Checkpoint: Mortlach, SK

Mission Control...

This is Eco1...

Reporting our arrival at Besant Provincial campground - a nice wooded valley site about 5 km east of Mortlach. Did almost the same distance as yesterday, I reckon, Skipper.

It was a better day for cycling after a night of some rain and wet tents. The wind blew over our port side for much of the way then from stern which gave us a little push. The TransCanada highway surface was pretty bad again - even lost the shoulder for a couple kms. Then for the last 10 km or so the pavement - 2 lanes and a big shoulder - was brand spanking new! The kind of pavement you dream about for skateboarding. Doubt it'll last long, though.

A couple strange sights today. Seagulls in the middle of Saskatchewan! Then, even stranger to my eyes, a pair of big, white pelicans dipping their long beaks into a pasture pond.

Later, at Chaplin Lake, there were salt flats being harvested by local industry in the town of Chaplin.

Saskatchewan isn't boring to look at for me. The hills keep rolling along, some bigger than others. This area needs a really talented landscape painter to capture the colours, movement, structures, animals, clouds in the often dramatic patches of light.

This is my first time in this part of the country and I've suffered all my life from the belief that this province is dead boring, flat, all the same. I even came across an area, south of the highway that looked the very image of that wonderful village inhabited by JRR Tolkien's Hobbits. I could almost see the half-buried hobbit houses set into the sides of the low, sunlit hills.

Tomorrow I think we must decide on one of three possible routes. (1) Continue on #1 to Winnepeg, (2) turn north on #10 to #16 then east, or (3) turn south on either #39 or #33 to #13 straight east which becomes #2 in Manitoba.

We must consider both speed and safety. We were not happy about the #1 highway condition on our drive west. While the #1 is often divided, it also has a greater amount of transport traffic with often poor or no paved shoulders.

Of the other two alternatives, I prefer the southern route (#2, #13) as it seems to be less distance than the northern route. We'll try to speak with local authorities in either Moose Jaw or Regina.

That's all for now. Hope you're well.

This is Eco1 Over and Out.

-- Major Dude

Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network