Manitoba

Our first destination in Manitoba was Winnipeg, basically the geographical centre of Canada although the train guard informed us on our travels that Portage La Prairie is the official one.
Trivia fact: Winnipeg is who Winnie the Poo is named after.
It is a city rising up out of the prairies and very windy, would give Wellington a run for it's money (apparently). The windiest point is at the intersection of Portage and Main Streets.
Winnipeg also has the Forks, where the Assinboine and Red Rivers meet.
After two days in Winnipeg we hired a car and drove up to Riding Mountain National Park. It was a beautiful place and we stayed a night in the park so we could maximise our wildlife viewing with late evening and early morning drives.
On the first evening we went to the Buffalo Range and drove around it twice and couldn't see anything and typically we were on our final drive of the night when we decided to go to the North End (where they weren't supposed to be this time of year) and on the drive out we saw them and it was amazing. We followed them as the walked along the road grazing, criss-crossing back and forth. At times it was a bit nerve-wracking about how close they got, twice Craig reversed out of range for fear that our small rental car would become a wreak.
After leaving the Buffalo we also saw the back of a Black Bear, Elk and some Deer.
We left Riding Mountain and headed across to Hecla Provnical Park which is on the shores of Lake Winnipeg, passing Lake Manitoba on the way.
At Hecla we rented a cabin and did not have high hopes of seeing any wildlife as all of the locals were being very mysterious about where best to spot them, but in the morning before we left we saw a moose out of the blue sitting in a lake having some breakfast. It was a beautiful sight.
Now it is on to Saskachewan.