Flat out last night quite early on, sung to sleep by a huge flock of geese across the river from here. And I remember absolutely nothing at all until the alarm went off. Definitely one of the best night’s sleeps that I’ve had far quite a while.
a trace of condensation n the ceiling, but considering that I cooked a meal inside here last night, that’s no big deal at all
And so I was up and about quite early and I was able to catch up with a huge pile of paperwork that had been building up.
And do you know what I did after that?
I made myself a coffee, found my breakfast biscuits, and then sat sat down for a whole three hours in the beautiful morning sunshine and read a book. And I didn’t move from my seat at all.
Mind you, I did have company. There’s one in every village and the one in Bonaventure was on the quayside looking in the bins for the cans and bottles that have a deposit (that’s a bit thing in Canada). He came over for a chat, which annoyed me because I really just wanted to sit quietly and read.
after a very relaxed morning I set off, and a little further down the road I came into the town of New Carlisle. There was a sign there for the railway station and so I went down there to have a look around.
I didn’t think that I was going to be in luck though and see a train, I reckoned. Last time I was around here, which was back in 2010, there was some kind of VIARAIL passenger service – once a week to and from Montreal and the town of Gaspe if I remember correctly. But having had a good look around here, there’s been nothing moving on this line for quite a while.
That’s despite the fact that in the station building there’s still some kind of daily train service advertised to and from Montreal. But I’m not taking this sign seriously. There was a sign on the side of the building advertising “bureau à louer – working space for rent – contact VIARAIL” and I imagine that they are referring to the station building. That looks rather terminal to me.
All in all, this paints a rather sad picture of life out here on the Gaspé as far as public tranasport is concerned.
While I was in the area I went into the town of Paspebiac and did a load of food shopping because I was running low on food. I also finally discovered a Tim Horton’s and so I was able to upload a pile of stuff up to the internet.
Having stocked up with food I went off to look for a nice place to have a late lunch. And I didn’t travel very far before I encountered this beautiful sandspit down at the harbour in Paspebiac.
There’s camp site right down there at the end of the sandspit – closed for the season of course – and also a port and some marine installations. And so I went down to the port and sat watching the sea for a good while, ate my butties and read a good book. I’ve certainly caught up with my reading on this trip around Eastern Canada this year.
The road further out along the Gaspé really is beautiful and I could have taken a thousand photos along here – except that I had taken them all when I passed by here in 2010.
But this area is quite busy as far as people go and I ended up being overtaken by the dark before I had found a place to sleep for the night. You have no idea just how quickly – or how early – it goes dark around here. Even though we are farther east than almost any point in New Brunswick, we are still on Quebec time which is an hour behind. Consequently by 18:00 the light has already gone.
In the end, I abandoned the search and ended up in Grande Riviere at an overpriced dosshouse that called itself a motel. This would have been a splendid place to stay 20 years ago, but it’s not had a lick of paint or a new carpet on the floor in all that time and it’s definitely tired.
But at least there’s a microwave, a fridge and a coffee machine so once more I can get some money back by not having to pay for a meal out.
