Three in One, and One in Three!

 Three in One, and One in Three!

With a perfunctory nod to author, Alexander Dumas' phrase, in his book, 'The Three Musketeers', I thought that the title of this blog perfectly fit the reality we have experienced since leaving Ottawa, just 4 days ago!

After a fantastic 8 days looking after our friends' home and pussycat in the Capital, we set off fairly early for the first leg of our journey out to Vancouver Island, knowing that we had a 9-hour drive ahead of us in order to reach our first destination.

Mark often calls me his "Al-Paca", as he tells me he is amazed at how I can fit everything into our car for the journey. (I acquired this skill by osmosis, while watching my sister and her husband packing their suitcases while I was growing up)!

The weather smiled upon us as we made our way alongside the Ottawa River, through beautiful countryside, until we found ourselves in familiar territory. 

Deux-Rivieres - half way between Pembroke and North Bay

Beautiful day for traveling in Northern Ontario

It felt strange, indeed, as we passed the road that leads to our home, in Elliot Lake. 

We wished our friends well as we passed by, and finally arrived in Sault-Ste-Marie, where we had an appointment booked for the next morning to have our car serviced and our winter tires put on. We had decided to stay overnight and be ready for the earliest appointment the next morning. (We also took the opportunity to meet with some good friends who were traveling in the opposite direction and, by chance, were staying over in a hotel, just 3 minutes away!).

The next morning, to save time (and funds), we made our sandwiches and repacked the car ready for day two of our trek across the country. 

Our destination was Thunder Bay, nearly 8 hours away. This was also familiar terrain for us as we often take day trips along the east coast of Lake Superior; and we had journeyed to Marathon a few weeks prior for a camping trip with some friends. 

Mark is always happy to see correlations!

Part of Lake Superior as seen from the highway

Bathtub Island

 Winnie, the Pooh - at White River, ON

Marathon - where we were camping a few weeks ago

Amusing sign, just north of the Soo

Another Northern Ontario Lake

Sand River - almost dried up!

We didn't stop at the Terry Fox Memorial this time around, but we still felt the power of his story

Upon arrival at Thunder Bay, we checked in to the hotel and caught up with our messages, watched a little TV, and turned in relatively early so that we would be fresh for the next day's travel. 

The sheer size of the Province of Ontario always leaves me gobsmacked. After two and a half days, we still had 1000 km to get to the Manitoba border after leaving Thunder Bay! To put things in perspective: the journey from Ottawa to Winnipeg is roughly the same as from Ottawa to Orlando, Florida! Also, coming from the U.K., where we just have GMT, it still fascinates me to travel through the various time zones within Canada. Just outside of Thunder Bay, we switched to Central Time, and put our clocks back one hour. 

Arctic Watershed, near Thunder Bay

First Time Zone change 

We stopped off in Kenora, Ontario, for a picnic, and to give ourselves a break from sitting in the car. 

Finally, just forty minutes later, we reached the border and crossed into 'Friendly Manitoba'. 

All in all, it had taken almost 3 days to cross Ontario - hence 3 in 1 - three days in one province. 

After driving for about an hour, the terrain shifted away from trees and forests and we found ourselves, immediately, in the prairies. We have remarked about this dramatic change on a previous trip, but it still leaves us feeling amazed at the suddenness of the transformation. 

Just over an hour later, we reached the Centre of Canada Park, which marks the longitudinal centre of our country. 

Bypassing Winnipeg, the capital of the province, we took the divided highway towards our next destination. It felt good to be in the prairies again, and to see the long freight trains as they trundled their way across the plains, and passing the various grain elevators, both traditional and modern, which are an iconic feature of this part of the country. 

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Modern Grain Elevators

Old and New Grain Elevators, together

Traditional Grain Elevator

Once again, the weather was good, which allowed us to take full advantage of the scenery as it whizzed past us. 

Our next overnight stop was at Portage La Prairie. Our hotel was situated next to a sizeable crescent-shaped lake, but we didn't take any time to explore as we had agreed that, as we had to be on Salt Spring Island, B.C. by September 4th, we would limit all stops and focus upon a timely arrival at the final destination of our journey. 

Forecasters had given us the understanding that there would be thunderstorms for most of the morning in the area around Portage, and, indeed, when we set off, there was a slight rain, with dark, foreboding clouds overshadowing the road ahead. We were almost hoping to see some forked lightning while on the prairies, because the uninterrupted 'big skies' open themselves up to some fantastic viewing. We did see a couple of non-descript flashes, but the further west we traveled, the clouds gradually dispersed and the blue sky revealed itself once more, with white, fluffy clouds sprinkled here and there to add dimension to any photographs we took. 

Nearly three hours out of Portage, we reached the border and crossed into Saskatchewan, another prairie province. Although the scenery was similar, there was an intangible difference in the flavour of the experience. The last time we had traveled across, we only had a few moments of sunshine. This time, however, it was very different and the province was revealed in all of its agricultural glory - with huge fields of differing colours reaching out into the distance on both sides of the highway, cut through by roads that stretched out straight and unwinding until they could not be seen anymore. 

Once more, we bypassed the provincial capital, Regina, as we made our way towards the border of Alberta, just over 9 hours from our starting point that morning. 

Regina - taken from the bypass

Magnificent scenery

Once again, we were in awe of the utter size of the prairies which seemed to stretch to the horizon and beyond. Contrary to popular belief, the prairies are not always flat as a pancake; there are variations in terrain, and trees dotted here and there to punctuate the surroundings; but always and everywhere, it is the immensity of the sky which dominates the experience. We can only imagine the splendour of a sunset in such an environment.

Stopping for a brief moment to answer the call of nature, we took a selfie in front of the welcome sign at the Alberta border before hopping back into the car for the last leg of today's journey. 

Within an hour, we arrived at our hotel in Medicine Hat, Alberta, hence - one in three - one day in three provinces!

Supposedly, the world's largest tipi!

We will soon be heading to bed uncharacteristically early so that we can be ready to leave very early in the morning for the most challenging part of our journey to the west coast.