This weekend is the Windscape Kite Festival. Kite enthusiasts from all over Canada, the U.S., and even the Netherlands have convened in Swift Current to celebrate the event’s tenth year.
Kites made by the ‘celebrity flyers’ as large as 45 metres long are being flown and are amazing to watch. There are even demonstrations taking place, like a group who flies quad string kites together in formations, set to music! We’ve never seen anything like it. It is truly mind blowing.
Today was a day truly made in Saskatchewan. As is extremely common in the Swift Current area (evidenced by the close by windfarms), it was a very windy day. This all the better for kite flying, but Nezgar only got about 2 minutes of flying his 2-string parafoil kite in before a sudden gust caused both lines to snap and the kite continued to drift away into the field. Drat! The wind here is powerful, for sure.
As he is scrambling to collect the pieces and huge lengths of line, we determined by looking at the ominous looking sky that we probably had less than 5 minutes until we were going to get soaked.
We started packing up our picnic, but as the wind picked up 30 seconds later, we were obviously very wrong in our estimate. Storms move quickly through Saskatchewan!
Now we are scrambling to pack up while getting completely drenched in the downpour with a toddler who is crying in the middle of the field, having stumbled on a gopher hole, and a fussy baby getting wet in the stroller that isn’t really designed for 4x4ing. Running through a field of gopher holes with a stroller in the rain isn’t exactly what was planned for the day.
Good grief. Of course, as quickly as we get to the event tents, the deluge has passed. Saskatchewan weather – if you don’t like it, wait 5 minutes!
Point to the awesome power of the weather – we’re down one kite (that had just been repaired, no less), and got completely drenched.
For this sort of exciting adventure, be sure to check out the festival next year and experience the awesome power of the wind. There are tons of activities for kids and adults alike. Of course, there are even a few geocaches on site to grab while you are visiting.
Nearby caches:
- Windscape Cache (GC2XGK8) by DarcoDog
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