MANITOBA - Trees, Lakes & Holiday Camps

Manitoba from the road - typically ...

Somehow I expected Manitoba to be more of the same rolling open country as Saskatchewan, but almost as soon as we crossed the border, land got rockier and hillier - the prairies turned into small lakes and and clumps of woodland gradually got thicker, small beautifully shaped pines emerging from cracks in the rock.  The lakes were ringed with camping grounds, holiday homes and bible camps - and Canadian families were making the most of the last of their summer holidays. 

 ... and again, with a bit of Rennie humour.  There was not a lot of Rennie ... 

 At the Firefly B&B at Rennie, we were told that it had been 4 degrees over night and that an early Fall could be expected because of dry summer and cold nights.  Almost immediately we saw occasional patches of delicate colour change in roadside foliage ... so I have some hope that it could be really warming up in Nova Scotia by the time we arrive.

Iclandic Church on Hecla Island 

The prettiest soft dappled green walking trails on Hecla.

One of the highlights of our Manitoba visit was a loop up to old Icelandic settlements of Hecla Island and Gimli on Lake Winnipeg.  Hecla Island was beautiful,  the names on the graves in the church were clearly mostly Icelandic (even the modern ones), and the Iclandic quality of the goodies at the Reykjavik Bakery in Gimli seemed deliciously genuine - but otherwise the interpretation of the Iclandic heritage needs a bit of work.

View from the Rennie Firefly B&B

We heard that a wolf had visited our B&B the morning of our visit, and a squirrel was playing in the trees outside our window, but otherwise no exciting animal sightings from Manitoba, at least that I can recall.   As in Saskatchewan, most rural towns we visited are fading off the map ... 

We passed through Manitoba seemingly all too quickly and now seem to have been crossing Ontario all too quickly - with  brief adventure in the US ... more to come.