Lloydminster to Gibbons via St. Paul.

This evening we are in Gibbons, Alberta. Tuesday morning we left Lloydminster and drove to St. Paul a distance of 157km. Driving past oil wells, wheat and canola fields and ranch land with lots of cows. St. Paul is just a normal western town with a main street about 2 km. long and a few streets branching off. It has one claim to fame in my book, its the first place we have been to without mosquitoes! I will visit again.

 The entrance to the camping at St. Paul

 Some more of the wonderful western sky.                                                                                                    

Wednesday, A change of plan today, we are having problems getting into campgrounds around Athabasca and Lac Le Biche so have decided to go south a little ways towards Edmonton, first stop Gibbons, The Longrider RV park and they have a site the last one, how lucky and they have wifi, they have put us on a site which they are closing off to build a new office and washrooms but as its only for a day or two we have hit it lucky.

 The Campground is close to the Sturgeon River with a trail running alongside, a perfect walk. We are sharing the trail with a bunch of horse riders.

 Our last sight of the river as we turn away

 to go back to the campground.                












This was quite a climb from the riverbank up to the camping.
Happy hour with our neighbors, bbq pork chop and mushrooms for dinner followed by butterscotch ice cream a good ending to the day.
Distance travelled today 189km. The landscape changed again today, we left the oil wells behind and drove though mostly ranch land with just a little farming, about 30km from Gibbons the oil wells started again, What a rich and varied land this is.

LLoydminster

Loydminster straddles the border between Saskatchewan and Alberta, its an oil town, we are parked in a camping just across the road from a refinery or upgrader as they call it here, it converts the heavy oil to a lighter crude, which is easier to transport. There is no smell, many years ago I worked in Sarnia, Ontario which is another oil/gas town and I can still taste the air when I think about it. They have made incredible strides in cleaning up these dirty industries here in Canada. Don't know about the rest of the world, my industrial experience is limited to Sudbury, Sarnia and the nuclear power station at Pickering, I then went back to being a rural electrician in England and later on,France.
The drive was not as scenic as the last one but interesting none the less. the slow change from farming to farms with nodding donkeys and the odd oil tank, to oil with a bit of farming.
This afternoon after arriving here we went to The Barr Colony Cultural Centre, lots of pictures by a local artist, I'm afraid to say I was not impressed. A collection of stuffed animals by another local person which I thought I would just walk straight through, but to my amazement we found fascinating. The final exhibit was all about the oil and gas industry and the finding of, here in Lloydminster. Well worth the visit. we enjoyed it so much they had to chuck us out, they wanted to go home, and we had just got to the really interesting part with all the diesel engines and pipes and things to do with the stuff when they actually get it out of the ground, maybe I'll go back tomorrow.
Todays distance was 139km.

The Battlefords, Saskatchewan.

The drive from Prince Albert was, I think, the most picturesque (the prairies are not flat - well some of it is - but not all) Rolling hills, different colours depending on the crop: yellow-rapeseed to Europeans canola to Canadians, green wheat, grass for hay which is a lighter shade of green, contrasting with the blue of the small lakes dotted around. The vistas around Blaine Lake are stunning, one of the best drives of the trip to date.   We had intended to stay at Batoche and visit the historic site of the Métis uprising but we couldn't get into the camping, pity because it looked really nice.  So on to North Battleford and The David Laird Campground where we spent 2 nights. Visited The Allan Sapp Gallery, wonderfull paintings of First Nation life seen from their point of view, well worth a visit. distance Prince Albert to North Battleford via Rosthern 296km.

 Grass cutting on a Canadian scale at North Battleford

 The David Laird camping

Ruth planning the next part of the trip to The Eiling Kramer Campground in Battleford distance 11km.

 And here we are in the trees next to Fort Battleford.

 Our view looking back towards North Battleford

 Fort Battleford.   

A  North Western Mounted Police Fort, which played an important part in the 1885 uprising.

This is a really good camping, we stayed three nights here.

 Between North Battleford and Battleford is the North Saskatchewan River, a big river; there is a little island which is a nature park, this flower we found on one of the trails.

 Another Saskatchewan Provincial Flower

 Two frolicking butterflies

This is my trail, I live here, go away

  The disused bridge between the Battlefields, no traffic, only used by pedestrians now to visit the island.

 Monday  15/07 we plan to move on to Lloydminster.