Another province, another time zone! Hello Manitoba 🙂 Today was our 118km “rest day” - mostly easy riding with a tail wind. We started out on a lovely single track in the early morning light followed by 30km on thick gravel (yuk).  For about 20km we then had a provincial road pretty much to ourselves, … Continue reading Day 46: Melville, SK to Russell, MB →

The Q’Appelle Valley is a place of exquisite beauty - especially at this time of year. It’s wide and fertile, and trees wearing their fall best tuck into the folds of the valley sides. The Q’Appelle River winds lazily around all over the valley floor for more than 100km.  It gifted us what have probably … Continue reading Day 45: Katepwa, SK to Melville, SK  →

A tough day from even before we started to 5km from the finish.  From our hotel early in the morning we FaceTimed in as the family scattered Bron’s dad Richard’s ashes in South Africa. It meant his never-give-up attitude propelled us the rest of the day, and we probably needed the help.  We knew we … Continue reading Day 44: Foam Lake, SK to Katepwa, SK →

In the beginning there were clouds of  snow geese. In the end there were clouds of blackbirds. In the middle there were clouds of bugs. And in the evening there was a most spectacular meal and company.  For most of today we rode near the Quill lakes - a critical bird habitat - which would explain … Continue reading Day 43: Jansen, SK to Foam Lake, SK →

A big highlight was the visit to BHP’s Jansen Potash project. BHP’s Board recently approved the US 5.7bn spend to develop the project and there is palpable excitement on site. Gill was in the team that assembled the land and did the initial studies for BHP in the late 2000s and Bron has worked on … Continue reading Day 42: Colonsay, SK to Jansen, SK →

Saskatoon is not a big city (330 000 people), but it takes up a large area of the prairies. We were happy to have a local, Chris Ryder, along for the ride to show us a good way out of town - and it took 15km of winding through the pretty suburbs and outskirts.  It … Continue reading Day 41: Saskatoon, SK to Colonsay, SK →

Vancouver, BC The ride to Iona beach is iconic among Vancouver’s MAMILS (middle-aged men in Lycra shorts) pelotons. Heading out to a coastal wetland on Sea Island, you ride along an exposed and windswept stretch of road between the airport and the Fraser river. It’s strictly a training ride, and that’s why we took it … Continue reading A little training ride →

We’re finally back to our full complement of bikes after losing two to theft out of our garage last year. It’s taken months of searching to find a replacement for Gill’s gravel bike as there are just no bikes to be had in this pandemic.The bike had to be brought in from the US, with … Continue reading Getting back to it →

157km! And our goal for 2020 reached. Sometimes you just have to ride your luck and double up your distance. With rain and wind forecast we left North Battleford just before first light for the planned ~80km to Radisson. After bumbling around a bit to get out of town, we didn’t have even a kink … Continue reading Day 40: North Battleford SK to Saskatoon SK →

A brutal day of 67km of cycling but a complete hit on the people front. What lovely people live in this part of the world. Uncannily, the wind was into us again, but today it was stronger. And while the landscape flattened out, some hills were still around. However, uphill or downhill made little difference … Continue reading Day 39: St Walburg, SK to Edam, SK →