Manitoba

Tour through Manitoba

Week: 13. 6. To 19. 6. 2010

Drive from border Ontario to Winnipeg:

The tourist office at the Manitoba site is just excellent - a lot (and good) informations brochures and very good personal assistance.

After the border in continues the same way than in Ontario - forest and lakes. Approx. 50 km before Winnipeg the landscape changes drastically: flat and farmland. Winnipeg can be seen from far away - finally again a view to far distances.

 

Winnipeg

We stood overnight at the „Northgate RV Park“ at the Main Street North just before the Hwy 101 (N 49° 57.548‘ / W 57° 04.907‘). From you have easy bus connection to down town.
Winnipeg is the capital of Manitoba and as a big city (750.000 inhabitants) quite and „honest“. In the midst of this flat fields it grows like a mountain of glass and concrete out of the prairie. In this part it really gets cold (because of strong winds additional wind chill factor) and unpleasant in winter. Neail Young and Randy Bachmann have even written a song about this.

During our visit it rained - but nether the less we are used to this in the meantime.

The Forks was the area we liked most - market halls, events, art, restaurants, and food from all over the world is inviting you. The down town area can be discovered easily by walking.

 

Drive to Portage la Prairie:

We took a small road directly along the south banks of Assiniboine River. Mostly dirt road - but beautiful country side and very good to drive; absolutely no traffic. Repeatedly nice views to the muddy river („Assiniboine“ - a native word - means „Muddy River“. Huge farms and endless fields are skirting the route. Everything is planted here: wheat, potatoes, corn, rape seed, fruits and berries, vegetables. During dry season the water of the Assiniboine is uses for irrigation.

 

First tire change with this vehicle

In Portage la Prairie we wanted to see the soccer world champion play „Germany against Aurstralia“. When we parked and stopped the engine we heard a loud whisteling noise. I got out and checked the pressure vessels - nothing. Started the engine again - still this loud noise. Suddenly Rita shouted: „my side sinks down“ - we have a flat tire. In few minutes the air of this huge tire was out. Not only the prairie is absolutely flat also our tire - it fits well.

We lifted the vehicle with our jack - very tiring. Our neighbors borrowed us some wooden square blocks - thanks very much. More we couldn´t do on Sunday. Tomorrow we call the local tire company.  The problem was fixed in 2 hours by KAL - Tire. The reason was a wrongly assembled tube in Germany which made the tube puncture.

We stood overnight at the parking ground in front of the library.

 

Meeting in Portage La Prairie:

After our „Baby“ lost air Rita tried to find a hot spot. An elderly man approached here and aked the where abouts. He was part of a religous gathering and spontaniousy invited us for supper in a big meeting room. We were first hesitating since our outfit was not matching the nice costumes and suites of the party. We were introduced as friends from Germany and many those present even could speak German. We had nice conversations - many thanks for the invitation!!

 

Drive to Sinclair (near to border of Saskatchewan)

We stood overnight at a very simple  campground in Sinclair 

(N49° 34.059‘  /  W 101° 17.176‘) a tiny village with 30 inhabitants living from farming.

The drive through the south of Manitoba is just flat. Entirely used for farming (grain and cattle) - the famous prairie. For us this was a very good change after the millions of trees in Ontario. 

Especially the old grain silos are huge - you see tehm already many miles before you come to the village. They are - in the meantime - already a cultural heritage.

 

On the way we stopped at a wetland. This type of nature is extremely important for many creatures (birds, amphibious animals, insects, etc.) but is more and more disappearing. We saw a colony of redwinged black birds. They sing melodiously and they tried to drive us away - most probably because of their nests.

Continuation of tour report please refer "Saskatchewan"