details about all fundraising efforts.

Locations: British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario / Categories: Monuments, Natural Landmarks, Street Views

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A scenic drive through moorland and stunning coastal scenery brings visitors to the Cape Spear parking lot, from where footpaths lead to historic sites and cliffs – the latter being somewhat dangerous due to high winds and waves.

Near to the most easterly point of the continent, bunkers and a pair of rusting 25cm guns are stark reminders of WWII, when this was a key location for the defence of St John’s harbour.

A short distance away stand a pair of lighthouses. The southern structure is the original, and dates to the 1830s. Over the years oil and gas were both used to light its warning lamp, but it was eventually converted to electricity almost 100 years after it was built. It was replaced by the new automated lighthouse in 1955, but the original building today serves as a museum, as it’s the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland.

Locations: Newfoundland and Labrador / Categories: Buildings, Natural Landmarks, Street Views

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Manitoulin Island in Ontario, Canada is officially the world’s largest island that is located within a lake.

That’s pretty simple, but within the island there are an additional 180 lakes…

Within one of those lakes, Mindemoya Lake (to be precise), is the largest island, in a lake, on an island, in a lake (in the world). Still with me?

But we’ve missed out a step! On the island of Sumatra in Indonesia we find Lake Toba, and its principal island of Samosir – which at 630 square km is easily the largest island, in a lake, on a island.

After Samosir, the second largest island within a lake is Glover Island, which is in the Grand Lake on the island of Newfoundland.

However, Glover Island’s largest lake also has many islands, of which the largest is about 2 acres. This tiny, unnamed island is therefore the largest island, in a lake, on an island, in a lake, on an island!

Unfortunately, it has no lakes in which we might find further islands.

Seeing as it’s island week, we’ve left out many additional facts about the largest lakes found on islands (some of which are larger that the lakes containing islands we’ve mentioned here) but I think this post has been confusing enough!

Wikipedia: Manitoulin Island, Samosir & Glover Island

Thanks to Dee, kejoad, Daryl, Chris W, Boing boing, Elbruz.org and World Island Info.

Locations: Indonesia, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario / Categories: Islands

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Zooming in further it seems that the ‘icebergs’ are made of hundreds of thousands of smaller chunks of ice, clinging together like massive swathes of frozen dust.

In fact, are these really icebergs at all? Perhaps they were, but have since disintegrated into billions of smaller pieces of ice. Are these darker shapes rivers of ice particles flowing under the surface of the ocean?

Thanks to Marc Armstrong and Peter.

Locations: Newfoundland and Labrador / Categories: Natural Landmarks

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