Day 87 – I’ve had a couple of questions about the Kodaly gag in yesterday’s blog, so here’s a heavy hint:

Stat-lite day again – a few km, downhill to the sea!

The restaurant looked so pretty as I left in the dark last night after my spaghetti & meatballs (dark is way past my bedtime) that I had to share a picture of it:

Everywhere closes very early around here. In fact, places close early all over Canada, away from the cities. 8 or 9pm is typical. I closed the place last night at 8.30pm. The Blue Mist was probably still up and running, but I didn’t check on them.

My night was a very disturbed, although it was mostly me that did the disturbing. I woke to the unmistakeable sound of a critter (raccoon say the owners) having a go at a food bag I’d stupidly left under the fly, the first night I’ve done this in eighty-six nights (beer-related? I blame the cribbage). I gave him more of shock than he gave me I think, but I couldn’t get back to sleep afterwards. Ironically this first nighttime attack has turned out to be my last night in the tent. Since I was wide awake I had a think about the days to come and booked a motel room for two nights before I fly home, meaning I can get everything flight-ready in comfort, and maybe without raccoons.

I watched the convoy trundling out from early this morning as I drank my coffee, beeping their horns merrily in farewell as if there was no chance of anyone still being asleep. The wind was picking up nicely and there were whitecaps out at sea, so I’m thinking that it might be an interesting crossing this evening. I’ll be sharing the ferry with them all, so I’d better be nice.

I know from Naheer and Kaitlin that there’s no wifi on the boat, and it’s a sixteen-hour crossing so I’ll post anything of interest from the rest of today once I get to Newfoundland sometime tomorrow. There is another route by ferry, which takes nine hours but several days more cycling once you get there:

Today is the first time that I’ve posted the blog before midday. It’s a serious break with tradition. Ta-ta for now, and see you all in Newfoundland, my tenth and final Province of CrossingCanada2017!