Day 5 - Winnipeg

Waking up from a bed this morning felt great. After breakfast at the hotel we started the morning at The Forks by the river. This place is the strategically important and historically significant meeting place of the Assiniboine and Red Rivers. Today the site attracts people for recreation and ceremonies. In a beautiful riverside setting interpretive exhibits outline the area's history. Maintained footpaths line the riverbank with plaques in English, French and Cree (a First Nation Language). Fur trade was the central role of historic Winnipeg and its century long relationship with First Nation groups is noticeable in modern Winnipeg as well.

After exploring The Forks we walked along the Assiniboine to take pictures of Golden Boy atop the Manitoba Legislative Building. Even on a Sunday there were hourly tours with a quite enthusiastic guide who told us that the building was designed during Winnipeg's optimistic boom of the early 1900s. The building flaunts a limestone construction with fossils visible on the walls. There were many difficulties in finishing the construction in time, part of it was because the "project manager" Thomas Kelly kept stealing from the construction, including 7 pillars he put into his own front yard. The missing pillars have been replaced by fake hollow ones.

We backtracked to The Forks and crossed the Red River to St. Boniface, Canada's oldest French community outside of Quebec. The St Boniface Basilica was mostly destroyed by fire in 1968, the original facade still stands as an imposing reminder.

There was time for one more sight to see and I chose the Manitoba Musuem over Fort Gibraltar. Main reason was that Fort Gibraltar is an outside presentation and the sun was already killing us. Second, my guide book praised the Museum as one of the best locally focused museum on the continent. Well, it wasn't wrong. They had a complete replica of the Nonsuch ship and wild west townhouses. There was even a movie theater with seats for guests, playing a Charlie Chaplin movie.

After that we had dinner in the Bailey's Restaurant where we were catered by a very friendly waiter from Quebec, who seemed to be fascinated by our idea of going across Canada and we shared some stories with each other. Tonight we will be spending another night in the hotel and then we go see nature again.

Day 4 - Mennonite Herritage Village, Victoria Beach, Winnipeg

I started the day by walking down the beach to take some nice photos. The beach was surrounded by trees and had a secluded appearance.

Once on the Trans-Canada Hwy driving towards Winnipeg again, we pulled of for the Mennonite Heritage Village of Steinbach on Hwy 12 in the middle of sunflower country. The Mennonites here were mainly coming from the Ukraine, but since they were originally Germans, they still can speak German. My mom used every chance she had to make them speak German. They were quite surprised to hear the German language back from the visitors. However, younger generations don't speak German anymore and are raised English only. It's interesting, because you still see them living their traditional lives, wearing their own clothes, but they forget about their language. There is a museum that details emigration history and a simple but incredibly detailed and accurate village that features homes, stores, businesses and even a windmill. Most of the housing styles and tools were familiar to me already, as my grandmother still has the same sort of things. The village has its own restaurant serving hearty Mennonite foods. I had Borscht soup and Kielkje (which is homemade egg noddles with sour cream and onion served with grilled ham or farmer's sausage) and some traditional dessert whose name I can't recall now.

From their we headed north on Hwy 12 to Victoria Beach on the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg. It is the greenest village ever. Cottage-centric with limited vehicle access. You have to park your car at the gates (same for cottage owners). Only walking and biking is allowed. As you walk through the dirt roads of the village, you are surrounded by high walls of trees and occasionally a gap allows you a peek to one of the hundreds of tastefully erected cottages in this silent Eden of Manitoba.

Also named as the sandiest beaches of Lake Winnipeg, I instantly realized that Victoria Beach has to be one of the most sought-after spots in Manitoba. The community seems to be close-knit. People greet you with a natural smile. Next stop was Winnipeg, Humphry Inn & Suites and the first bed and solid cover above my head for the first time on the road. I am not saying I am tired of camping, but I will definitely enjoy every inch of that mattress.

Distance travelled: 384 km

Day 3 - Nestor Falls, Sioux Narrows and Falcon Lake, Manitoba

We had an amazing start in the morning with the stunning and secluded French Lake lying at our doorstep.

Today was a not too much sightseeing, we mainly just did distance to get to Manitoba. We continued on Hwy 11 and took Hwy 71 to join the Trans-Canada Hwy again. There was also nothing really outstanding on the road, except of course the endless waterlogged preserve. You would want to constantly stop and take a picture as the next lookout is always a bit nicer. There was a pulp (certain type of tree log) depot in Fort Frances which convinced me to pull over for a picture. What you see in the picture, they had at least 10 more of these.

Hwy 71 was taking us through the Lake of the Woods area and through Nestor Falls and Sioux Narrows. The later two are serene resort towns with cottages and houseboats. They are surrounded by lakes from all sides and a series of bridges are leading through them. The car plates tell that the area is a popular spot for Minnesota residents. I have even found some signs of bear activity in the area. One of the picknick spots had its heavy iron garbage bin thrown over and a huge bear dropping was nearby...you could easily tell from the size.

There was one excitement on the road. I managed to test the capacity of the tank. The car ran out of fuel after 45 km after the low fuel light came up. On the middle of the road the car stopped accelerating. I pulled over next to a drive-in and started to diagnose the problem. At that point I didn't guess the problem was an empty tank. After ruling out all other mechanical problems I could think of I started to realize...Oh my god, don't tell me you can do only 45 km with the warning light on. The last car I used to drive in Europe (same category, smaller engine) has a 60 liters tank and has 15 liters of gas in it once the light comes up. You could go with that even 150-200 km before running out. So this is what I was used to. I go check the tank capacity in the manual and then it hits me...46 liters. Nice, usually only the cars the size of a Swift have 45 liter tanks. Probably the standard for officially measuring fuel consumption dictates a full tank, so if you have a smaller tank, you will have less weight, better consumption data. Anyway, I started calculating...the last time I was filling up the car after the light came up it swallowed 40 liters. So there is 6 liters of reserve in it. Plus as I know this modern cars don't let the last 3 liters or so out of the tank. Funny thing happened though...our savior, John from Minnesota was just coming by from his cottage on the drive-in I stopped at. And as unbelievable it sounds, he was on his way to go fill up his gas canister. So he quickly took me to a marine gas station where I bought 20 liter of gas, he brought me back, I poured it into the car tank and bumm, the Ford engine was on and sounded cockier then ever. Thanks again, John!

Eventually we entered Manitoba and arrived at Falcon Lake, Whiteshell Provincial Park. The campsite was only a short walk from the beach, but it wasn't the good standard I already got used to in Ontario. Tomorrow we will arrive in Winnipeg.

Distance travelled: 470 km

Day 2 - Amethyst Mine, Kakabeka Falls, Quetico Provincial Park

Today morning I woke up next to Rabbit Blanket Lake. It drizzled a bit and I loved the smell of fresh air. I couldn't enjoy the scenery yesterday as it got dark right after we arrived, so I enjoyed the view today morning.

It was the first morning on my trip so my getting ready routine happened a bit slower then I expected. Needed 2 hours from the moment I woke up up until I was sitting in the car ready to go, breakfast included. This will get better with the days and I also took many pictures, also from the car as it still was nice and shiny. With time it will get dirty and I am going to take less and less pictures from it. But seriously, could you resist?

The first part of the road was foggy. Having the great lake and the woods next to you, it made a misty feeling. The scenery was breathtaking with many downhill moments where you would think that the road will end in that vast lake that was spanning the horizon. And guess what, on the road I stumbled upon the same RV I was writing about yesterday. Now I could read off the brand of this giant: MONACO Signature Series... the name tells it all. Go to the manufacturer's website and dream a bit (starts at $628k).

First stop was at the amethyst mine east of Thunder Bay. Well, it is said to be the biggest such mine in North America, but I think only because there are no other. There is a 15m deep quarry, ~300m long and there was one guy down there flushing the surface with a water hose. Full capacity is 4 persons I was told. There is an area where they throw some excavated rocks and you can dig for your own amethyst. Kids enjoy this very much, and you can buy it per pound. I don't know why I pictured an underground mine with purple crystal hanging from the walls, but since it was on the way, it was worth a stop.

Next station was Kakabeka Falls. This is a nice picture taking spot. A wide river bisected by a rock formation, falling down 40 meters in multiple steps. It was perfect candidate for my first experiment with slow shutter pictures.

Continuing on Hwy 11 we gained one hour by entering the Central time zone, helping us with an early arrival at Quetico Provincial Park, Chippewa campground and making a nice campfire. Tomorrow we will aim for Manitoba. Tonight I have a chipmunk running around my tent all the time.

Distance travelled: 650 km

Day 1 - Lake Superior Provincial Park

So finally the day has arrived. In the last weeks I spent quite a lot of time to arrange everything for this trip. There has been some good and bad news already the day before we left.

Good news was that the rental location was able to hold the specific car that I wanted: 2012 Ford Focus Hatchback Titanium trim...yeah baby, leather seats, sun roof, and an incredibly sexy back. I think this car has everything in it what you need for a trip like this. Cargo space, a rear camera (else I wouldn't see at the back because of all the stuff) and a 160hp 2l engine which I think you could call fuel-efficient in North America as I managed to get a 6.8l consumption with a pretty hasty driving (of course it is far from the advertised 5.2l, but I think you could get that only in a laboratory environment. But let's not make this a car review, I am sure this car will have a lot of adventures on the next 15k that is waiting for him.

So the bad news was that my TomTom XL 350 GPS device died (at least the touchscreen did) just the day before. Awesome, I bought it specifically for this trip, worst $200 investment so far. Support couldn't do any magic, so I ended up buying the GPS Navigator application for my BlackBerry. It's not too bad, but once you loose cell coverage, you can't get any new navigation, but it will continue to navigate you on your existing route with cached data. Should have gone with this option in the first place (I have a 700 pages thick Canada back-road atlas as a backup :)).

The reason for the hasty driving was that we left a bit later than planned. Well, 3 hours later than I wanted to. This first day was a pretty long drive (almost 900km), and I wanted to reach the campsite before it got completely dark. We left at 11am and by 9pm we were here. On the way we stopped for a lunch break at Espanola, than in a remote small town to buy some food supply for the night, and another random place to fill up the car. Interesting thing I learned about the gas pumps that are not that super-modern than the ones in Toronto. You have to push some lever manually to reset the pump, else it will show the previous fill up and the gas won't flow. Took me couple of seconds to figure out, I almost went to the gas station across the street, thinking this was defective.

After Sault Ste. Marie cell phone coverage went away and hasn't returned until the campground. Our road went along the shore of Lake Superior, there were quite a few scenic lookouts and I have seen surprisingly sandy beaches resembling more the Caribbeans rather a North American lake shore. At one of the lookouts I have seen the biggest RV...EVER. It was the size of a bus you see carrying famous football teams. Only in this, merely 2 people were sitting having dinner. He had the most amazing view in front of his moving apartment. Why didn't I take a picture of that thing?...sigh, I don't know, was probably too amazed by its sheer size. I will take a picture from the next one I see. I have a feeling more of these monstrous RVs are cruising the roads. It's time to go sleeping, I think a rabbit just bumped his head into my tent.

Distance travelled: 869 km