"Land and Marine Tour"; have come full circle, by bike and boats back to home

I arrived, safe and sound back home and was greeted lovingly at just past 1:00 yesterday. And what a difference the conditions for the ride on the stretch from Hawkesbury to Orléans from when I rode it in the reverse order back on Monday, July 25, the first day of the trip. That morning I was trying to outrace a big storm and it was dark, cold and raining heavily; yesterday it was sunny and hot, 34.5 degrees to be exact.

When you're riding a motorcycle the weather is a big deal. For most of this year's trip the weather was good.  While there were a few showers, some cool temperatures particularly in the mornings, and fog on and near large bodies of water, there was nothing to delay my progress through Ontario, Québec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland.

The highlights of the trip are many. Let me start with the people. First there's Jane at home who acts as my off-site consultant/navigator/connection to family and the world in general while I'm on the trip. On our regular phone calls from the bike she shares my discoveries with enthusiasm and encourages me to move on safely and enjoy my trip. Then there are friends, old, ones like Peter and Jane who so graciously provided lodging, food, and most importantly companionship and intellectual stimulation in Annapolis Royal, and new ones, Line (pronounced Lynn) and Paul, the bikers from Boucherville with whom I had dinner in Port-Aux-Basques, and Ricardo, the explorer tourist guide biker from Bologna who rode with me from Have-St-Pierre to Sept-Iles and who shared some of his past adventures as we waited for our bikes to be put in a container in Blanc-Sablon and later at a coffee shop in Sept-Iles. And then there are the pure strangers who ask where I'm from and where I'm going, like the guy at the motel in North-Sydney who gave me a shammy to wipe the dew off my motorcycle, and who asked about my trip as I did so, There are also the waitresses in restaurants who take my orders and deliver my meals, or the clerks in the hotels and motels who cheerfully book me into my room and provide information on local sights,

As for the sights, again this year there are way too many to list. We live in such an amazing country. The geography is so vast and varied. There is always something beautiful to discover around the next corner or over the next rise. In my mind there's no better way to experience the sights, sounds and smells of the land than on a motorcycle. My Beemer is beyond doubt the best touring motorcycle ever built. It is a sturdy, comfortable,and maintenance free vehicle that takes me along into the ever changing scenery. How different the feeling is then observing it from behind a windshield. It's hard to explain it but I wish each person could live such an experience at some point in his or her life.

I enjoyed riding on some very some amazing roads on this trip and have mentioned many of them in previous posts. But some, like the route around Lac Timiscouata, the winding and definitely secondary Route 105 from Grand Falls to Woodstock New Brunswick, Route 1 along the Bay of Fundy coast from Digby to Grand Pré, Route 8 that crosses Nova Scotia from Annapolis Royal to Liverpool on the Atlantic Ocean coast, and route 155 south of La Tuque along the Saint-Maurice river, are worth a special mention.

On none of my previous trip have I spent so much time not riding while covering long distances. The crossings from Saint John to Digby, North Sydney to Part-Aux-Basques, and St-Barbe to Blanc Sablon broke up the voyage beautifully. Each was a pleasant and essential interlude and added much to the enjoyment of the trip.. The 2 day journey on the Bella Desgagné sailing down the North Shore of Québec was a remarkable lifetime experience. It really is the only way to see this part of Canada and I would recommend it highly to anyone with a sense of discovery.

I've tried to take you along for the ride and I hope that you have shared some of my joy. I am truly blessed to be able to take these annual motorcycle trips. They give me a chance to discover and appreciate different parts of North America and to see, and sometimes meet and speak, albeit ever so briefly, to the people who live there. I am also often reminded of who and what I have back home; and for my loved ones, friends, and my bed, I am tremendously grateful.

For those of you who care about statistics, here are a few:


Days away: 17
Days riding: 14

Accomodations:
Hotels/motels: 10 nights
Student accomodations: 2 nights
Private residence: 2 nights
Ship: 2  nights

Ships:
Fundy Rose - Saint John to Digby
Highlanders - North Sydney to Port-Aux -Basq1ues
Apollo - St-Barbe to Blanc-Sablon
Bella Desgasné - Blanc Sablon to Havre-St-Pierre


Total kilometres riden: 4,803
Gas: 225.14 L - $259.90 - 4.69L/100K
Oil: 3/4 L


And here is a final selection of pictures:

Art along the Fleuve Saint-Laurent

The chapel building and Evangeline statue at Grand Pré

Roses in the Historic Gardens in Annapolis Royal

Harbour at Annapolis Royal

Jane Nicholson's marvelous vintage store in Annapolis Royal

Memorial to Swiss Air Flight 111 at Peggy's Cove

Waiting to board the ferry in North Sydney

Canadian Coast Guard vessel off North Sydney

Gros Morne West Brook Pond

Bella Desgagné loading container in the early mprning fog at Blanc Sablon

 Stop along North Shore

Harrington Harbour

Another stop on North shore route

 Crab pods

Finally what you've all been waiting to see: the appetizer with the lobster on Bella Desgagné.

Baie Comeau to Alma and Trois-Rivières

Yesterday I rode down Route138 to 172 that follows the Sainte Marguerite River for a long stretch north and then the Saguenay to Alma, the city at the bottom end of Lac Saint-Jean, where I had a room booked for Monday night.  It's a great ride in a valley with steep mountains on both sides of the twisty road and river.

I arrived early enough to be able to have a walk around the centre of the city

and I had very good Angus steak dinner at the Mario Tremblay Bar and Restaurant in Alma. The dining room and bar that is filled with "the Bionic Blueberry's" memorabilia was packed.

Today I rode from Alma to Trois Rivières on Routes 155 through La Tuque and Grand Mère and Route 157. Route 155 from La Tuque south is a wonderful piece of motorcycle road that follows the Saint-Maurice, a wide and fast-moving river.

I couldn't help but think of "The Prime Minister" as I passed the Grand Mère Golf Course entrance and again later when I rode through Shawinigan.

After having booked into my hotel I visited a few of the sites in Trois-Rivières including the cathedral,

the waterfront of the Saint-Laurent,

 and Rue des Forges, the street where many of the cities best restaurants are located and where I had a delicious seafood pizza for dinner.

Sailing down the North Shore then some

Welcome back.  Now that we've found internet connectivity again we can resume the tale of the 2016 trip. When I last posted I had just crossed the mighty Fleuve Saint Laurent from St. Barbe Newfoundland to Blanc-Sablon.


On Friday morning in fog so thick you couldn't see the end of the pier, my motorcycle was loaded into a container that was placed, along with many others, on stern of the Bella Desgagnés, a new purpose built cargo and passenger vessel that does the once-weekly trip up and down the coast from Rimouski to Blanc-Sablon and back.

The owner of the Auberge Motel 4 Saisons, Gary Landry, who had, not surprisingly, not been awake when I had my breakfast before I left at 5:15, drove out to the dock to check that everything was ok and that I had indeed had enough to eat, and to give me two souvenir postcards with scenes he had photographed and small pictures of my motorcycle on the back of them.

At the dock in Blanc-Sablon I met a very interesting Italian biker from Bologna who happens to be a tour guide who takes groups for treks to exotic locations; think a desert or the Hymalayas. Ricardo, who I guess is in his 30s is on the last leg of a trip that started in Panama and worked its way north through Central America, the Gulf Coast of the USA and up the Eastern Seaboard of the USA to Washington, and then inland up to Detroit and thence through Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, the Maritimes and Newfoundland. I had seen his distinctive red and decal covered bike in the parking lot at the Grenfel Campus Accomodations in Corner Brook on the previous Tuesday but had not met him then. While we were both on the same ship we did not see each other again until our bikes were unloaded from the container that they shared in Havre-St-Pierre.

My two day trip would take me to 7 ports, St-Augustin, La Tabatière, Tête-à-la-Baleine, Harrington Harbour, La Romaine, Kegaska and Natashquan, before arriving at my destination Havre-St-Pierre Sunday morning at 5:00. At each of the ports we were able to get off the ship and explore the local community for an hour or so while the crew unloaded and took on cargo, and there was the passenger exchange. All the villages, nestled as they are in rocky coves and bays are unique, and skilled captains are required to navigate the big ships along often challenging channels leading to them, especially at night and in the fog that blankets the coast.

 This is arriving at La Romaine

And at allof these places growing in the patches of soil along the rocky shoreline and in the ditches along the roads, lovely flowers just there to be admired and collected for pixelated bouquets:

The most picturesque place, to my mind at least, is Harrington Harbour, This small community with streets that are thick plank boardwalks is where the 2003 movie La Grande Séduction - Seducing Doctor Lewis was filmed. Even under overcast skies it is hard not to like the place where residents ride around on 4x4s and have their fishing boats moored along small coves that extend into the village like pointed fingers from the river.

And you've got to like a place where a businessman can put a sign like this in his window:

My cabin on the Bella Desgagné was spotless and very comfortable, and the service and food on the ship were top notch. My dinner on Friday was a well prepared lobster; though there should have been a WARNING on the menu that there would be extremely toxic vegetables served as part of the dish. However unlike peas which can sometimes be hard to locate, Brussel sprouts are large enough to spot and hence to be carefully removed from the plate. Once I got over the initial shock and trauma, I was able to enjoy my crustacean with a lovely glass of white wine.

I'll have you know though that the Saint Laurent is a mighty big river, and ships, even large ones with stabilizers, can rock and roll a fair bit; best to lay down for a spell; which is what I did, Even so, there were times when I felt queasy and yes, probably looked like the drunken sailor while walking about the villages we visited after particularly choppy waters.

The ship arrived in Havre-St-Pierre shortly after 5:00 this morning and I was reunited with my motorcycle. After filling up on gas, Ricardo and I rode together to Sept-Îles, his destination for the day. I was also able to call home again, to check how things were,  and to tell Jane that all was well on the road and that I would likely be back home sometime mid-week. Highway 138, or la Route des baleines as its labelled here, runs along the river and is in excellent shape with new asphalt for long sections. Many rivers and streams cascade down from the mountains that rise from the shores of the Saint Laurent.

Arriving at Havre-St-Pierre:

Shipwreck and ore carrier at Sept-Îles

A beach near Baie Comeau

After a coffee with my new biker friend I continued along 138 to Baie Comeau where I'm staying overnight.

Just across the Strait of Belle Isles, but one and a half hours earlier!

I left the Genevieve Bay Inn which is located on Route 430 about 8 kilometres from the ferry terminal, at around 9:00 this morning, After picking up my boarding pass I decided to ride up the coast a bit in order to kill some time before noon, time at which I was supposed to be dockside.  I only got as far as Flower's Cove before it started to rain. I stopped for a BLT and coffee at the L&E Restaurant and afterwards made my way back to St Barbe Bay.

Along the way I passed one of the many stacks of wood that one sees in small clearings on both sides of the road. Who'se they are, and what purpose they serve is a mystery, but there are a lot of them.

The Apollo, a roll-on roll-off ferry is by no means a new vessel but it does the job.  The Strait of Belle Isle crossing in fog and on a calm sea took no more than two hours, time spent in the forward lounge checking emails and reading a book.

This is a view of the jetty in St. Barbe,

 and one of the ship  arriving in Blanc Sablon.

OK, now here's a small but not insignificant detail.  There is a one and a half hour time difference between Newfoundland and Québec. No big deal, right? Except that the telephone/cell network operates on Newfoundland time. Now try to figure out at what time to set the alarm on the cellphone to make it for a 6:00 am (Québec time) delivery of my motorcycle at the Blanc Sablon dockside offices of Relais Nordik.

Blanc Sablon, as the following picture attests, is on the tundra. There are no trees.

The views of the water and parts of the town from my room's front window

and from a shrine to the Virgin Mary built on a rock outcrop to the west of the village are spectacular.

For those who have been wondering why there are no reports on the meals I've had recently, well the reason is that there's no news to report on that front. Here's hoping that the next few days will change that.

There are apparently wifi zones on the ship so we'll see if we can communicate.  I am looking forward to the leisurely cruise along the North Shore.

À bientôt!

Gros Morne and more

When I left Corner Brook this morning it was sunny and cool, around 12.5 degrees, and the temperature rose steadily to reach around 19 by the time I arrived at Western Brook Pond in Gros Morne National Park.  Along the way I stopped to admire the landscape which consist of the Long Range Mountains on the east and coves along the craggy coastline on the west side of Highway 430 which runs all the way from Deer Lake to St Anthony near the tip of the Northern Peninsula.

The 2.7 kilometre gravel and boardwalk main trail at Western Brook Pond starts off a parking area next to Highway 430 and ends at a facility on the pond where one can take a one-hour boat tour to a cleft in the mountain range. Even without proper walking shoes I was able to complete the circuit in about 1 hour and 30 minutes. It's a very nice trail and the views are spectacular.

Arches Provincial Park between Parson's Pond and Portland Creek which I had visited in 2011, is a must see just off the highway
.

It started to rain enough shortly after I left the park to have to stop and put on my rain suit. Also, the temperature dropped to 12 degrees making the ride cold and wet.  But, as I've experienced before that's part and parcel of riding.

Tomorrow I take the ferry from St. Barbe to Blanc Sablon on the Quebec North Shore: let's hope it's clear then.