It is turning out to be my year of wide-open spaces. These theme years creep up on me and burst forth unexpectedly into my awareness, like my year of architecture, but that’s another story!
I have just spent four lovely days in Saskatchewan, the province to the east of where I live in Alberta. And as I stood on the edge of a field that went as far as I could see before it curved from view at the horizon, a warm wind blowing and the scent of lilac in the air and I could see not a soul before me; it occurred to me that I had had somewhat of a similar experience in April, in Spain. There the horizon was not quite so distant, but the spaces were large and empty, and though you could expect that in Saskatchewan, that is quite unexpected in Western Europe. That was when I walking along a remote part of the Camino Aragonés in northern Spain. And though the famous Camino de Santiago is now a rather crowded strip of earth that snakes through northern Spain, the far more ancient path to the east that I was on, can be quite lonely.
I was not alone in Saskatchewan as I had gone on this trip with three lovely chums, three fellows I used to work with back in the day. It was all coordinated by dear Ronald. He is a keen Camino person and to keep his walking abilities up to the mark, he organizes outings from time to time. We meet to walk and brunch in the city, but this was the first time I was part of one of the away trips.
We stayed in Munster near Humboldt. Saskatchewan is known to be flat as a prairie, and much of the province is, however, where we were, about halfway up on the map, the landscape becomes rolling prairie plains and bluffs with winding roads and lines of trees and plantings of lilacs and pines as windbreaks around farms houses. And water – lakes, slews and ponds everywhere with waving reeds and ducks galore.
We did our hiking along a wildlife trail that followed a former railway line and the next day we hiked around the beautiful National Park historic site of Batoche. Batoche on the North Saskatchewan River used to be a Metis community that was the centre of the North-West 1885 Rebellion of Louis Reil and Gabriel Dumont. We were there on National Aboriginal Day and were able to commemorate this tragic part of Canadian history.
Beyond the walking, we spent time just hanging out: we went to restaurants, chatted much, laughed a ton and ended the days with a drink of two – what friends do when they get together if all works out well. A big thanks to the guys for including me and joining me in indulging my diligent ways.
The people of Saskatchewan really are friendly and helping strangers and neighbours is just their way of being. (After all, Canadian universal health care was created in Saskatchewan). And then just when you think you are in the middle of far away (I am not saying the middle of nowhere…) a name pops up and connects you to the great web of history and civilization. Like the name Humboldt, there are places called Humboldt all over the European-influenced world. They are all named for Alexander von Humboldt, the great explorer and botanist famous in the 19th century, a rock star in his day. So how come this town bears his name?
In 1903, the St Peter’s colony was founded when one thousand Germans, many from the States, came to settle in that area. They choose the name of their renowned compatriot. (I did an Alexander von Humboldt deep-dive after reading Wade Davis’s book about the Magdalena River in Columbia, this South American country is where Humboldt made many discoveries about plant distribution).
And all those pioneers needed priests and teachers, so they asked an order of Benedictine monks to come and live among them. The monks came and homesteaded along with the German settlers. Over time a large church was built, now St Peter’s Cathedral (which really is in the woods by a field, not where I am used to finding a cathedral.) And they built their monastery and now a college. And that is where we stayed, in a simple student room each.