The above does not stand for anything in Algonquin or any other language. It is just our way to tell you we have been to Kenora –from where the last post was written,– Winnipeg, Brandon and Regina! So yes, we have already tried that prairie experience.

 

 

We however are quite done with the prairies. Right now it is twenty past ten in the evening of 6 September. We are at the airport in Regina and tomorrow in the morning we will be catching a bus that will take us to Calgary, Alberta.

 

After the nice jam session and burger evening in Kenora –see the pics in our album,– we waved Jake goodbye and resumed pedalling on 24 August. We crossed to Manitoba and managed to get to Falcon Lake. Thanks to indications from the guys at the Marina, we learnt about a sort of abandoned campground in the park and we spent the night there. That day meant highway 17 changed into NUMBER 1: wider shoulder on a highway as we know them in Europe; i.e. with two separate lanes for each sense. And last but not least, it was finally flat! But that also meant more exposed to the winds –which unfortunately for us are mainly coming from the west.

 

 

The next day we made it to Richer, where we had a little misunderstanding and ended up pitching our tents on private property. We were kindly invited by the property owner to leave her lawn and go pitch them at some field just next to the firemen station. So off we went and we finally camped next to the rodeo arena.

 

 

Those days went pretty fast. The rides were really something else as compared to the previous ones in Ontario: we could cycle faster and even when we managed to go beyond our new average of 80 km a day, we were not as tired but the landscape was not as rewarding either. It was a bit strange but we however managed to keep on enjoying it anyway. Especially once we reached ‘the heart of Canada’; where we were not expecting much and we found a big pane instead!

 

 

After Richer, the group of five split and we all stayed with different warmshowers in Winnipeg. Ryan took us into his place and we spent two wonderful days there. We also enjoyed his great ‘veggie chili’ on the first night and Tere offered to cook dinner the day after. It was quite a challenge indeed, since she decided to cook a Spanish tortilla without eggs. Since Ryan quit eating meat and eggs a long time ago, she saw that as the ultimate tortilla challenge. A recipe we found uses chickpea flour but we could not find any and we went for rice flour instead. The result was not as convincing as we expected but Pak added some gazpacho to the meal and Ryan was quite impressed and pleased… so fair enough! He is also the most easygoing guy ever existed, so we thought it was maybe the fact we cooked for him rather than he could eat some exceptional meal, but anyway, everyone was happy at the end of the day!

 

 

On 28 August we left Winnipeg and we gathered with Florence and Alex again. Florian had already left the day before and was way ahead of us. We continued together to Brandon, through Portage la Prairie –where we camped just behind a parking lot next to a water park– and a very convenient rest area in Seton Provincial Park. There we met another French coupe who were hitchhiking from British Columbia to Québec and we had some interesting chats over dinner and also breakfast the morning after.

 

 

On 30 August we reached Brandon and the group split again. Florence and Alex went north to a farm where they were hosted by a warmshowers. We managed to contact Martin and he came to pick us up so we could spend the night at his place. Martin is Natalie’s brother… and Natalie is the woman we shared a brief moment with on our way out of Gatineau. She had given us her phone number so we could get in touch with her once we reached Manitoba… et voilà!

 

We had a great evening with Martin and his family. We even had the chance to go to the water park with his children and later meet Christian –Natalie and Martin’s brother,– who also arrived in Brandon that day. We devoured –hungry as we were– two very nice pizzas from Martin’s former business and we later enjoyed a nice chat with Martin and his wife Lena, who teaches Russian. Tere was delighted to exchange impressions about teaching –not only that night but also the morning after over a superb waffle breakfast. Lena also offered us some Russian sweets her mother had sent and she even gave us a box of ‘chak-chak‘!

 

 

The day after we started much later than Florence and Alex but we met them again in Virden, where they had already found a great spot for the tents next to the rodeo arena. The next day we crossed the border to Saskatchewan and changed to yet another time zone –which meant an additional hour for us. We stopped in Wapella, where we were supposed to find some store or similar option open. However, because of the long weekend –it was Labour day on Monday– we could only find one single thing open in town: the laundry! Luckily it was just next to the local library –also closed– and we could easily access their wifi network… so we ended up pitching our tents behind the building. That night we also enjoyed the first of the typical temperature drops of the prairies: we went from above 20ºC to 5ºC! However, that did not prevent Tere from writing a nice letter to the library, which thanks to Erica Duncan was published a few days later on the library social media!

 

 

On 2 September we continued on highway 1 up to Grenfell and the day after we made it to Indian Head, our last stop before getting to Regina. The last two days –especially after Indian Head– had been quite demanding and less rewarding, mainly because of the stronger wind we had to fight against and the dull landscape the crops make on both sides of the highway.

 

 

We therefore could not be happier when we reached Helena’s place a few miles outside Regina! She is yet another wonderful member of the warmshowers community. She picked us up with her truck and trailer and gave us a lift to her little haven in Sherwood forest. During the rest of the evening and the day after we cooked together, helped her a bit burning some wood, had some well deserved rest after more than a week on the saddle.

 

 

After the good rest, yesterday night we started talking about what would be our next destination for today. Besides, there were some good news wind-wise, since we were supposed to get wind from the east. However, we also discovered there was a bus from Regina to Calgary and the wind situation was about to change again for stronger winds coming from the west in a couple of days. And to all that we added several other facts: we were not even half through the province, the landscape offers no reward at all and autumn is definitely coming, not only in here but also in Oregon, where we will be heading once we are done with the Rockies and Vancouver –hopefully island included.

 

So this is the reason why we are currently at the airport. Helena was again extremely nice and gave us a lift here. We bought the bus ticket and packed our stuff again so we can stuff in the coach tomorrow morning. We have been at the airport almost the whole day and will have to stay here the whole night, since the bus will be leaving at ten to seven in the morning. Luckily, because we have been asking around, but also because we have spent most of the day packing inside the terminal, we have already been approached by a lady from security. As nicely as she asked us ‘would you be spending the night with us?’, she also pointed us out towards a corner with some benches we will be able to use after the last flight has landed –after 1am.

 

 

We have also taken the occasion to sort our accommodation for tomorrow. We have already received a confirmation from Paul, a member of warmshowers, that we will be hosted in Calgary tomorrow night. Therefore, once we are done with this post, we will check what could be our next destination in two days’ time. We guess it will be a bit weird to come back to a way of travelling we suppose we will not come back to, since thanks to these weeks we have been travelling with ‘the group’ we already changed several aspects of the way we travel. But we will tell you about that on the next post!

 

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