91 To Winnipeg

Canada
Québec & New Brunswick
Nova Scotia & Newfoundland
Québec & Ontario
Manitoba to the Pacific

91 To Winnipeg
92 Winnipeg
93 Wasagaming
94 On to Yorkton
95 Manitoba Beach
96 Wanuskewin
97 To Edmonton
98 Edmonton
99 To Hinton
100 To Jasper
101 The Rockies
102 Snowy roads
103 To Drumheller
104 Dinosaurs
105 To Banff
106 Banff
107 Banff
108 Lake Louise
109 Farewell Rockies
110 To Vancouver
111 Go Canucks
112 Morty & Harry
113 Where next?
114 Visas and Picasso
115 Downtown
116 Catch up
117 Vancouver Island
118 To Tofino
119 Pacific Rim
120 Surfers and big trees
121 Last Legislature
122 Farewell to Morty
123 Mile zero, again

Canada: Manitoba

Wednesday 2 November 2005

Arctic watershed

The national passion

A "wow" moment

Today we were up and out early set for another long driving day, this time heading to Winnipeg. We followed the route 17 through land dotted with lakes and trees passing through Dryden and Kenora along the way. There are small towns and villages along the way, some so small that we went through them without really noticing.

The distances are so long that we simply eat the kilometres up as we go. We both found our minds wandering to silly things. We crossed over from the Eastern to the Central time zone and this made me wonder whether the changes in time in the southern hemisphere worked to their advantage too as their seasons are the other way round to ours.

As we got closer to the border with Manitoba the landscape started to change. Gone were the trees and hills that have kept us company for the last few months. Now we are into the open prairies, flat open fields that stretch away as far as the eye can see. The road ahead of us is long and straight, and I mean long and straight. Signs come up for a town six or seven kilometres away but you can already see it up ahead. There is no variation, just long, straight roads.

Closer to Winnipeg we passed a sign declaring that this point was the watershed that changed the direction of water flow. Up to this point, all water flows south into the Atlantic Ocean. From here on and for the rest of Canada it flows north to the Arctic. We also passed the point that geographically says we are half way across Canada. Hard to believe but true.

We arrived in Winnipeg smack in the middle of rush hour. It is quite a big city and with the potential for a campsite we decided to drive through it rather than around the outskirts so we could judge how far away from the city centre it was. We found the trailer park but there was no sign of a campsite or of a camp office. We looked around a bit and then I saw a lady looking out through the blinds of her house. It is mainly a mobile home park but they have space and facilities for RVs round the back.

With no food on board we hopped down to Sobeys and got some stuff in for dinner. It was cooling down outside so we stuck the heating on in the van had dinner and watched a film before getting cosy under our sleeping bags hoping we would not get too cold overnight.

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