After two weeks discovering South-East of Canada and three years discovering Montreal and the Quebec, it’s now time to leave East and go to West Canada. A place that we dream a lot about. We can’t wait to discover all the surprises and adventures that await us there! Our first goal: the Rockies!
Monday, May 30 to Thursday, June 2nd, 2022
No doubt : we need to deserve West Canada! To reach it from Ontario, we will have to drive during 4 full days, cross three Canadian States and change time twice. We start in a muddy forest trail to the mythic trans-Canada highway... under the rain!
From the city of Thunder Bay, the first day of driving is done under pouring rain. After a few hours on the road, we change time zones, which allows us to gain an hour in our day! And at the end of the day, still under the rain, we leave Ontario and enter the neighboring province of Manitoba.
After a long day of driving in the rain, we settle by a lake for the night. The location is nice, but we don't set up the tent because rain and strong winds are forecasted for the night.
The next day, we hit the road before 8 a.m! That's the advantage of not having to pack up the tent! It's raining (again), so we stop at Tim Hortons for breakfast, enjoying the warmth and shelter from the wind. We love their muffins... and their Wi-Fi too! In the morning, we reach a crucial point in our journey across Canada: the center of the country! I brave a violent wind that almost blows me away to capture the moment.
In the late morning, we reach the major city nearby and the capital of Manitoba: Winnipeg. We drive through it without stopping and take some quick photos.
The rest of the day is spent searching for a campground to take a shower and enduring a massive, uninterrupted windstorm that at least has the merit of blowing away the clouds. It's blowing from the side and we have to hold onto the Jeep with an iron grip! Fuel consumption goes up to 18 liters per 100 km, unheard of! (We're averaging between 13 and 14). Our brick on wheels doesn't like the wind, and in terms of aerodynamics, it's not great! We spend long hours on a straight highway. To the point that even the slightest turn is announced by a sign! The railway runs alongside the highway, and we have the opportunity to cross or overtake several-kilometer-long freight trains.
Summary of the day: Almost 600 km traveled, 4 campgrounds visited in search of a shower without success, crossing the center of Canada, a new time zone change, and entering a new province of Canada: Saskatchewan. A busy day!
We spend the evening at a village rest area, enduring strong winds. The evening is marked by the resolution of a mystery: we regularly heard a noise similar to a lawnmower trying to start before abruptly stopping. After hearing this noise at three different locations, including deep in the woods, we started to doubt that it was a lawnmower... This mystery is now solved: it was actually a type of large partridge that seems to be doing its mating dance 😂.
For the first time, we take refuge in the car to eat in the warmth. Once again, we spend the night in the car to protect ourselves from the violent gusts. After the rain, then the wind, we hope that tomorrow, it will finally be sunny! 🤞
Wish granted! We wake up to a blue sky full of promises, and to top it off: no wind. It's a real pleasure to have breakfast in the sun after these few days of bad weather.
In the neighboring town of Wawota, a surprise awaits us: a hot shower in a park! We meet a local resident who admires the Jeep and our project, and who advises us to fill up on water. He also insists on taking a photo of us. We didn't even have time to tidy up a bit! 😉
We set out to explore Saskatchewan, known as the "breadbasket of Canada," on secondary roads and trails to better grasp its size and beauty. This province offers us immense stretches of land on either side of a straight road swept by the winds: fields not yet sown, brilliantly green meadows, pastures, and wild plains, as far as the eye can see. We can't believe the vastness of it all. Agricultural farms, each served by the railway, grain silos, and oil extraction wells follow one after the other. It's a very agricultural face of Canada, which exploits its land and resources without limits.
For our greatest pleasure, we spot many wild animals, who still inhabit these vast plains and prairies: numerous prairie dogs, who stand on their hind legs at the roadside, some... "what is that? A deer? No, it's a reindeer! But no! I'll look it up later." After some research, they are actually American antelopes. And even a coyote that comes to catch and devour a prairie dog right in front of us. And, of course, many cows!
After driving 500 km in strong winds, we stop at a new village rest area. It is very pleasant and we spend a quiet evening sheltered from the wind behind the Jeep.
According to our calculations, and especially according to our GPS, today is our last day crossing Canada. If all goes well, by the end of the day, we will see the Rockies for the first time. This prospect motivates us to pack up and hit the road as early as possible!
In the late morning, after taking secondary roads and avoiding prairie dogs crossing the road at the worst possible times, we arrived in Alberta, which marks the end of our cross-Canada journey!
After a grocery and Wi-Fi stop in the big city nearby, Medicine Hat (what a funny name!), we hit the road again, heading west! We scan the horizon, eager to see them for the first time. It's after two hours of driving and a truck speeding past us, leaving a nice rock impact on our windshield 😒, that they begin to emerge against the sky of a brilliant blue: the Rockies! We are so moved to see them for the first time, having dreamed of this moment for so long.
We find a spot by a reservoir where we can admire them in peace all evening. Faced with this splendid landscape, we are all excited: after four days on the road and over 2000 km traveled, we have crossed Canada from East to West and we are finally at the foot of the Rocky Mountains!
5 commentaires
Coucou,
les choses sérieuses vont commencer !
Bonne continuation.
💙
Décidément pas de chance avec le temps avec ces routes interminables et ces plaines de solitude (hormis les animaux) mais vu la dernière photo çà valait le coup d’affronter les tempêtes.
C’est beau et il me tarde de voir la suite.
Bonne continuation en espérant un temps meilleur.
Bisous.
Mamie.
💙
Toujours aussi spectaculaire ! ❤️