Monday, 14 August 2006

Trois-Pistoles to Saint-Andre (Quebec)

It was clear during the night, but stayed quite warm so the tent was dry in the morning. I allowed myself the luxury of a lie-in once again, to 6:30 and then went for a shower as the sun started to filter through the trees. There was no wind (hurrah!) and a clear sky, and looked all set to be a lovely day and yet by 8 am when I cycled into town to the Cafe L'Essentiel for breakfast the sky was already covered with cloud, the sun showing weakly through.

It was 9:30 by the time I finally left Trois-Pistoles, cycling back past the campground on 'La Route verte' which was on a combination of quiet roads and 'piste cyclable'. The route turned inland alongside the Riviere Trois-Pistoles, climbing up away from the coast. There were a couple of short but steep climbs as the path went up past a waterfall and through some wood before emerging into farmland. The rudimentary map I had turned out to be not much use for navigation as it didn't have much detail and I soon ended up back on the 132 a little before Isle-Verte. Here there was no shelter from the wind and my speed was pushed right back to a slow 12 - 15 km/h. I stopped at Le Barillet restaurant in Isle-Verte for lunch as an escape from the wind.

When I set off again from Isle-Verte the wind seemed even worse than before (unless I was just weighed down by lunch) and I crawled along the 132 at 10km/h or less. Still it could be worse, it could be raining. A few km out of Isle-Verte, 'La Route verte' turned off onto a gravel road to follow the coast to La Cacouna. It started to rain. It took me 2 hours to cycle the 20 km to La Cacouna. After the gravel road I was back on the 132 but it was now a quiet little road again as most of the traffic was diverted onto the major route 20. I was ready for another rest so I stopped at La Mariniere for a pizza and a lukewarm tea (yuk)

I should really stick to cycling in English speaking places as my language skills are so poor. Even after 20 days I still have problems even with the simplest things; I often have to say 'Un thé' 2 or 3 times before I'm understood, and when they finally ask 'Un thé?' back, I can't tell the difference between what I tried to say and what they've said. Not that the tea is really worth having most of the time - the only brand seems to be 'Red Rose', which are weak tea-bags filled with the floor-sweepings rejected by everyone else. I can usually make myself understood when asking simple questions, but I never understand the answers when they start banging on in French in reply... And imagine my disappointment to find that at the Maison de pain and tarte you can only get bread and fruit pies - not discipline.

From La Cacouna it seemed mostly downhill to Riviere-du-Loup, which seemed to be the biggest town I've been to since St. John's in Newfoundland. I had to cycle up into the town and search out the Tourist Office where I managed to check my email before setting off into the rain and gloom to cycle to Saint-Andre where I was planning to camp. From Riviere-du-Loup I followed the 132 again and soon came to Notre-Dame-du-Portage where I took a chance and left the 132 (to avoid a hill) and cycled along by the coast through the village. It would have been a pleasant scenic ride on a wind-less sunny day.

Almost every village in this area is called Saint-This or Sainte-That, and there are quite a lot of religious icons and grottoes by the sides of the roads. From Notre-Dame-du-Portage it became a long slog to Saint-Andre and then out the other side in search of the campground. By the time I finally got there it was nearly 7 pm and very dark and gloomy. It was too windy to cook with the stove, so I had some salami/tortilla sandwiches and collapsed in the tent to hide from the mosquitoes that were all too numerous here.

Distance: 92.7 km
Cycling time: 6:42
Total distance: 6169.0 km