Day 19-21, Thursday Sept. 29th - Saturday Oct. 1st

Medicine Hat-Saskatoon-Canora-Winnipeg

These three days we travel through the prairies of Saskatchewan and Manitoba towards Winnipeg, starting from Medicine Hat which is still in Alberta.

From Medicine Hat we take route 1, the Trans Canada. The road goes through the badlands and grassland prairies. Everything is yellow. In the distance we see coulees, cutting deep into the land. There are many abandoned homesteads and farms, rusted old farm machines are left behind and witnesses of a former hard working life. Next to the homesteads small sheds which were once used for grain storage, now falling apart. Near Swift Current we leave the road and take a gravel road to see more of the land. The road is very dry and clouds of dust trail behind any vehicles which drive on these roads. Soon our car is also coated with dust. We are told that there has not been a drop of rain for over two months, so everything is bone dry. We do not see any "normal" cars, just four wheel drives and jeeps. Here no cattle, but we do see a group of eight or ten antelopes.

We get stuck where big machines are depositing dirt on the road to level it. It hasn't been equalised yet, and the road is covered in deep rutted layers of sand which seem impossible to drive through. Alas, we have no choice but to go on – with nervous trepidation! We are low on the ground and very likely to get stuck here. The only consolation is that there are big trucks which might help us out if we are grounded. On the worst stretch a jeep comes from the other direction and we have to pass it for we can't possibly stop here! Anyway, my friend who is driving makes it, and we are all very relieved.

We continue on route 1 and later route 4. We see more antelopes, but too far away to photograph them.

I never thought there would be so many dirt and gravel roads in Canada. Neither did I know that there was such a variety of prairie land. After leaving the badlands, we drive through lands with golden grain. Some of the fields have already been harvested and ploughed, on others the grain is still standing. As it has been too dry all summer, the grain is a bit low and not very full.

There are many small towns here, more like villages, all built along a railway line near a grain elevator. The grain elevators were built at equal distances from each other so that it would take no longer than a day for any farmer to take his grain to the elevator and return home – with horse and wagon. I thought all grain elevators would be painted oxblood red, but most of them are white or grey. Often the paint is peeling, and most of them are no longer in use. The grain has been bought by large corporations, who have built modern grain elevators, which may be far more efficient, but do not look half as attractive. The small towns around the elevators are also dying, the obligatory hotel near each railway station boarded up, eyes looking blindly across the tracks. I have never seen so many trains in my life as on this trip, but they are all freight trains now and they no longer carry passengers. There are a few exceptions. One is the West-East connection, and another a passenger train to Churchill. The freight trains are amazing in length, sometimes even up to two kilometres.

Then there are the parkland prairies with many creeks, lakes and bogs. We see huge flocks of Canada geese on the fields and the lakes, taking wing unexpectedly, swirling around and pirouetting like an oversized corps de ballet, honking all the time. They feed in water-logged soil and shallow water. Many of the lakes here are in fact swamps, where the water can't escape because of the rocky subsoil. We see lakes with white rims, salt lakes. As the water doesn't flow out but simply evaporates, the lakes contain more and more salt. This is mined and  sold as potash. We see not only Canada geese with their distinctive colours and pattern, but also many snow geese. They will soon be migrating south. The snow geese breed on the arctic tundra's. They are a bit smaller than Canada geese, with shorter necks. I also spot a coyote, rather a big one it seems.

Before we reach Saskatoon, we have a picnic at Saskatchewan Landing, a historic spot in a surrealistic landscape.
Saskatoon is a busy but very pleasant city, and a University town. There are parks along the river banks and people cycle and jog there. Apart from the regular bridges, hikers, joggers and cyclists can also cross the river via special footbridges, even one along the railway tracks. It is weird to walk next to a moving train, so close that one could actually touch it! The city is surprisingly green, something I had not expected at all after crossing through such dry and yellow land, almost devoid of trees.

We stay overnight at the home of friends and enjoy their food and most of all their company.

footbridge next tp the railway line

The next morning, on Friday, we take leave of our hosts after a leisurely breakfast and visit the street where my friends lived when they were newly married, the university where the husband was a lecturer and several other spots which hold special memories for my friends.

We do not hit highway 5 till midday, a very interesting route which goes through an area with many Ukrainian villages. The highway follows the railway line, so we see many grain elevators which are still standing along this route, as well as many Ukrainian churches, Orthodox and Roman Catholic, in villages, but also along the highway or in the fields. I lose count of the numerous lakes and bogs, hundreds of noisy flocks of Canada geese and snow geese on the water and in flight, copses with dwarfed shrubs and trees, autumn colours, vistas, dilapidated homesteads, abandoned and falling apart, boarded up hotels near the railway lines.

Humboldt, a German settlement, is a relatively large town, with a central square, a bandstand, gas stations and shops.

The next town, Muenster, is very interesting. Here we visit a white wooden church, a cathedral in miniature, originally the abbey church, St. Peter's Cathedral, founded in 1903, constructed in 1910, with decorations in the choir and along the walls by Berthold Imhoff.

Those Germans originally came from Minnesota. What is remarkable in this church for me is not so much the painted decorations, but the windows. Recently the windows have been decorated with stained glass. This because too much sun flooded through the clear windows which was damaging to the paintings on the walls.

The windows were given by members of families who have lived and worked here, and still do. They depict their lifestyle, there hobbies and other things. There is a window with the hands of a woman holding a hymnal at the bottom. Above this the farm where she worked, and several other items which were important in her life.

Each window is different, although done in the same style. There is a folder in church explaining the background and meaning of each window. It is humbling to see that so much effort and money has been spent on this church at a time that towns here are slowly dying. It shows confidence and trust in the continuation and the importance of this church and perhaps the church in general. This town isn't dead at all, as on the other side of the highway there is the Benedictine Abbey, st. Peters Abbey , with a college attached to it. It has a beautiful, very modern chapel and is surrounded by wooded park land.

Here is another link for St. Peter's Cathedral.

We leave Muenster and go to Rama. Here too the hotel near the former railway station is boarded up, and there is no café or any place to buy drinks or food. But amazingly there are three churches, which I mentioned before, the most remarkable one St. Anthony's Roman Catholic Church with the Maria Grotto. Then there is the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church of St. Peter and St Paul, and St. Michaels just across the railway line, an Ukrainian Orthodox church.

We book into the Gateway Motel in Canora, the only choice there is! It is an Ukrainian town, and although the website suggests there is a lot here for tourists, at this time of night all we can do is go to the Main street and have a Chinese meal in one of the two Chinese restaurants, the only places which are open.

Taken from the official website of Canora

The next morning (Saturday October 1^st), we have breakfast in an adjacent family restaurant in a small shopping mall, together with the locals who are eating a very hearty breakfast. I try French toast, something I always want to eat at least once when I am in North America. And it isn't disappointing!

Our first stop is the tiny hamlet – a former town – of Mikado. We wonder why there should be a stop sign in  the middle of a half dead town where we are the only moving car. Except for a small child pedalling feverishly on a tricycle, there is no traffic whatsoever. The white clapboard church with its sharply pointed spire, looks well preserved. We wonder if it is still in use and where people who attend would come from. Certainly not just from this villages with the few scattered houses.

Verigin

A more interesting town is Verigin, the first settlement of the Doukhobors before they left for British Columbia. It is a museum now, and although closed, we can peer through windows, and see the various buildings, The main building has a prayer hall on the ground floor, and living quarters on the top floor. There is a statue of Tolstoy in the grounds, who inspired the Doukhobors and visited them. One grain elevator is still there.

Verigin

In the fields around this museum we hear the honking of many noisy geese.

We follow the road to Kamsack which has several grain elevators and go on to Duck Mountain Provincial Park. The autumn colours are gorgeous.

Duck Mountain Provincial Park

Golden yellow aspen, dark pines, small lakes with dead wood and many beaver dams, it is all there. We even see a beaver actively swimming from one side of the lake to the other side.

We stop at Madge Lake somewhere in the middle of the park, where a lonely snow goose is grazing along the banks of the lake, lined with orange coloured reeds. This area used to be a haunt for trappers.

snow goose

When we leave the park we are still in Ukrainian territory and see many of their churches. Along the road near Roblin in Zelena we come across St. Michaels Ukrainian Catholic Church, on a hill, painted dark red, and walk around it and the cemetery.

In Roblin we find an Austrian restaurant in the former station. We feast on homemade goulash soup and a coffee with "apfelstrudel". A young couple owns the restaurant. The wife is the cook. She comes from Salzburg and has lived here since 1998, and has run this restaurant for the past 8 years. In winter it is closed. I suppose not many people will voluntarily visit Roblin in winter. Her husband, who is helping out today as it is weekend, works in the oil business. We are entertained with Austrian and German "schlagers" and on the wall behind us the Austrian flag is pinned. The freight train passing by is so close, we could touch it!

We continue on route 5 till Gilbert Plains, where we leave the road and turn into gravel roads to be nearer the escarpment of the Riding Mountains. Here we see another empty house, which looks quite modern. There is still a TV aerial on the roof. At Keld, in the middle of nowhere, we see another church, St. Nicholas Ukrainian Catholic Church (from 1903).

We join highway 5 again just South of Dauphin, and take highway 19 towards Neepawa, where we enjoy a meal at the house of family of my companions on this journey, before setting off for Winnipeg in the dark, for my friends' home where all three of us will enjoy a period of rest before setting off to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving in Thunder Bay on the banks of Lake Superior.