Sunday, 06 August 2006

Natashqaun to Baie Johan Beetz (Quebec)

The boat docked at La Romaine at 1:15 am and I was vaguely aware of this as I slept. I didn't notice when we docked at Kagaska at 5:15 am but when I awoke, I noticed that the boat wasn't moving so I got up just in time to see the little outport as we set sail. Having a room in the bowels of the ship means that you are isolated from the time of day and the weather outside. It was a beautiful sunny day in Kagaska at 6am.

We had obviously acquired some extra passengers as breakfast was very busy and service was slow, so I didn't have much time to re-pack my things before we arrived in Natashquan at 9 am. I carried all my stuff off the boat and set off into the village to explore. There was a little Tourist Information Office where I managed to get tourist map of the coast. (Actually a winter snow-mobiling map as this was all they had)

Natashquan was colourful and pretty in the sun, as fairly low-lying - as Kegaska had been. For some reason I had expected the coast to be hillier, so it was a pleasant surprise to find it was fairly flat. What I had also expected was that the wind would be against me, and in this I wasn't disappointed!

After I stopped in Aquanish around noon for a cup of tea, I found that the wind had started to pick up, and the route became a little hillier. The scenery by the road was quite pleasant but not spectacular as there were only the occasional glimpses of the sea. It was the wind though that was coming to dominate the day; it was the strongest headwind I'd had to cope with since that dreaded day at Cape Race on the Irish Loop. What had begun as a pleasant and promising day turned once again into something of an ordeal. I wouldn't go so far as to say it was bad or depressing, but it was certainly frustrating and irritating. What made it worse was the fact that the rear derailleur was still playing up and I had problems both changing up and down through the gears.

I had long since given up on the idea of getting to the next campsite at Havre Saint Pierre - it was just too tiring in this wind. I also had to remember that because of the Quebec time zone, sunset would be much earlier than I've been used to. After Aquanish the next settlement was at Baie Johan Beetz 60 km away and I decided to see if I could camp there as there weren't any promising campsites along by the road.

I tried to take my mind off the crawling time and crawling pace (I was definitely wishing the time away) by trying to remember as much French as I could. So that filled a couple of minutes then. The Visitor Centre in Baie Johan Beetz was closed - it's only a tiny little village, no restaurants or shops, and yet it has a manned Visitor Centre. Odd. I went to a nearby house to get some eau potable and ask if they was anywhere I might camp. They suggested behind the 'Edifice Municipal' which I assume is the town office, so I pitched the tent there.

I dismantled the derailleur trigger-shift; the cable was okay. So, I oiled the cable and cleaned and oiled the derailleur and spent some time fiddling around; it seemed a bit better so we'll see how it goes tomorrow. After cooking some noodles - my first in ages I think (I've been eating out a lot and perhaps should do some economising. Camping sauvage and 50 pence worth of noodles is a start!) I just collapsed in the tent and lay there out of the wind in peace and quiet for 20 minutes before I could do anything else.

Distance: 92.9 km
Cycling time: 6:05
Total distance: 5381.9 km