When I arrived in Nova Scotia, Canada, I was exhausted. I'd reluctantly spent about £500 on an internal flight from Calgary and had been awake for over 24 hours. Regardless I was excited for the next part of my Canadian road trip - something I had fallen in love with in the first 3 weeks of my two month trip.
What I didn't know was that I had flown to Nova Scotia during one of the biggest public holiday weeks in the year. In hindsight my optimism got the better of the me and I'd assumed there would be an abundance of cars available for hire - WRONG, so, very, very wrong. Cars were like gold dust. The cheapest I found was $3000 for 1 week! I frantically started researching whether it would be possible to buy a car and posted a flyer in the hostel reception to see if anything was available, not to mention continued searching all the car hire sites repeatedly hoping I was simply mistaken.
In my exhausted state I called home frustrated and deflated. Nova Scotia is fairly remote and a car is almost essential. I had no solution...other than to take myself to the nearest bar, order poutine and a large glass of wine and indulge in some amazing jazz and blues. That was a great night to be fair.
What I didn't know at the time was that this lack of planning would lead to something fantastic and far better than I ever could have expected or hoped for.
On that first night, I met a man called Renan. He'd driven to Nova Scotia from Montreal and had a car! Woo hoo. We got on really well and he was happy for me to join him over the next few days. Great, wonderful, but I still needed a longer term solution...hmm.
The next morning in my dorm I got chatting to girl called Caroline (also from Montreal) who was in exactly the same position as me - we immediately bonded over our lack of planning and first-world car problem, as well as took comfort in the fact that we weren't alone in the experience.
Within 20 minutes of meeting, Caroline's mum called her and said that she had managed to find her a car that was available in 5 days' time. Lucky her! And then she did something completely unexpected. She asked me to join her (if I wanted to) on a week long road trip around Cape Breton to do the Cabot Trail.
Not going to lie. I was shocked. Not because I don't believe in the kindness of strangers but because I would have been very hesitant to commit to sharing my unicorn-car-find with a girl I barely knew, let alone for a week. That's huge. We could have hated each other, but also, like me, she was really looking forward to some time alone.
I tentatively said I would join her but also made it clear that should she change her mind in the coming days, that was totally cool - I would understand.
We spent the next few days with Renan and two men Caroline had met, who also had a car. We had a wonderful time together and even initiated a few other people into our car-share gang, to visit key sites like Lunenburg and Peggy's cove. In the evenings we went for drinks, cooked fresh salmon together and gorged on makeshift fondue in the hostel.
When the time came for Caroline and I to collect the car, we headed for the airport. It was clear from our interaction with the car company that we were going to have a great time - we had so much fun in that first 30 minutes, and our collaborative negotiation skills and insistence that we are not 'rich' girls led to a hefty discount on the price.
I've never done a week long road trip with anyone but over the next 7 days she and I had the most incredible time together and, importantly, pushed each other out of our comfort zones - both physically and on a personal level. Spending that much time in a car together naturally leads to some fairly personal conversations and exploration.
We converted the back of the car into a very uncomfortable bed to save on costs of accommodation, cooked, hijacked hotel wifi to watch films, went hiking every day, thankfully had the same taste in music (which led to some serious car-karoke sessions), and overall just had a wonderful week together. It was completely different to what either of us had in mind when we landed but by the end of it we were firm friends and both admitted it was nothing short of lovely to have met.
When you're used to and comfortable travelling solo, it can be really easy to indulge in your own company and not actively seek that of others (even if you don't realise that's what you're doing). Solo travel gives you a huge amount of freedom and it can become habit not to relinquish that to the company of others, particularly for long periods of time, but I couldn't have asked for a better experience, nor road trip buddy.
In the months since we met, I had been super lazy and failed to transfer my photos across to her. When I finally did, she asked if I had received her WhatsApp message. Hmmm....no? Turns out she had sent it just days before to my Canadian number which was no longer working. She sent a screenshot of the message to me and, without sharing it, all I will say was that is was one of the loveliest messages I've ever received. Not only did she acknowledge how fun our time together was but the overall impact it had on her during and since her trip. I gushed a response to her saying the same.
Canada was one of the best countries I've visited but when I think of it, Caroline (and Renan) played a huge part in that experience - remembering my time with them fills me with so much positivity. We may not speak every day, or even once a month, we may not be integrated into each other's daily lives, but she is someone who I will always consider to be a friend (not just a travel buddy), and be happy to see and be there for should she need me.
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