I usually take a certain route that passes partially through town and the rest beside a railroad track. I decided to hit the railroad tracks at an earlier point. Bad decision. I entered the route and everything seemed fine but then the craggy rocks started appearing. I thought it was surely just a short distance, but they just continued coming. There were also places where tree branches were down, that I had to get off my bike and lift it over them. There were bits of old railway tracks here and there, left over from a sloppy repair job. This new route had put me on an obstacle course. I finally got to a point where the path was hard packed sand and it was again as before.
There were 4 Amerindians just along side of the tracks having a morning beer and cigarettes.. They called out.. hi, miss! Good Morning. I'm not sure if they ride the trains and just drop off here and there... this was not anybody's backyard and there was no patio.. we were out in the woods. I felt a little apprehensive, but I guess the early morning hour sort of gave me confidence and I smiled, said hello and said the path was really bad. They laughed and said there was a different road I could have taken... went all the way to Chibougamou... yeah, like 200 miles away. They had really interesting faces, burnt by the sun, and my photographer's eye wished I could have sat with them and taken their pics... but even at this early hour, just me and 4 strange guys drinking in the wild... not the best idea.
When I finally got to the duck pond, I decided to go a bit further and visit the Maison Gabrielle. It's a home our town built a little over a year ago for people who were about to die. Yes, the only criteria for getting in, is that you must be diagnosed as terminally ill and going to die within the next 3 months. It's on the pond.. with the ducks etc., and trees. I thought I'd go and look at the small waterfall they have there. It is not really a waterfall, it's a tiny water drop... it's man-made and the water is deviated there and then passes into the woods. I took some pics and then went back to the duck pond.
Usually when you start throwing bread into the pond.. they come rushing over, but today was very quiet... very few ducks, even the gulls were rare. There were a couple of kids there with someone who appeared to be their grandmom, but then an even older lady arrived and they called her granny too, so who knows. They didn't have lots of bread, and I had tons of it. I freeze all left over ends from sandwich bread that everyone leaves in the bags and brought them all. They are still fresh when defrosted and it was cute to see the younger of the little boys ( a 15 month old) eating it instead of throwing it in the water.
There were a couple owners with dogs running around and I took my time and watched the kids, ducks, dogs and just relaxed. At one point I just took my sandals off and sat with my feet up on a bench and took in the sun and the pretty day.
After a while though, it started getting extremely hot. There were no clouds in the sky and I was starting to feel a little light-headed. I decided it was probably a good time to leave. After riding up the hill, I started feeling worse and met Martin, a guy I know. He was on his way to the Maison Gabrielle because his mom had died a couple of weeks earlier and he wanted to thank them properly. I was really not feeling good and hopefully not too rudely, told him I really had to go... I was now feeling even worse and by the time I got to town I was starting to feel nauseous and jittery. I just couldn't wait to get home. I was breaking out in a cold sweat and by the time I got home I had to lay down as I now was shivering from the top of my head all the way down my body. I lay covered in a blanket and still was shivering and felt absolutely horrible.
Lots of water and 2 hours later and I was feeling fine. I guess I had a touch of sun-stroke but I'm fine now. I had brought a bottle of water with me, but had already drank it earlier and it went by quickly.
Yesterday was very hot and warm... and today is even worse... it's crazy, stifling hot.
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