Another day... another province

The World's longest bridge - an hour passes while you cross (Quebec is on Eastern time, New Brunswick on Atlantic)
The making of... I can't take pictures like Pete does, but I can record him doing it.

Jacquet River, NB August 7

Today 75 km, Total 1,184 km.

Not an early start. We were both really bagged last night. The combination of consant headwind and repeated power climbs took its toll. Pete's last words - wake me up at 7:15. Actually that was unnecessary. I woke up at 7am, sat up in bed and started my morning regime of performance enhancers washed down with OJ, and heard Pete unzipping his tent.

Continued my routine of packing everything reachable (I keep my panniers in the vestibule of my tent for that purpose) then headeed for the shower. Wow, I'm not a pretty sight in the morning, face looks like it has been slept in (it has). Admired my developing farmer's tan in the mirror: forearms, legs and nose a deep mahogany, the rest of me a pallid white. Enough vanity, got in the shower and rehydrated the epidermis and felt pretty good.

Back at the camp, Pete had already packed his tent, maintaining a lively dialog with the raging gnat swarm, and headed off for breakfast.

I finished packing and followed him to the transport cafe on the highway. I'll have what he has - truckers breakfast customized with extra egg and double toast. Breakfast conversation centred on why it is that bloodsucking insects don't drive me crazy - seems to be a combination of genetics and the acquired skill of being able to ignore things that I can't control.

Headed out after 9, and by the time we crossed the bridge to Cambellton, NB it was already 11 - the boundary line for Atlantic time is along the Quebec-New Brunswick border. Oddly, we are now 300km east of Roch Perce, but the sun will rise an hour earlier.

I decided to resolve my dead camera situation. couldn't find anybody with the required technical skills, so I ended up getting a new point-and-shoot from Wall-mart - half the size, half the price and twice the sophistication of last year's model.

Everybody we met in Cambellton was friendly, helpful and fluent in English, even though NB is technically Francophone. However, we will miss Quebec, we really saw a wonderful side of Canada that is not visible from a distance.

Our route out of Cambellton takes us east again along the shoreline, with our old friend the west wind now at our rear. We could'nt believe how different the countryside is from the Quebec side of Bay De Chaleurs, which was still clearly visible on our left. The road is gently rolling, with just enough climbing to keep us interested - we were surprised to note that we climbed about 1,500 feet in a couple of hours, as we never seemed far from sea-level.

The excepton was in the town of Dalhousie, a run-down one industry town dominated by the Bowater pulp-mill. At the entrance to town there was a fork in the road with signs left to the coastal hwy 134 and right to the inland hwy 11. We followed the coastal route down a gentle grade through the main street which consited mostly of boarded-up businesses and storage tanks of hazaedous chemicals. Pete was the firts one to reach the end of the main drag, and made the right turn onto a horrendous HC climb that led back up to the same highwaqy we had just left. After drawing down hideous curses on the sign-writers, highway planners, maqyor and dog-catcher of Dalhousie, ther4e was nothing to do but crank the granny-gear and go for it.

Just as we were getting our breath, we passed a small road-side grocery. I waqs having a bit of a sugar-fit, and needed to replenish my emergency larder so I stopped and snagged a bag of cookies and a Pepsi. I also found a kind of honey-danish to keep me going. When I read the nutritional info on the package, I was interested to note that it was 54% fat, with a bunch of other on-PC ingredients that brought the total to around 200%. Go figure. It was delicious.

With the combination of the time-change and our late start, we decided to call it a day after 75km. We found a nice ocean-front camp-ground which met two of our three criteria: adjacent restaurant and adjacent beer-store, but no internet. Anyway, I will try to post this using Pete's aircard.

Good-night All,

Barney