At Wit's End

I stole the name of this post from the cafe up the street in the little town of Witless Bay, which is situated on its eponymous bay. We are in a B&B at the seaside, a few kilometres outside of the "centre" of town. And today was our first bicycle day, getting here by bike from St. John's.

Yesterday was actually the day I should start with: it was a very good and lucky day. I have had concerns about how to get my bike back to Ontario. I assumed that any bike shop could pack it in a box, and I would get it onto the plane and home. Turns out to be more complicated. Stores here are running out of bike boxes, being the end of the season. And they ask for a few days to do the work. And they don't open until a very relaxed 10 or 11 o"clock (—"ish", as they say). And they are open even shorter hours on Sundays. So I had thought, what if I could leave it with them, they packed and shipped it to me. I would be without it for a week or so, but then would be okay. I went into the shop when they opened, and they said "of course", no problem. And it is even cheaper than I had feared, so I can drop it off the morning of my flight, and they will look after it for me.

Then we went to a shop to look for a t-shirt, and we were lucky in finding that without too much trouble. And then we went out to rent the van. After going through the motions, we had our massive "mini"van, went back into town, shopped and even found a parking place on the main drag outside our hotel.











Early supper in our room, some packing, and early to bed.

This morning, we were up and getting our things out to the van. Then a final breakfast at the Rocket Cafe (for me, a breakfast croissant followed by a pain au chocolat). Then we drove out towards the edge of town, Barry and I got our bikes out of the van and put on our bike shoes, and we were off. Darlene had her first experience of driving the van, and followed us. This was a shake-down for us. The trip itself to here was only about 30 km, with some serious hills, but otherwise uneventful. And we got to the B&B by about noon (Darlene of course got there before us). Hosts were Peter and Mary. Peter took a liking to DArlene and talked with her for quite a while before we got there. He is a sculptor and worker in clay. He had several statues in the wooded area around the house, which he called his fairies. And a garden which he was proud of. A lovely place, looking out over the bay, with the fresh air coming in the windows, along with the sounds of the sea breaking on a pebbly beach.





And, I understand, there are puffins around here, although I haven't yet seen one.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Bears Cove Rd,Witless Bay,Canada