Wanderlust and WWOOFing: Old friends, new friends, rather a lot of greyhound buses and a 50 hour train ride...

(Belated blog post about some things that happened weeks ago and some that happened last week...)

The last month has involved equal amounts of travelling and wwoofing, meaning I’ve been on the move a lot. This was just partly the way my journey seems to fall at times (my next two-three months will be almost solid wwoofing).

My journey happened to land me in the Eastern Townships of Quebec at the same time as my friend Helen was having the Canadian leg of her wedding celebration, so that took me to Sherbrooke for a few days, where I got to put on a pretty dress and drink homemade wine with some awesome people in a field, and couchsurf in an inspiring community house where they have chickens and a vegetable patch in the garden, and a makerspace in the garage. From there I hopped over to Montreal (where I couchsurfed with someone who insisted on cooking me English food – fish and chips and a full English breakfast!) and on to visit my friend Ros and her husband Colin in Ottawa. Ticking "find a mountie" and "visit parliment" off my list of things to do, I headed down to Toronto for a few days and took a day trip out to Niagara Falls (forgetting the SD card for my camera). Whoops.

The next farm (farm 6), delayed my arrival by 3 days, meaning I suddenly had time on my hands and nowhere to stay. Fortunately the couchsurfing hosts I was staying with in Toronto said I could stay there, and my friend Erin also invited me to a farm festival/fundraiser a few hours from Toronto. So at the last minute, I jumped on a bus to Peterborough, got a lift with someone heading out to the farm, and spent a fun day hanging out in a beautiful spot, listening to great music and eating awesome food. While there, I met a lovely group of people, one of whom invited me to crash at her house for the rest of the weekend along with the others. So I spent the rest of the weekend drinking beer round a campfire, swimming in rivers and talking about plans to have a small farm on her land. Back in Toronto, I had a chance to pop over to Toronto Island and spend an afternoon in the parks and beaches before heading off to the farm on the Bruce Peninsula.

After 10 days on the farm, I went on a four day road trip to Detroit with my friend Helen (more about that in another post), before getting on a train for an epic 50 hour journey from Toronto to Saskatoon. Now, the first thing to note is that Canadian trains are much nicer than British trains. They have lounge cars, reclining seats, and a gallery car where you get a 360 degree view. However, they're also pretty slow, and have to stop to let freight trains pass (a lot of the route is only 1 track wide, shared by trains going both ways). The route I was on (which runs twice a week....) goes through Northern Ontario, and across Manitoba and into Saskatchewan. It's far more beautiful than the drive (especially the section through the prairies), and takes you to places you would never otherwise see (the section through Northern Ontario is lots of lakes and trees, and not much sign of civilisation).

Waiting on the platform in Toronto, I heard some english accents, and befriended a couple from Newcastle who were also travelling to Saskatoon. As well as providing scrabble and card game opposition, we also went exploring Winnipeg during our four hour stopover. Travelling on a budget, I was in economy class, where you get a reclining chair instead of a bed. But as the train was pretty empty, I managed to get two seats to myself, and after a bit of wriggling, got two fairly good nights sleep.

I loved the journey - seeing the scenery change as we headed west, and really getting a sense of the distance we covered. It's a good thing I enjoyed it too, as I've got another long journey to get me from Saskatoon over to northern British Columbia, where my next farm is. But for the time being, I'm in one place for 3 weeks, and quite enjoying the chance to unpack my bag...