Ahhh...got my washing done with the help of the Korean lady. This was good; I could see my socks were on the verge of getting up and walking away. The nice Korean lady also gave me a foil-wrapped baked potato to eat. The Korean couple thought I was odd when I didn't peel my jacket potato. I thought they were odd when they didn't smother their potato in lashings of butter and sour cream...but I kept my silence.
They were also kind enough to let me use their laptop, but I didn't do very well because all the settings were in Korean and had to guess where to click half the time. I ended up going to the library to use their Internet but then that all came to a grinding halt when a little lightning hit Valemont and off went the power. Apparently the last time this happened the power went out for 13 hours. Why did I feel reminded of Tuvalu?
Valemont has a salmon spawning creak where salmon swim all the way from the Pacific ocean up the rivers to spawn their eggs. They then die! Pictured is one of the dead ones. I did see living ones, but the dead one made a better picture!
I left Valemont with the lights out and headed to Blue Water which allegedly (according to the man in the library) was all down hill. Not quite sure how, then, the first 20 miles involved a serious climb!
Finally, I arrived in Blue River -- in the dark and in the rain and a bit miserable too. It was not a very inspiring ride along the highway, and it felt like even when I was going downhill that I was having to pedal extremely hard just to get anywhere. I am blaming strong headwinds this time and certainly not the cyclist. You would have thought that I would have learnt from last time at night in the rain! Note: There really is nothing in these valleys. I think I saw a total of about three buildings between Blue River and Valemont.
In town, I found a pub where I had an excellent dinner. I asked the nice barmaid, Kasey, about where I could put up a tent (preferably for free) and she volunteered her back yard with a "Don't worry my Dad won't mind." Yes, it was a little awkward turning up to a house which was a converted church/shop/school (although I don't know that the conversion had ever been finished given the looks of the place), but the Dad was, to Kasey's word, extremely friendly and very accommodating. Within about two minutes of me starting to set up the tent, he invited me inside and gave me a mattress to sleep on. Apparently his brother had done a similar trip across Canada and so he knew how appreciated strangers' hospitality can be.
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