Day 48: Missing Home - 37km

Lucie's Aliksir in Grondines to Caroline's in Champlain

Today started off decent.

Lucie invited us in for breakfast and we got to have Montreal Bagels! Our favourite! As Lucie liked to say "Any other bagel is just bread with holes in them" we agree.

We (mainly Katie and Joseph because they speak french) talked about dry toilets. A toilet in which you go in a bucket - with a toilet seat - and then instead of using lots of water and flushing it away, you put shavings on top of it. Wait a year and hey! you got yourself some fertilizer! How amazing is that?! Definitely something we will all do in the future. Saves the environment, cheap way to grow crops and no plumbing issues!

Once done chatting and eating, we pack up camp and head out. Thankfully, Carolane was picking up and dropping off our packs today, so we had minimal stuff.

Just as we were heading down the drive way, it started spitting rain. 10 minutes later it was full on down pouring. At first, it was fine because we were still dry and again, we didn't have our packs so didn't have to worry about them getting wet. But then it started thundering and lightening and there was no end of the rain in sight.

We found the nearest overhang which was a closed down fruit stand. We thought we may only need to wait a few minutes, but an hour later and its still raining. Its lesser now though so we decide to continue on. Now we are wet and cold.

I think we may have only gone a few km, but it had already been 2 hours since breakfast so we were hungry, me especially. Theres an inn but the person there said they are closed, but let us know there was a village 2km down the road. Just after leaving the inn, a wave of sickness came over me. Im not sure if it was the block of cheese Katie and I munched on while waiting out the rain, (I'm slightly lactose intolerant - not smart) or just the lack of "real" food, but I felt extremely weak and hungry, my whole body was shaking. I almost sat down because I thought I would collapse, but decided to keep going since sitting down would not solve my problem.

We finally make it to a place with picnic tables and I woof down some pasta salad. It was outside a cheese factory so the lady brought us some sample cheese. oh great, more cheese... I still ate it though and it was really really good.

As we continue on, so does the rain. But now I feel so much better after eating. And its a good thing I did because we have to cross a bridge, a very sketchy bridge.

Theres a bike path but its super narrow and the ground was a paper thin sheet of metal. We thought it was maybe 200 metres long, but it was definitely triple that. It never ended! I hope Ora didn't know how scared I was. She was such a good girl, both the horses were. Her calmness helped to keep me calm. Funny how it can go both ways.

With a sigh of relief we make it to the other side.

After putting in some more kms, we stop at a restaurant for some expensive nachos. At first we both just sit there quietly, tired. But then we both admit that we are completely exhausted and not having the best time. It was nice to hear that Katie also missed home. If only we could go back for a week just to re-energize. But we can't, and so we keep moving and we know that this feeling will fade. Our karma will get better and we will meet more cool people and see more amazing things. But we have to feel the low before you know you're in the high, right?

It rains some more, than the sun comes out, then rains some more.

Finally, we make it to our hosts house for the night. There we met Carolane who very so kindly bought us pizza!! (never eaten so much cheese in one day...) She also brought us hay for the horses! So nice.

We all got a dry place to sleep with a comfy bed.