Ride Day 19 - After an early start we made it 75 miles to 'Falcon Lake'. The scenery has changed once again, becoming increasingly tree-covered and dotted with magnificent lakes. I really enjoyed some company whilst on the bike and both my Dad and Debbie put in 20-mile stints. Debbie was unfortunate to catch an extremely heavy shower and was wet through but still smiling! With threatening clouds above we opted to eat out and enjoyed some huge ice creams before hitting the sack just before 10 pm!

Rest Days 6 and 7: I enjoyed 2 rest days in Winnipeg. We picked up two friends from the UK - Debbie and Sharon - who have kindly given up part of their summers to help to support the ride. I really admire their get-up-and-go and willingness to step into the unknown and get involved with the trip! We prepared for the stretch of the journey from Winnipeg to Thunder Bay, filling the cooler with food. We bought some bike-racks for the car (which we have now christened 'Wilbert') to give us some more space. We visited a great water-slide park and messed about like kids for an afternoon and the new arrivals have begun to settle into the camping and biking routine superbly. It's great to have such willing, helpful and good-humoured people on-board!

Ride Day 18: With clearing skies we left 'Elm Creek' after a quick breakfast and headed to Winnipeg, home to 750,000 people, the main city in the province of Manitoba. A shorter, 50-mile day on the saddle meant more time to pitch our tents, make some phone-calls home and seek out donuts in 'Tim Hortons' (found all over Canada)! After riding nearly 400-miles over 5 days from Regina, I slept soundly under canvas despite the heavy night-time downpours.

Ride Day 17: After Dad (kindly!) washed the car, we left Wawanesa early in the morning and made good time with the sun shining and the wind at our backs. Riding at about 20 mph on an almost perfectly flat road we had covered a fair distance by lunchtime. The scenery here consists of endless yellow fields of canola with numerous towering grain 'elevators' alongside the railroad. In it's own distinctive way, it's really beautiful. By evening time we made it to the small town of 'Elm Creek', which is within 50 miles of Winnipeg. With no campsite options nearby we were given the 'okay' to camp on what the English would call ' the village green'. We enjoyed a good meal and a couple of beers and, with aching legs, i retired to the tent for much-needed sleep.

Ride Day 16: We awoke in our tents to heavy rain and chilly temperatures, it felt like England in March... Whilst British Columbia in the West of Canada has a huge heat-wave and forest fires, here in Manitoba in the Prairies it's cool and wet. We sat in the car having breakfast, with rain dripping down the windows, procrastinating and feeling lethargic! The prospect of riding in the cold and rain sapped my motivation for a while... I managed 80 miles though, from Sinclair to Wawanesa, through lovely farmland. The sky darkened several times during the day and I got thoroughly soaked; my feet squelched all day! We had a lunch stop in 'Souris' then pitched tents by a picturesque river as darkness fell.

Ride Day 15: I left Stoughton with a bit of of hangover (not exactly condusive to distance cycling...) but felt okay after an hour or so on the bike. The inclement weather actually was pretty kind to us and the rain mostly held off today. We passed more grain silos (called 'elevators' in Canada) and oil pumps; the scenery always flat but magnificent. A deer made a timid appearance during our lunch stop before hearing the camera shutter and running rapidly away. We crossed into the third Province of the trip so far, 'Manitoba' and got one hour closer to UK time as we crossed another time zone. We camped in the small town of 'Reston' and my Dad had the misfortune of tasting my horrific cooking.

Ride Day 14: For this section of the journey, my Dad, Roger, is here from the UK driving the support vehicle we bought in Regina. We need to sell it again in Halifax... He is being a massive help driving, topping up water bottles and chatting to people we meet! We covered nealy 100 miles with a wonderful tail wind yesterday from Regina to Stoughton. The weather is much cooler (21 degrees) and I pedalled in the pouring rain for a few hours. When we stopped for lunch I got cold so i took off my wet cycling kit, changed and had a rest in the car. Due to limited biking kit I had to put the wet stuff back on again and get back out into the rain! I wrung the clothes out, put them on again (grimacing!) but soon warmed up after a few miles. In the evening we stayed in the Crossroads Inn Hotel in the Prarie town of Stoughton. I appeared very briefly on CTV local news in the morning and a few people had seen the story and knew about The Rob Gauntlett Trust and the ride... The hospitality was second-to-none and the beers and tequllas flowed (much to my regret as i set off on the bike this morning!!). A huge thank you to Christine and Ron White for their welcome and to Jessica, Collene, Layne, Kristy and Angel for their great company and kind donations to the charity. Stoughton and the evening with you will live long in the memory!

Rest day 5: Today we kitted the van out with a few essentials for camping - a gas cooker, a cooler, cutlery, plates and so on... I'm looking forward to getting on the bike again and my legs feel much fresher after a couple of rest days. I have been overwhelmed by the generosity of the Canadian people I have met in the last few days and I have been really moved by the kindness people show when they hear about the ride and the Rob Gauntlett Trust. I must thank 79-year-old Charles 'Chuck' Sutherland who I biked with one morning recently. He is a keen cyclist and is as fit as a fiddle! Charles surprised me by driving out to meet me on the Highway later in the afternoon and he gave me a mirror to mount on my handlebars, some fruit and a donation for the charity. Whilst buying the car and kit here in Regina we met a number of kind local people: Rose Boswell and Karen Schaefer both put their hands in their pockets to support the Trust and this evening Chris Papathanasopoulos, manager of Melrose Place Restaurant also made a generous contribution. During the evening we met a characterful chap by the name of Anthony Linklater who introduced us to his family, told us about his indigenous ancestory took it upon himself to shout us dinner!  In short, we have been blown away by the kindness people have shown us throughout the journey.