On Canada Day (1st July) we finally made it to the edge of Ontario! We crossed into Manitoba and the landscape seemed to flatten out almost instantly. It wasn’t long until we had made it to the centre of Canada!
Beside the centre of Canada sign is a smallish park filled with ‘old’ tractors, cars and machinery. It’s interesting to wander around and worth a look.
Winnipeg was busy with Canada day celebrations and great weather getting everyone outside! The nearby parks were packed – but luckily that didn’t stop us from seeing our first bear in Canada! Notice how many bugs are plastered all over the windscreen…
By the end of the day we were just shy of the border to Saskatchewan, and the beautiful weather descended into chaos. This was the first big storm we’d experienced in the van; luckily we’d already pulled off at a truck stop before it really began. The lightning across the huge prairie sky was pretty amazing and was lighting up everything for miles around. The winds were incredibly strong and were rocking the van – making us glad we weren’t still driving along the highway! It was an amazing sight but we were quite relieved when it calmed down after a few hours and we could finally get our heads down.
The following evening we had made it right across Saskatchewan (very flat, not much to report) and stumbled across another incredible overnight spot by a river and dam near Maple Creek!
Not only was this a beautiful place but there were ground-squirrels everywhere! Imagine a chipmunk mixed with a meerkat and you have a ground-squirrel. They’re fantastic to watch and we’ve become very fond of them during our drive through Saskatchewan – they stand on their hind-legs and watch cars drive by!
The prairies bid us farewell with an incredible sunset that lasted over two hours – The prairies are definitely flat but that gives them unbelievably huge skies!
