Norris Point to Portland Creek - Suffering in the headwinds - August 4, 2005
||Deer Lake to Norris Point || Norris Point to Trout River || Rain and rest day || Norris Point to Portland Creek || Portland Creek to Plum Point || Plum Point to L'anse aux Meadows ||
Regretfully, we only stayed one night at Entente Cordiale - truly a haven and refuge. Today is a day where it's all about the bike. Not a lot to see other then lonely coastline. Thankfully the headwinds have vanished to be replaced by a brisk tailwind and we're off at a snappy pace. Less then 20 kms into the ride though we're regaled by moose in the distance.
The kms fly by. There is time to observe things like the way the ingenious road creators have raised road bed surfaces out of bogs. There is a tremendous amout of engineering involved in creating gravel piles, establishing a sturdy foundation for telegraph and power poles and then preparing a road surface which can survive the temparature variations of this climate. No wonder this entire highway wasn't paved until the early 1970s. As an aside, some of the best soil for vegetables is found close to the road due to the relative dryness of the land through which the land is routed. The government allows locals to put vegetable plots all along the road; that's why you can see lonely little plots of well-tended vegetable gardens up and down the highway.
Road conditions are good till you get close to Hawkes Bay where potholes start becoming more frequent. Hawkes Bay, the largest regional town, is less than a 1000 people and is apparently a logging town.
I didn't take too many pictures on this ride as I was too busy enjoying the effortless feeling of flying on the roads.towards Plum Point.
Here's a typical scene on these roads. The traffic even in Gros Morne was sparse. There simply aren't a lot of people on the Rock. But now the road on the north part of the island seems to have more moose then people.
We get to Plum Point just as clouds roll in and the weather takes a turn for the worse. Tonight we stay at the entirely forgettable Plum Point Motel. We've taken it for granted that all local Newfoundlanders are nice friendly chatty people so are taken aback to find our first grump providing "service" at the front desk. Of course, we refuse to let this new discovery break our spirits and enjoy the inexpensive beer and drinks at the local pub.
Distance covered today is 138.8 kms. Our average speed is 29.7km/h while on the bike; elevation gain is 800m and we were on our bike for 4hrs and 40 minutes . Our total time outside today (counting breaks etc.) was 7hours and 12minutes.
||Deer Lake to Norris Point || Norris Point to Trout River || Rain and rest day || Norris Point to Portland Creek || Portland Creek to Plum Point || Plum Point to L'anse aux Meadows ||