Our friends slept in the small town of Wadena, just east of Saskatoon, yesterday. A well-deserved rest day was had in Prince Albert, where they took the opportunity to have Guillaume, Nicolas and Étienne vaccinated. Catherine, who is helping the team on the bicycle portion of the expedition, went to see the physiotherapist and received some advice on a sore knee.

As a sign that their once very rough expedition has reached another, much softer stage, they washed all their things in nothing less than an Airbnb.

Indeed, they are now often in urban or semi-urban territory. According to Nicholas, he feels more like a bicycle tourist than a wilderness expedition. The team fills up on fats and sugars at convenience stores, gets honked at by truckers, and are given bottles of alcohol by nice people.

Not a terrible way to spend your days.

Apart from some small repairs on the bicycles, such as a broken luggage rack, the team has been experiencing an exceptionally smooth journey.

The people who cross the path of Expedition Akor are very kind and generous. Of course, when the expedition members tell them where they are from, the reaction is always the same: "oh sh***t, you guys are crazy" - which is not wrong.

On orange flags, Catherine wrote "Akor Expedition," which were hung from the team's bags: this attracted passersby's eyes and brought them strange encounters every day.

Last night, they slept in a public camping area where two men in their sixties prepared good old hamburgers for the team.

Our friends have thus, since about 5 days ago, completely gotten out of the boreal forest. They are now in the endless prairies of Saskatchewan. It was bizarre for them to encounter a territory where agriculture, cows, horses, and the like are so present.

Considering that they are coming from Nunavut, we can understand the culture shock which the team is undoubtedly experiencing.

At the moment, two uncontrolled forest fires are raging near Hudson Bay. The day before yesterday, the smoke was so concentrated (the wind was blowing it west towards our cyclists), that they spent the day being engulfed in smoke.

It was, according to Nicolas, a landscape of apocalypse. It's with great hope that the authorities will be able to control the fires in question. For the moment, our adventurers cut momentarily to the South to avoid them.

Make sure to follow along on our social media accounts, @naakbars to stay up to date with any breaking news and photos from Expedition AKOR. Be sure to read more about the team on our previous Blog Posts.

Visit expeditionakor.com to read more about the teams’ journey, or follow them on Instagram @expeditionakor.