BIG

Canada is BIG. I mean, really big. Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy definitions of the universe big. Its only as you cross it that you realise what that bigness really means. It’s the second biggest country in the world, with a population half that of the UK. And most of that population lives in a handful of cities in the South east. Crossing just one province of Canada you can span 4 or more states of the US directly below it. And such diversity … from really cosmopolitan and fairly big cities like Toronto and Montreal to the wilderness of northern Ontario, with pines, lakes, bears, wolves and moose, to the endless plains and prairies of Manitoba and Sasketchewan, where the wind howls over hayfields as far as the eye can see and every other vehicle’s a combine harvester, and then west and into the mountains – can’t wait for that bit. Trains of mindboggling length roll alongside the road for miles on end, one passed us tonight with 91 container loads behind it. In a field beside the trans-Canadian highway we saw literally thousands, probably equivalent to the entire production of Carmarthenshire, of hay bales just rotting down. Apparently the processing factory had shut, and now acres were just wasting away. You can drive for hundreds of miles without seeing a single human habitation, and then find in tiny towns of 500 people in the middle of nowhere. But you can easily get what draws them there. It is breathtakingly beautiful, wide and wild with endless skies, where you really feel like a guest of the wildlife and the land, rather than in control of it. And many expats seem to come here. In the middle of Manitoba, which is largely flat prairie land, I met a man from Portsmouth running a garage. Another man I popped my head out of Doris to ask directions of in downtown Dryden shouted “where’s that accent from?” then, though Joe was trying desperately to change lanes and negotiate traffic, he proceeded to tell me he was from Slough. Another family in the queue at Niagara were from Gosport (looks like Hampshire and Berks are exporting wholesale migrants).
There is also a huge first nation, ie native north American population here, with great Sioux names and faces all over the central plains.
Canadians must be incredibly hardy … we are seeing the easy part of the year, with glorious sunny days and spectacular sunsets, but in a month’s time the snow will be here and you can feel it in the chill nights, and see it coming as people begin to literally batten down the hatches and the tourist based places shut down. And so, as you pass peoples’ homes, you see the obligatory trailer/caravan, boat but also 4×4 with chains and a snowmobile. Its almost impossible to imagine how much the land changes in the winter … these remote communities must be almost cut off for months on end. There are roads here that only exist in winter, as they are built each year over frozen lakes. Even Niagara freezes. So how come the people are friendly and generous … if slightly bonkers … a bit like the Welsh therefore, and we are big fans. We will definitely be back. OK, so we might skip the south of Sasketchewan and Manitoba next time (there’s only so much wheatfield you can drive past without feeling mogadon-ed) but what about seeing the polar bears at Churchill, the Northern Lights, or the lands of permafrost, or Nunavut … thousands of square miles with only 24,000 people living there? How about the Great Slave Lake, and Prince Rupert, or Hudson Bay? Our appetites have been well whetted.