Day 5 - Riviere du Loup - Rest Day

Stayed in bed till 8:30 then came down to waffles, brown toast and lots of coffee. We plan to do next to nothing today, but the sun is shining and beckons us to take a walk round town and shop for groceries.

Thus completed, the intrepid threesome of Marge, Tim and Dot, went up to see the Hydro project while Ron snoozed. Ron bought some woolen socks and tried to get some waterproof gloves, but apparently there is no call for such a thing so will go to a hardware store and buy washing-up gloves (Tip from Nathalie a biker of some renown herself).

Supper is a stir fry and blueberry tart.

Thanks to Andrew for editing the blog and cleaning up my incompetencies.

Thanks for the comments keep them coming, we love to read them.

Day 4 - St Jean Port Joli to Riviere du Loup

The weather dawned cool, cloudy and still, as we finished off our 4 egg cheese omelet packed our bags and got under way. The chalet had been excellent but it was time to go.

With no wind, and a slight down hill we rolled along for kilometers in the high 20’s kph with little effort. We intended to break up our jouney into 3, but when we got to Riviere Ouelle there was nothing open so we made do with Bananas and nuts by the roadside.

As the miles piled on we dropped down to river level where there was a cold layer and this lead to a mist which chilled us, however, we were soon at our first real stop. At Café au dessous la cloche in Kamouraska we were treated to fine food and eye candy in a converted ecurie, about 150 yeqars old. We chatted to a couple from Jacket River in NB.

All too soon we were back on the road for the final push. There were a few 30m climbs and a freshening headwind to bring down the average, but all in all we were soon in Riviere Du Loup.

Surprise, surprise, the Tourist Information is closed at the weekend. We decided that we did not want to camp as the forecast we got was for rain tomorrow and it is a rest day. We opted for the International Hostel. A very nice lady, Nathalie, met us and was very helpful in getting us settled.

Tim and Dot arrived about 16:00h and after unpacking brought out a fabulous curry courtesy of Jeeti of Restaurant Mantra Rue Ste Fois, Longueuil, QC. which went down very well, along with a couple of bottles of wine. (Hostelling is not what it was in my youth.) We lasted till about 9pm then retired.

19.5kph average
Max 47kph

Distance: 92.8km
Total Distance: 466km
Alt change: 270m
Total Alt change: 1420m

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St Nicholas to St Jean Port Joli

Up to the noise of the traffic moving in the rain. We had first breakfast in the room and ventured out in rain to try to cross the road to the bike path on the other side. No such luck, so taking lives in hand, we cycled on regardless in the bus lane. This was ok until it suddenly ended and we had do a double lane crossing. To our surprise the traffic parted magically to let us do it without risk. Thank you Quebec City commuters. Then next few kms were a succession of traffic lights synchronized for 50kph and no matter how much I coaxed my tandem partner we were limited to about 20 so missed every one.

When at last we got out into the country, the traffic died away and left us to enjoy the rain. Good news we are feeling strong today so took our second breakfast at 26km at Beaumont at Chez Nad. Excellent food and we were made to feel really welcome in spite of dripping all over the floor. Terrible place to learn French, everyone tries so hard to be nice they change over to English.

Countryside sped by, but all I saw was the television sized aperture through my zipped up rain Jacket.

Third breakfast was in Tim Hortons (care of Ann and Mike Fleming who had bought us a Tin Hortons Gift card) ar Montmagny. Ron found the magic of an extra large hot chocolate, so had two.

Rediscovered that hand driers are useless for everything, including drying rain coats, bandanas and hands.

Rain now a fine cold mist, but we soon got warmed the task and sped down the gently rolling road in the mid 20’s kph.

We stopped for a breather at L’Islet which had a graveyard consecrated in 1699 and a very pretty church. A few kms later, a couple of guys flagged us down, (Clermont Guay at La Bighorn Forge) and offered us a Quebec flag to fly on the Bob, which we accepted, we spent a pleasant few minutes chatting, then we were in St Jean Port Joli.


Stopped for provisions and found a great place to stay Chalet-Motel aux Cygnes at #329 Ave de Gaspe est, (132 est). We drank dark beer and warmed up Pizza, with oatmeal cookies for desert. Still no WiFi.

Margie’s observation of the day: She has found Lilliput here in eastern Quebec. For the first time since third grade she can see eye to eye with her peers directly without looking up. (:>)

Distance: 107km
Total Distance: 369km
Alt change: 550m
Total Alt change: 1150m

Pictures

Nicolet QC to St Nicholas

A quick breakfast in the room and then out into a bright, cool, windy morning just after 8 am. We turned off the 132 towards Port Francois and soon passed a strange sepulcre stuck in the middle of a field.

We had a second breakfast in Gentilly. (36km) at this point we were wondering how we were going to finish the days 134 km to Charny. The wind had picked up and was blowing across or directly into our faces which kept our speed generally below 20kph. The good news was there were no real hills and the weather was superb, sunny and 20C.



Of note we had a record day for punctures, 2in the Bob and one in the tandem rear tire.

During the last 40 kms the wind abated and our speed increased into 20’s and the riding was really pleasant. It was also mainly downhill.

We chose to motel it again tonight and found one just under the Quebec City bridge. We had a beer and made our way to the Mustang pizza place where we bought enough for 6 people. Home and to bed late,10pm. We slept like logs.

Margie’s observation of the day: Why do all the Car ports have glazed windows Is it a tax thing?

Distance: 136km
Total Distance: 262km
Alt change: 350m
Total Alt change: 600m

Pictures

St Bruno QC to Nicolet QC

We had a great send off from Eggsquis with about 2 dozen friends showing up to cheer us on. Dave did a great job of providing placards and party favors, while Ann Fleming got up extra early to take candid pictures of the panic level of activity chez nous.



We waved our final farewell at the top of Summit Trinity where we felt like Tour de France Stage winners, and made excellent time to the St Mark Ferry with Alwyn and Susie in a chase car. No matter how hard we pedaled they stayed right on back of us protecting our rear from the rush hour traffic.

To everyone for everything, a great big “Thank you”.

The next 40km took us through rural Quebec at its best, we meandered along empty lanes, in the rain with an increasing headwind, ate our lunch at Bar Sandra in Massuville where we ingested far too much good Quebec cooking.

We were in steady rain all the way to Nicolet. We passed the Cathedral and the Museum of World Religions. Both looked interesting, but we were on a mission to find a Motel.

The Domaine des Acadadiens turned out to be just the thing. We turned up the heating, spread newspaper on the floor to protect the carpet from our dripping equipment and got organized. Then we left to eat at a local resto called Stratos, (Spaghetti for me, Pennine for Marge.) When we returned the room was rather like a sauna, all it lacked was two naked, overweight, middle-aged guys sitting on a bench. We had to leave the door open to cool the place down. We were in bed by 8:30 and bye byes soon after. A very memorable day.

Margie’s observation of the day: This one for the birders: Black bird size of a Thrush with a white stripe from the head to the tail. What is it?

Distance: 126km
Change in Altitude: 250m

Pictures

20 hours to go

Still having lots of fun with our phones to try and fix a high speed internet problem,  We had a Chubb security guy here today who did a great job of tidting up the work done yesterday by Bell.

This DSL is very fragile.   Almost stopped caring it now tho' .

Cross Canada Diary

This is the diary of hopefully interesting events and mindsets.  Click on the URL below

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rsFJ4gPq4ZhuSZUR3F6ngbw&hl=en

Latest Itinerary

This is the latest itinerary, We got excellent service from  both Sask. and Manitoba Tourist boards and filled in most of that section.   We are left with  couple of days on a dirt road (208km)  which may turn out to be interesting, we will wait and see.  there are a lot of miles to do before then

Click on URL below

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rexbEK1VqKq_Q5j55SyGaPw&hl=en

10 days to go dry(wet) run round Rougemont.

Hi Guys and Gals, just a quick report on weekends fun(!) We did a 115km on Saturday fully loaded.  The first 60 km was into the wind, and the second half was in driving rain.  Seriously we had a great time.  We did however whimp out at Tim's.  We did not put up the tent in his garden and sleep out as the wind was still very high and it was still raining hard.  

We did try the silk sleeping bag -luxury. 

We rode the 36km back from Tim's on Sunday in rather cool, 8C conditions, but we were nice and toasty and there was no rain  The bike and trailer seems to have worked fine, but the front handle bar bag still had free water in it.  We have to fix that with some rain covers.

Excitement is building as the last arrangements are being made.   Whooie!