Distance: 130km
Elevation: 890m
I woke up after a bad dream. I had dreamt that our dog Buddy had been run over by a truck and I felt guilty and devastated. I needed to go back to sleep to shake these emotions off.
So, I started the day late and chatted with Mathieu and Claudia over breakfast and packing. Both did not exactly help my schedule.
They both worked for the Inuit in Labrador. He was a pilot with Air Inuit, she was a physiotherapist and worked in Inuit communities.
They had a couple of months parental leave and were cycling together with their 4 year old daughter Olye from Montreal to Halifax.
They lived up North in Nunavik, Province Labrador. There were no roads up there. Everything had to be done by plane or by boat.
They were working two months on and were one month off. During that time they lived in their house outside of Montreal.
Claudia told me how up North there were polar bears in winter. When they visited the communities they would go on skies and carry guns to defend themselves.
She did that for 12 years and meanwhile had picked some Inuktitut, the language of the Inuit.
Both were friendly, cool and kind of badass, I liked them a lot. Unfortunately, I was going double the distance each day.
When I was packing I forgot to take a selfie. So Mathieu sent me a picture of the three of them on the road.
I saw a lot of cyclists today but none of them wanted to chat. Same waved and yelled „bonne route“ others looked grumpy and just cycled on.
Around lunchtime, I came by a micro brewery and had something hearty to eat together with an alcohol-free IPA.
At Rivière-du-Loop I said „good bye“ to the Saint Laurent Stream who would travel another 1,500km before reaching the Atlantic.
I turned South towards New Brunswick and immediately the terrain became more hilly.
After 30km a major construction site started on the highway. It was messy for cyclists, no shoulder and big trucks.
I tried to get off the highway and had to push Rosinante up several embankments.
Later I learned that there had been a shuttle service for cyclists. Well, attention to details was never my strength.
Eventually, it got dark and I needed to fix my lights. Well, I had longed for a little bit of adventure and solitude and here it was.
It took me two attempts to find a good camping spot. The first was simply a place in the woods without water.
When I setting up my tent it had already gotten pitch black night. Some fellow campers offered me their light to help. How nice.
I was having an improvised dinner in the dark. Temperatures dropped and it got very wet. I could see my own breath.
By 22:30 I was in bed. All in all, a very good day!