Sunday, 13 August 2006

Sainte-Flavie to Trois-Pistoles (Quebec)

It was high-tide again in the morning and the Gulf of St. Lawrence was quite choppy, breaking on the sea-defence rocks just yards from the tent. I allowed myself a lie-in until the second alarm at 6 am. Oddly there was no-one else around in the morning even though the campsite was quite full - and I didn't see a soul before I set off at 7:15 am. It took me about 10 seconds to cycle from my campsite to to the 132 road. That's how close the road was to the Gulf of St. Lawrence much of the time along this part of the coast.

It was cloudy and chilly with the breeze and for the first time I was cycling with my fleece on to keep warm. In the campsite it had been difficult to tell which direction the wind was coming from as it seemed to be blustering around in all different directions, but when I set off on the bike it soon became evident that it was still coming from the south-west - a headwind. I 'ambled' slowly along - there was no point fighting the wind, getting all hot and just making the wind-chill worse.

The 132 was very quiet being a Sunday morning, and I soon left the main road anyway to cycle through Sainte-Luce, another little resort town. I stopped at the Cafe Bistro L'Anse aux Coques for breakfast and got talking to a couple at a nearby table. Luc and Melanie were also keen cyclists so we talked a lot about my trip and trips that they had done. They were able to give me lots of useful information and they even gave me two of their road maps they thought I might find useful. We then worked out that I would probably cycle past their house on my way out of Quebec City so I could stop in for coffee if they were there - and return the maps.

By the time I set off again it was already 9:30, but the cloud had blown away and it was now bright and sunny, but still chilly in the wind. I cycled on through Pointe-au-Pére with its lighthouse, to Rimouski, the regional capital of the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. Rimouski was the final destination of the Relais Nordik ferry so I could have saved myself a lot of cycling if I had stayed on the boat rather than getting off in Natashquan.

Rimouski is quite a large town (population 42,000) but there was only one internet cafe and it's one PC was dead. I went for a vanilla latte (my first since St. John`s I think) and a cake. There was a good cycle path into Rimouski and along by the sea-front. When leaving Rimouski this became a 'piste cyclable' through parkland for a few kilometres. Once that finished though I was dumped back onto the 132 - dual carriageway with no shoulder. The road now was very busy with heavy traffic including lorries so I was fortunate that there was a shoulder further on. I detoured through Le Bic and stopped at the famous (locally) Boulangerie 'Folles Farine' to buy some lunch (Olive, tomato and pesto pizza and Croissant fourée de Armandes et noisettes) that I stopped to eat a little later at a roadside picnic spot.

It clouded over briefly in the early afternoon, although it always seemed to hot and sunny when I was cycling uphill. Of course there is a rational explanation for this; if your average speed uphill is 7 km/h and 42 km/h downhill, then you will spend 6 times longer going uphill than down and so be more likely to see the sun. Come to think of it, it's not a good advertisement for cycling is it?

At Saint-Fabien, which wasn't even on my map, I stopped at the Information Touristique and found someone who was actually proactively helpful. She suggest a cross-country route to avoid the 132, gave me a street plan of the village, a regional cycling map and a map of Trois-Pistoles where I was headed. In celebration I went for a cup of tea before setting off again.

There was a steep climb up away from the village (It was now hot and sunny again!) but once at the top, the road ran along the ridge of the hill through farmland and past several farms with views over the surrounding country and back to Saint-Fabien. It was 15 km to Saint-Mathieu and another 20 km to Trois-Pistoles where I was hoping to camp. From Saint-Mathieu the road became a little hillier once again, and on a changeable day it was now overcast once again, cool and gloomy as evening approached. There were some good views over Trois-Pistoles, with the Eglise Notre-Dame-des-Neiges and its silvered spires catching the light. There was never quite an unobstructed view for a photograph before all of a sudden I was rolling down into the town.

There was no Information Touristique open in the town, but I soon found a sign for the municipal campsite ($25.07 - tres cher, showers free) As the rear derailleur was still playing up, I cleaned and oiled it as best I could once again.

Distance: 104.0 km
Cycling time: 6:42
Total distance: 6076.3 km