Reston to Souris
After a 'bicyclist's dream' breakfast in the motel restaurant, we were on the road by 8:10. (Without raingear). The ride today was a little bit tough as we fought a strong cross wind. The temperature never made it above 10 degrees.
Today's ride took us through a variety of 'flat' farmland. I thought Saskatchewan was to be the flat one! We passed kilometre after kilometre of cattle grazing land, seed alfalfa and timothy, and 100's of acres of sunflowers. (Last year’s crop was initially misidentified by me as corn stalks)! More and more bush land and in fact you would have thought that you were in Southwestern Ontario at times. Lots of water but unlike Saskatchewan, far less water fowl.
Our distance today was reduced partly due to the winds but more to do with the availability of places to stay. We are camping in Victoria Park Campground in Souris, the most treed campground we have been in since BC. Souris is a vibrant and friendly agricultural community where we were greeted by many people and welcomed to town. I believe everyone by now knows there are cross-Canada cyclists in town. The main street has old buildings dating to the late 1880's. (Would love to know the size of the town but Manitoba is not big on Tourist Information, in fact we have been unable to obtain any campground or accommodation information and are being forced to rely solely on our own notes! I guess I will leave that rant for another day!). Souris has a long suspension foot bridge (despite the fact that they call it a swing bridge) that we crossed with our bicycles. No we did not ride across as walking the bikes was scary enough, especially for 'my better half'.
Daily Distance = 71.12 km. Time on the bikes = 4 hours 47 minutes. Average Speed = 14.70 km. Maximum Speed = 23. 34 km. Wildlife Sightings = Black Terns, Coots, Shovellers, Blue Winged Teal, Red headed ducks, Redstart (warbler).
Kevin = 3 Sue = 0.
