We woke with the sun and shivered over our portable stove cooked breakfast. Just before 7:30am we set off, into the sun, still shivering from the cold.
About an hour later we came to the small town of Ponteix. We detoured 2km into the town to find hot beverages and some more snacks.
Amelia contently caffeinated and Gerald stocked up on oranges, we continued on our way.
Grasshoppers danced on our legs while little bugs kissed our arms and faces. We observed more vast fields, a variety of road kill, and had two different dogs try to befriend us. One even licked Amelia’s leggings!
At one point, while attempting to cross a railway track, Amelia got her angles wrong and took a spill. There were a number of vehicles on the road at this point and many stopped to ensure she was alright. (She was.) One gentlemen even sacrificed the cleanliness of his hands to replace the bike chain that had come off.
The experience was very humbling for Amelia and invoked a deep sense of gratitude, especially for those kind-hearted souls that stopped and kept asking if she was alright.
With nothing but a small scrape on her knee, Amelia pedalled to catch up with Gerald, who was about 2kms ahead of her at that time.
Supper was consumed (also with much gratitude) at Nash’s Restaurant and Lounge in Assiniboia. 135kms were completed today. Considering it was all against wind, and our average speed was 15km/hour, we feel we didn’t do too bad!
On our way to the nearby campground, Gerald lost his balance and both he and his bike went down. Thus, we both managed to fall off our bikes today, and are (thankfully) still doing quite fine.
Now we will sleep with a view of the stars, since the ground here is much too hard to stake the pegs required to secure the tent’s fly.
With gratitude and a lack of balance,
Gerald and Amelia
Adventures on a bicycle 