Across Canada

It has been a while but here is finally the latest update.

Before arriving in Moosejaw i got the pleasant news that my aunt was organizing a private event for the Dalai Lama and asked me to volunteer. This was a once in a lifetime oppurtunity to see and hear him speak.

After waiting a week for my backpack witch had to come from my friend in Montreal. I took another Greyhound bus from Moosejaw to Calgary.

The event was great and i got to see the Dalai Lama from just a meter away and listento his inspirational speech. After the event with just a 160 people i got to see and listen to him in a stadium with a 18.000 people.

After this i spoke with my good friend whom i knew from Banff and who moved to Kamloops for school, and decided to come and visit him in the desert part of Canada. I got to Kamloops (on Greyhound, again) the second of november and am still here.

After the holidays i will start moving again...

The day started with draining the water out of the trailer, luckily nothing important got wet. Heading into the wind again the road made a bend after 10 minutes and I go the wind in the back, this was great. Flying towards Regina I passed the big indian head in Indian Head.

Suddenly I saw this big city in the middle of all the fields, it’s a beautiful sight. In Regina it was nice to cycle through busy traffic again. I stopped wondering why people are allowed to cycle on the busy roads in Canada, it is almost suicide trying to take an exit when there are 5 lanes of traffic. But I made my way through Regina and started following the signs Moosejaw.

Arriving just like planned at about 17:00 I dropped into the information office to get a street map to figure out where my aunt and uncle live. It was no problem finding the house and I had a great shower and changed my shirt after 3 days.

Starting early I knew this was going to be a long day trying to make another 200km. Te sunrise was beautiful and the winds where gone, this made it a pleasant morning to cycle.

I drove the whole morning through he fields of Manitoba and arrived in Saskatchewan at around 12 o’clock. At the information point I used their wireless to check email and ate lunch. To my surprise I crossed a time zone and I gained an hour.

The great shoulders I had in Manitoba disappeared when I drove further into Saskatchewan. There is nothing better than having a whole lane for yourself so you can stop wherever you want or not pay so much attention on where you’re driving on the road. But after an half an hour the shoulder returned and with that the wind returned as well.

When I got to the 200km I started looking for a place to pitch the tent and on the map I saw this picnic place with water and internet so that’s where I was going to sleep. Unfortunately the site was on the other side of town and it was getting dark. Around 19:30 I found the picnic place, but it had a busy gas station. Being so tired I didn’t care about where to sleep and I put the tent behind a closed tourist booth. The booth had a working water tab and wireless internet. This night it stormed like hell and the tent got tested and kept me dry. I was very happy to be surrounded by taller buildings because lighting was flashing all over the place.

The day started and went on all in the wind, it drove me really crazy. It was just annoying that I was putting so much power into going forward but there was no speed.

I got some groceries for the next two days in MacGregor and continued my wasting of energy. 45km before Brandon a truck stopped in front of me and the guy asked me if I would like a lift. I learned that you should never look a given horse in the mouth so I accepted. The guy was a self employed electrician from MacGregor and a Mennonite. This was a welcome break and we had a good chat. He dropped me of in town and I continued the battle against the wind.

At 14:00 I ended up in front of a big hill, I was so tired that I decided to crash beside the road in the bushes. Ext to these bushes ran the Assiniboine river, witch I crossed 5 times before. While collecting wood for a fire I stumbled upon a big carcass from a big animal. This freaked me out because it was in the middle of the bushes and I didn’t think I would sleep easy. So i packed my stuff, got on the bike and drove up the hill. The highway continued with good shoulders to drive on and progress was steady. The only problem now that I was running out of water and there where no towns or gas stations. There was a long stretch of highway under construction and I asked on of the guys how far the nearest place was to get water. he told me about 30km and gave me a half a liter bottle of water, I thanked him a lot and went m way. The wind calmed down and I was going pretty good, over 24km h/r and my legs where feeling strong again.

Doing the calculations before I decided to be in Moosejaw in 4 days, 250km a day. But I really wanted to speak to my girlfriend, get a shower, a soft bed and some nice warm food so i decided that i could do It in 3 days, 200km a day. With this in mind I decided to bike until I had done 200km that day. The 45 km ride from the electrician spared me 45km. Before I left the construction zone the same guy drove up to me and gave me 3 more half liter bottles of water. This was so nice that it was a boost again. when I got to the 200km mark I spotted a nice place along the train tracks and put up camp. I ate another cold beef stew with a bagel and went to bed early. A few times that night a train came by and shook me awake.

The day started with al clothes on against the mosquitoes, I was covered from top to bottom except my eyes. I raced out of the tent and broke the tent of, packed the trailer and got on my bike in 6 minutes, and they still got to me! Because I chose to go for plan B I had to backtrack 5km. When I got back to highway 1 I bought a big can of grade 8 mosquitoes killer spray, lovely.

Now heading for Winnipeg I had the wind almost in the back and I was flying up. At 9 o’clock I had done 50km. Somewhere halfway I had a conversation with a delivery guy and he told me highway 2 is a mess, he suggested the no. 1, also because of the big shoulders. So now it was plan C, the long big highway number 1. When I got to Winnipeg I followed the road around and then there where these really dark clouds. After 15 minutes to whole sky opened and it kept raining for a few hours. I had my raingear on but even with the covers my feet got nice and soggy. Even the cycle computer stopped working.

By two o’clock the sun came through and all was good. At a farmers market beside the road I got myself some veggies for dinner. I stopped at a rest stop and made my all vegetable meal with; potatoes, onion, zucchini, green pepper and corn. As soon as the tent was up the rain started again.

After three days of no cycling I was looking forward to get going again. The roads had big shoulders and there where no big hills anymore.

Except this one and a few more.

After just 50km was the first sign of a new province, Manitoba. Even in Manitoba the road continued to be good for another 40km. After that it was a two lane highway with no shoulders, so the biking was on the road. Being the last day of the long holiday all the winterpeggers where going home making it very busy on the road. Even with all this traffic the average speed this day was 25 and highest 51km/hr.

I stopped just a little bit past Richer and set up camp beside the road. This was probably the worst ever, I got attacked by the most mosquitoes ever! I had no Off spray or any other repellent so they got me everywhere. Within 10 minutes I had a fire going to smoke them away but even this would not help, to many. I put my tent up in 3 minutes and got everything in and was finally safe. The whole tent was surrounded by these evil creatures and I only got out to put the food in a bag and stashed it somewhere away from the tent. In these 2 minute I got bit another 10 times. The first thing I will buy tomorrow is the most toxic mosquitoes spray there is, it’s just insane.

So now I’m trapped in the tent at 19:00, u put the alarm clock for 4:30 so it’s still chilly and I can put all my long clothes on to brake up camp. I also had time to review the way I will take through Manitoba.

Plan A was to go down highway 302 and get to 23 and follow this all the way west until the 39 will get me to Moosejaw .

Plan B is to go to Winnipeg and take the 100 around the city until highway 2 comes by and take this all the way to 39 and then go up again.

To be democratic I voted and it’s going to be plan B, this will hopefully be faster.

After spending the night I got offered to stay on more day and that was a welcome offer. I took the day to assemble the bike and trailer. The box I got from one of the stores fits perfectly in the trailer and tomorrow I will try to get all my stuff in here so it's easier to handle. Every time I have to get my lunch, snack, camera or wallet out of the trailer I have to untie the knots of the tarp to get it out. So maybe this will be an easier solution.

The small town of Kenora is located on the beautiful shore of a huge lake with hundreds of islands. After the summer the population drops by half because so many people spend the summer here and move back when work and school begins.

There is even an island where nuns come in the summer to fish and relax. (with the red roof)

Dawn and Stephen both play bagpipes and went to Scotland to get a degree, the real deal, with skirts and all. I promised I would make them a simple web site for the non-profit organization they play with and where he is the Pipe Major.

I spend the afternoon biking through town a seeing these paintings all over town, the history of this part of Canada. For dinner I wanted to make a Italian mozzarella, tomato and basil salad and it took me an hour and 3 supermarkets to find the cheese. When I got back the plan had changed and we where invited to have dinner at their friends place. This was on one of the islands so we brought the food and headed for the boat. Because of the lack of wind the motor was used to get us to the island where the mosquitoes where waiting. We had a nice dinner with all kinds of salads and bbq hotdogs.

At the fire they prepared a “classic” Canadian snack for me: roasted marshmallows with Nutella paste sandwiched between two crackers. Definitely a sweet snack!

After checking the weather it looks like it's going to be a hot day tomorrow and maybe raining the day after!

After spending the night at the hostel and a lot of thinking I decided to get on the bus. At first it feld like cheating but the motto of my trip is to have fun, see beautiful places, meet people, visit family and friends and head to the west. After spending about 500km on highways with semi-trucks racing past I decided that the fun was over.

At two grocery stores I collected boxes to pack my bike and trailer, because all packages have to be in boxes if you travel with Greyhound.

Waiting for the bus.

My ride left at 18:30 and I was really not looking forward to sitting 21 hour in a bus. In the beginning the bus was pretty crowded and there where two little children crying and screaming all the time. This made good conversation (about when they would shut up and get out) in the back of the bus were I was sitting. After two hours some people got of everybody had their own two seats.

Behind me was a guy who left Toronto because he had enough of Ontario. After 36 hour in his new home he went to the bus station and got a ticket to Vancouver. He had never been to Vancouver and was checking on the bus what to do and where to go. He got some tips about hostels, jobs, homeless shelters and welfare.

On the other side of the aisle was another fellow heading for Vancouver, he was going to see his new born daughter. The name of his daughter was tattooed in his neck with a lot of curls. The budget he had was about 10 dollars for the whole trip.

In front of this fellow was a 25 year old gangster looking but very nice guy who was going back home to Edmonton to work construction. He invited me to come over when I ever get to Edmonton. When he got of the bus during one of many breaks he got of the bus to get a can of ice tea. When he got back on he was holding about 6 cans and the other guy as well. They had inserted one dollar to get a can and the vending machine emptied about 15 cans of ice tea, enough for the next couple of hours.

The bus would stop about every two hours to let somebody of or drop cargo and once in a while a 15 minute brake. For the smokers these where cherished stops. Sleeping in the bus was a art, luckily everyone had two seats to sit in. Some people where lying backwards, sideways, legs in the aisle, legs on the window, mouth open and mouth closed.

The sunrise was truly beautiful over the lakes near Thunder Bay. Driving around Lake Superior was just amazing, so much water and so many little islands.

After more chatting and sharing contact information I got of in Kenora, about 50 km from the border of Manitoba, the next province. Here Stephen the husband of my couchsurfing contact Dawn waited for me and we got the boxes on top and in the car. After a 10 minute drive we arrived in Keewaten, once a separate town but now part of Kenora.

Here I met her parents who where visiting and their 2 year old sun. We had a nice supper after I got clean and went to bed early.

The couchsurfing was a great experience, when I got up I made a small breakfast and took the dogs for a walk. Leaving at 11:00 was the latest start so far, so it would be a long way. There was no navigation involved today, just follow highway 17. After a day with big hills I experienced a day with a long long flat road as far as I could see.

I met another cycler who was going from Vancouver to Montreal, so he was almost home. He made this picture with North Bay on the background.

After riding this for half the day I realized that this is not what I wanted to do, cycling on the highway all day with a headwind and cleaning off all the grease from my skin in the evening. There was enough time to figure out what I was going do for the next days. After a bit of time I planned that I would take the bus in Sudbury all the way up to Kenora. This would save me 1100km and 8 days of hills.

Without any problems I found the hostel for the night, Urban Oasis. Michelle, the owner spend a year and a half renovating the 3 story building. But unfortunately she burned out because of all the work and the house is for sale. I really feld like home and we had some good conversations about pretty much everything.

Her boyfriend has a on site welding company and he was really interested in a web site, so my first web design contract in Canada is a reality. With a big bowl of popcorn and chips we together worked on his poster for his performance as a Elvis impersonator. Together with two other guys (forgot the famous rock n rollers they where doing) he performs in legions.

Following highway 17 I experienced what hills are. This was the hardest day so far, hill after hill after hill the whole way. But the scenery was beautiful, the real moose country.

Taking a little brake at this lake a young French couple (from France) offered me a cup of coffee. We spend a half an hour talking about our travels. They bought a $700 dollar van and where traveling all over Canada and the USA. Once in a while they would work on a farm for living and food, now they where heading for Winnipeg.

The town of Mattawa has these wood carved statues all over the place.

Arriving at North Bay I got to one of these clever signs. So there was no other way then breaking the law for a little while. The couchsurf place I was looking for was on a big F*ing hill, the steepest one so far.

The family I stayed with was really nice, mother with two kids. She traveled all over the place and was very welcome. Because she is a police officer we couldn't spend a lot of time, she made a 15 hour day and had to get up early. I went with the bus downtown and eat the biggest Harvey's hamburger!