Days 18, 19, 20: Quebec City to Baie-St-Paul

Days 18 and 19. Rest days, Quebec City

Two very enjoyable days in Quebec with Pete and Jeanie. Did the tour of the Citadel (our guide repeatedly reminding us that although built by the British, it was designed by a Frenchman and was, therefore, entirely French), walked round the museum, had look at the excellent farmer's market and, in between, had some very high-quality food and drink.

Old Quebec is, as I said in the previous entry, very much a French Provincial Capital. One would be unsurprised to find it in the Dordogne but it is, of course, unique in North America and is therefore very much frequented by tourists. Well worth a visit, I'd say, and two days seemed about right. The old town isn't that big, so it's possible to get a good sense of the place in that time.

Day 20: Quebec to Baie-St-Paul.

95km/59m, 6hrs 40mins, 14.2kph/8.8mph(!), 1049m/3409ft of climbing.

Bit off more than I could chew today and as a result had to change my plans en route for the first time this trip. The planned destination was a campsite in the Grands Jardins National Park, which would have entailed a ride of about 125km. This seemed perfectly reasonable as while I knew there'd be some climbing involved in getting to the park at the end of the journey, three-quarters of the trip was on highway 138 which sticks pretty close to the St Lawrence and would be, I thought, fairly flat.

Silly me. Getting from more-or-less sea level at Quebec to more -or-less sea level at Baie-St-Paul involves a proper mountain pass that took me up to 740m/2400ft and back again. And the wind was blowing from the east, and it was cold up there (I find that I am always faster when it's warm) and while it wasn't raining, it may as well have been as the cloud ceiling was well below the summit of the pass. All this conspired to make it slow going and by lunchtime I'd decided that there was no sensible reason for sticking to the planned route. It would have taken me about 9 hours of cycling and that's a very long day. So here I am in the Hotel Baie-St-Paul.

I probably haven't done a very good job of selling today to those who might be sceptical about the joys of cycle touring. Actually, I had a pretty good time. It was good to have some proper climbs at last and prove to myself that the weight isn't going to stop me covering decent distances in the mountains. And the long descent into Baie-St-Paul is completely untechnical, with long sweeping bends and excellent visibility, so I was able to come down without touching the brakes, in perfect safety, while sometimes getting above 60kph. Exhilarating.