When in Australia, I chose to stay at hotel Jenaway. Actually, there was no choice, I just lobbed in to my friend Rebekah’s house and never moved out for the best part of two months. Not only did Beck put up with me for two months, she did drank copious amounts of champagne with me, boogied with me dodgy disco music in the lounge room, ate out most nights and received the grand total of two home cooked meals from me over this whole time! Beck also pretty much single handedly organized our wedding for April next year. What a woman – she deserves a medal!!
So after two months in Perth, it was time to pack up and leave on the 12.15 am red eye on the 25th of August. Perth to Sydney, to Honolulu to Vancouver with final destination being Toronto landing at 7.30 pm on Saturday night. The flight was very long and very boring. The highlight of the trip was the fact I was sitting next to a 70 year old man as politically incorrect as myself. Upon leaving Honolulu, the steward came over the loudspeaker as we were taxing out and announced that it was the pilots final flight after 38 years, to which point I said to the 70 year old next to me “I hope he doesn’t stuff this one up” perhaps a little too loud judging my the dirty looks I was given. The plane also received a traditional welcome with two fire trucks spraying water on it as we taxied in to Vancouver.Upon landing into Toronto, fairly exhausted at this time, I cleared immigration after some intensive questioning and went to my accommodation and straight to bed.
I woke up the next morning early and was on the internet working out what I would get up to for the day before Dan arrived the following day when a lady came in and asked if anyone was interested as appearing as an extra in a Bollywood film that was being shot around the corner. We would get paid and fed for our work. I thought, oh well when do you get the chance to appear in a movie, why not? So off I went. I was dressed up as an extra for a carnival scene with a car driving through it. Think Kylie Minogue – Showgirl with the head dress and bits and pieces and that’s what I wore. I’m not to sure how authentic we looked when the guy next to me had the same on but with a Metallica t-shirt. Oh well, it was fun and something different. I didn’t have the camera to take a photo but the below shows a little bit of the bling that I wore for the shoot. The movie is called "Lucky Charm" and judging from what I say, it looks like a load of crap. Do yourself a favour and give that one a miss!
I got back late in the day and crashed still feeling fairly jetlagged. The alarm was set for 5.15 am the next morning to head back to the airport to meet up with Dan after 56 days apart. A record for both of us. Dan saw an amazing sunrise on his flight from Saskatoon as the sun rose over Lake Huron.
We were both very jetlagged, particularly Dan from 51 days straight work and an all nighter flight, but of course, pretty pleased to see each other!!! We caught a cab into the city straight to the hotel, which of course, we hadn't bothered to book as usual until we were both at the Toronto Airport. Here's Dan on the phone. 
We checked in at 9.30am and emerged around 2.00pm both feeling much better after some much needed sleep. We went for lunch, where Dan was hanging out for a beer after over a month with no beer. The first one went down like razor blades as it was also the first beverage of any sort for the day!
We wandered down to the Harbour front with the day being absolutely beautiful around 26 degrees. No fish in lake Ontario for Dan. We wandered through some of the art centre with glass blowing etc but both really didn't feel like doing a great deal today except for checking out the views of the CN Tower which we had intentions of going up but held up at the pub updating our blog and drinking again. 
We do have a terrific view of the CN Tower from our hotel room where it lights up in all different colours and looks rather spectacular considering its a very ugly looking concrete building in the day! 
We had some great Italian in the evening and called it a night.
I rang Tan to see how she went. Of course, she was on a movie set starring in A Lucky Charm, a Bollywood film in Toronto. How random? !!Tan can fill this in a bit more soon!!
I caught my Pronto flight to Saskatoon with having a quiet beer on my mind. When I turned up the Prairie Elevator, bar and grill, was CLOSED!!! Another day without a beer won’t kill me. So all clean shaven, no mo or beard and I am parked up at the Saskatoon airport catching up on the blog. The new day will leave me in Saskatoon and on to the 2:00am direct to Toronto flight. The red eye!!!
We skated hard with Derek pulling out massive finger flip tricks, big grinds and frontside 5-0 to tail, revert out. Leo was getting his 50-50’s and a few feebs. It was a great session and good way to finish my first swing in Saskatchewan.
We went over to the river which I just drilled under, days previous. It is a beautiful spot. My polaroids didn’t locate any grayling but this is the spot to get them. Fast flowing water with big rocks. After picketing all of the existing holes, Wes took us over to the central area. We did a couple and then I said to the boys “Follow me!” Matt thought I was trying to locate another hole but my plan was to find the bald eagles nest. Standing under the tallest tree on the tallest hill I told the guys to look up. There it was, 1.8m wide and about 1.2m high, perched high a top of the trees. The base was covered with slightly rounded branches that had fallen out. I was expecting to see skeletons of prey but instead we found a few feathers. Leo decided he would be “Chief” for the moment, compared to my George Washington pose an hour before. 
This was the first time Leo had been in a chopper since he has been in Canada, so we made the most of it. We located some old core near a swamp from the air, a job for some one to cut a track in and then we did a fly over of the Horseshoe deposit. This has been Leo’s pride and joy for the last two years and it was good for him to get the aerial perspective.
We landed by the redecorated dunny, dropped off Horn. It was 2:00pm and we all were starving. A quick bite to eat and we chased Cookie the resident pug around. Cookie wears these booties which are really cool. Lucky Cookie is a girl dog. It was a good relaxing day as I needed it.
On an evening trip out to the rig, I saw the thickest rainbow ever. The late sun was shining under some clouds with rain falling producing a monster rainbow. Pity the photos didn’t come out too well. The sun shining on the lakes was spectacular too.
Got some spice. Change of plan.
On the back isde of Points there is a “grave yard “. Old buses, planes, demountables, mining equipment etc. All hidden away from prying eyes (unless you have a helicopter).
Got some logging in this evening, and reviewed the weak anomalism. Looking at the manual splitter, some thing I thought was obsolete, made me chuckle. I spoke with Matt and said “Don’t waste your time with that thing.” He is now going to Raven to split the core when he has the time.
The area here was burnt out about five years ago, common in this part of northern Saskatchewan, so the undergrowth was small and all the pines were burnt out and semi-rotten. The best thing about this was the blueberries. Thousands, no hundreds of thousands, plump ripe sweet to semi-sweet to tart blueberries littering the area. Matt and I gorged ourselves. From what I can gather if you need to eat one food that has the most nutrients / balance then blueberries are the key.
We pegged the holes and then the line cutters come in for a hover landing. As soon as they got out we walked up the hill 150m and got into re-making the chopper pad in the previously cleared area. We got stuck into it for about ten minutes. No pressure as the chopper was circling over head as he had no place to land. After some fast foot work Wes was down and all was quiet again. We pegged some holes and cut down some trees. It is much easier to traverse the country when it is burnt out though the blueberries were a major distraction. 
Matt and I went to the next site and we landed on the edge of a small lake. We found the collar locations and then Wes flew the line cutters across to make the next heli pad. Next stop was a quick inventory of the core sitting on the side of Collins Bay. With map produced, core photos taken and five holes pegged to bid au revior to Tent Seal for the day. Thomas saw a bear in the burnt out country. I don’t blame the bears for being there as those blueberries were nice.
We flew past McClean Lake mine site and to see all of the mill and plant enclosed was a subtle reminder that winter will be very cold. We come in early as I had to check end of hole at Wolf Lake. As we took off I snapped a shot which always makes me laugh is the “Watch for Arriving or Departing Aircraft”. It’s true as the airport is quite busy with float planes, commercial planes, cargo planes and helicopters forming a constant stream of aerial adventure. 
Leo, the driller, is a great old bloke, and he has some stories to tell. The hole had some weak anomalism. Looks like we may stay a little longer. Tent Seal will have to wait. On the way home I spotted two moose, probably the same cow and calf. Wes knew the story as soon as I spotted them and slowly turned around. It was funny as they didn’t move, just stared at us while we stared at them. They were in a small creek eating lily pads. These moose are difficult to spot.
Saskatchewan, the land of endless skies, and when they reflect in the glassy lakes it is even better!
