Corner Brook

Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Aug 22

Today, 120km, Total, 2415km

First one awake, at 7am. only the odd snore to hint that there could be othr humans on the planet. Warp three wind blowing directly along our route, probably related to Hurricane Bill, which is heading up the eastern seaboard straight for Newfoundlad. Skies pretty leadfe3n, but could be a dynamite ride today.

I had my tent down and gear packed before anyone stirred, and sat at the picnic table thinking about breakfast. Finally, around 8:30, bleary faces started to emerge. Nobody in a particular hurry, so I decided to solo on my bike to the Irving Oil gas station restaurant a couple of clicks up the road. had a coffee and read the local weekly, and was waiting for my trucker's breakfast with short stack side order when the others arrived in the van.

All squeezed around my 3 place table and ordered variants of the big boy. While we were eating, a huge rainstorm came though, wth a wind that blew over my bike parked outside, so we sat and drank a few coffees until it had gone by, then back to the campground to pack the van and hit the road with Judy driving sag.

Right from the tart, this huge tailwind grabbed us from behind and pushed us up and down the never-endibg succession of moorland hills. I felt like superman, racing up long climbs in big ring, and upshifting to ride out of the saddle on the steep pitches with almost no reduction in speed. The downhill sections seemed pretty ordinary, ubtil a glance at the computer showed 50-60 km/hr or more.

I started infront of the group, and was going gangbusters for abot 15 km, then I heard the creaking of Pete's saddle behind me. Pete and Ryan, still both suffering from sinus infections, blew by me and were soon receding a kilometer into the distance. I upped the pace, and was able to haul them in and pass them, but then on a long uphill, they wound by me and were gone again. Those guys are strong!

We hadn't really discussed a destination for the day, but it became obvious that Cornjerbrook, at 120km, would be easily attainable, and Judy confirmed this when she stopped by to give me a coke.

Around Stephensville, I caught up with a guy we had passed yesterday. He was wearing a Tilley shirt that looked freshly pressed, and long pants, whiched looked pretty odd given the impending rain, wet road and truck spray. He was carrying a huge load in panniers and other luggage, and was going so slowly that he looked in imminent danger of falling off. He seemed disinclined to talk at first, which I realised was due to a language problem, but I pressed him and found out that he was from Taiwan, and had left Toronto June 29th and was heading for St John's. Last year he did Victoria to Toronto. An amazingly determined individual.

As I pulled away from him, he called "sir, sir!" and I let him pull up beside me again. He pointed at the deep grooves ground into the narrow shoulder and asked me what they were for. I explained that they are rumble strips, intended to jar any driver who falls asleep and wanders off the road onto the shoulder. He had a lot of trouble pronouncing he word, and even after I spelt it and he repeated back R U M B L E, the closest he could get was "number". he hated these devices, which he emphasised by spitting on the offending strip; I can see why, as they are horrible to ride on; they shake your whole bike to the point of losing control, and when they are full of water, you get a good splashing as a bonus. When the soulder is narrow, you often have less than a foot of smooth shoulder to ride on, and with his outsized panniers, he couldn't help wandering into them. It's often safer to ride in the traffic lane.

Coming into Corner Brook Judy came by one last time and called to me to wait at MacDonalds, which I did. My bike computer showed 120km at average speed of 29km/hr - I have never done anything close to that before. After an Angus Burger and a couple of shakes, she came back with the rest of the crew. We all went down to the info booth to look for accomodation. The best we could get was basement room in a fleabag hotel, with a 3am disco on the floor above - thanks to the hotel clerk for giving us a heads-up on that. Accommodation is limited due to the cancellation of mainland ferries for 3 metre wave heights related to Hurricane Bill - lucky we came across when we did!

So back to plan A - found a rustic campsite and settled in for the night. Hoping that the threatened bad weather holds off for a day so that we can get in another overdrive ride.

Goodnight till then
Barney
Pete's blog is at www.transcanada09.blogspot.com