Tired as I was I looked around for a regular bus stop at the bus station which seemed to be in the middle of an industrial area. Luckily it was just in front of the Greyhound Building and a nice old guy told me that this would also be the right stop for the busses into town. And we only had to wait 10 minutes or so.
When I told the bus driver the name of the hostel I was heading to, he told me at once he’d tell me where to get off.
Unfortunately, he didn’t really know where I was going to because he got it mixed up with the second hostel in Thunder Bay. So, when we waited at the Central Bus station a lady approached me to tell me I was on the wrong bus and I had to go back the same way.
Thanks to the nice driver on the next bus I didn’t have to pay a second time. He finally dropped me off on the right stop and from there it was only about 5 minute walk to the hostel…jippieh….

At the hostel Lizzie showed me around and let me settle in.
I meant to do some sightseeing later but except for some basic food shopping and doing my laundry I spent the time in front of the TV and the laptop.

Same was for the next day, I just never got started and hang around all day. For my apologize: it was also a very grey and not inviting day at all. That’s why I didn’t even participate on a FREE sailing trip in the afternoon which I regretted the next days.

Finally at 6 PM I got up and took Lizzi’s bike for a short trip to the water front and since there wasn’t so much to see (except for the sailing boats which could be seen in the distance), I moved on to a lake which also serves as water reservoir and hydro power supply for the town.
Altogether this was a very satisfying ending of the day. And after I got started even the sun came out 🙂
Back home I animated the two English girls who were staying in the same room and Lizzy to accompy me to the burger joint altough neither of them bought anything. Was still a nice short walk .
In the evening we watched „I am legend“ which I hadn’t seen before. I think it kind of got up my like-best movies at once. Altough I’m not sure if he would really have power supply for weeks and weeks withough anyone attending the power plants. Maybe someone can tell me 😉

On Saturday, Gail, the lady who runs the hostel, took us to the Farmer’s market which was even bigger than the one in Carleton Place the week before. There was also a couple  with guitars, called Jim ’n‘ I , and their music was really entertaining 🙂

When we returned to the hostel it was not even 11 AM and I was already hungry again, seems I’m almost always 😉 So, I killed some time before I started cooking….ups, I think I left some left overs in the fridge – sorry for that, Gail!!…had some lunch and after that tried to set up another bike ride. This time I wanted to take a „real“ mountain bike because there were approximately 8 bikes in the garage to choose from. Unfortunately, the first mountain bike’s chain was stiff of rost and no driplet of oil on it. The second mountain bike’s back brake had to be adjusted – an easy thing to do – if you have the right tools. I search the whole garage and the whole house for close to an hour and was just missing the handle by than but no chance to find anything suitable.
So I once again took Lizzy’s Bike, this time even the saddle was too narrow and of course I hadn’t any tools with me to fix that, and headed to the water falls.

But as rough as the start was the whole journey: I didn’t find the road I wanted to cycle along when I finally found the park entrance there was some small sign saying the park is closed which couldn’t possibly be because it’s just a piece of forest. Then I found a small trial – the perfect single trail – but not the optimal way to with a city bike.
At some point I really was afraid of getting lost and being attacked by a bear, cojote, fisher and something similar – how I wished I would be back home where I could get lost and the greatest danger would be to be attacked by mosquitos and ticks .
But I kept on walking (sometimes I also did some cycling…. 😉 ) and the next big track was only about 10 minutes away. If only you would know that beforehand 😉
I followed the gravel track and another 10 minutes later I arrived at a historical bush camp where there were several wedding parties to take their official pictures. Although I haven’t seen any specific special romantic scenery which would have expected for the photos….

I took a good look around the blog houses and almost would have taken one of the beds in the bunk house since they exactly had the beds I have been looking for for years now: simple bed, made of wood logs – you would think that’s a quite simple structure but obviously it’s not so simple for German carpenters but I haven’t seen anything similar before or if there is something remotely similar it costs you more than a fortune….

There was also a restaurant and a latrine building, it’s all so simple and effective – just impressing 🙂

I continued my trip, there were people sitting on the rocks all along the river, floading down some rapids in a rubber boat, fishing or just sitting in the sun. I finally made it to the water falls. Veeeeeeeeeeeeery nice 🙂
But by then I was really tired and decided to head back to the hostel which was much easier then the way before. I bought some more tomatoes at the shop and had some nice roast tomatoes and Parmesan cheese on fresh German bread (which I bought at the farmer’s market) and which was more of a Chiabatta than real bread but still a very nice meal and since I still wasn’t full after that I had some pancakes from Gail’s unique hostel pancake mixture….yummie … 🙂

Now I’m on the bus heading towards Winnipeg where there were some huge floods  over the last days. At the moment it’s not raining and I just hope it stays this way.
Otherwise I’m gonna be on the bus to Regina on Tuesday.
Seems the people on the bus here a quite nice, it’s a bit like a field trip at school. Funny thing is: there are really a lot of different types of people, some alternatives, some rockers, some FirstNation people, some trapper or Cowboy type, one sunny Californian boy in the seat in front of me and they all seem to get along really well – ok, the FirstNation people seem all to be asleep 😉
But there are hardly no other backpackers on the busses here. I don’t know if they all take planes from Ottawa to Calgary or if they are taking the night busses to save some money since you  don’t have to pay for accomodation while you’re on the bus 😉 .

The landscape outside is – beside from being grey today – forest, bushes, prairie, a lot of lakes and rivers. I really appreciate, sitting on the bus, looking outside and enjoying the trip with Kid Rock and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on my ears 🙂 And today the bus even is on time….yiieha 😉