Days 7 and 8: Pembroke to Wakefield

Day 7: Pembroke to Otter Lake

96km/59m, 5hrs58mins, 16kph/9.9mph, 559m/1817ft of climbing.

Fairly tough day today courtesy of a pretty stiff north-easterly headwind for the first couple of hours. Much colder than it has been, too. However, it stayed dry and in that I was lucky, because from what I picked up from the weather forecast this morning, virtually the whole of southern Ontario and Quebec were expecting rain. In any event, I started the day well: I had treated myself to a night in the Pembroke Travelodge, so set off with the benefit of an enormous hotel breakfast.

Immediately crossed the Ottawa River and entered Quebec. I continue to be impressed by the scale of the landscape. One crosses enormous rivers only to realise that they are mere tributaries of the St. Lawrence. There is an awful lot of water here. I seem to remember being told that one fifth of the world's fresh water was in the Great Lakes and another fifth in the Amazon Basin. If one adds in Ontario and Quebec, not to mention the Nile, it's no wonder there's a shortage elsewhere!

Stopped for lunch at a roadside cafe that could be described as unpretentious. Soup, the spaghetti special and dessert for $10.50. On this admittedly slight evidence it seems that Les Quebecois like their carbohydrates. Spaghetti Bolognese comes with two rounds of buttered toast on the side. Not that I was complaining; today was probably a 3000 calorie session on the bike.

Camped at the Parc Leslie, a campground on the shore of Lake Leslie near Otter Lake. Another campground that doesn't officially open until the coming weekend, but let me stay anyway. As a result I was the only camper; they checked twice that I understood they'd be leaving for the night and that I'd be on my own. I have certainly never spent a night in quite such isolated circumstances. Nobody around, no human-generated noise, no signal for phone, nothing. Just me and the local wildlife. Feeling slightly foolish, I did what the books tell you to and hung the bag containing my food in a tree. Though I must say that were I a bear, I'd be much more interested in the contents of the much more accessible tent.

It's never silent, of course. The birds go to sleep but there's the continuous exhalation of the wind in the trees, and other small noises. Nonetheless, the quietness is vast.

Day 8: Otter Lake to Wakefield

86km/53m, 5hrs58mins (again!), 14.4kph/8.9mph, 548m/1781m of climbing.

Much colder day today, about 8C. Rained on and off, though not heavily; the rain jacket was required for the cold rather than the wet. And my slowest day so far, principally because of a lengthy and ultimately abortive off-road foray in the middle. I intended to ride across the Parc de la Gatineau which meant using dirt tracks with pretty loose surfaces. That was working out fine, though, until about two-thirds of the way across the rains had washed away a small bridge over a river. A couple of planks had been laid across, but there'd have been no chance of making it on the laden bike, so I had to return whence I came. Still, got to see the inside of the Parc and was still early enough to find a decent B&B in Wakefield. Wakefield is not remotely like its West Yorkshire namesake, it's quite a pretty little town on a river. Seems well-stocked with restaurants too, one of which I am about to investigate.