| Grande Cache is one of
the quietest places we have been with beautiful surroundings. But there is
nothing here and it is a long way from anywhere. The town was built in 1969
to support the coal mines to the north. |  |
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If you want a house up here then you order it from Sears and they deliver
it. I've seen single widths delivered by road but this is the first double
width I've seen. It is not being towed by the car in front - this is just
the 'warning' car that travels ahead of the wide load. |
| These towns do like to
decorate their street lights. This was one of the more complex we have seen. |  |
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Onwards and northwards towards Grande Prairie 115 miles away. The bridge is
over the Smokey River. |
| This is a much more
winding road and it goes up and down a lot too. It follows the river with
the railway sandwiched in between. We think it is heading for the coal mine
and power station. |  |
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We reached the 150MW H R Milner power station. This has the unenviable
reputation of being the dirtiest power station in Canada and the fourth
worst in the world in terms of CO2 per kWh. |
| This is a very mixed
forest area. There are black and white spruce, lodgepole pine, tamarack
larch, balsam fir, and the deciduous balsam poplar, aspen poplar and
trembling aspen.. |  |
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We just had time for a quick shot of this black bear before it reached the
cover of the trees. In the distance it is sometimes difficult to tell a bear
from a culvert until they move. |
| A we get closer to Grande
Prairie, the land becomes more the prairie. Long straight stretches of road
and fields of grain, although they are hardly green yet. |  |
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Sometimes you get lucky at spotting the wildlife, have time to stop, nobody
is following you and the animal stays still. Deer staying still are quite a
rarity. |
| In Grande Prairie we find
more evidence of the oil industry - or is it a donkey sanctuary? |  |
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We went to the visitor centre for information and a free bison barbeque. It
turned out to be a sausage. Not quite what we expected but it was tasty
enough - and free. |
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