The mountains lost their angles and the gradient started to even off and all that was left was flat. Now, in the UK you might think you know what a flat landscape is. But now. This is Flat. This is flatter than Flat Eric, and flat pack furniture. The horizon stretches out way way out and the vast horizon line totally circles you.

It’s not just the land that goes on and on, with the horizon so far out the sky becomes massive as well, and something I wasn’t expecting was the sky felt lower. Like the heavens are able to sink closer to us, whilst still being out of reach.

This is farm country. Crops have just been harvested and bales of hay scatter the fields. It’s also very quiet on the train with most people having left in Jasper. I get the viewing car all to myself for a few hours in the morning and with the empty landscape that sense of being on my own grew. And throughout this incredible journey the one thing I keep thinking is just how empty this vast country is. There is basically nobody here. A country this size has half the population of the UK. There is so much room for activities.

But dispite how vast the landscape is, this is the most affected by man that I see. Fields used for agriculture leaves no trees, the fields are patterned by how the crops have been harvested, there are huge farm machinery and buildings that appear almost as monoliths, great churches of the grain.

The next day some gentle hills appeared and the trees came back. Huge rivers and valleys signal we are in Manitoba. I picked September to travel mainly because it was cheaper after the school holidays but the timing meant that the autumn leaves are appearing and the colours are just stunning. There are the evergreens contrasted with bright yellow and burnt orange and bright reds, and on such a huge scale that it’s almost impossible to avert your eyes for fear of missing another pop of colour.

Canada has so much to offer, and I have another two days travelling through Ontario before arriving back into the urban cityscape of Toronto, this journey has been a triumph so far and I can’t wait to see what is along the tracks