Well there was nothing quite like the excitement and anticipation of hopping onto that ferry for a jaunt across to Newfoundland. My last province and final few days of cycling awaited - I'd been told wonderful things about the fondly named 'Newfies' and their beautiful island, and I was itching to experience it for myself.
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| Leaving North Sydney |
However there is also nothing quite like hopping onto a ferry with hundreds of other, equally excited passengers, in particular young children who were loving the late night and simply wouldn't settle despite their parents' efforts.
A long night with little sleep does not make for the most chipper of cycle tourists (anyone who knows me knows how much I love and need my sleep!) and I rolled out of the ferry terminal at Port-aux-Basques feeling rather sluggish, my morning brew doing its best to perk me up.
Now for those of you who are new to Newfoundland, it is an island with not all that many people, lots of trees and hills, and one main road that runs through the island from Port-aux-Basques to St Johns. Small communities sprout off this main road, making any day of cycling that little bit longer if you want to stop in a town to sightsee, or bed down for the night.
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| Starting along the TCH |
The aforementioned hills are present throughout the island, so the 900km road was rather like a big dipper rollercoaster, cresting and troughing with no flat sections to be seen...you could say that I my finish was incredibly worthy, a difficult end to a big challenge, what could be more appropriate?!
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| Beautiful, challenging cycling |
I followed the Trans Canada Highway (or the fondly acronymed TCH) pretty much from start to finish. The scenery was nothing like I'd seen beforehand, and gave me a real feeling of isolation as I peddled through the rugged landscape. The road was quiet for a highway, with the odd burst of cars every now and then, which I assumed to be the ferry traffic being set loose on the island.
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| Like so many family holidays to North Wales: looks warm, actually freezing!! The kids playing in the water had more guts than me! |
After making some great progress in the first few days, and having a great time deciphering the Newfoundland accent (I hear a cross between Irish and deep America South, I don't know how it sounds to other people!) I hit a bit of a wall. The weather had been hot and sticky, and after a few heavy days in the saddle, I'm not particularly surprised that the tiredness caught up with me.
So I decided to try and be sensible, and made the decision to take a day off in Gander. I gave myself the rare treat of a bed and breakfast stop, and did my best to just chill out.
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| The lovely Inn on Bennett, with an incredible breakfast to set me up the next morning! |
But I still felt that tiredness the next day, and it carried through the rest of the week. I was getting to the stage where I didn't want to cycle anymore, every push of the pedals was a genuine effort, and it took a lot of reasoning with myself to keep pushing through the miles.
I think part of the problem was that is been on the road for so long, and knowing that my destination was St Johns, so when I arrived on the island and constantly saw signs for the province's capital, my body started switching off. And as much as I wanted to enjoy those last few days of my journey, so much of me wanted it to be over and completed, and it was really hard work trying to coax my body into climbing yet another hill which would bring me that bit closer to the finish line....Combine this with the songs the final countdown, the theme from Rocky, and let it go from Frozen running through my head in the most bizarre mix/mash up - you could be forgiven for questioning my sanity, I've clearly been spending too much time alone?! - and you can easily see that I've been having problems!
And it wasn't just me. My poor bicycle and travel companion Bella, has been struggling somewhat, and suffered a broken back spoke the day before we were due to finish. We hobbled onwards with a seriously wobbly back wheel, the brakes scraping the rim, making hill climbing even more tricky - I didn't dare loosen the brake cable as braking power would have been nonexistent, I was already comfortably hitting 30mph on pretty much every downhill, and didn't fancy pushing those speeds further!!
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| The Final Countdown starting anew when I saw this sign |
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| Nothing like a hilarious town name...good work Newfoundland! |
So when I finally did reach St Johns, the relief was pretty intense! It had been a long slow crawl along the highway (because, let's face it, it would have just been plum wrong to finish with a tailwind eh?!) but the huge cheesy grin could not be slapped off my face as I zoomed down Water Street, right along the waterfront.
I had decided first to visit the Terry Fox Memorial at the far end of Water Street. This marks the point where this incredible Canadian dunked his prosthetic limb in the Atlantic in 1980, to start his Marathon of Hope, where he had intended to run the distance I had just cycled, despite having bone cancer.
When I arrived, a couple of tourists were also there taking photos of the statue, and asked me, out of polite interest, how far I'd cycled. When I told them that I was finishing my cross-country bike tour then and there, they were so happy to greet me into St Johns and celebrate my finish with me! It turns out the lady actually knew Terry Fox and his family too, which made it feel even more special to have reached this spot.
I relaxed there for a while, enjoying the warm sun, chatting to other tourists, or simply lying back and staring up at the sky, overwhelmed at finishing...
...Well, nearly finishing...
See, the thing is, the most easterly and oldest European-founded city of the continent is indeed St Johns, but in my eyes the 'official', finish point is Cape Spear, the most easterly point of North America. It's not that much further than St Johns, but quite possibly the hardest bit of cycling I've done all trip.
The road was only 17km but some of the steepest hills I've encountered. Maybe they were just so long ago, but I would definitely rate it tougher than some of the climbs I did in the Rockies. The gradient was utterly brutal, quite often hitting 20%, which is not the most pleasant of inclines after already riding a hilly 80 miles!
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| Canada most easterly point! |
But, I'm thankful to say, I blummin well made it with not one foot touching the ground for that entire stretch, despite having all my luggage still attached to my bike...well let's face it, if I contemplated stopping to get off and push, that would have involved unclipping, which would have resulted in a 'face meets tarmac' moment all too quickly.
And the feeling of reaching that end point, after such a long time of thinking about it was quite something! I couldn't quite believe I'd made it, as I looked out over the ocean, the wind sending my hair flying and goosebumps racing up my legs (it was freezing up there!) I simply stood there chuckling to myself in disbelief - I think the other tourists thought I was a bit mad.
So I headed back down into town where I grabbed the key for my host's apartment and have had the privelage of staying in this beautiful town for a few days, including spending my 24th birthday here. Few things could have pleased me more than spending this birthday having two stonking breakfasts, drinking copious amounts of tea, snoozing and wearing clean clothes for the first time in a couple of weeks - blissful!!
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| View of St Johns from a walk along the Eastern harbour, on my way up Signal Hill |
Well then. I guess this is me done with cycling for the time being! I think more locals are in awe of the fact that I've seen ZERO MOOSE here on Newfoundland than the actual cycling that I've achieved! But then, this island supposedly has more moose than people...I simply have to assume that, until proven otherwise, there are simply none!...and as for Newfoundland dogs, well they're a complete no show too!! The closest I've come to seeing one in the flesh is the statue of one down in Harbour Park...Newfoundland, sort it out!! I was plotting ways of transporting one back as a 'well done on finishing' present to myself...but at this rate, the best I can do is bring back a frog, I've seen loads of those!...
Anyway! So thank you lovely readers for following me on this rather mad adventure. I'll do a proper round up post in a few days time, but for now I'll leave you with a few stats:
Days spent cycling: 59
Average mileage: 82 miles (131km)
Rest days: 20
Total distance travelled: 4831 miles (7730km)
Bear sightings: four
Moose sighting: two (none in Newfoundland, leading me to believe that they simply are not present on the island despite what people tell you!)
Spokes broken: three
Punctures: none
Tea shortages: one, very serious but luckily recovered!
Helpful people met along the way: infinite
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| Yes, I'm wearing a woolly hat in July, I regretted not bringing gloves!! |
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