To Thompson Manitoba!

July 9, 2019

Thompson, Manitoba is a 4 hour drive from Clear Water Lake, so we needed to head out right after breakfast.  We left the campsite by 10:30 and headed north on Hwy#10, and then east on Hwy#39/6.  We made a short diversion into Cranberry Portage to top up our fuel.  Cranberry Portage is a tiny hamlet just north of the Hwy#10/39 junction.  Gas price was 1.29 the highest we have paid since leaving BC.  Availability of fuel is hit and miss from here to Thompson. 

Hwy #39 is a long straight road heading northeast through boreal forests and between many lakes, large and small.  The highway passes through Grass Lake Provincial Park and several other Provincial parks. The road is all paved but is suffering from frost heaves and has many serious rough sections.  During one “pit stop”, Debbie had to reposition a lot of things in the trailer that have shaken out of their places. You could count the number of cars we met for the four hours on two hands.

My navigator, Debbie has an uncanny ability to see animals along the side of the highway. Today she spotted our first sandhill cranes. Sandhill cranes are abundant in Manitoba, and we tried to take some photos of these birds however, they are quite elusive. We will try to get a good photo later on. As far as other animals go, we have not seen a single deer, moose or other creature other than horseflies!!

We arrived in Thompson at 4:30.  Thompson is our departure point to board Via Rail to Churchill, Manitoba.  We have reserved a 4-day stay at the Lazy Bear Lodge to kayak with the beluga whales and take excursions to see the polar bears!

Our friends and past colleague, Sorab and Victoria have offered to house our rig at their home and let us stay at their home until we board tomorrow.  Unfortunately, they are going to be in Winnipeg so we won’t see them until we return from Churchill.

We reflected where we have been since we got to Manitoba and drew out our route so far. We certainly have wandered around the provinces!!

We pulled into their yard and settled in for the night. We are excited for tomorrow, as we have looked forward to this part of the trip.  I set up the computer to update the blog posts because there will not be any further blogs until after July 17^th.