I woke up today at a gas station just outside of Val-d’Or at around 8.30.am. It was a noisy nights sleep with all the trucks and cars going past. The truck that pulled up next to the bench I was sleeping on kept it’s engine running continuously enough for me to actually have to get up off of my comfy wooden bench.

I used the gas stations wc, brushed my teeth and packed up my sleeping bag and hit the road to about a mile away and a bad McDonald’s coffee =free wifi !

I started to write in my diary which I’ve neglected in favour of electronics and rested a while longer before the long push on for the day.

Today I was determined to get 300 miles out of my fuel tank. The speed limit here on the road I’m on is a painful 90kmph. Most people tend to go at 100kmph-110kph, but not me. Today In my mind I was the tortoise and everyone else could be the hare!

I hit the cruise control for 90kmph and put on some Sunny Ledfurd and sat back to enjoy the music and panoramic in front of me.

Have I said that Canada is big? Sorry I meant large, actually I mean HUGE. It’s colossal, it’s ENDLESS…….!

Or not as I’ll eventually see when I reach Vancouver, but that’s not yet.

What’s happening now is a slow days ride through spruce and pine tree lined roads and forests, lakes and small towns with the occasional larger one thrown in to shake things up a bit.

I was overtaken by everyone today, even the large trucks, some of which have double trailers and when they pass you, the tail wind that whips you from side to side lasts for up to 50 meters after they’ve passed! They have big ass rigs over here, carrying logs that are longer than buses, heavy machinery for mining work of which there are plenty of quarry’s and mines here. They need them for all the roads they have to maintain!

I pulled in for some lunch around 3pm in Cochrane and got talking with a guy from BC and a couple from the town that have a brother who lives in Calgary that rides a BMW and dies off road rides. They hooked me up with his number so if i pass through I’ll be sure to look him up.

I left Cochrane with a full tank of petrol having achieved 290 miles so far. In a place like Canada you don’t mess about with petrol. You never know when the next one is let alone if it will be working! I found hat out last night and didn’t want a repeat.

I’m by myself out here with no one to come pick me up if I break down like back home. This is the real deal, far away from home, on my own, getting further away from home with every mile I ride. I’ve a few friends in Canada, but when you’re out in the wilds, you’re on your own and you have to be mindful of that above all at all times.

After Cochrane I allowed myself to twist the throttle a little more to 100kmph! Oooooooo the thrill!

I won’t lie. Going slow kills me, but I’m on holiday and in no rush…..so I keep telling myself!

This was a long road though. The sat Nav said my next turn was in 380 miles.

A few miles out I passed an old army tank!

A dinosaur

And a UFO in Moonbeam (what a great name for a town!!)

The best though was this big old steam train engine and a carriages laid up by the side of the road in an old station.

The wheels were as tall as me! It was a beast!
How amazing would it have been to ride on it? Especially in the engine! I could imagine it chugging it’s way across Canada. Seeing all the different landscapes that I’m going to see!

Good times are ahead. I won’t lie, whilst I’ve been riding I’ve been thinking what it would have been like riding in the USA and where I would have been by now, but I’m not bitter about it and have come to terms with my situation. As i said Good times are ahead and Canada is an amazing stand alone country of its own and for sure the people are amazing. But now in that train, passing through the frontiers and seeing all the beauty of this wonderful country.
Choooo choooooo at 90kmph I go!

I had a talk with my Mum on face time and showed her and her husband (who loves trains) the train I was standing next to, then the heat got to me so I road on with my Mum in my ear which was nice. I described everything that I was passing by, the farm lands, the debris, the highlands as I rolled along the range just drifting. We said our goodbyes and hung up the call and I retuned to my music.
I passed a couple on a Hog who asked me what my licence plate was!

Onward again until I saw a sign saying next town 200 miles! So I hit the last petrol station before the town and met the Harley couple again! They are Lillian & Richard!

Richard is a truck driver and told me not to ride at night because of moose. I told him I had lights better than most trucks I’ve seen, “don’t matter” he said. “The moose run toward the lights” !

So in other words they would head straight for me and I and the bike would be toast. I guess I was lucky last night not to see any. Now he’s a trucker who knows. A local guy. Tonight I’ve heeded his warning and have found a campsite (run by a nice dude who drinks like no tomorrow in a gazebo free from mosquito’s with his pals.!) next to Klotz Lake

It’s beautiful. I arrived for the perfect sunset over the lake and caught a great photo of two guys fishing out in the lake.

I’m hoping to see the northern lights tonight and perhaps the milky way too!!

Did Jools see them??

Milkway – yes! Although a pale most of it.

Northern lights – not sure. But something was going on in the northern sky and I was sober!

#ridewithjools