It Never Rains.....

Although we were making good progress, I started to face continual little setbacks, not least because Del was displaying an intermittent unsoundness.  Lady also managed to acquire a nasty girth gall one day, ironically as I had adjusted the pack saddle girth so it was more centred, which caused a rib on the girth to rub behind her elbow.  The girth is back off centre again now!
Monday 29th September. A wet day again - you can see we are now on the other side of the river which we crossed at Perth..

Crossing the bridge at Aroostock - this is where Lady stepped on my expensive waterproof trousers and ripped a leg zip so they are no longer waterproof..

Del's unsoundness seemed worse so I got off and walked for much of the way..

Arriving wet and tired at a damp camp spot beside a potato shed...

 

But I perked up enormously when Rosie from the house opposite invited me in for supper with husband Gaston.  And insisted I come for breakfast the following morning Tuesday 30th September.. 

 I needed cheering up as I had just discovered that the horses (I suspect Lady) had raided the baggage for food, removed the protective tarpaulin and distributed my chattels around in the rain.  Del also lost the strap for her hobbles, though I managed to replace it with a soft rope from a hardware store on our way round Grand Falls, attracting a certain amount of surprise when I parked the horses outside.
I stomped on in the rain, and in the circumstances was not best pleased to find an unavoidable anti ATV gate at the bridge across the river at Grand Falls.  The photo below is after I have just spent twenty minutes unloading Lady, leading her through the gap, re-loading the bags and re-roping the tarpaulin.

 The air was even more blue when I reached the other side to find another gate. On top of this the trail disappeared into thicker and thicker vegetation...

It transpired that this section of the trail has not been developed yet, but it took some bumbling around to find the alternative road route north to St Leonard - an hour and a half wasted and a long trudge ahead.

Not a happy bunny...

 In the late afternoon I managed at last to find a safe grassy spot to overnight the horses at Bellefleure behind the house of French Acadian Burton Bellefleure, shown here with son Richard and daughter-in-law Brenda Madore, a former truck driver!   Richard is the one with the crow on his head.

Warm-hearted Brenda came up trumps and provided a very weary and grateful traveller with meal, shower and bed for the night.
But when I settled down to go on my laptop, I discovered the screen was shattered - Lady must have trodden on it during her midnight rampage...