Day 8 – Riding Mountain, Manitoba to Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

It rained in the wee hours of the morning but not heavily. I decided to pack up without eating just in case the rain started up again. Bus was quite comfortable in the tent and a bit reluctant to get moving. I had to drag him out so that I could take the tent down. I had a great shower at the local comfort station and we were on the road by 7:30 am.

We headed west on Highway 16 towards Saskatoon. I didn’t have any particular sights to check out today so thought I would take it as it came. The scenery was heaven for bird-lovers (Glenn and Marilyn take note). The land was flat and full of ponds and marshes with birds of all kinds everywhere. There were ducks, of course, but also terns, snow geese as well as Canada geese, gulls, pelicans and I don’t know what all. I am still learning. I saw a number of raptors. I think one was a peregrine but I can’t say for certain.

At Churchbridge we found a giant looney. It seems that Rita Swanson from Churchbridge created the design that was used to celebrate Canada’s 125th anniversary.

Further down the road, midst wheat fields broken only by small copses of trees I saw a sign warning of moose for the next 6 km. I snorted when I saw the sign. What would a moose be doing in a wheat field? Not a second later I spied a lumbering dark mass moving across a field on the south side of the road. I screeched to a stop, grabbed my camera, zoomed in as best I could and snapped a picture. When I zoomed in on the picture itself, it clearly showed a moose. Guess I’m not as smart as I thought I was.

I saw a sign for the Quill Lake Interpretive Centre in Wynyard so turned off the highway to check it out. I had to go next door to the Town Hall to get the key to get into the Interpretive Centre but it was worth it because it had a lovely display of the waterfowl to be found in the area. Wynyard is on a serious migration path for a number of waterfowl and the ever-growing Quill Lake is a favourite stopover for the birds. (I will have to do some research to find out why the lake keeps growing.)

It had been raining off and on all day and the sky ahead looked pretty dark so I decided to do the hotel thing tonight. I chose the Super 8 because I had had such good luck in Winnipeg. This one is OK but it doesn’t quite meet the standards of the last one.

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