Bonaventure

Chandler to Bonaventure

Bonaventure August 5

Today 96 km, Total 994 km.

No photos today, camera battery dead.

Today, I thought I would hit the 1,000 km mark since leaving Quebec City.  Today, I thought I would do a century (100 mile day). Neither of these things happened.  

We were up at around 6am, got our camp packed and hit the local breakfast spot around 7:30.  The day was clear and sunny and it was obviously going to be a hot one. Said goodbye to our new biker friends and headed out to look for breakfast. 

Another home run, get this: two eggs miroir (sunnyside up), ham, bacon, sausage, creton (a kind of pate), baked beans, French toast and a pancake, toast and coffee, all for 7:50. And prompt and friendly service thrown in.  Pete accidentally ordered the #3 breakfast instead of the #4, but that was easily sorted out with an upgrade kit.

The still of the early morning quickly turned into the customary westerly and grew into a stiff headwind   This, combined with a series of moderate power climbs quickly made it obvious that we were not going to make our primary objective. 

I was able to crank over the climbs without a problem, but the repetition and the warming weather turned the day into a grind.

A couple of hours in, one of Peteís rear spokes gave way with a loud twang. The same thing had happened yesterday, so now he was two spokes short and was getting concerned that thi could lead to further problems. He carried on, but eventually stopped at a roadside hut and decided to fix it. Pete has had many spoke problems due to the weight of his Bob-yak trailer (and his aggressive riding style), and had loaded up with 20 spare spokes in Quebec city.  While Pete worked, which involved removing the disk brake rotor, I broke out the beef jerky and some left over brie for lunch.  Wouldnít you know it?  I had forgotten to stock up on Chablis again.

Our route is now back into the Route Vert territory, but for the most part follows the Gaspesie coastal route 132.  However, just outside the town of Bonaventure, the route takes off to the north into some pretty farm-land, so we decided to follow it to get a break from the traffic.  The road quickly morphed into a gravel country road, which wasnít mentioned in he guide.  We pushed on, thanking our lucky stars that Pete had fixed his spokes.

The country road gradually became more urbanized, finally emerging n the centre of  the pretty littte town of Bonaventure.  By this time, we were both pretty wiped, so we decided to stop for the night bin a waterfront municipal camp ground recommended by the tourist info.  Bit of an RV Jurassic park, but very convenient.

After pitching our tents and showering, we headed to the Acadian restaurant next door.  Not sure whether it was poor organization or a bit of cultural intolerance, but we waited for nearly Ω hour for service.  Finally we talked to the manager, who got us a better table and apologized (sort of).  The food itself was excellent. I had fiddlehead greens sautÈed in garlic (thanks for the recommendation of the GaspÈsie delicacy, Claire), and we both enjoyed the Acadian fish pie.

We found out today that the ferry to Dalhousie in New Brunswick hat we were planning to take tomorrow has not run for 10 years, so we are faced  with an extra ride of about 100km to the bridge crossing.  No worries, we are on a bike trip after all!

Anyway, we need an early morning, and Iím getting pretty sleepy, so goodnight all,

Barney