The Middle Bit.

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A guy who was staying at the hostel gave me a lift to Edmonton, which is the capital of Alberta. I spent the weekend here, went to the cinema a couple of times, and attended a concert by virtuoso classical guitarist Remi Boucher, which was pretty amazing.

But was aware that I could go to the cinema at home, and wasn't really justifying the trip. This sense of becoming slightly directionless and 'losing my way' became more pronounced as I ventured further east into the prairies. I spent a day in Saskatoon, mostly in an art gallery/museum, since it was free. And warm.

I had written to a scientific research centre in Churchill to see about volunteering there, but apparently the work was basically washing dishes for 36 hours a week, so I decided to give it a miss, and headed straight for Winnipeg in southern Manitoba.

The prairies themselves, were very, very flat - possibly the flattest land I've ever seen. I remember waking up at dawn on an overnight bus trip and looking out the window to see endless fields of wheat, with only the odd grain silo to break the monotony, and electricity pylons marching off to the horizon far in the distance. It reminded me of something out of Tron. With a sky full of low slung clouds, it all looked and felt incredibly oppressive and I quickly decided that I didn't like it very much. The photos shown here are the only ones I took from the time I left Jasper until I was in Ontario, which I think says something about how I felt.

I did try and find another farm somewhere around Winnipeg, but there didn't seem to be any demand for volunteers anymore - I guess the season is almost over. And it was bitterly cold in Winnipeg - the wind cuts right through you since there are no natural windbreaks, so working on a farm might well have been utterly miserable here. Instead, I decided that a change of plan was in order, and I now intend to make a break for the east coast after all.

That decided, I booked another horror bus journey (only 24 hours this time though) into Ontario, and ended up in Saulte Sainte Marie. I had noticed that the further south I got, the fatter people began to get. Saulte Ste. Marie was on the US border, and I would say at least 80% of the people were morbidly obese waddling mouth breathers. It was incredible. Then I tried to eat out, and found that my choices were almost exclusively limited to fast food. After much searching I found one restaurant that had one item on the menu that came with vegetables as an option. But everything came with the obligatory chips.

Frankly I was beginning to lose the plot a bit at this point, and wasn't really enjoying the trip anymore. Felt like some sort of perpetually travelling salesman with nothing to sell, staying in expensive motels, eating junk food, with no other travellers around to team up with...

What I needed was another adventure. And that's precisely what I got.

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Photos

Saskatoon entertainments
(might have to click on this to read the sign...)