Friday, 21 July 2006

Gaff Topsails to Deer Lake (Newfoundland)

It was a beautifully clear night with a crescent moon when I got up at 3 am, and from my vantage point I could see lights twinkling in the far distance in several directions near the horizon. It was cool and breezy but my tent was sheltered by the top of Gaff Topsails.

The sun must already have been up for a while when I roused myself at 6:30 am. I had a lot to do and a good distance to cycle, but I couldn't help wasting some time on a small act of revenge - killing as many mosquitoes as I could by squashing them between the 'inner' and 'outer' of the tent. They'd only be after my blood when I got out anyway. Of course it made little difference. In Scotland they have a saying about midges; 'Kill one and ten thousand come to the funeral'. Here ten thousand come expecting a funeral.

I checked over the bike, which I didn't have the chance to do last night, and found that on the rear pannier rack, 2 of the struts had broken their weld at the bottom from the other two, so I had to improvise another repair using a trusty cable-tie. Needless to say the mosquitoes had their revenge too. Their favourite places seem to be the back of your shoulders and arms where they just bite straight through your clothes.

Luckily I could manage to manhandle the bike back down the ATV path fully loaded and onto the T'Railway by 8 am. Already it was getting warm. 2 or 3 km down the trail was a collection of summer cabins, also called Gaff Topsails. Another 5 km further on was another collection of huts at Pond Crossing. Already my hands were starting to ache again. I was hoping that with there being more cabins on this side of Summit, the T'Railway would have had more traffic on it and therefore be more rideable. In general it was, although it was still tough going in places. Where the trail was narrow the ATV's would clear 2 narrow wheel tracks in which you could try to cycle. Of course which ever track you were in, the other side always looked better - but there was a big ridge of gravel in between to stop you from switching over.

After about 12 km the T'Railway became much broader, which wasn't always good news as the gravel was evenly distributed all over making progress hard and slow. Even when you had a clear patch and could get up some speed the T'Railway would soon bring back down to earth, or more precisely throw you up in the air, as you hit one of the many stones embedded in the track. In general though, the track was much better than yesterday and was also mainly a gradual downhill so progress was much faster; I covered the 40 km to Howley in 3 hours. I have never been more pleased to see tarmac!

I had been relying on getting water at Howley and had used up all my supply - I had an un-slakeable thirst this morning - my mouth felt permanently dry. I stopped at a house and of course they gave me water when I asked. Already it was 25 C in the shade and over 30 C in the sun. It peaked at 33 C by 2 pm. From Howley I had about 14 km to go to get back to the TCH (TransCanada Highway) and, heading north, the kilometres just flew past as I had the wind behind me. Bliss.

Once on the TCH though it was a different story, with the wind now in my face it seemed a long haul into Deer Lake. The wind wasn't too strong, but it just wasn't cooling at all. For the first time in Newfoundland, the wind was as hot as the weather. I felt weary and sore, and eeked out my water supply to last me the 28 km to Deer Lake. When I arrived I went first to the Visitor Information Centre to get a map and find out where the Post Office, internet and campground were. The was a water cooler in the VIC and I just chugged cone after cone of water. Then I went to the Irving gas station restaurant for a pot of tea; I was dusty and sweaty, but I didn't care, I was going in for my pot of tea regardless. With all the heat I didn't plan to eat, but in the cool of the restaurant I was again seduced by the breakfast. It's a good sized meal for a cyclist and good value too.

After several refills to my teapot I went out to the Post Office to collect my package (the freewheel removal tool mailed out from St. John's) and then went to check email before heading out to the campsite, located on the shore of Deer Lake. ($11, showers $1) The first priority after pitching the tent was a shower - what bliss it was to be clean once again. After my exertions of the last 2 days I needed a rest, so I had a siesta in the tent which was pitched in the cool of some shade. I was thinking of having a rest day in Deer Lake tomorrow, but the library is closed so there seems to be little to keep me here.

Later Mike and Kelly, the two Canadian cyclists I had met in Grand Falls arrived at the tent site next to mine. They had had a hard day too, having cycled 145 km against the wind on the TCH from South Brook. They invited me to have dinner with them, so I went out to buy a 6-pack of beer and we sat chatting until well after dark. A good end to a hard day. I'm sure we all slept well.

Distance: 94.8 km
Cycling time: 6:15
Total distance: 4327.6 km