Southeast of Maine, in Calais, we finish the East Coast Greenway. We cross the border to Canada and enter New Brunswick. We are heading to big cities like Quebec and Montreal.
The officer of the boarder police at the Canadian border is very strict and doesn’t feel with our situation. Six months is the max we can get as a tourist, he keeps repeating. We could try to extend our visa online if we want to stay longer.
Extension
But like all bureaucracy applying for an extension is hard. Not all browsers are suitable to fill out the form. We need to add our passports, stamps, financial info and photograph, but we can only attach 3 files. We have to be creative and patient to get it all in.
When we’ve managed to apply for Ben’s visum we get a message it will take 200 days to process the application! We are only allowed 180 days in Canada. How does this work? The client support center isn’t answering the help line. Later we meet a lot of Canadians saying people are waiting 3 days in line to get their passport renewed.
Knocking on doors
Because we are getting into more and more less populated places we start knocking on doors again. We try to have a mix of Warmshowers in the big cities and homestays at villages by knocking randomly at people’s door.
Not knowing where and if we can find a place to sleep, is part of our journey. Add up all the new things we see and all the local people we meet it’s an adventure of a lifetime.
It’s fun to meet local people and getting to know their customs and having an insight in their lives. They like to hear about our adventures. We are their surprise of the day and they are ours.
We want to thank all of you who’ve opened their homes and hearts to us.
Homestays keep our budget low. We notice veggies and fruits are very expensive in North-America. We have to accept that our expenses for groceries are going up. It will even up when we enter Mexico and go down to Patagonia. But thanks to all the hospitality at least the costs for our accommodation are zero.
Mad moose
In Norway we’ve seen some moose before. Our Canadian hosts tell us to be careful when we encounter them. They can be aggressive. Never thought about that! Guess this sign on the road wasn’t a joke at all. The black bears are scared of humans, but when we will go further West we will see brown bears and grizzly bears and they are not as kind.
Wildlife
No moose or bear in sight yet. We do see some deer and a fox family. When we are having our lunch standing on the side of the St John river we hear a splashing sound. There’s something in the water. Three seconds later 5 little heads pop out of the river. An entire otter family is watching what’s going on.
We’ve rescued a turtle in Maine before. It was not moving on the middle of the road. It would have definitely been run over. In Quebec we meet another turtle. It turns out to be a snapping turtle. They bite when feeling threatened. You don't see it, but they have a very long neck allowing them to capture prey such as fish, frogs and crayfish from a distance. Fortunately this one doesn’t need help on a bicycle trail.
Do you know we helped the sea turtles on Zakinthos in Greece back in 2020? We want to support more nature projects during our world bicycle tour. Besides this nature support we also help people in need. We have some new projects in mind. Stay tuned.