Tuesday 28th May - Winnipeg

Bit of a bitty day today. Rain was pelting it down still at 5.30 so I cancelled alarm and decided to treat myself to a lay in. Didn’t of course, to “on the roady”.

But got my laundry done – it was open now and had to have some communication with  the guy’s doing the arrangements for freighting my bike back – yes, unfortunately got to start thinking about that.

Lyndsay helped though – found me a BMW dealer in Toronto who is prepared to sell me one of their freight boxes to replace the one that nice customs lady had destroyed. What a star!

By the time all that had been done I set off, in clean thingies, for Winnipeg. By the way did you know Winnie the Pooh is named from Winnipeg. AA Milne got the name from a black bear cub named Winnipeg that had been donated to the zoo when his owner, a Canadian Soldier went off to war.  The soldier -  and bear - originally came from a town White River, in Ontarion, which I may go through later in the trip - exciting stuff eh!

Wanted to see several things today which will probably bore the pants off you I guess, clean or otherwise but involved the settling of the land around here – the Red River area.

The first thing that came to me as I set off was again in the clearing rain was just how vast this country is and how “empty” this part of it was. I was travelling miles in a straight line, 422 yesterday and am still in the prairies with really nothing but a few man-made structures – yes, mainly those elevators, to break up a view which is not barren – although at this time of year crop-less – but certainly doesn’t look very welcoming in this gloom.

 

Then, slowly it began to change. More trees appeared, obviously all planted as windbreaks and not natural forestation but more and more “homesteads” surrounded by such planting began to appear, this one fairly typical...

 

Don’t get me wrong, there were still not that many and they were not all that close together but they were there. The land became darker, richer and as I was thinking how much like home it was, well the flatter parts of Lincolnshire, a sign told me I was in Norfolk – so close eh!

It was in this area that the surveying was started in the Governments attempts at getting people to settle the land west of here. I’d read about the campaigns to encourage emigration which were run in North America and Europe and the practices which went on both by Government Officials and the Railways – who needed customers – which were “questionable” to say the least – sometimes downright deceitful. They banned references to the bad weather etc. and even had their official artists and photographers ensure that all pictures showed a lot of foreground to move the horizon up.

 

Those who moved up from America could, and did, return when they found the land so bare but those unfortunates from Europe, many fleeing from persecution were unable to return “home” so had to make it work or starve.  One group of settlers who had arrived from Eastern Europe – Mennonites – had settled south of Winnipeg in and around Steinbach and I was headed for there to just “have a look”.

But I got lost – how I don’t know but I did. Yes, the roads are all on a grid system so you are usually going North, South, East or West but if you are wrong then you are going a long way North, South, East or West ‘til you can pick up something to give you a reference point. So I lost some time – if you can lose time on a road trip like this, but gained a real feeling for again the emptiness of this place.

Of course found my way eventually and visited the Mennonite Heritage Village – another collection of old buildings brought to one point from all over Manitoba but laid out so well and full of genuine, sometimes the original, possessions of those families who had overcome the hardship of settling here.

Just a little aside, and I say this with no ill intention, but the sweet elderly volunteer who showed me around initially, explaining the collection, asked after hearing me speak, if I was “from out of the Province”. I said yes, indeed out of the Country, from England. ” Oh”, she said “Do you have old buildings there?” – honest!

It was a great site, I know I think they all are, and as every building had a known history it really brought that part of the past alive.

Then looked at an exhibition of photos of old abandoned homesteads on the prairie,

 

See, there are people as "anoraky" as me!!!

Well, that's the last of the planned detours done. Overnight in Winnipeg and then a straight run to Lyndsay, Reece and Darcy in Beaverton - satnav says 1238 miles - into and across Ontario.

Let's see what that brings...