Geoff's Tour
A Journal of My Bicycle Touring

Journey Notes

Today was almost a rest day. At least until 6:30 pm. We arrived at the North Sydney, NS ferry terminal at about 8:30 am for our 11:30 am departure time. Three hours early seemed like a lot of time but there were lots of people ahead of us. The terminals had free showers so Rochelle and I took advantage of that. Unfortunately as Rochelle was having her shower, they announced that people should get back to their cars and prepare for boarding. It was only about 9:15 am! By about 10 am, we had driven onto the ferry and had a nice, comfortable seat looking out the rear of the ship. It felt like the ship had completely loaded with at least an hour to spare.

It was a really nice day so I spent some time taking picture as we left Sydney harbour. [At the time I was posting this, my internet connection was so bad that it's lucky that even these words made it. So no pictures.] The trip was expected to take about 6 hours. There was supposed to be WiFi on the ship and it did work for about 20 minutes but even then it was extremely slow. I found that the motion of the ship made it pretty hard for me to use a computer anyway so I listened to some podcasts and even slept a bit. Rochelle slept for most of the trip. We brought our own lunch and lots of other food so we didn't have to eat the expensive and not very interesting looking ferry food.

As we approached Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, we slowed considerably for an hour or so. I suspect that we were arriving too early. When we reached the harbour it was quite tight but the big ferry did a nice 180 degree turn in place and backed into the docks. The ferry unloaded at a rather leisurely pace and we were on the road in Newfoundland by a little after 6 pm.

We stopped at our first opportunity at an Newfoundland information centre at about 6:30 pm. It was closed. There are two ferries a day that come in here, one very early in the morning (about 5 am) and the other at around 6 pm. These are likely the only people who would use the information centre but it is closed when both ferries arrive. It must be a very quiet job when the are open.

At the information centre, I suited up and got on my bike for the 38 km ride to Doyles and the campground for the night. The weather looked a bit rough but this ride turned to be one of the most beautiful ride I have ever done. There were mountains with fog rolling over them. The sea with the sun setting on it. Pristine forest everywhere. Amazing! It was about 8:30 pm when I arrived at our campground. That was really too late to be riding. I had to be really careful to not miss the signs.

It turned out our friends, Alan and Mary Ann, with Belinda were camped out there as well so we spent some time visiting with them in Belinda.