An informative day was had by all and I found my true career as an actor. Daniel Craig eat your heart out.

We have had to wait for many trains on the trip but each one is worth a picture

and so to the Cypress Hills where there was a massacre of a band of local indians by wolf hunters who had come up from the States.  This led to the construction of Fort Walsh that was manned by the Canadian Mounted Police to help protect the local indians, re-establish Canadian sovereignty since the yanks were talking about annexing the area and also to try to get local indian tribes to sign the treaty.  For this they would receive an annual payment and also get a Treaty Medal (see below).

Fort Walsh has been reconstructed and there are re-enactment events.

One of the mounties

Treaty Medal

The re-enactment judge

The RCMP constables.

I played Mary Buckley who had been assaulted by that violent woman!!!

and so we crossed into Alberta and proceeded to Bow Island where we spent the night at the municipal campsite.  The area has a large Mennonite population.

Thrills and spills

On leaving Kyle the first place we passed was the town of White Bear.

This was the first mud that we came to and I managed to get through without any help despite sinking the back wheel practically up to the axle.

At the next mud Alex had to rescue Crazy the DRZ440s

On the map these are actually shown as roads but most of the time they are overgrown, deep in mud or not there but you do have a right of way.

Another free ferry across the Saskatchewan River

Riding a motorcycle along deep ruts when you have ATV impaired balance can cause a few problems and allow Crazy to show her acrobatic routine.  Though it looks staged she actually landed upside down and managed to stay there without falling over.

and this time it was due to sand in the ruts and at the end of a long day when my attention span was significantly shortening.

This is an antelope but why is it that a deer 30m away from the road gets spooked but will always run across the road about 5m in front of you?  It is one of the great mysteries of the world.

We camped at Maple Creek at a very friendly campsite.

3 is not a crowd

Ryder came with us for the morning.  I think that he enjoyed it.

We spent a lot of time riding beside irrigation ditches.

and a number of roads were still washed out

So we finished to day at a campsite in the middle of Kyle right next and I mean within 20m of a railway track.  I think that it is only used during the harvest to transfer grain etc

Rest, rest and more rest

We had such a great night that we also accepted the offer to stay the next day.  Had a BBQ/party at a local lake and must have met half the population of Saskatchewan.

So much sand I thought that I was on the beach

About half way through the many kilometres of sand and I did not drop the bike.

Heathland

and yet more water

but at least the beavers were happy

we passed and decided to visit a shrine to Or Lady of Lourdes

apparently you are expected to confess whilst relieving yourself

the ferry at St Lawrence across the Saskatchewan River and the best think about it is that it is free

we could have done with a ferry here!!!!

we had to take a detour through the Rape Seed (Canola) in order to get round the water

in many places the path disappeared

and led us into impassable areas

Guy pulled up when we were at the Co-op petrol station in a small village just east of Saskatoon.  He invited us back to his farm for a beer which turned into more than one and we ended up staying the night..  He has a number of old cars and this Grand Prix was the first that he showed us.  Many of his friends and family visited that night so much so that my brain was overloaded trying to remember names.  I do remember Natasha, Teddy and Ryder.  Apologies for my spelling.