0056 3rd July - Lake Deschambault to Thompson

At midnight, just before I turned in, I took a couple of pics of the moon over the lake – Rather pretty, I thought. Then as I left, I noticed a bunch of butterflies near one of the taps, enjoying the moisture in the morning.  With temps up around 27 deg C in the days at the moment, they are probably needing all the water they can get.

 The road was very similar to yesterday, with lots of spruce trees, and lots of water, lakes everywhere.  Cruising along and, as usual, there are lots of enormous ravens everywhere on the side of the road, that like to fly away just at the last minute – Usually heading away from the road.  But suddenly one was late taking off, and got confused – And BANG – right in the middle of my radiator !! These birds are NOT small, and there he was, half in view from the drivers seat !  I tried to back up and see if he would fall off, but he wouldn’t, so I had to get out and “remove” him.  Yuck – He was well dead, and obviously crapped his dacks just before contact point !!!  Dumb bird – Why are they on the road all the time ?  Its not as if there were dead rodents they were feeding on.

 

Lots of flowers all the time, especially the beautiful wild rose – Alberta’s state flower (even though we are now in Saskatchewan, they still grow !!)  Also white daisies and others, and then today I started to see some lovely orange Lilly type flowers, only about a foot tall.  Very pretty – Even though when I stopped to photograph them I got a car full of horse flies !!!

Keep passing funny little road houses that are all a bit “sad” – They would benefit so much from a little TLC and a lick of paint.  On past numerous lakes and rivers – They are there all the time but you just can’t see them because of the trees beside the road which block the view.

Finally approaching Flin Flon I see this massive tree – Wait, that’s no tree – It’s a smoke stack !!   I was expecting Flin Flon to just be another little roadside village with a few houses and a gas station, but it turns out to be quite a big town, with a massive zinc, copper, gold, and silver mine right in the middle of town !! Basically it is the reason Flin Flon exists, but I never knew anything about it before – Just a dot on the map in the middle of Canada !  Well, one lives and learns.

Heading on towards Thompson, the road suddenly grew a kind of tarmac emergency lane on the side of the road, instead of the normal gravel.  Watching the ravens, and looking at the emergency lane, I saw all this small black “bits” – millions of them.  They looked a bit like the side of a car race track where the rubber has peeled off the racing tyres – What we call “marbles”.  Slowly my brain joined the dotted lines – I wonder if all those bits of black are actually the dead horse flies that have been hit by cars ?  So I slowed down to look closer – And of course immediately got invaded by live ones – But sure enough, that’s what they are – And that’s why the ravens are along the side of the road – Instant fast food for them – Millions of dead horse flies !!!    I wonder what they ate before the age of cars provided them with fast food ? 

Also spotted some crane like birds – Brown ones with a red head – A bit like the ones we saw a week or so ago up in the arctic near Inuvik.  (Have since found out they are Sandhill Cranes - Whiter plumage in the winter, a rusty brown in summer.)  These ones had a chick with them, and I managed a quick pic before they presented their rears and took off into the bush !  Have seen a few other things but not sure what they were – Beaver ?  If so, a lot smaller than the ones we saw on Vancouver Island.  Maybe it was a Hoary Marmot ?  Been looking for one of those ever since I heard they are common around here !!!

More water, lots of lakes, and as I approached Thompson, lots of quite nice resorts on the lakes.  Up here, everyone fishes and hunts.  They look stunned when I tell them I am here and don’t fish !!  They do it summer and winter – Ice fishing in winter !  But after Flin Flon, I was ready for another small town – But no, there is a another smoke stack, here it is a nickel mine, apparently, and Thompson is a big town –even bigger than Flin Flon !!   By now I was pretty tired, so when I saw a sign for camping just outside town, I went straight there, intending to go looking for transport to Churchill in the morning.  Anyway, long story short, got talking to Colleen, the lovely lady who runs the campsite with her husband Nick, and she said that there were no weekend flights to Churchill, (today is Thursday), and she knew there was one seat left on the 8 am Friday (tomorrow) flight – And promptly called the number for me and we booked it there and then, before I had even got a camp spot !!  Colleen also said I can leave the car at the camp site, and she will drive me out to the airport, and pick me up when I come back – How good is that ? The air fares are half price at the moment due to the lack of trains and the locals being

desperate for tourists, so I got a deal.  So tomorrow I am off on my long awaited and anticipated Polar Bear hunt – And Beluga whale search !!  It is so weird when places like Flin Flon and Thompson are just dots on a map while you are planning your trip, that you know nothing about, and when you finally get there, they are not what you had pictured in your mind at all.  Same with flying to Churchill – I have wanted to go here and do this for so long, and to be actually going on a plane (so I can see the terrain and lakes better) is just so exciting !!   Weeeeee.  More tomorrow when I get to Churchill, and the western side of Hudson Bay.  That I learned about in geography…..Never ever thought I would go there !!!

 

Pics are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/117739775480775657932/0056LakeDeschToThompson?authkey=Gv1sRgCIPH3p_aoYPe7AE#