Typical Thai street, with frequent small storefronts

We were slow to get organized in the morning, and did a short ride to Phang-nga. Becky is having some stomach issues – likely related to the change in diet rather than anything specific. It will definitely slow us down a little, so we decided a short day was in order.

A Wat in Phang Nga (and some impressive hills behind)

When we set out, we were expecting the ride to only be 39 km, but soon discovered that the town was not exactly where we expected it to be. With a little exploration, we found the town and stumbled upon a temple and a fellow Canadian Tourist. We had a brief conversation with Stephen and he pointed us in the correct direction for the Phang-nga Inn.

We have decided to spend two nights in Phang-nga. The Phang-nga Inn is a nice house-based inn. Our room is clean although a little small, and the bed is comfortable. We will also use the extra day to do some much needed bike maintenance. Our shifters are not working as well as we would like, and Becky’s front brake cable needs replacing. Our chains were last cleaned in Turkey, so perhaps we should do something about that as well!

The maps for Thailand are still posing a challenge for us. We are finding that the towns are not where they say they are, and the roads are often labeled different than our map. Google and Yahoo disagree on where some of the roads are! Scott has found a different GPS map which will hopefully prove to be more accurate than the previous one.

Download GPS Track in GPX format

We had a delightful stay with Fraser and Judy. We spent several evenings enjoying wine and talking about various aspects of life. It was wonderful to have the chance to get to know them better and also nice to have “home” for the four days we were in St. John’s.

We didn’t spend as much time as we’d planned doing tourist things or visiting people.  This seems to be a bit of a trend (both here and in Goose Bay).  After many days riding, we need some downtime to recharge, clean and dry equipment and run errands.  For future stops, we’ll need to leave more time if we want to do more tourist stuff.

Sunday: We attended the Sunday service at the Avalon Fellowship. It was nice to renew some connections and visit with fellow Unitarians.

Monday: We took our bikes out to run a variety of chores included buying new cups. We had a couple of melamine cups purchased at Bushtukah (they were about $3 each). On the ferry from Goose Bay to Lewisporte one of them cracked when Becky added boiling water. A few days later the second cracked when Becky added warm water. We were quite surprised as other melamine we’ve owned has lasted forever! We’ve replaced them and our bowls with “squishy bowls” (silicone bowls and cups). 

We went up to Earle Industries (a bike shop) to check the status of our chains.  It is owned by Harold Earle, and seems to be the high-end bike shop for St. John’s.  If you’re looking for bike repairs or purchases in St. John’s, we can highly recommend Harold and his shop.  He spent more than an hour going over our bikes with us and looking at various options for some of the issues which have developed.

After 4000 km, our chains have stretched too much and worn our rear sprocket.  Scott was expecting the chains to last better than this, since there’s so much more chain on our bikes (about 2.5 standard chains).  Had we checked it in Rimouski, we probably would have discovered the chain wear before it damaged the sprocket.  Oh well – a lesson for next time.  The Rohloff sprocket is reversible, so if we could reverse it we could replace the chain, but we haven’t bought the Rohloff sprocket tool yet.  Harold and Scott looked at improvising something, but decided it wasn’t worth the risk.

Harold also pointed out that the stock chains on our bikes are SRAM 830 – the lowest grade of SRAM 8-speed chain.  Had HP-Velotechnik provided a better chain (SRAM 870, 890, Rohloff Revolver) it likely would have lasted much longer.

We have ordered the sprocket tool from Rohloff (as well as some other spare parts), and we’re planning to replace both chains (and flip the cogs) when we get to Fredericton. 

Tuesday: We went out for a hike with Tammy, a friend from the Avalon Fellowship to Black Head. From the point there is an incredible view of both Cape Spear and Signal Hill, as well as lots of blueberries.  We had a delightful hike, and it was great to get to know her a bit better.  She had just received news of a placement as a kindergarten teacher this year, so she was walking on air.
We also went up Signal Hill at night with Fraser and Judy, and got to see St. John’s at night.  It’s a beautiful view, and it was a warm night, so lots of other people were up there, some “watching the submarine races” and fogging up the windows of their cars.

Wednesday: We spent the early part of the day cleaning up and packing up. It took longer than expected to be ready to go, but that worked out OK.
Vyda, another friend from the Avalon Fellowship picked us up at Judy and Fraser’s and after a wonderful dinner at “Blue on Water” in downtown St. John’s she gave us a ride out to the Argentia ferry terminal.

We had heard from other cyclists that you can sleep in the Argentia terminal. Upon arrival, we found a nice quiet spot in the terminal out of the way of traffic (under some stairs), where we pulled out our thermarests and sleeping bags and spent a comfortable night.  Earplugs and eyeshades again came in handy though – there were two other Ottawa cyclists in the terminal with us, and they didn’t sleep nearly so well.

The morning started out with a detour in search of fresh bread. Scott wanted to get back on the TCH right away (and head up a big hill to do so), but we had little food and didn’t know what would be available on the highway. We knew there was a convenience store in Bellevue and a bakery in Norman’s Cove, so we took a detour along the coast via the 201 instead. Scott was quite doubtful about the route due to steep hills and a “Rough Road” warning sign, but it turned out OK. The hills were definitely steep, but the road was great. A few potholes and rough spots, but otherwise excellent.

The views along the coast were quite spectacular, and much more interesting than the TCH. Unfortunately, we got to Norman’s Cove only to discover the bakery was closed. Very sad.

Once we got back on the highway the roads were much faster than the last few days. The winds were still from the south west, however we were now going mostly east, so that translated into a quarter tailwind rather than a headwind. With the tailwind, the hills were much more bearable, and we climbed quite happily.

By dinner time, it was clear we weren’t going to make St. John’s today as we had hoped. The daylight would be fading shortly. Our new friends Fraser and Judy had offered us a rescue, so we took them up on it, just before Butter Pot Park. Fraser came out with a trailer to pick up us and our bikes, and Judy had a sumptuous meal ready for us when we got to St. John’s. A wonderful finale to ten days in the saddle.

Download GPS Track in GPX format

It was a good day riding today. Our average speed is still slow and the wind didn’t completely cooperate, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as it has been and the sun shone all day. It was a beautiful day riding, so we didn’t feel bad that we were not going very fast.

There were again a few spots on the Trans-Canada today where the rumble strips provided a problem for us. The only time they are an issue is when we get less than 1 foot of free space on the shoulder side or if the shoulder is too messy to ride on. Unfortunately, this is more common than we’d like. The highway maintenance folks have put some form of Chipseal at the edge of the paved shoulder and onto the gravel, which occasionally forms large ridges. These can catch a wheel if you’re not careful. We know we’ll be riding much rougher roads shortly though, so we’re taking it in stride.

There was one long downhill today where we rode the highway rather than the shoulder. Fortunately there was not too much traffic, and there was a passing lane, so the cars that did approach us were able to pass safely.

We got to our campsite at Bellevue Beach Park quite late, and were given a spot on the beach, which was all right at first – picnic table, old building with porch to put stuff, and had a nice dinner. Unfortunately, the wind picked up just after Becky left to shower, and Scott had set the tent up on gravel which didn’t hold the pegs well. Talking to other campers he heard about 50kph winds for tonight so Scott ended up moving everything down to a sheltered grove right beside another site. This was a bit tedious, but was a much better spot. When Becky returned from her shower the tent was gone, which caused a little shock! She came back just in time to help set the tent up again, which was good.

Bill, the proprietor of the campground was quite talkative and shared some of the history of the area. There’s a huge sandbar providing an excellent sheltered cove, and a great salmon river, so the locals believe the Vikings spent a fair bit of time in this area.

Download GPS Track in GPX format

Our breakfast was fabulous again today, with toast made using fresh bread from the motel bakery. One thing to be said for Newfoundland and Labrador, there’s a bakery almost everywhere, with excellent fresh bread.

Today we continued heading south, which meant more headwinds. The road was also rather hilly.

We crossed paths with our first cycle tourist in Newfoundland and Labrador today, which was very exciting! As we were ascending a hill, Ben came over to great us. He is from St. John’s and was heading up to his cottage in New-Wes-Valley. His claim to fame is a brief appearance in the current (September) Canadian Geographic Travel magazine. He has done a lot of cycle touring (across Canada and the US), and finds that Newfoundland is some of the most challenging riding, with lots of hills, constantly changing weather and high winds.

Becky was feeling really tired today. She thinks her body is protesting too many hard days with headwinds. Scott was feeling better than her, but he was tired too, so we decided to call it a day a bit earlier than normal. We stopped in Clarenville, the largest town we have been in since we left Goose Bay. It is actually big enough to have a Tim Horton’s and MacDonalds (neither of which we will visit – although we did stop at the Subway for our late lunch).

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After a quiet night in the tent, Clyde and Linda fed us a tasty breakfast of bacon, eggs and toast, which was wonderfully fortifying for the day.

For the first part of the day, we left the headwinds behind. Our progress was rather quick and we arrived at the outskirts of Gambo within an hour. No far into Gambo we came across a stand selling fresh locally grown vegetables. This is the first fresh vegetable stand we have seen since leaving Quebec, so we had to stop and stock up. We skipped the giant zucchini, since each of them was more than 60cm long, but got some carrots, cauliflower and small yellow squashes. Yummy! Gambo is a rather long town, so it seemed like an hour before we reached the Trans-Canada highway.

Before entering the highway, Becky was hungry, so we decided to stop for an early lunch (it wasn’t even noon yet). We didn’t find a restaurant that looked interesting – we have been eating too much deep fried food at lunch lately – so we stopped at a gazebo just before the Trans Canada highway and pulled out our stove and made up a quick instant noodle lunch.

The first leg of the Trans Canada was going East, so we made quick progress. In the first three hours of the day, we were averaging 18 km/hr, which was a dramatic improvement over the 11 km/hr of the previous day. Unfortunately, this wasn’t fated to continue. As we turned into Terra Nova National Park, the Trans Canada quickly turned south and we were again faced with fighting a 25 km/hr headwind. It took us two and half hours to go 25 km!

The section of Trans Canada between Gambo and the park was also our first introduction to rumble strips on the shoulder. Not too bad so far, but we’re told they get worse as we get closer to St. John’s

By the time we were ready to stop for the night, we had passed all the campgrounds in the park, and had not purchased a park pass, so camping by the roadside didn’t seem right. Fortunately, we were able to find a motel in Charlottetown Newfoundland (not to be confused with Charlottetown Labrador!), which is enclosed by the park but outside the park boundary. The motel had efficiency units, so we could cook dinner in our rooms. The motel also had a bakery, so we got a nice loaf of fresh bread to make sandwiches for tomorrows lunch.

Unfortunately Internet access (including wireless) has become less available over the past few days, so we were reduced to sitting by the roadside near an unlocked router for a few minutes to quickly check email. Photo uploads will have to wait…

Download GPS Track in GPX format

Today our progress was painfully slow. It was a beautifully sunny day; however, the headwinds slowed us dramatically.

We planned to have lunch in Centreville – our midway point for the day. We didn’t arrive there until 3:30 pm, at which point we were tired and starving. The place we stopped for lunch had a motel so we considered stopping for the day and resting up for tomorrow; however, upon inquiry the motel was sold out, so we headed further on down the road.

We arrived in Hare Bay (pronounces “air” as the local dialect doesn’t pronounce the h) at about 6:45 pm. At this point we realized that we could not make it to Gambo before dark. We were both tired and with an average speed that was just over 11 km / hr we simply did not have enough time to get there.

There are no places to stay in Hare Bay, so we were looking for a place to camp. We asked at the gas station and someone offered to take us back to a nice place to camp, but that would take us back the way we came. Every kilometer was hard fought, so we didn’t want to have to repeat it again. Had the offer been in the other direction, we definitely would have taken it.

We decided to try out the idea of knocking on a door and asking if we could camp in someone’s yard. Rather than knock though, we decided to ask people that were already outside. The first people we asked were an older couple who didn’t feel comfortable with us staying. In the end, that was probably good because their yard was rather open to the highway. We asked another couple, who turned out to be visiting, but had a house further up the street. This is how we met Clyde and Linda. They allowed us to put our tent on a small flat patch on their front lawn. It was nicely protected by a bush, which provided us with a little bit of privacy.

Linda works at the hospital in St. John’s and was in Hare Cove on vacation visiting Clyde. Clyde used to be a fisherman and is now a guide, taking tourists fishing and hunting in the woods of Newfoundland. Truly delightful people, whom we’d never have met otherwise.

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Today was a beautiful sunny day, and we had some spectacular views of this part of the Newfoundland coast.

The highway was much busier than usual. Unfortunately, the Trans Canada Highway is still closed at Gambo, and likely will be for several days. This means everyone who would normally be on the TCH is on the coastal route with us.

We discovered today what it is was like to jump off the road to the gravel shoulder to allow trucks to pass. We had read about many others doing this, but had never had to do it ourselves. We are very glad for our mirrors, as they allow us to determine if the vehicles behind us will pass us properly or not. We only jump off of the road if there is a semi coming and it is either a blind corner or there is oncoming traffic. The large trucks in Newfoundland always do a very good job of passing us with at least half a lane separation, so we return the favour when it isn’t feasible by getting out of their way. So far, our vote for the worst passers are trucks towing 5th wheel RVs. They tend to forget that their trailers are wider than they are, so although their trucks pass us well, the trailers sometimes come a little closer than we would like. Overall, our experience with traffic in Newfoundland and Labrador has been overwhelmingly positive, contrary to some reports we had heard.

We are staying at the Windmill Bight campground just outside of Lumsden. We have a nice private site, and there are both fresh water and salt water beaches, but there is no drinkable water or showers. It seems that our $13 gets us a picnic table and a flat spot with other people around us. Since the water is “do not drink” as opposed to “boil for X minutes”, Scott got to go back up the last hill to the convenience store we just left, and buy 8L of bottled water.

We are wondering if maybe wild camping might be a better thought for tomorrow night. If we can’t make it to Gambo tomorrow, it looks like wild camping will be our only option. The only requirement to making wild camping work is that we have enough water with us, which is easy enough if we plan for it.

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Today was very wet. When we left in the morning, it was raining lightly, however, it didn’t take too long to pick up. It was not nearly as bad as Friday, but still bad enough that we were quite wet and soggy when we pulled into Pat’s Place restaurant in Victoria Cove. We were still debating whether or not to go straight to Gander and skip the coastal road or take the coastal road which would add 100 km to our journey. The coastal route would definitely be more scenic, but 100 km at our current speeds is a day and a half. We are hoping to make it to St. John’s in time to attend Sunday church service at the Avalon Unitarian Fellowship.

We discovered at Pat’s Place that there was a new B&B in Carmanville. This was definitely a high point for Becky, as she wasn’t sure where she would find the energy to make it an additional 50 km to Gander or 57+ km to Musgrave Harbour in what had now become a downpour. The 30 km to Carmanville and the promise of a warm dry place to stay helped us decide which route to take: the Coast Road, since Carmanville is 20 km after the turn-off.

It turned out to be a fortuitous decision. When we reached Auntie M’s B&B in Carmanville, we discovered that the Trans Canada Highway (TCH) was closed between Gander and Gambo. This meant that every place to stay in Gander was packed, so it would have been a challenge to find a home for the night.

This is the first time the Newfoundland TCH has been closed in the summer! Apparently the heavy rainfall has made the ground soggy enough that traffic on the TCH may cause it to collapse into the houses in Gambo below. There have already been some minor landslides in the area. Hopefully by the time we get to Gambo, all will be resolved.

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Our original plan was to ride unloaded to Twillingate, then ride back (50 km – 60 km round trip), pack up and go on to Farewell to catch the ferry to Fogo (another 47 km). This turned out to be just slightly unrealistic, since the hills between Dildo Run and Twillingate were pretty much constant, and the hills to Long Point were quite brutal, with sustained 20% grades in a couple of spots. Combine that with headwinds, and even unloaded, that was a bit much for us.

The views from the Long Point lighthouse were worth it though – gorgeous vistas, and a variety of whales feeding below. We probably had a better view than the tour boats, albeit not as close. Also, with the cliffs so close, the ocean swell and reflections made for confused seas – a sure recipe for seasickness on the tour boats.

There was also a fudge shop with ice cream – both were delicious. Between the views and the fudge it was a worthwhile trade for the hills.

We stopped for lunch at the R&J restaurant – typical Newfoundland fare. Scott had the Fisherman’s Brewis: boiled cod with hard-tack (a hard bread which lasts forever) soaked in cold water, then boiled and mixed with the cod. (With a salt pork gravy including little bits of “crackle” aka pig skin). It doesn’t sound too appetizing, but it was very tasty and quite filling – just right after the ride.

We headed back to camp, but headwinds continued to slow us, and we decided to spend another night in at Dildo Run.

Unfortunately we didn’t see more of Twillingate Island – it looks quite interesting, lots of history, and interesting activities. We’d like to come back and see “The Iceberg Capital of the World” during iceberg season (May and June) sometime.

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By 1:00 pm, Scott was bored. Yesterday he had been singing “I’s the b’y that builds the boat” all day, especially the part about “Fogo, Twillingate, Moreton’s Harbour, all around the circle”, so despite the rain (now downgraded to a “steady rain” from “downpour”), he decided to ride out to Moreton’s Harbour. Becky decided that staying in the tent with a book was a much better idea, and at first Scott was thinking she was probably right.

It was a very wet ride, but he made it to Moreton’s Harbour, and there was an unexpected bonus at the end – a museum! And not just any museum, but one which served a traditional Newfoundland “Mug Up” in the afternoon: tea, toast and jam, biscuits, molasses cookies and more. He was in heaven!
After being plied with goodies by Angie, Gordon gave him a guided tour of the museum – lots of artifacts from the 1800s and early 1900s showing how the folks in Moreton’s Harbour lived. Beautiful dresses made from dyed flour and sugar sacks, lacework and crochet, improvised tools as well as lots of antiques. Until recently, this entire area was only accessible via water, with the “CNR Boat” providing mail and freight service.

It was also interesting to hear about the Schooner Fishery from the other side. At Battle Harbour we heard that the schooners had it much easier, since they could go out and find the cod, even offshore, and got to live in much more hospitable climes than Labrador. From the Moreton’s Harbour perspective, while the schooners were effective, it did mean fishermen were away for weeks and months at a time, and if a schooner was lost, it was a major blow to the village, since few men would survive to reach shore or another schooner.

It was a neat little museum, and nice to see people working to preserve their heritage. (There’s a similar sort of museum back home in Nepean, but have we ever been there? Nope. Makes us wonder if there’s similarly interesting information in that museum…)

It was also interesting to get a perspective on housing prices in rural Newfoundland. Angie and her husband have recently moved back from St. John’s, and were able to buy a good-sized, recently-built house for less than $25 000! That seems like a pretty good deal, even if it did need some work. This area isn’t even that remote. It’s less than 1 hour to Gander, and a few hours to St. John’s, but there isn’t much work available. They were originally from the area, so they knew what they were moving back to, and it does seem like a great place to raise a family.

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Becky soon came upon Debbie, whom we had met the day before in our wanderings. Debbie was standing on the porch enjoying a cup of coffee, so Becky asked if she could possibly have a cup. Debbie invited her in and she had a great visit with Debbie and Mik. Debbie and Mik live in Goose Bay and were in Cartwright visiting Mik’s sister Sharon who works at the weather station in Cartwright. Mik grew up in Paradise River – this was interesting because both Adrian and family (where we stayed last night) and Barb (at the B&B in Port Hope Simpson) grew up in Paradise River. We were amused by the number of people we met from Paradise River given that it currently has a population of 18!

We had not yet decided which ferry we were going to take. One option was to take the Northern Ranger to Black Tickle, and then up to Goose Bay. This would mean departing Cartwright at about 5 pm and arriving in Goose Bay at 10:30 pm the next evening. If we could get a cabin on the boat, the trip to Black Tickle would be interesting and give us a point of comparison from our trip on the Nordik Express up the North shore of Quebec.

The other option was the overnight ferry (the Bond), which left at 7 pm and arrived in Goose Bay at 8 am. This is the same boat that would take us to Lewisporte on Tuesday. When I called from Port Hope Simpson, the reservation agent told us the boat was sold out and we couldn’t make a reservation even to walk on. When talking to the locals, they all said we would have no trouble walking on, but it was highly unlikely we would get a cabin. Given the fullness of this boat, the Northern Ranger looked like a more interesting option.

The Northern Ranger arrived at 3 pm, and we looked into getting on it. Unfortunately the purser could not guarantee us a cabin and we would not know for certain until after the boat sailed. The boat did not have a decent loading ramp, so we would need to load our bikes by lifting them over a 4 foot gap between the wharf and the boat. In addition, a lot of the folks from the boat entered the Northern Store in Cartwright and proceeded to clear out the beer, wine and liquor section. This did not bode well for a peaceful trip to Black Tickle. Given that, we decided to pass on the Northern Ranger.

In the end, we had no issues with getting walk-on tickets for the Bond for the evening sailing. We were very low on the room list, so we knew we needed to find our own place on the boat for the night.

The boat (MV Bond) has a very negative reputation with the locals, but we didn’t find the experience too bad. The food, however, is awful. If you plan to take this boat, also plan to bring enough food to last your journey. It was good that we only needed one meal on the way to Goose Bay.

We spent the first part of the evening hanging out in the bar with Kraig and Kara from BC. They were on a two month road trip visiting all the provinces for their honeymoon before Kraig starts practicing medicine, and Kara goes back to her Physiotherapy clinic. Scott got creamed by both of them in crib, while Becky took advantage of the free wireless Internet to do some blog updates. The free wireless on the boat will come in handy during the 36 hour trip to Lewisporte. At one point in the evening Becky noticed an iceberg in the distance. It was really cool to actually see an real iceberg. Unfortunately, it was rather far away, so it was difficult to capture in a photo.

We didn’t have a cabin, so we setup the tent on the upper deck and slept in it. It worked out pretty well, except we foolishly moved it around with a bag in it (so it wouldn’t blow away). The rough deck surface and the heavy bag made several small holes in the floor, which we now need to repair. For some reason we thought it would hold up OK without being anchored. Given the winds on the deck, that was a foolish assumption. After setting it up, we tied it down to various pipes and benches, but it still flapped a bit. Next time we’ll anchor the corners down before setting the tent up.

We slept quite well on the deck and awoke to the smell of bacon. Unfortunately we had placed the tent a little too near the galley exhaust. For the next trip – if we don’t get a cabin – we’ll need to find a better location. There is a ton of deck space, so we shouldn’t have an problem finding a better spot. We’ll have two nights on the Bond on our way from Goose Bay to Lewisporte.

We awoke to a few isolated bouts of rain and a collection of mosquitoes clinging to the outside of the tent at about 6 am. It appears that Labrador has mosquitoes in addition to black flies! It wasn’t nearly as warm as yesterday. Scott hoped that the rain would make the bugs go away – Becky knew better. The flies began to swarm us the moment we got out of our tent.

We gobbled down a quick snack and jumped onto the bikes. We were riding by 7 am – a record for us. Once we were moving the flies released their grip on us, and it was quite pleasant. Becky was still getting bitten occasionally under her head net, so Scott offered to trade. That only lasted about 30 minutes before he decided to actually fix the net, rather than suffering as Becky had been doing. Just after he stopped, another car stopped to take photos of us, and a lady with much nimbler fingers helped him re-feed the broken elastic through the channel. Re-tied, it was good as new.

We had been told by Cyril and Barb of a spring by the side of the road at around the 90 km mark, and were starting to run low on water, so starting at 90km were keeping a close eye. At 100km we were afraid we’d missed it, but fortunately Scott spotted it – signed by a rock with a white hardhat and orange spray paint. (for future reference it’s at N53.03909 W57.43160). We filled up all available water containers, since we weren’t sure if we would be camping tonight. This added an extra 8-9 litres to Scott’s load, which helped to slow him down on the climbs.

By 11 am, we were hungry and in need of a break. We came upon the intersection of the 516 and 510 (where the road will go to Goose Bay when it is complete) and found ourselves a flat place to set up our tent and have a cooked breakfast. Scott boiled the water while Becky set up the food inside the tent. It was nice to escape the bugs for a few minutes. Scott even found some ripe blueberries, which made a nice treat.

During lunch we had an animated discussion about how to proceed. Becky suggested that this really wasn’t fun and that we should hitch a ride with the first truck that could take us. We had only been passed by 3 vehicles all morning, so the options were limited. Scott wanted to keep riding, thinking we might make it to Cartwright if the road leveled out, and if not, at least we had enough water to camp and make dinner and breakfast, leaving a short ride tomorrow. At this point, Cartwright was still 90 km away, so we had a fair ways to go yet. We agreed to keep riding until 4:00, and keep an eye out for vehicles which could pick us up – leaving things to chance.

After our lunch break, the wind picked up and the flies fled. It was nice to ride without the bug nets over our heads. It didn’t get any flatter though, so riding to Cartwright today looked pretty unlikely.

At one point Becky said to Scott “I feel like Paradise River has been 10 km away for the last 5 km”, Scott replied “That’s because it is still 11.5 km away”. At that point, Becky almost lost it, she was exhausted and getting frustrated with the slow pace on the dirt road, and the inaccurate road signs.

At 3:30 pm we passed a grater on the road. The fresh grade took the good road and made it not quite as nice for us on bikes. The road was smoother, but it meant that the road was more uniform and the soft spots and hard spots were not distinguishable. It still wasn’t as bad as the road yesterday, but further dispirited Becky. At 4:00 the grader operator caught up with us in his pickup truck. Once Becky spotted him in her rearview mirror, she stopped her bike and stuck out her thumb. “Peter the grader guy” stopped and was happy to give us a lift into Cartwright. Paradise River was still 10 km away and Cartwright was an additional 42 km from there. In his pickup truck we didn’t make it to Cartwright until 4:45 (just before the gas station closed). This was Peter’s last week as a grader operator, since the company he is working for lost the contract for road maintenance. He’s hoping the new company will need to hire him – there aren’t many people living here year-round who can drive the heavy equipment, but it’s the company building the road to Goose Bay who won the contract, and he hasn’t heard anything from his application yet. Good luck Peter!

Peter dropped us off at the hotel near the ferry, where we hoped to get a room for the night. Cartwright is a rather spread out town, covering more than 5 km of roads. There are two hotels, one near the ferry and the other a full 5 km away at the airport. Unfortunately, Kraig and Kara (folks from British Columbia on their honeymoon) took the last room just before we arrived. We called around to the B&Bs, but they were either closed or full. The other hotel only had 1 smoking room left. After our experience with a “just cleaned” smoking room in Oswego, we figured sleeping in our tent was a better option.

After an OK dinner at the Mug Up café, we hung around town visiting with various people and talking about our bikes, trying to kill time until it was late enough to set up our tent in the ferry terminal parking lot. When we mentioned our plans to Adrian and Joy, they invited us to camp in Adrian’s family’s backyard (now his brother Brian’s home). We were happy to accept a place that was a little more private than the ferry terminal and gave us a shed to store the bikes and some of our gear for the night. As an added benefit we had tea and a delightful visit with Adrian, Joy, and their little daughter Madison.

Download GPS Track in GPX format

Today we began something of a crazy journey, riding our bikes from Port Hope Simpson to Cartwright. The road is 195 km long. The only sign of civilization along the road is Paradise River, which is 40 km outside of Cartwright and has a population of 18. Per usual, we started late. We didn’t leave Port Hope Simpson until 1:00 pm, after visiting more with Cyril and Barb. The weather was sunny and hot – a bit of a challenge when you need to cover up to avoid the flies.

The road continued to diverge dramatically from what Google and the Topo Maps told us. We have no idea where they got their information, but it was clearly incorrect. See the GPS track below if you’re interested in where the road actually goes…

Update:The road shown below is from the Google Maps API, which uses TeleAtlas data. It turns out to be much more accurate in this instance than http://maps.google.com, which uses NAVTEQ map data. Here’s some commentaryabout the differences.

Our progress was slow. Becky used the excuse that we spent most of the day climbing – but the road also didn’t help. It was a nice gravel road without much loose gravel. Most of the time we found a solid track, but gravel is still much slower than asphalt.

A few kilometers outside of Port Hope Simpson, Isabelle (who we met in Battle Harbour) passed us. She and her daughter Katie were headed to Charlottetown and just stopped to say hi. Her son David and his friend are riding their bicycles from St. John’s to Vancouver, but they weren’t foolish enough to ride the Trans Labrador Highway.

Once we passed the Charlottetown turnoff, there was very little to distinguish one section of the road from another. There were a few muddy trickles which crossed under the road, various mounds of dirt and quarries from the road construction, and one logging road. We were excited to see a trailer parked on a small side road at one point, but no-one appeared to be home. The only other sign of humanity was a road Grader parked in a pullout.

The sun and heat made the road a bit dusty, but fortunately most vehicles slowed to pass us, and there was enough wind to blow the dust clouds quickly off the road. We were only passed by 20 vehicles or so – not much traffic.

Late in the afternoon, Becky broke the elastic strap in her head net, which made it much less effective. Now, instead of keeping all the bugs away from her head, it kept most away, but then trapped any that did get in, so they were stuck close to her head. It was an interesting experiment, and verified that Labrador Flies will indeed bite more than once. (Not an experiment we need to repeat).

At about 7 pm, we stopped at the side of the road for a food and rest break. The bugs were so bad that we needed to set up the tent just to eat. We did a quick setup and climbed inside for a snack. It was good that we had lots of prepared food, so we didn’t need to cook.

We were back on the road for 8 pm and rode for an hour. By 9 pm we had to stop, as it was starting to get dark. We found a flat mound on the side of the road and set up our tent for the night. We were surprised by how quiet it is here. Back home, we would have heard birds and animals scurrying around in the night. It was pretty close to silent with the only sound being the swishing of trees in the light wind.

Unfortunately we discovered that a fly had bitten Becky right on the edge of her eyelid, and it was starting to swell. It was itchy, but not bad enough to prevent her from sleeping.

When Becky got up for a mid-nighttime bathroom break, the sky was still clear. There were many more stars than we can usually see and you could clearly see the Milky Way. You could also see the clouds starting to form … it wasn’t to remain clear.

GPS Track

We left Battle Harbour with some sadness, since it has been a very relaxing respite, but it’s a bit expensive for our budget, and if we ever hope to get back to Newfoundland we need to tackle the Trans Labrador Highway again.

We discovered today that there is a significant difference between a freshly gravelled road and a dirt road. In the towns along the coast, there are many dirt roads (hard packed dirt with a bit of gravel), which are usually quite pleasant to ride on – all you need to do is avoid the potholes, and at the speeds we are going this isn’t a problem. Fresh gravel is an entirely different challenge. All of the of the Trans Labrador Highway is gravel once you get north of Red Bay.

The gravel today is better than the stretch from Red Bay to Mary’s Harbour, but in many parts has been recently resurfaced, which makes it nice for cars, but not so pleasant for bikes. The resurfaced gravel means there are no “tracks” where the road is dirt, rather it is all loose stones. That made for a slow and bumpy ride.

The road from Mary’s Bay to Port Hope Simpson is very scenic. The landscape completely changes a few times as you approach hills or corners, which helped keep us entertained as we rode.

At one point a car passed us, then stopped. A couple of people got out and quickly took a few pictures of us. We were both rather amused and happy to oblige people with a pose for a picture.

We had been warned about the big trucks on the road and the dust and rocks they throw, but every big truck (in either direction) slowed right down before passing us and usually honked or waved hello (of course we’re usually waving too). We did have a couple of smaller cars pass us a little closer or faster than they should, throwing rocks and dust at us. Everyone else, including the pickups were very polite. Fortunately, there is very little traffic on these roads – just enough to feel safe, but not so much that you are breathing dust all day.

We are staying at Campbell’s Place B&B, which was new, clean and had private baths – a nice luxury. Becky was tired and went to bed early, but Scott had a nice visit with both Cyril and Barb (the owners) and played with their 9-month old daughter Serena. Barb is of native heritage, and she had some interesting things to say about growing up in this area. She grew up in Paradise River, was 100+ people, now about 18, since many people moved out after the road went in. She has taught Caribou Tufting and Grass Weaving at the Friendship Centre in Goose Bay, which we’d like to go see when we are there. She also recommended checking out “Moulder of Dreams” – a pottery program in Port Hope Simpson, which we may try to do tomorrow.

We also met Dave, a guy from Moncton who owns a freight/logistics company. The job he’s doing now is moving a bunch of logs from the area down to the pulp mill in Cornerbrook, and he has rented a barge which can hold 4000 cords of wood (that’s a lot of wood!). He also has his own plane, which he uses to fly his guys back and forth, since it only takes 3 days to load the barge, and his crane operators are from New Brunswick. Interesting fellow. He offered to let us ride down to Cornerbrook on the barge, and we were definitely tempted. It would have been an interesting transit – 40 hours on the barge, but we are looking forward to seeing Happy Valley-Goose Bay and visiting with Susan’s cousin Joanna.

Today feels more like a vacation day than a rest day. That may be because we didn’t actually ride to get here, or it may be because of the location. Battle Harbour is certainly in the middle of nowhere. To get here, you need to follow the Trans Labrador Highway either 180 km northwest from the Blanc-Sablon or 240 km south from Cartwright. In both cases, there is at least 90 km of gravel highway. Then you need to take an hour long boat trip. If you are looking for a place to get away from it all, this is a great place!

Battle Island is very quiet and peaceful because it is so remote, and is also an interesting historic site. In the 1850s, Battle Harbour was the most populous and important settlement in Labrador. It was the hub of the Labrador fishery until the closure of the fishery in 1993, and many of the buildings date back to the 1800s. It was converted to a historic trust in 1993, and restoration and interpretation of the site has progressed since then. There are daily tours where you can learn about the historical significance of the place and how the fisheries worked in Labrador until the early 1990s.

We spend much of the day lazing about in the cozy wood-heated bunkhouse. Scott attended the full tour and Becky the first half of it until it got too cold and rainy.

Battle Harbour had one of the first Marconi stations in Labrador, and also one of the most long-reaching, so Robert E. Peary stopped here to give a news conference in 1909 where he claimed to have reached the North Pole.

We had some nice visits with various other tourists that were staying and got to know a few of the staff – many of whom grew up in Battle Harbour.

We awoke to another beautiful morning without any wisp of a breeze. It was so calm that the Red Bay Basin was reflecting the hills around it. The view from the B&B was spectacular – we missed it last night because it was dark soon after we arrived.

After breakfast Scott went out on a reconnaissance mission to see how the road was, while Becky caught up on her sleep. Scott stopped to talk to some berry pickers (the Bakeapple berry season has started), and discovered his mistake soon enough. He did not put any DEET on in the morning and the berry pickers brought a collection of flies out of the bog with them. Although Scott had his headnet on, mostly saving his head from bites, he had exposed legs, which you can now play connect the dots on!

The gravel has been about what we were promised – a new layer has just been put down, and not packed by much traffic yet, so it’s slippery under the tires, and would definitely slow us down.

Becky didn’t have a lot of energy today, recovering from too many fly bites and a not too great night’s sleep. We decided to try and hitch a ride rather than ride to Mary’s Harbour. This decision was compounded by the fact that the ride was 90 km of dirt road with a climb up to 300 meters – higher than we have been on any part of the trip so far. We stood not far of the intersection for the road to Red Bay, but got bored after about 10 minutes, so we decided to ride a bit. After about 5 minutes riding, Becky noticed that her pant leg was catching on the chain, so we stopped to find something to tie the pant leg down – just then, a pickup came from behind. We stuck our thumbs out and they stopped. When they asked if they could help, we asked for a ride – however far they were going would certainly help us get to Mary’s Bay before dark.

Kathy and Fred from Chicago picked us up and loaded our bikes into the back of their pickup. They had left their fifth wheel (RV trailer) in St. Barbe and came over to Labrador with just their pickup. We enjoyed a visit with them while making our way towards Mary’s Harbour. After about half an hour, Kathy opened her window and noted that it sounded very much like a tire was flat. Fred commented that it wasn’t driving like it had a flat, but after 5 minutes, we stopped to check, and it was very clearly flat, with a 6 inch slice in the sidewall of the tire. It looked like the sidewall had just failed, rather than anything actually slicing the tire. Kathy and I kept out of the way while Scott helped Fred change the tire. Every vehicle that passed by stopped to ensure we were OK, which was nice to see.

Although the flat was unfortunate, we were glad it wasn’t on our bikes! We continue to be very happy with our bicycle tires, which have held up to the roads very nicely.

After about 45 minutes, we were back on the road. Shortly after we passed Lodge Bay (a small community 10 minutes outside of Mary’s Harbour) we spotted a couple of golden foxes on the road. The foxes entertained us for about 5 minutes, laying about and frolicking with one another. We were struck by how white the tips of their tails were.

At around 5 pm, we arrived in Mary’s Harbour, where Kathy and Fred dropped us off. Thank-you very much Kathy and Fred for the ride. We very much enjoyed the time visiting with you.

We arrived in Mary’s Harbour with enough time to catch the last ferry over to Battle Harbour Island. Originally, we were hoping to camp over on the Island; however, they recommended against it, so we booked a couple of beds in the bunkhouse.

The boat ride was a little bouncy. Fortunately, we both survived without any significant queasiness. We had a great opportunity to visit with Robin and John from Goose Bay. Robin is a writer and John is a judge. They both have spent a lot of time with the Innu and Inuit communities in Labrador, so they could answer a lot of our questions and share their perspectives about the culture and social environment among the Innu, Inuit, Métis, and settled communities in Labrador.

Seeing Battle Harbour from the water gave us a flavor of the outports of Labrador. Some of the fishermen’s stages are still along the water, and many of the commercial buildings at the wharf have been restored. As we came closer, it was difficult to tell whether all the people on the wharf were real – some we thought to be real turned out to be life-sized photos, and others gathered around a drum looked like statues until they moved.

We had a delicious dinner in the dining hall above the General Store, and it provided a chance to meet some other interesting people. The bunkhouse where we slept has been restored to a fairly authentic state, with wood stoves for heat and cooking, and a kerosene lamp. There is also electricity and plumbing, so we have a coffee maker (Becky is very happy!) and a shower. Tonight we have the bunkhouse to ourselves, and tomorrow night there is likely to be one other person here. It is actually cheaper than staying at the Inn in Mary’s Harbour!

It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and the temperatures a little cool; however, there was very little wind. We thought that was a good thing, but soon discovered that wind, even a headwind, is your friend in Labrador.

The road to Red Bay was not long, so we decided to check out the Lighthouse at Point Amour prior to making our way to Red Bay. We left our gear in Mary’s shed, and checked out the tallest lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador. Preparing to leave for the lighthouse, we got our first taste of what the black flies (also called Labrador flies) can be like – quite vicious. Becky decided to try out her head net (over her helmet). We both applied plenty of DEET. Because it was Sunday, the lighthouse tour was free. We enjoyed the opportunity to climb to the top and see the amazing views. The ocean rocks in this area are worn in such as way that they look like fancy interlock. At the lighthouse, we adopted our new mascot – Puffie (a stuffed puffin). With any luck Puffie will be appearing in photos throughout our trip.

After this short 19 km detour, we discovered that all the food outlets (coffee shop and restaurant) in L’Anse-au-Loup are closed on Sundays. It was good that we had made up some sandwiches for the days ride. We stopped at the gas station to buy some chips and use their facilities. To get away from the bugs we had our lunch (sandwiches) inside the gas station shop.

Becky was much more attractive to the flies than Scott, so she continued to wear her head net, sometimes as a full face mask, and sometimes just over her helmet. Scott seemed to be OK with just DEET. The ride out to Red Bay took much longer than when we anticipated. At about 3pm, we arrived in West St. Modeste. As soon as we turned inland and started climbing, the flies attacked with a vengeance. Scott got a number of bites, and Becky got mauled. Becky saw a resort restaurant that was open, and insisted that we get indoors for a break from the bugs. She had a number of nasty bites on her neck. Those Labrador flies can take a real chunk out of you, such that you bleed with every bite. We decided that the bugs make the idea of camping unpalatable (sleeping in the tent is OK, but cooking would be no fun at all). We contemplated staying a night at the resort, but it was expensive and would not put us within reach of Mary’s Harbour (where we wanted to be the next day), so we pushed onto Red Bay and booked a room at the B&B there.

We soon discovered that it was difficult to find places to stop, as the moment you stopped you were swarmed with flies. Neither of us have seen them so bad. Even drinking was a challenge, since you have to lift the head net in order to drink. Not stopping also means that it is difficult to get food in you, and 30 km of hills is really difficult without a snack. At one point, we dug out a bun and some crackers. Becky rode with the bun in her hand, taking bites whenever she was moving fast enough to keep the bugs away (such that she could lift her head net over her mouth). Judging by the amount of bites she received by the end of the day, this was only partially successful!

At the B&B we met Dan and Nancy from San Francisco who were driving around Labrador. They spent a week taking the ferry up to Nain and five days on Battle Island. They highly recommended spending some time on Battle Island, and said that it is possible to camp there. They also confirmed that there are no (or very few) flies on Battle Island and only the odd mosquito. The roads are really nice for driving; however, they are covered in loose gravel, which is not good on bikes. In the end, we concluded that if the wind picks up tomorrow and we are feeling up to it, we might ride to Mary’s Harbour – but more likely, we’ll try and hitch a ride out there, so that we can enjoy a couple of days camping on Battle Island.

Becky cooked a delicious dinner of crab from the fish plant, broccoli, cauliflower and potatoes which we shared with Mary – our hostess.  She’s an interesting character – 75 years old and still going strong running a B&B on her own.  Some other folks we met had stayed with her 20 years ago, and she remembered them when they went back this summer!  She has 8 children and a mass of grandchildren and even a few great grandchildren.  For her 75th birthday this year (Feb 20), she bought herself and accordion, and has been teaching herself to play – all by ear.  She has a very strong accent, and is often difficult for us to understand – especially when she’s speaking fast, or to another local.

We asked one of the fellows at the B&B who is driving up to Cartwright tonight to call and let us know what shape the road is in. If the road has too much loose gravel we’ll try and hitch a ride; otherwise, we’ll try and ride it.

Since there are very few services on the road between Red Bay (30-40 km from here) and Cartwright, so we do not expect to have Internet for 4-5 days.

Today was definitely a slog, as the hills between Deadman’s Cove and St.Barbe (where the ferry is) provided to be just a warm up for the hills in Labrador. We are glad that we caught the morning ferry rather than the afternoon one, as it took us more than 3 hours to go the 30 km from Blanc-Sablon to L’Anse-au-Loup.  The 100km day yesterday likely didn’t help, since we started tired, but these are definitely our biggest hills to date.

We are staying at Mary Barney’s B&B for a couple of nights, while we rest up and prepare for the bit of pavement (50km) to Red Bay and then the 350+ km of dirt road that will take us to Cartwright.

We ran into Shawn and Kara from Kirkland Lake partway through our ride, and again at the B&B.  They have done a loop through the Maritimes, and are heading back through Labrador and Quebec, which seems like a lot of fun.  They certainly had an easier time of the hills than we did (but they did add a hike to make up for it)!  Kara has been a teacher in Northern Ontario for a number of years, and it was interesting to get her perspectives on schooling for natives – both on-reserve and off-reserve.  She still keeps in touch with some of her first students, in elementary school a decade ago, and even the best of them have gotten mired in addiction and pregnancy in their teens…  It’s a difficult problem.

Kara also spent a year in South East Asia a few years ago, so we’ve added her to our list of people to talk to in detail before we get there.

Our goal today was to get to St. Barbe, so that we could take the early ferry over to Labrador.  It rained heavily overnight, and we took the time to dry out the tent before leaving, which meant another post-noon start.  Fortunately, we again managed to ride with the wind mostly at our backs, so we made good time – the wind changed direction from earlier in the week. The tailwind was especially nice on the long straight flat stretches where there is no sign of population. 

After 90 km, we pulled into Sweet’n Eats – which you may recall is where we stopped for wonderful fresh bread treats on our first day on Newfoundland.  Since we were quite tired, we had another delicious meal and took our time before preparing to depart.  (We can report that the chili is as good as the chowder!)  While we were eating, Scott struck up a conversation with a couple of the nurses that were having their dinner at the café.  Judy and Margie were fun to chat with as they bantered with each other and with June.

As we climbed on our bikes, Judy and Margie drove back up, and Judy offered us her spare bedroom for the night!  They had overheard our conversation about $80 per night for the hotel in St. Barbe, and took us in.  She lives in Deadman’s Cove, so it means 10 km to get to the ferry tomorrow, but it’s wonderful to have a real home for a night.  (Margie would have taken us in too, but she has a smaller house, and is remodeling her spare room).

In true Newfoundland fashion, Judy brought us home, showed us around, then left us the run of the house for a few hours.  Her older son Bradley works at the Senior’s Centre, and Thursday evening is for cards, so she and Margie had a previous commitment.  I guess we must have honest faces.

It was a real delight to spend some time talking with them after cards, and to feel like we were in a real home again, even for a few hours.

St. Lunaire-Griquet to Triple Falls Campground and St. Anthony

In the NE corner of Newfoundland, we discovered many interesting things.  Perhaps not profound, but  small things are interesting too.  There are many bogs, the trees are short and therefore provide no shade on a long hot sunny day, and the fresh water is yellow.  We noticed the water mostly in Hay Cove, L’Anse aux Meadows and St. Lunaire-Griquet – not as noticeable in the St. Anthony area.  A bit disconcerting when you come upon a toilet for the first time… The water is mostly from artesian springs and wells, and is quite drinkable though. 

There are also many cords of lumber stacked along the highways, and occasional teepees made from evergreen trunks.  These are for domestic heating in winter, and each household can get a permit from the government for cutting in a defined area.  The wood is cut and collected each winter by snowmobile and brought to the highway’s edge.  Some is cut and corded immediately, and other wood is stacked in teepees to dry.  Some wood piles are better organized than others, and in one case we came across a small sawmill near the edge of the road.  Each stack is labeled with a permit number, and collected in the fall for the heating season.

Today we rode from St Lunaire-Griquet to the Triple Falls Campground, set up our tent, dropped our gear and then headed into St. Anthony for a nice dinner and supplies. Dinner was at the famous Lighthouse Café with a view of St. Anthony harbor and “Iceberg Alley”. Unfortunately, today we had a view of the lighthouse (about 50 feet away) and that was about it.  The food was good (and we ate a lot of it), but it didn’t live up to the star billing we’d heard from several other people.

The fog we woke up with did not lift, and there was a light misting rain much of the day.   We’re finding that the cloudy, damp days are in some ways nicer for riding than a sunny day.  It may be damp, but the mist keeps us cool, and it is easy to add more clothing if we need it.

We wanted to leave such that we could head up to the Northern Delights restaurant for after noon, since we heard that Murray’s mom would be there from noon on. Scott suggested a boat tour – and Becky could never say no to a boat tour, so we also added that to our days itinerary (4 pm tour after lunch).

After lunch, we had the opportunity to actually meet Murray’s mom… “Who is Murray” you may ask? Murray is a very friendly guy from Gunners Cove who we met in Perth Ontario on our first day riding. He was part of a team of people sandblasting and painting the water tower and staying at the same Motel we stayed at. It was neat being able to meet his mother. Apparently, he has been asking if we’d stopped by yet. (Yes, Murray’s mom does have a name – Grace. This, along with the name of the restaurant were minor details which we didn’t get from Murray… According to Grace, he does tend to leave out the odd detail) Our bikes and our various inquiries about “Murray’s mom’s restaurant” apparently caused some talk in Gunners Cove. We found out from Grace that we asked directions from a cousin yesterday, and her husband saw us riding before we got back to the restaurant.

Grace has run the restaurant for a number of years, and her mother Ethel had it before that, so it seems like they’re something of a Gunners Cove institution.

Our pilgrimage to meet Murray’s mom is now over. We had a lot of fun getting here, and having a quest made our visit to the Northern peninsula much more entertaining for us.

The food at Northern Delight is excellent and reasonably priced too! We enjoyed a traditional Newfoundland Jiggs Dinner for lunch. Fortunately we shared, since it was huge! Roast beef, chicken, salt pork, boiled potatoes, turnip, carrots, partridge berry pie, and there’s probably something we forgot. Highly recommended!

After our lunch, we headed down to St Lunaire for a quick tour of the Dark Tickle Jam shop. We had a chance to meet Steven Knudsen (the owner) and ask many questions about berries. It turns out that one of the things I thought might be a berry is actually quite poisonous .. oops .. guess we’ll stick to bakeapple berries, as they are pretty easy to identify.

At 3:30 pm we headed down to White Cove tours for a boat trip hosted by Captain Tobias (Tobe for short). We were the only tourists brave (or foolish) enough to go out in the weather, but it was still fun. The boat trip was rather wet, and we didn’t see whales, but Becky really enjoyed it. There was quite a bit of swell so the boat bounced around a bit. Neither of us took anything for motion sickness, which was unfortunate, as Scott spent much of the voyage feeling queasy. He still had fun though. We saw some baby eagles in their nest which was kind of cool. We also saw the house where E. Annie Proulx wrote her novel The Shipping News. Apparently she wasn’t particularly popular with some of the locals, but she and Tobe got along quite well.

Becky created some excitement by dropping her sunglasses from the fly bridge onto the edge of front deck, which wasn’t easily reachable, especially with the boat bouncing around. Sherlock (a friend of Tobe’s also on board) found a mop and used it to move the glasses into reach and successfully recovered them. Given how much the boat was bouncing, it was truly amazing they didn’t end up as fish food.

We were cold and wet when we got off the boat, so we decided to get a room at St. Brendan’s Motel in St. Lunaire-Griquet rather than riding the 25 km back to the Triple Falls RV park in the fog and drizzle.

Scott continued to feel queasy for a while after arriving at the hotel, and will be looking into various options for motion sickness before we get on the freighter. He has used Sea-Bands before, and we have Gravol, but there are probably other options too. Suggestions welcome!

We had another lazy morning this morning. This is looking like a theme for us, unless we have a reason to be somewhere quickly. We both enjoy having some time in the morning to reflect and relax before getting on the bikes and going, and it is helping us to slow down.

The riding today was hot, over 28 degrees C. We didn’t expect Newfoundland to be this warm, and it’s a bit of a surprise to the locals too. Apparently, this area hasn’t seen rain in July. It looks so lush that you wouldn’t know it.  The morning fog must help to keep everything hydrated.

We followed the road north towards L’Anse-aux-Meadows,
a Viking village and the first sign of Europeans landing in North America, over 1000 years ago. It is hard to imagine people that long ago. It’s a UNESCO world heritage site, and quite interesting.  They have reconstructed a few sod huts and allow you to  go inside them, which was a definitely highlight for
Becky.  We also got a chance to talk with the “Vikings”, a number of locals in
period costume who have studied the history and the sagas, and act as
interpreters.

L’Anse-aux-Meadows is about as far north as the roads go on Newfoundland, although Marie Cove on the other side of the bay may be a bit further.  For our purposes, we’ll call this the northern tip of Newfoundland though.

We decided to live a little of our former life, and had dinner at the Norseman Restaurant in L’Anse-aux-Meadows – although we did limit ourselves to soups and starters. The restaurant was ranked as “one of the top 100 restaurants in Canada” a few years ago. The meal was good, but not outstanding – the butternut squash soup was very good, but the roasted root vegetable soup a bit overpowering.  The “Macaroni and Cheese” had lobster, orzo and mascarpone cheese witha hint of blackberry and raspberry.  Not quite your standard Kraft Dinner, and it was excellent!  The restaurant definitely caters to the tourist market, serving a Lobster and Caribou surf-and-turf, but that was beyond our price range even for splurging.  We suspect the locals are more likely to go to Northern Delight down in Gunners Cove for dinner – where we had a delightful lunch of crab and cod.  Very tasty, more filling, and half the price of dinner.

With a late night, no campgrounds in site, and Becky’s desire for a bed for tonight, we called up the Viking Nest B&B. For $48 we get a nice queen size bed, Internet, and a full breakfast. Not a bad deal and it doesn’t kill our budget – at least not yet!

We got off to a very late start today, but made good use of the time. We got most of our photo backlog uploaded and tagged, and had a chance to chat more with Rosie and Colby, and get to know them a bit better. We got a better appreciation for some of the difficulties you run into as a fisherman, two principal ones right now being higher fuel costs, and low lobster prices this year due to low demand from the U.S. With the tail-off in consumer spending, much less lobster is being bought (it is a bit of a luxury item for most people). Fortunately, Colby and his partners have licenses for several fisheries, so they’re able to fish Cod, Lobster and several others. In the off season, they also guide hunters who come to Newfoundland to hunt moose.

Their son Keenan was quite fascinated by our bikes, so we got some pictures with him and the bikes, and he took some pictures of us too.

The weather was great for cycling today, with a strong tailwind out of the southwest, which pushed us along quite well. The sun made an appearance after about an hour riding, so it also got quite hot out.

Everyone we’ve talked to so far have warned us about the road to Cartwright, so we may end up hitching a ride from Red Bay to Cartwright rather than riding the 400 km of gravel. That said, people have also been warning us about the Newfoundland roads and drivers, and so far both have been excellent! We have some more time to gather information and explore options, and we want to do some riding in Labrador, so we may just ride to Red Bay and see for ourselves.

First signs of civilization after 60 km.

Our original plan had been to get to L’anse aux Meadow today, but with a 1:30 start we decided to stop at the Triple Falls RV park instead. We have a lovely spot right beside a stream, which mostly drowns out the highway noise. It’s nice to be camping in the dry again – hopefully it lasts for a day or two as the forecast predicts.

Our arrival at the ferry was somewhat optimal, as just as Becky bought our tickets the computer died, which slowed everything down (perhaps it didn’t like Scott’s name?). We managed to get our tickets, and those who were only 5 minutes behind us ended up waiting another 45 minutes!

The boat was clearly a purchase from somewhere in Europe, as the English listing on the signs was the third language listed. The second language was one of the Scandinavian languages, but we didn’t recognize the first (Dutch perhaps?). The boat also had 220 volt European plugs – good thing we didn’t need to charge anything. For this routing they could use a boat that had more car space and less passenger space, since some cars got left behind. In the passenger area, the boat felt rather empty – especially compared to the last 4 days on the Nordik Express.

We said our goodbyes to Thomas and Isabel, and Paula, Dave and family after disembarking. It was sad to go our separate ways after spending so much of the past four days together, but also nice to be in our own space again.

When we left Blanc-Sablon the fog was so thick we could barely see the shoreline. Fortunately, the fog lifted a fair bit (but not completely) in Newfoundland. It was much warming than we expected, especially with the fog. The weather report says 22 degrees but feels like 29. Knowing what 29 feels like in Ottawa, neither of us are sure about the “feels like” 29, but it definitely felt nice and warm, which was good because it was rather wet at times. It rained on and off, but most of the heavy rain was during our lunch break.

We took a brief detour shortly after getting off the ferry. There was a sign to the “Viking winter site”, but the interpretation centre looked rather abandoned. The road was more of an ATV or 4-week track, but we decided to follow it rather than the highway. The GPS indicated to us that the road did join back up with the highway. It was a rather amusing distraction and probably some good practice for other roads. Becky saw her first Newfoundland moose, but we’re sure there will be more! We stopped to talk to Ross who was collecting kelp for his garden. He was quite intrigued by our bikes – they continue to be conversation-starters. Ross is back from a tour in the oil patch, and enjoying gardening the organic way, not least because kelp is free, compared to $50/bag for fertilizer.

We stopped in Flowers Cove at “Sweets ‘n Eats” for lunch, which was delicious! June fed us a great chowder and delicious fresh-baked buns, and we sampled some sweet-bread with raisins (much like a loaf of hot-crossed buns). The sweet-bread was just coming out of the oven, so between the scent and the free sample we were hooked! We now have a loaf we need to eat in the next day or two, but that shouldn’t be too hard.

Given that the tent was wet and we were wet and Becky wanted to do laundry, we decided to stay at a B&B tonight. The prices for B&B outside of L’anse-aux-Meadows and St. Anthony are quite inexpensive (under $50 for two), so we figured we should take advantage of it while we can. We’ll probably try and do some free camping for the next couple of nights while the weather is good.

We’re in the Coziest B&B in Green Island Cove, near the end of a series of small fishing villages. Rosie and her husband Colby are great hosts, and the B&B is very nice. Scott has taken over Colby’s shed (more like a barn) to hang our wet tarp and tent – fortunately he doesn’t mind.

The ride from the campsite to downtown was quite nice once we discovered the shoreline trail. There are beautiful bike and walking paths around Rimouski. One of the paths goes along the shoreline of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It became very clear by the smell and the lack of water that this area was tidal. With every deep breath I was reminded of my childhood and the smell of the sea.

I do wonder if I am beginning to feel the first pangs of homesickness. It is not unexpected as we have been travelling through a province where we don’t speak the language well and the culture is different than what we are accustomed to. I am looking forward to Newfoundland and being able to communicate with people more easily again. Physically however, I’m feeling quite well. Given we’ve been riding for 7 days I’m very happy how well my body is adjusting!

Scott says:
Communication continues to be our biggest challenge. Although we are comfortable enough with French for activities of daily living, it’s a challenge to learn anything about the person we’re talking to. I had a brief chat with some Boy Scouts from Quebec City who were interested in our bikes. It appears that Quetzel (s.p.?) is a synonym for recumbent in at least some parts of Quebec. We’ve seen a couple of them on the road – a long wheelbase recumbent similar to a Longbike. The most common question we get is “do you have a motor on that?”, to which our usual response is “seulment mes jambes” (only my legs). Fortunately the bike questions are fairly consistent, so we have a chance to think about our answers in advance of the next questioner.