Colours of Thompson

As we were slowly and painfully making our way through Alberta, we have received an invitation from our friends up in Thompson, MB, to visit. Why not? said we and decided to make the little detour and hang out in the self-proclaimed "Hub of the North". The road from the prairies to the northern wilderness was smooth. In Alberta, we met a fellow hitch-hiker, a prospector, as his business-card states, who was on his way to the East coast. We rode in two vehicles with him, and camped two nights together! A highly unlikely coincidence on the road, you know. This is him, playing his guitar to oncoming traffic:

We read a lot on our way to Thompson:

When we arrived, the table was set, and a most delicious roast was waiting for us in the oven: vegetarianism aside, we could not decline such a treat! Tolik and Lusine had a whole schedule worked out for our visit: on the first day, we took the grand tour of Thompson and had a huge pike for lunch. Our friends own a pair of elegant fishing rods, which they put to a good use - their freezer is literally stuffed with fillets of pike and wall eye. Next, we went for a two-night walk-in-the-woods to see the tallest falls in all of Manitoba - a lot of true northern beauty!




For the last day, our hosts saved the best: a tour of the mining operations around the town. First, we went to pound out some tunes out of the rock. The holes are filled with water to different levels. Some of them sound pretty cool!

The holes are test drills of this beastly machine

I tried to run it, but it wouldn't work, estie!



We also visited a closed-down mine which boasts a tallest tower in North America (too bad that it only operated for a WEEK),

a pit that turned into a lake,

a working nickel mine, the main employer in town,

a nearby tailings pond
(notice the intense indigo - no photo editing here! Just a high concentration of copper arsenic)and some other equally impressive features.





Tomorrow we sail off - a day before Tolik's birthday! It was a great pleasure for us to stay at their place. Thank you for all your hospitality, amazing food and good times, we'll see you at your next location, wherever that may be!