78km/48m, 5hrs30mins, 14.2kph/8.8mph, 1148m/3731ft of climbing.
The forecasters were right. A beautiful day. Still the usual easterly headwind, but bright sunlight, warm but not too hot, riding through spectacular scenery with the St Lawrence - now absolutely massive, one can only just see the far bank - glistening on one side and the mountains on the other. It really is outstandingly beautiful here. I'll post a picture of the view from my campsite above Tadoussac, it's extraordinary.
I'm staying here for two nights and taking a day off tomorrow to go whale-watching. Hope I see some; I shall report back.
And I shall spend the remainder of my rest day undertaking a major revision of my planned route. I called at St Simeon today to check the times of the ferry sailings from there to Gaspesie, on the other side of the St Lawrence. The ferry runs from April to November, according to the Quebec tourism site on the basis of which I planned my itinerary. But not this year. This year the ferry operators aren't reopening the service until 15 June. Too late for me, by 15 June I need to be on my way back to Toronto if I am to catch my flight home. I could retrace my steps to Quebec, cross the river there and cycle three days up the south bank to get where the ferry would have taken me, but the time pressure would turn it into a race rather than a tour, and I don't want to do that. So Gaspe is out, unfortunately.
Still, nil desperandum. There's more than a million square kilometres of Quebec to explore on this side of the St Lawrence, including three highly-regarded national parks, so I'll do that instead, then return south by a different route and still do the New England tour as planned. One must be able to improvise, n'est-ce pas?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment