Tuesday, 11 July 2006

Irish Loop RV Resort to Arnold Cove (Newfoundland)

It was raining in the early morning so may start to the day was a little delayed. When I set off at 8:45 it was overcast but dry. After about 8 km I was back on the dreaded TCH (TransCanada Highway) and almost immediately I felt like I was almost sucked under a big articulated lorry as it sped past right next to me. If I thought that was bad, it was soon raining. Then pouring. Then the thunder and lightning started. I couldn't see much and just hoped that drivers could see me better. I had nowhere to hide - I was stuck on the big wide open TCH with the lightning cracking around me. It wasn't long before I was struck by lightning and killed stone dead. Luckily they have internet cafes in heaven so I can continue my blog. They only have Mac's though; if you want to use Microsoft you have to go to hell. (Old joke) Heaven's quite a nice place as all the religious zealots get sent to hell. It turned out to be a clerical error and it wasn't my time to go at all, so I was sent back down to my own private hell; slogging along the TCH in the rain.

Just as I arrived at junction 28 the rain stopped and so did I - back at Monty's Restaurant once again. This time when I went to the washroom I hung my dripping wet rain-jacket over the door with the dodgy lock to prevent any repeat embarrassments. I was sopping wet and as wrinkled as a prune. I had a long breakfast which allowed me to start drying out. From Monty's Restaurant I rode 5 km into Whitburne to see if the library was open; it didn't open until 1 pm so I went to the Whitburne Heritage Museum to kill some time - about 10 minutes was the most I could manage by reading slowing and forcing an interest in the most mundane items. No kidding, they had one exhibit was read "Wooden handle - from unidentified item"! Wow. You wouldn't want to make a special trip here. At least the sun was now shining, so I went back and sat on the library steps and waited for it to open.

There are some great place names around the Avalon Peninsula; Sunnyside, Come By Chance, Heart's Desire, Heart's Delight, Heart's Content.

I cycled back to the TCH for an afternoons cycling north-west. The wind was a treacherous companion all afternoon, either blowing in my face or buffeting me from the side - but at least trying to blow me off the road and not into it. I was grateful to all those lorry drivers who moved over when they could (most) and those that didn't - hopefully they'll be Microsoft users in the afterlife!

The last 20 km was hillier, as I knew it would be - and beautiful. Around 5 pm I saw a big bank of cloud ahead of me which I thought was rain, but it turned out to be fog. So I cycled from bright sunshine into fog and then in a couple of kilometres back out into the sunshine. The fog seemed to be sitting in just that one place. Odd.

I arrived back at the Putt 'n' Paddle campground near Arnolds Cove at about 6:30 pm. Having pitched my tent, I went up to the office to pay and met up with the owner again, Lew Osmond. Lew remembered his promise to take me fishing if I came back that way and immediately dropped everything. We grubbed up some worms for bait and then set out in the boat onto 'the pond'. By this time the fog had descended and it was starting to get dark. We tried our luck for a while, but the boat was drifting too fast in the wind, so we went back and tried our luck from the shore. I didn't have any beginners luck, and Lew only landed one small trout that was too small so it went back for another day. Soon it was too dark to see what we were doing, so we called it a day. At least it had been fun trying; my first time fishing.

Distance: 102.3 km
Cycling time: 5:37
Total distance: 3506.5 km