I didn't sleep much last night - the trains were noisy and the wind picked up and made my tent flap around. When the rain let up, I got out and tightened the guy ropes. But by then the birds were awake and making sure I was too.
It was a beautiful morning - the sky was a cloudless expanse of blue haze and the strong wind that came from the west overnight was replaced by a breeze from the east. Yesss.
I set off with the wind at my back, past ponds and flooded fields filled with ducks and their ducklings, moorhens and their fluffly red-headed chicks. The wading birds joined the red-winged blackbirds in flitting around my head and chirping at me.
After about 12km I saw a cyclist coming the other way and crossed the road to say hello. Martin is riding for charity and we had a nice chat about our journeys so far.
A corner took my tailwind and turned it into a crosswind for most of the day, so by the time I was two hours from my destination, the mosquitos were out and they were hungry! I was riding at almost 20kmh in the sun with a strong wind from the side and they were all over me on my leeward side, chowing down greedily. I was trying to slap them on the go but mostly without success. I went past my first oil wells - must be getting close to Alberta!
Finally I made it to the relatively mosquito-free Gull Lake campground after 120km. Once I was set up, another touring cyclist arrived. David is going across the country in 35 days, the lunatic! That's some crazy daily milage. We were chatting with two other guys from the campsite then David went to bed early (because he leaves at 6am) and I stayed up talking to Geoff the snow plougher / gravel road maintainer and Jason the derrick hand. Geoff went to bed too and I went to the pub with Jason.
The pub was closing but we bought a case of beer and went out to a field on the outskirts of town to have a drink and a chat with a view of the stars. It was a beautiful evening with a strong wind keeping the bugs away and the milky way shining bright.
I ended up back in my tent around 3am with the promise of a tour of the drill rig in the morning - awesome!
Is there any concern over the mossies carrying anything? There is dengue fever here and im a mossy magnet so I have had to be careful and take precautions, but they probably dont that that problem in Canada?
ReplyDeletePS looking forward to hearing about how the rig compares to the north sea!
ReplyDeleteThere have been a few cases of West Nile (virus? I think so) in Canada but nothing to be worried about I don't think.
ReplyDeleteThe rig seemed the same as an offshore setup, only in an ocean of mud instead of on a nice clean platform above the sea! Didn't seem to be much difference in the way of mechanics, methods or safety / environmental standards but obviously I didn't see it working. They operate the derrick from the control room on the drill floor so there's no need for someone on the monkey board getting their thumbs chopped off, which is nice!