Sunday, 20 August 2006

Quebec City to Portneuf

I had a good nights sleep undisturbed by any snoring. I had breakfast in the hostel again, and then set about sorting out my luggage after three days of 'sedentarization'! It was cool grey and blustery when I finally set off on my ride out off Quebec at 8:45 am. I soon found that, blow me, (literally) I had a tailwind - so I could cycle with very little effort. It was easy to get through and out of Quebec. I cycled through the Parc des champs-de-bataille and then on the Grand Allee. I didn't pay too much attention to where I was - I just kept heading west, breezing along until I came to the two parallel bridges crossing the St. Lawrence river into Quebec; Pont de Quebec and Pont Pierre Laport. From there I found 'La Route verte #5' which mostly travels along the 'Chemin du Roy' (King's Road) between Quebec and Montreal.

About 5 kilometres further on I came to Cap Rouge, once a little village but now a suburb of Quebec, where I stopped at Luc and Melanie's house to return the maps they'd lent me when we'd met last Sunday, and to give them the cycling maps I had acquired but no longer needed. I stayed for coffee and cake, diverting them awhile from their painting - they were re-decorating the house they've owned for the last year prior to the imminent arrival of their first child. Best wishes for that. Luc was telling me that the north-east winds are unusual and usually blow for 2 or 3 days at the most, and are usually harbingers of rain. Indeed it was spitting lightly by the time I set off again.

Now out of Quebec, I was cycling on the north coast of the St Lawrence through farmland and villages. Every house was completely different, both in design and building materials it seemed. All along the roadside were stalls selling fruit and vegetables, with sweetcorn being the commonest crop on display and in the fields by the road. I had a pleasant easy cycle; by 1:30 pm I had covered 50 km in less than 3 hours cycling time, and with very little effort. ('Free kilometres' as Luc described a tailwind)

I stopped in Donnacona at Chez Carmen for a Chinese chicken noodles. (Actually more like macaroni, but still god) Cap Sante, a little further along the road, had lots of pretty houses - postcard or chocolate box pretty - many dating from the early 1800's. But that didn't stop some people from despoiling the garden with statuettes of things like Snow White.

By now it was spitting with rain again, and the wind had dropped, so when I got to Portneuf I decided to stay at the campsite there as the next one I knew of was in Trois-Rivieres another 70 km further along - which would have been easy if the wind had still been blowing. It turned out to be a good decision as it started to rain as I was checking-in at the campsite. ($27.35 - are you sure? $27.35! It's not as if the campsite was anything special either) By the time I had pitched the tent it was raining heavier, and it didn't stop raining all evening and all night. I didn't feel inclined to get out of the tent to cook in the rain, but luckily Melanie had given me a huge wedge of cake for my travels, so I feasted on that inside the tent. (I'm sure I'm not in bear territory now, so I can eat inside the tent without worrying too much!)

Distance: 71.1 km
Cycling time: 3:47
Total distance: 6416.3 km