Itâs a long drive across Canada, but long drives are what we do. Over the pandemic weâve been moseying around western Canada. But things are opening up and now we can mosey eastwards: over the Rockies and out overlanding the prairies on the other side. âBut thereâs nothing there!â they warned us in BC. So we go to see what ânothingâ looks like on the prairies. And on the way, Cuthbert finds a bit of tv stardom!
Alberta: Aliens and Bison
First province to cross is Alberta. Regular Cuthberteers may recall that we toured a fair chunk of Alberta last year and saw most of the provinceâs Gucci highlights. Itâs famously home to the gob-smacking Banff and Jasper National Parks, but it’s full of fabulously quirky stuff too.
On last yearâs tour of Alberta we thought weâd seen the âquirkiest of all things quirkyâ at the Gopher World Museum (check it out, itâs blowing of the mind!). But no. This time in Alberta we visit a place that might just out-quirk the stuffed-gopher museum: a designated UFO Landing Pad. I kid you not. In St Pauls, Alberta theyâve actually gone and built themselves a place for aliens to land when they come to visit earth. And when the aliens get here, Gary the Green Guy is standing by to make a few bucks selling them some ice-cream. I know, this all sounds just a teeny bit incredible, but seriously⌠we couldnât make this stuff up if we tried đ
Also in Alberta, we went to see a bison or two in Elk Island National Park. Bison donât roam wild in this part of Canada and itâs been a while since we caught them roaming back in the Yukon/northern BC last year. Itâs worth the effort to rise at dawn to see herds grazing around the plains in the park, or at least we thought it was⌠until we later progressed to Manitoba where we saw shed-loads of them grazing in farm fields at the side of the road!!!
Saskatchewan: I see no ships!
Moseying east out of Alberta is Saskatchewan: our fifth province/territory in Canada. The scenery couldnât really be in starker contrast to what we had become used to in BC over the last few months. The Great Plains of the prairies stretch out for miles and miles⌠and miles. The distant views and big skies are amazing. Itâs so flat here, locals say you can watch your dog run away for two weeks!
Now⌠Saskatchewan isnât famous for its big-ticket international tourist attractions, and we have no real âmust seeâ boxes to tick off our list here. But box-ticking isnât really why we do this overlanding thing. We like to go at least a wee bit off the beaten track, and in Saskatchewan we learn that Alberta doesnât have the monopoly on the curious, quirky stuff of Canada.
We avoid the tarmac highways and stick to the network of gravel farm tracks so we can slow down and take in the views. After just a few hours, we find our Saskatchewan quirky item number one: a lighthouse. Yup, a lighthouse. One of those things more typically found by the ocean to warn big ships off treacherous rocks. But here itâs over 1,300km from the coast. Baffling⌠but kinda cool.
Dead Sea
Equally baffling is the nearby Crooked Bush. These crooked cedars are well hidden deep in the prairies, but the reason they fail to grow upwards towards the light (like most ânormalâ plants do) is apparently puzzling botanists. Hmmm⌠curious!
Just down the road is the trendy city of Saskatoon. Say it again⌠Sas-ka-toooon (such an utterly cool place name!). The city has quite a great vibe and we enjoyed mooching around the shops and market there. Next, we pushed on to find another little-known wonder: a âdead seaâ.
Years ago when we lived in the Middle East, we visited the famous Dead Sea between Jordan and Israel. The extreme salt content creates a freaky buoyancy and at the time we thought this phenomenon was unique. Pah! How little we knew! Canada has a âdead seaâ too, at Manitou Beach, Saskatchewan! It has a slightly lower saline content than its Middle Eastern brother, but apparently itâs classified in the same league.
Weâd love to be able to post stunning pictures of a clear blue sky and a sparkling lake at Manitou Beach, but we canât. Thatâs not to say itâs not a beautiful place, weâre absolutely sure it itâs gorgeous. Itâs just that weâre unlucky with our timing: the sky is consistently grey and murky with smoke pollution from the forest fires many miles away to the north. The vast forest fires are themselves tragic enough, but the consequential degradation in air quality across vast swathes of the country is a secondary disaster for Canadians âš.
Moose King
Moving on south is the town of Moose Jaw. Now if there is a more classic Canadian place name than âMoose Jawâ, Iâd love to hear it!! Moose Jaw is home to Mac the Moose: the worldâs largest moose (Canada just loves a âworldâs largest⌠whateverâ). Mac stands proudly on the edge of town and is indeed a very large moose. But Macâs accolade is precarious and heâs constantly looking over his shoulder at the competition. He was originally the largest, then Stor-Elvdal in Norway built a bigger one. Moose Jaw responded by finding some larger antlers for Mac and heâs now once again the Moose King. But for how long? Itâs only a matter of time âtil Norway hits back!
RCMP
East from Moose Jaw is Saskatchewanâs provincial capital: Regina. Now⌠by way of background to this bit of our story, Iâll come clean and disclose that I have a dubious history with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The RCMP are the only police force in the world to have ever done me for speeding, and I have driven in many countries of the world! It was Nova Scotia in 1986 (not that Iâm still bitter or anything)! Okay, Iâll admit that I was indeed speeding, so it did serve me right.
Skip forward 35 years, weâre passing through Regina and have the chance to visit the museum of the training centre attended by every single Mountie who has ever served. So that guy who nabbed me in Nova Scotia way back in 1986⌠here is where he learned how to nab me! Anyway, enough about my crime-ridden past⌠the museum is really worth a visit, a great insight into this iconic police force and the challenges they face policing a country as huge and diverse as Canada
More quirkery…
Another of the many quirky things weâve found is the Eiffel Tower. No, we havenât upped sticks back to Europe. This Eiffel Tower stands proudly in the Saskatchewan village of Montmartre (get the connection? đ). Itâs a bit smaller than the original, but hey⌠whoâs measuring, eh?
Nearby, thereâs more of the âworldâs biggestâ malarkey in the village of Kipling. British readers might be expecting us to find the worldâs largest âexceedingly good cakesâ, but no. Kipling is the home of the worldâs biggest⌠wait for it⌠paperclip! Itâs here because in 2005 some guy bought a red paperclip. Then over a period of just one year he traded it up gradually, first swapping it for a fish-shaped pen, then a door-knob, a snowmobile, a cube-van etc, etc, etc, to finally convert the ownership of a paper-clip into a house!
TV Stardom
As we were leaving Saskatchewan we received an email from Ryan, a tv news presenter in Saskatoon. He had seen Cuthbert back at Manitou Beach and wanted to feature our story on his morning tv show. This is the third time in our travels that Cuthbert has featured on the telly and we were chuffed to do a Zoom interview with Ryan. Click here if you want to watch it. After broadcast we received some lovely emails from people around Saskatchewan offering us generous hospitality (theyâre sooo nice those Canadian people yâ know đ).
Manitoba: Prairie Life
Further east, the Great Plains continue into our province/territory number six⌠Manitoba! Our first stop here is with the lovely Stephen, Michelle and their son, Liam. We were fascinated to learn from them about farming life out on the prairies. Their super-cute and ultra-adorable kid goat Monty was a bit curious about Cuthbert and just managed to jump up the steps to investigate us. Weâve often thought about getting a small dog for overlanding, but Monty got us thinking how cool it would be to do âgoatverlandingâ with a miniature-breed (just kidding! đ¤Ł).
Parks, Elevators and Heritage
The scenery across Manitoba doesnât vary hugely from that in Saskatchewan. As we were warned back in BC, there is indeed a great deal of nothing. But itâs a glorious ânothingâ and we loved driving across it. The open plains, the big skies, the views that go on for ever⌠itâs marvellous. Itâs what a trans-Canadian road trip is all about. Can you even say youâve âdoneâ Canada until youâve driven the Great Plains? đ
In between the ânothingâ, Manitoba does have some great parks with beautiful lakes. If your life is on the prairies, these are no doubt an oasis of calm to escape to for holidays. But weâve done a lot of sitting by beautiful lakes in Canada over this pandemic. Weâre sure there is much more to this country than nice scenery, so in Manitoba we skip through the parks to find things that make Canada tic.
We visited a grain elevator to learn about these iconic buildings that dot the prairie landscape. And we visited the communities around Lake Winnipeg to learn about the heritage of immigration from Iceland and Finland. And across Canada we have visited the major cities to learn about their food, industries, architecture, history and governance. This kind of thing we never learnt in school.
In between the prairies is some city stuff
Half way
Finally, in eastern Manitoba we reach the half-way point of Canada. Itâs over a year since we were at the far western extent of Canada, in the Yukon at the Alaska border. Now just east of Winnipeg is the mid-way point.
On we go heading east. Itâs just a mere 4,000km to go to the eastern point in Newfoundland. Standby for tales from our province number seven: Ontario!