Friday, September 15, 2017

Embracing Slow Travel

We were up and at it early this morning and on the road by 7:10. After the first 0.5 km we went for our first of numerous 'walks' of the day. By the 3 km mark we were averaging a 'blistering' 5 km per hour. This was only the beginning. For the next 27 km we climbed and descended, we climbed and descended. And did I mention that it was only 5 degrees as we started out and it had only made it to 11 degrees by the time we stopped for lunch!

At the 30 km mark things changed. We were out of the hills and riding along a man made seawall. The road was flat, flat, flat and one can only imagine how bad the terrain must have been above us in the hills that they would have went to the expense of building the road out in the water. Of course this comes with a 'but', a large 'but'! Our nemesis, the wind, made an ugly appearance chilling us to the bone and keeping our speed at a maximum of 13 km per hour on a totally 'flat' road. Brutal!!!!

We did ,however, enjoy some of today's ride. Well maybe 'enjoy' is a little bit strong. Up in the hills we saw some of the Appalachian fall colours once again. We had the unique experience of riding along the edge of the water enjoying the seabird life up close. We were able to chat with them as we rode slowly along. Funny, they did not seem to be responding to us. We were pleasantly surprised that we actually arrived at our campground by 1:30 as we were prepared to probably not arrive until 4:30 or 5:00.

We are camping at Parc et Mer Mont Louis located in the small town of Saint-Maxime-du-Mont-Louis. It is probably one of the cleanest and best kept parks we have ever stayed in. The washrooms are spotless!

Daily Distance = 51.80 km. Time on the Bikes = 4 hours 38 minutes. Average Speed = 11.17 km. (down, down, down!). Maximum Speed = 62.92 km. Wildlife Sightings = Groundhog, Moose (Kevin only as Sue was not flying down the hill quite as fast!), Ring-Billed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Black Backed Gulls, Black Guillemots, Spotted Sandpipers.

Sunrise from our Room...Again!

Fall Colours

Where did the Road go? Yes we walked up this one.

Sea Wall Highway

No comments:

Post a Comment

Some Final Thoughts

The Gaspe Peninsula is one of the most spectacular regions that we have ever travelled to. It was made even more special because we 'sl...