Day 39: Manitoba

We ate and slept well last night and didn't get up until 9am. After a breakfast of pancakes and eggs, we headed into Kenora to get supplies.

A cold wind was blowing with the promise of a storm so we ate lunch in town and wrapped up warm, ready for the 65km ride to the Manitoba border. Tonght we're going to camp at a closed down picnic site. I'm assuming there won't be any wifi, so I will update tomorrow night...

[Cont.]

The wind was pretty wild as we rode out of town, particularly on the bridge, where the side winds blew us alternately into the railings then the traffic. But the wind brought blue skies and fluffy white clouds insread of rain and the ride was beautiful! The rolling hills showed us views of the sky, the forest and the roadside rocks that have been blasted apart during the construction of the highway. We saw deer in the woods and butterflies and dragonflies flitting alongside us.

We only had 50km to do all day so stopped for ice cream along the way and took our time, arriving at the picnic site around 7pm. The visitor centre was closed as promised but the toilet blocks open and picnic benches and bins in place. There was already an RV set up for the night so we set up to cook dinner and camp. Then the wind dropped and the mosquitos came out. Thousands of them! We put on our rain gear and bug spray and ate dinner in the swarm but suffered relatively few bites. When the sun went down, there were even more of them and we pitched our tents and got in early to escape.

And so we spent the warm, humid night only 2km from Manitoba, happily bug-free in our tents until the morning.