Peace River to Falher

Distance: 68 km
Ascent: 153 m
Cycling time: 3 hours, 31 minutes

A very enjoyable part of the journey that very nearly didn’t happen. Falher (fa-LAIR) is only a very tiny place (around 1,000 inhabitants), so it wasn’t at all easy to make any connections with anybody who knew anybody there. A connection (via contacts in Peace River) was finally made on my behalf while I was up in Hay River, however, so upon my return to Alberta, I rang my host to confirm arrangements for the following day – only to discover that she had no idea who I was! Even more confusingly, it turned out that she runs the B&B in Falher (a really charming little establishment: have a look here for more details), so she naturally assumed I was simply ringing up to make a booking! In a most magnificent demonstration of the ‘kindness of strangers’ that has supported me throughout this journey, though, she agreed to take me in as her house guest, in spite of the confusion, and in spite of the fact that I was due to turn up in less than 24 hours’ time! And in an even more remarkable twist of fate, the people who were occupying the B&B on the night I was there just happened to be a film crew from CBC Edmonton! Not a news crew, unfortunately, but they did promise to pass my story on to the appropriate people back in the ‘big city’: keep your fingers crossed that SOS Children’s Villages might finally get some high profile media coverage soon…!

Quebec isn't the only place in Canada where French is the first language, you know...

There appears to be something of a tradition amongst small towns in Canada for having 'the world's largest' something; Falher produces a lot of honey, so I guess the choice of monument was pretty easy for them!