travelling-pair

[travelling-pair]

WESTWARD 2024

As you may already know we are heading away on another adventure. This time it is travelling West in our RV. We will be leaving on Sunday morning and will try to provide you some info on where we are and what we have been up to as we travel. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with us!

[travelling-pair]

Monday 8th July Day 8

Wow you are thinking, they have actually blogged again!! I even surprise myself sometimes!! This was our campsite last night.

We didn't get on the road this morning until nearly 9.15 due to having to wait for the office to be opened so that we could pay for our stay. The guy was a one man band, doing everything in the park. He had only been in the job 2 weeks and was struggling with the computer system - he only one day of online training!! There was a notice saying that they were unable to find more staff. Anyway, we said goodbye to Rainbow Beach and headed East then North to Dauphin where we stopped to top up the fuel. Unfortunately we then spent 30 mins trying to find our way back on to the highway, a difficult task with roadworks and poor signage! Back on the 5 West with the plan of getting to Yorkton in Saskatchewan. We stopped to have breakfast at Gilbert Plains rest area where there is a big golf ball made to look like a person (no idea why!) The road was great, as was the scenery until we got to Lake of the Prairies which was where we left Manitoba and entered Saskatchewan! Wow was there a change in road quality! We now had a bumpy washboard to the extent that I had to slow way down to stop our teeth being shaken loose! 50 Kms of that and we finally got to Yorkton and found the Western Development Museum, one of four in the province. This one was telling the story of the early settlers in what is now the province. Many displays, dioramas showing how various settlers lived through to more modern times. Outside they had rows of old traction engines and tractors dating back to 1900 as well as agricultural machinery. Sorry no pics, more issues!

We had some lunch and got back on the road. This more Northern part of the province is less like the southern part and indeed what you might imagine the prairies to look like. Yes the were huge fields of crops but also more scrubland and hills and valleys. Still many grain elevators and trucks carrying who knows what to and from the farms. A good part of the way we were alongside a railway track and at one point we met a very long train of maybe 100 of what looked like oil tanks being hauled by a locomotive front and back, heading East. We planned to spend the night at a campground at Wynyard, missed the turning and eventually found somewhere to turn around and head back to find a dirt road going south to the regional park campground for the night. Payment is by the honour system, you put the money in an envelope and pop it in a letterbox! Time to get the BBQ out and have some dinner. I forgot to mention we have now crossed into yet another time zone so the time here as I type is 8.36pm compared to 10.36 in Napanee and 5.30am in the UK.

That's it for tonight, hopefully I will blog again tomorrow.

WESTWARD 2024

As you may already know we are heading away on another adventure. This time it is travelling West in our RV. We will be leaving on Sunday morning and will try to provide you some info on where we are and what we have been up to as we travel. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with us!

[travelling-pair]

Sunday 7th July

First of all apologies for the lack of updates, mainly due to me being tired at the end of each day or in one case no phone signal and no internet. Last time we had arrived in Manitoba and were staying for 2 nights so we could have a rest day. We had stayed here 10 years ago but didn't recognise the campground, so on Friday we went for a walk and found the campground we should have booked into!! A much quieter place, nicer pitches and a smaller but nice beach! We'll know for the return journey! we spent the rest of the day having a look around the shopping area, having really good ice cream and for those of you who are in Canada, Chapmans! We spent some time reading too which was great. Later on we went down to the beach and had a lovely swim in the lake, which was really refreshing! There was even a Loon swimming in the designated swimming area!! It didn't seem a bit bothered about the folks in the water! After dinner we spent a good bit of time planning our route for the following day , and a little farther too. By the time we did all of that it was time to retire for the night!

On Saturday (yesterday) we filled up the water tank (got a little damp doing that, then went to empty the waste tanks, which didn't go quite to plan as somehow the valve from one of the tanks had inadvertently got opened and when I removed the cap to attach the drain tube it all sprayed out, luckily missing me. Thankfully it was only the "grey water" from the sink and not the "black water" from the toilet!!!! Got it all sorted and cleared up! (Note to self, Check the valves!!) On the road again we doubled back East on the highway formerly know as 17 now 1 in Manitoba and turned North onto Hw44 through Whiteshell Provincial Park. Not so sure that was such a good idea as the road was terrible!! We stopped to have breakfast at Bear Lake, early for us, and continued on to Beausejour for fuel and the lowest price since leaving home $1.42.9 a litre, but 226 litres cost $324! Oh well it's only money!

We trundled on to get to our planned destination of Lower Fort Garry, just North of Winnipeg. The fort is a National Historic Site and is located on Number 1 Treaty territory, The traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree,Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene Peoples and homeland of the Red River Metis. This is the actual site where the Treaty Number was was signed. It was a fur trading post built almost entirely of stone and established by the Hudson Bay Company in 1832. Enough of the history you say, well we spent a very long time walking around it and into the many building and chatting to the very knowledgeable students dressed in 1850s garb who explain so much about it. It was a very hot day and we had a quick lunch in the cafe before going a short distance North to Selkirk to see the 8 old Lake Winnipeg steamers now in "dry dock" there. We didn't have a lot of time as we needed to push on South and West around Winnipeg to find somewhere to stop for the night. We found a campground A short distance before Portage La Prairie which was quite far enough for one day, although we had only actually driven 179 miles!

Sunday morning it was out and on the road west having a brief breakfast halt at Seton Provincial Park then on to Brandon to do a little grocery shopping before turning North again to head for Riding Mountain National Park. We stopped we encountered a severe thunderstorm a little before the Park. Heavy rain, with very poor visibility and the huge hailstones, so progress was slow. We hoped that would be that but after a lunch stop at Clear Lake in the Park we had another massive storm with more hailstones. What I could see of the road ahead was completely white! Eventually that rolled away and soon after we exited the Park we turned East and then North to Rainbow Beach Provincial Park for the night. It was unfortunate that we couldn't really enjoy the Park due to the weather, but it brightened up on the road to our night stop.

Sorry there are no photos yet, having issues getting them from my phone to the laptop, but I'll see what I can do tomorrow!

Sorry also for the long blog, I'll try to do better in future! Thanks for joining us on our travels!

WESTWARD 2024

As you may already know we are heading away on another adventure. This time it is travelling West in our RV. We will be leaving on Sunday morning and will try to provide you some info on where we are and what we have been up to as we travel. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with us!

[travelling-pair]

Thursday July 4th, Day 5 of our journey.

Better night last night, but now trying to get on to the correct time zone! What was 8.00am is now 7.00am!! So we are now 6 hours behind UK time and 1 hour behind Ontario time. This is our home for the next 6 or 7 weeks

She drinks a lot but is very comfortable!! We walked down to the beach this morning and just took in the view of Blue Lake, calm but a little misty. suddenly we heard a loon calling then another one answering! Magical! Then we set out from Blue Lake back down to Hw 17 to continue west, stopped off in Kenora to have breakfast and buy a dashcam to capture more of what we see but can't take photos of while driving! That was a bit of a kerfuffle but I'll take a look tonight to see if it is working!! Kenora is a place better bypassed on 17a and we had quite a job finding our way back out to continue on 17 and into the province of Manitoba. We stopped at the Welcome Centre and had a good chat with the lady there, who gave us some great information of places to visit and even called ahead to Falcon Lake to see if they had a a site available for us. Thankfully there was and 15 mins later we booked in for 2 nights so we can have a rest day. A busy place with a lovely beach, which we had stayed at 10 years ago but didn't remember much about!! So the photo above is us set up there for today and tomorrow. Tonight we will plan our next move!

So today we did very little driving only 107 miles but that was what we planned so that we could have some time to rest. We have now travelled 1377 miles.

That's all for today but I will try and include more photos in future blogs!!

WESTWARD 2024

As you may already know we are heading away on another adventure. This time it is travelling West in our RV. We will be leaving on Sunday morning and will try to provide you some info on where we are and what we have been up to as we travel. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with us!

[travelling-pair]

Wednesday 3rd July Day 4

We had a mosquito in our home last night which we couldn't find but could hear, so it was a restless night trying not to get bitten! Up and out at 8.30 to get gas as we drove back through the First Nation. This time it as a full 250 liters at a great price of $1.45 so $363, compared to $1.75 off the Res. A bit of a circuitous rote to get us on to Hw 11/17 past Kakabeka Falls and on to a great new rest area just North of Raith for breakfast, where we changed time zones so it was now and hour earlier 9.30am. Once on the way again we got past Ignace when we came to a complete stop at a long queue of traffic. Nothing was coming the other way either. We sat there for 20+ minutes before the line finally started going again where we discovered there had bee ana accident which had blocked the road. The police were there in force and nobody seemed to be injured thankfully. We proceeded on up to Dryden where we had a brief stop to post some cards and go to the bank, then on to Vermillion Bay and a rest stop for lunch. We decided that was enough for the day as I was tired after the long day yesterday and not sleeping well. So we turned onto 624 and up to Blue Lake Provincial Park. Nice place but it had been raining and was still doing so meaning we didn't do much exploring. (also due to a very inefficient check in with only one very inexperienced person working) There seemed to be a lovely beach but with the rain and the mosquitoes we didn't check it out!

So today there was less driving, only 266 miles or 425 Kms.

Tomorrow we will cross into Manitoba!

WESTWARD 2024

As you may already know we are heading away on another adventure. This time it is travelling West in our RV. We will be leaving on Sunday morning and will try to provide you some info on where we are and what we have been up to as we travel. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with us!

[travelling-pair]

Tuesday, day 3 of our journey, we were on the road again at 8.20am still heading North through Lake Superior Provincial Park. The climbs up the hills were longer and harder on Tassie (the motorhome) and so it was hard to maintain a steady speed and deal with what were now severe cross winds. We had planned to stop at Wawa for Breakfast but got confused at the turnoff and kept on going to stop a short while later at a pull in for breakfast. It was 10.00am. Onward again and we ran into heavy rain between White River and Marathon (not Snickers (-: ) which then became low cloud as we climbed which made visibility terrible and slow progress. We found a viewpoint to stop for lunch just after Rossport at around 2.00pm, but with the rain and the low cloud we could see nothing much! The drive in these conditions was very difficult and the weather stayed with us just as we got to Nipigon. We had decided to try and reach Thunder Bay before our next stop, so we pushed on through major road construction, stop and go and had to make a quick splash and dash of fuel on the outskirts of Thunder Bay. Camping was hard to find and we discovered that all the Walmarts were in large Malls so no overnighting there. So it was on through to a Municipal Park west of the city down a terrible road through a First Nations Res. Eventually got the re got checked and had the levelling done and the slide outs extended to find that when we plugged in there was no power. Tried two other sites and still no power so it was a case of accept what we had. It had been a long and tiring day and I didn't want to drive any further.

So today we had travelled 399 miles, bringing our total to 1004 miles since leaving home. Tired, ready to rest up and have a beer!

WESTWARD 2024

As you may already know we are heading away on another adventure. This time it is travelling West in our RV. We will be leaving on Sunday morning and will try to provide you some info on where we are and what we have been up to as we travel. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with us!

[travelling-pair]

Update number 1.

I don't know if anyone has been able to see the start of this blog so if you have would you please email me so that I know otherwise I could be talking to myself!!

Sunday was a good day of travelling. The Navigator (aka Mary) reckoned we should take Dave's advice on the route, so after topping off the gas (petrol) we headed North from Napanee on HW 41 to Pembroke where we joined Hw 17 West, stopping about 10 minutes later at a nice picnic area for lunch having been on the road for 3 hours. Hw 17 (the trans Canada) is a great road to travel, with an extra lane from time to time to let faster traffic past. (we were doing the speed limit of 90 Kms (56 mph). We had a brief stop at Mattawa for coffee, then on to North Bay. Enough driving for the day so we overnighted at Walmart having travelled 287 miles or 460 Kms.

It was a cold night and we had some issues with the fridge which was worrying, but got it sorted. Monday, Happy Canada Day! Out onto Hw17 by 8.am and saw very little traffic, although it got busier later.

The road was great, straight for the most part with some lovely views and a few hills. Took the bypass around Sudbury and on to a picnic area where we crossed Spanish River (East of the town) around 10.30am having been driving for 2.5 hours and 118 miles, to have a breakfast. Lovely area with picnic tables and good washrooms. Back on the road again, traffic now getting busy to a stop for gas at Serpent River First Nation. A mere 211 liters! which cost $329!. Then on through Iron Bridge and Bruce Mines for a quick lunch stop. We took the bypass around Sault Ste Marie, and back onto 17 now travelling North up the side of Lake Superior. Lots of long uphills and down dales with spectacular views out over the lake to our overnight stop at Pancake Bay Provincial Park. A lovely park with a long sandy beach. We have now travelled 318 miles today and 605 miles altogether.

WESTWARD 2024

As you may already know we are heading away on another adventure. This time it is travelling West in our RV. We will be leaving on Sunday morning and will try to provide you some info on where we are and what we have been up to as we travel. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with us!

[travelling-pair]

WESTWARD 2024

As you may already know we are heading away on another adventure. This time it is travelling West in our RV. We will be leaving on Sunday morning and will try to provide you some info on where we are and what we have been up to as we travel. Hopefully you will enjoy the trip with us!