Day 6 Wednesday 29th April 2009 still on board the Canadian

Day 6. Wednesday 29th April. Still on board the “Canadian”
We awoke at 6:10am to find the train stationary in the railway yards at Sioux Lookout, Ontario. We had stopped near an impressive new yellow locomotive; about the only thing worth looking at. Overnight after leaving Winnipeg, Manitoba at 10:30pm we had travelled 406km. We left Sioux Lookout at 6:30am and travelled through continuous forest dotted with many small lakes, all frozen over. Snow on the ground was partly thawed. The trees were small no taller than about 12 meters and no thicker than 250mm. After travelling nonstop for 3¼ hours through the same scenery at 9:45am we stopped at a small village in the forest beside a pretty frozen over lake. One passenger alight with supplies loaded into a small tractor trailer. From the train there appeared to be about twenty cottages and service buildings. Whereas yesterday we passed many freight trains, today up until now we have not yet seen one. There are very few roads. Just before Collins we crossed from Central Time zone to Eastern Time zone. It is very pleasant sitting in our warm sundrenched cabin whiling away the time reading, dozing, listening to nice music on our iPods, playing games on my computer and every now and then typing a little bit more of this diary. It will be lunchtime in ½ an hour!
The time now is 4:10pm; we have stopped at Hornepayne Ontario for ¾ an hour. The town was originally founded to service the railway but the major industry is now wood. For the last hour or so we have headed south east; we are headed for warmer latitudes. There is less snow on the ground, less ice on the lakes and I have taken my jersey off.
The area we have been travelling through all day is known as the Canadian Shield with its characteristic geographical features; extensive lake systems and dense forests nurtured by soil that thinly covers bedrock that is 500 million to 5 billion years old. The same wooded scenery interspersed by many small ice covered lakes and firstly several small villages for hunters and fishers followed by slightly bigger towns and mill sites was alongside our train all day and into the next day. Nearly 1/6th of Ontario is covered by fresh water lakes – nearly a ½ million of them.