Day 29 Mon-Valley Views, Rugged Tracks!

Another sadly buggar of a night…it was very very hot it did end up reaching 38c and the Airbnb only had a tiny air in to do the whole unit…so we left our door open to allow some of the cooler air to reach our room…in doing so every time someone went to the loo and that was last night for some reason a bit…I awoke…then in the early hours of the morning I found Tim trying to sleep on the tiny lounge under the aircon… their room had a fan but was still very hot….
Not sure how they will cope in summer time back in Oz….

I was well awake by 4.30am so gave up trying to sleep..got all my readings done… by then Tim was awake so I could sneak out for a coffee…I then packed up, cooked some toast and cut up water melon…quickly ate…

We had packed and drove off towards Regina at 6.45 ish…
The plan was to head up a valley track to follow the Assiniboine River which becomes the Qu’ Appelle River by of the Qu’ Appelle Valley from the township of St Lazare…. Well 😂😂St Lazare was like driving into a ghost town…most shops were shut up…felt really weird…the view as we drive down into the town off a range was quite beautiful seeing the river below…and huge train on the train line below going for at least 1-2 k long…and the main road heading towards another hill actually looked unreal….then to hit town and find it very sad….the strange thing is most of the homes were Carly new looking very neat and tidy.,…seemed odd….the size of the town was about the size of Thangool…maybe just a bit less…we drive around to have a good look waiting for Tim and Jess to meet us….having done the streets we tried heading out to see an old rail bridge only we nearly got bogged…so we back tracked then headed west out of town to see the river….taking a back road there were heaps more neat as pin family new properties….

Me and my guessing said to John I bet there is a mine close by too many new homes and properties., it was the strangest thing with the town nearly dead to see all these nice new neat homes…. Anyway about an hour later I was proven right seeing a massive mine from our bush bashing track…on researching just now I discovered it’s a Potash Mine the 5.5 million tons of ore produces fertiliser. The other notable industry here is cattle, and grain farming…some of the sheer sizes of the paddocks were massive….

We noted as we drove around quite a number of trees had been twisted off and we’re laying around…the ground was extremely wet…so obviously a huge storm had gone through not long ago…maybe yesterday or last night…

Tim and Jess arrived we couldn’t contact them as no mobile reception….we drive up out of town on top of the range getting one bar so he could contact us….once there him and John had already put together a sure track up through the Qu’ Appelle Valley to work our way along the River….We due to no reception John was working on a map he had uploaded earlier but was only
Ike a pic… Tim had nothing to go by…but off we set taking turns here and there eventually getting away from the river to open plains on the ridge line and ended up instead a good hard surfaces gravel road it ended up a 2 wheel track…. With plenty of very wet spots,…we were in a. 4x4 plenty of height but Tim’s little black car even though all wheel drive didn’t have a lot of clearance.…

Certainly different driving for them both…. As we were driving I noticed these cute pink flowers eventually we stopped Jess stopped too and informed me there were Prairie Ghost Flowers….on looking I found them under the name of Prairie Smoke Herb Flowers so soft and so interesting blowing in the wind…they resembled what we call Santa Clauses you know the white whispy pods that blow everywhere in summer…well these were thicker but similar look…..
The track kept getting smaller, we could see the massive mining operation beyond from us…once away from this area back to more normal roads which we did eventually find sights of the river winding back and forth across the valley… The Valley just seemed to go on and on and on…
Apparently you can drive over quarter of Saskatchewan through this valley no wonder it seems so long…. Most of it as gravel and lots of grids…after we managed to get back off the 2 wheel track Tim’s car didn’t really like being on the gravelly roads much so he took towards Hwy No 8…. we continued on seeing many new farms with new builds obviously they too worked at the mine… too many new ones for them not to work there… After it going on and in I had, had enough of gravel also…so many times the car felt a bit floaty…so I asked could we take the next turn that would lead us to Hwy No 9 that would eventually bring us back to the main Hwy heading west…The River we followed just seemed to go on and on and my goodness was it a windy river indeed….

My joy as we travelled these dirt roads was seeing these little tiny creatures about the size of the chipmunk, or a big mouse but not as big as a big rat….John thought they Prairie Dogs.. Tim had another. name for them…but could these little guys scoot…they were like lightening once they saw the cars…we didn’t hit any thank goodness…Sadly no Moose, and bears…but we did see a dear…

Back on the Hwy we stopped at a little food truck on the Hwy got best burgers we have had yet on the trip… one was a crusty chicken bugger and very crispy and tasty….
The farms got bigger and bigger…Have never seen a many so big massive of grain silos huge operations on these properties out this way…

Made it earlier to our motel….Motel 6 in Regina as we gained another hour…unreal as we head further west like Australia we gain time..l

Just as I was writing this I could feel something running around in my pants leg….I kept thinking I had lost the plot…and yep you know I have…but this time I couldn’t work out what it was…finally I found this crazy feeling it was a tick…Tim told me when I was looking at the flowers in the prairie that there were ticks …I didn’t give it any more thought…should have checked like he suggested,.. now every little feeling I am getting on my legs I think is a tick 😳😂😂😂!

Off to dinner we headed at 5.30pm and for once we only had to walk 5 mins to the Chinese restaurant just a few doors up from our motel…Tim ordered… we had spring rolls, shrimp 🦐 friend rice, 1/2 a marinated duck and John’s pick, Pork in a plum sauce… Tim and Jess had been very skeptic about getting Chinese because all the ones they have tried here in Canada had been terrible…To their surprise it was really good…the flavours we good, the funny little waitress kept them entertained even though she didn’t realise it.. she was quite a character…they even had some left overs for Brekky…sadly I ended up crook from I would say the Pork in Plum sauce… I loved it the most and had a little more than I normally would and sadly paid for it fir hours…I had to end up going to bed after dosing myself with lotions and potions to stop me being sick…sadly that’s my end result of the Sleeve, some foods still give me hell…darned if I know what it was in it that did it…but often after Asian deep fried foods this happens….

We were all out if sorts with our time changes, only have this time change for a few days then it will change again…the joys of travelling such a massive country where time lines have to change with the rest of the world..Read more