august 24 - september 6

our first adventure in new brunswick... last night our tent was right there!


august 24 wednesday
we got up early and left our nice comfi motel around 8h. the owner had told us that there would just be two more serious hills before the forillon national park but there was one right after the other. but at least no rain. after we got some information at the forillion center we decided on taking the cycling path right through it. the lady said there it would be mostly possible having an encounter with a black bear for the raspberries were ripe and most of them just next to the path...therefore we were riding real slow and ringing our bells all the time and -even though i wasn't really keen on- saw one bear maybe 200m ahead. we stopped, rang the bell and waited if he would walk back in the woods which he fortunately did after a couple of minutes.then the path began to mount and we had no more energy to be afraid. saw another one and a porcupine (alive) as well. it was hard as hell to ride on the gravel path winding up another f---- mountain, just as if someone was pulling from behind. so after we reached the top i was really glad leaving the park finally.it was just not my day. after 40km i didn't feel like going on at all but of course i had too because there was no campground near and every inch was private property. traffic was getting real thick and we finally found a "nice" camp (fort ramsey) right next to the highway for only 21$... but there we met two other guys travelling by bike. talked to them in the morning. anyway, the sky was still grey with only 16°C and even the free fire couldn't cheer me up. days like these...(66.35km 4h30 and new max: 71.6km/h!!!)


august 25 thursday
left fort ramsey late after talking to jean francois and the other guy (who will go to police academy after his travels) and just made it to the shopping center in gaspe. found some good european style bread. made a stop at tourist information which turnt out to be worthwhile. very nice person working there -anne- who gave us a lot of information and the oppotunity to load up some text for our blog for free!! so we did that and now everyone is able to have a look at what we are doing :-)anne asked a lot of questions about our trip said she would like to do something like it and here's my advive: just do it, you will never regret.it seemed to be a day of delays. after the inormation we stopped at a sports shop, got our aluminum tent poles fixed ( nice material for tentpoles but they have the bad habbit of breaking quickly...), bought great pillows!!! and a pretty cycling skirt for me.and finally went on, hills again, what else could we expect? had coffee and lunch at beautiful sealscove beach and reached the best camp so far: cap rouge. they even had a kitchen there and some women who'd been baking all day gave some rolls to us :-)(40.75km 2h25) ...and never trust someone telling you there'd be no more hills...

august 26 friday
today we were heading for the horrible perce mountains. the weather was perfect though but the wind was not with us. i tried to find a shortcut over a train bridge but it was not accessible with all our luggage, too many stairs. we reached the mountain range and crawled over to perce. the view was fantastic and there was a 17% hill but we could go down - great. too bad that the road was not in good shape. i could have broken my maximum spee record! in perce we bought some great cake coffee and ice cream and sat at the harbor for an hour or so having at good look at the "roche perce" (pierced rock, 88m high and about 260m long, just standing there in the water with a big hole, not connected to the mountains. impressing but not worth all the touristy fuss about it!after that we crawled on and on and broke down in st therese de gaspe. found a little camp in the woods and were alone there. season is almost over. payed only 12$. for dinner it was just salad (too hot to cook).(64.39km 3h46 due to the hills)


august 27 saturday
a clear and warm early morning welcomed us so we left early at 7h30 with the wind in our faces. made first stop in pabos and had coffee and cookies. watched some seals playing offshore. in chandler we left the 132 and crossed the town by an old train bridge and erk wasn't complaining about it!!! i mean there was no road or anything, just the tracks and a little space besides... adventure. it was getting really hot again and we had lunch at some nice whale watching rest area in l'anse au gascon ("anse" by the way means "bay", we were wondering about it for weeks...all those villages named anse-something).after lunch we rambled on and reached st godefroi at 15h30 totally worn. cheap camp again right at the beach and we were the only ones again. had morue and pasta for dinner and a great beach fire for free :-)


august 28 sunday
i wanted to and succeded in watching a most beautiful sunrise here but after that it was quite hard to go against the wind again.

august 29 mondayleft caplan around 7h30 - always early these days. the weatherforecast was really bad, rain and thunderstorms for the next couple days. but for that day it was just hot and humid. we took a quick glance at new richmond, did some shopping again (like every day, sometimes you really don't know what food to buy...) and met a retired pilot outside the market who told us a lot about his life.after that we went on to carlton where we had delicious sushi for lunch. it was just unbelievably hot and humid but the wind was fairly well and the hills only softly rolling. as it still looked like raining we decided to stay at a youth hostel in point a la garde which was actualy a real wooden castle. the ownwer's dream was to built a castle and so he did and turnt it in a hostel/hotel. it was quite a climb up there. we had to push our bikes but it was a real extrordinary place to stay. we had our own balcony and erk hissed our kiel flag :-)we arrived around 4 p.m. and erk slept while i read. we cooked our deliciour risotto down in the hostel kitchen and met some people there. after that we just fell asleep soon.(83.01km 4h18)


august 30 tuesdaywe left the hostel late because we talked to the others during breakfast (pancakes and marple sirup...) and couln't find an end...and it was raining cats and dogs. our first stop was the welcome information in new brunswick where we dried out and checked mails and got supplied with maps.as we went on it had cleared up and we made it to dalhousie where i smashed our wine bottle. i did not see one of the enormous pot holes they have at each sid of the road and ran right into it. the luggage slipped from my carrier and the bottle was broken... too bad. as i was really tired and worn we decided to stay at the inch arran camp in dalhousie which was a real beautiful place to stay. they even had a cooking shelter hich we used because it was so windy.(50.29km 2h37)


august 31 wednesdaywhen we woke up that morning everthing was just soken wet. the clouds were almost touching the ground and the world had disappeared in a grey haze. while having breakfast in the tent we discussed what to do (erk wanted to spend our rest day at the camp..) and decided on leaving and finding a place not to far from there to dry out. the camp offce was an information center as well and we asked them for an affordable shelter. they were trying hard but it would've been at least 50$/night... while we were there a friendly old man joined us and asked if we wanted to dry out at his place. unbelievable. he told us he had done this before to poor wet cyclists. so we followed him to harquail lane which also is his last name :-)he, bob, introduced us to his wife june and and told us not to be shy, just to make ourselves at home...and so we did. laundry, writing, relaxing and around one o' clock it was dinner time (dinner means lunch and supper means dinner, strange). we had a most delicious fish chowder and homemade bread... and a fantastic cake for desert. outside it was still pouring down.in the afternoon bob took us sightseeing around town and also to dalhousie highschool where we met some real nice teachers. we were shown the whole school and very surprised about the combination of theoretical and practical lesson being given at a canadien school. they have just about everthing, all kinds of computer jobs (design and all), carpenting, car repair, just everthing, so that the students can get a real impression of a profession they might have later in life.for supper we then had salmon, another great cake and afterwards a game of tock which is a bit like "mensch-aerger-dich-nicht" but a bit more sophisticated. it was fun playing and june told us that she wouldn't let us go tomorrow if it rained and stormed like it did all night. (those by the way were the remains of hurrican cathrina who almost destroyed the city of new orleans and wide parts of louisiana. watching the news made us feel very helpless...)


september 1 thursday
erk felt a bit ashamed about staying at the harquails but i convinced him to stay as it still rained cats and dogs. i wrote a long mail to my mum who had taken the big step to write on the computer ;-) thank you mum, you're great!we found out how to store our pictures in the web and soon there will be pictures in the blog. i know, i keep promising but it's hard to find the time for everything...i went running for the first time since we left montreal and noticed that you need different muscels for that and helped june baking the most delicious cake i ever ate: yumyums. (i will insert the reipe)we watched some beavers in the nearby lake, had fish for supper and played tock again. you really can get addicted to it. we took a picture of the board and they gave us the rules so that we can built a board someday!i can't express in words how thankful i am to having been allowed to meet these beautiful people and i hope we will manage to meet in germany 2007 (they will fly to italy for their 50th wedding day)!


september 2 friday
we left dalhousie around ten. back on the road again. it was hard to leave bob and june but we had to move on. the weather was fine again. we soon noticed that new brunswick is very different from quebec. the villages just strech along the road and there's often no chancce to buy any food. and the road mostly leads through woods and is straight and long and - sorry to say- boring. we made to beresford and stayed at the beach park which turnt out to be not a good choice. the mosquitos were eating us so we went to sleep early like no one else in town did. it was labor day weekend and people enjoyed a stroll along the beach at one o'clock in the morning and some of them were really annoying! (80.59km 4h01)


september 3 saturday
we were slow that day. tried to find tent poles in bathurst because ours keep breaking but there seems to be no chance getting those in canada. they just have different tents here... so our last hope is halifx or we have at some point to buy a new tent. i felt a little sick but with the wind in our backs we made it to grand anse. we put our tent at a motel campground and had to rent a f- expensive room later on because the wind gained more strengh than we expected. (58$). we slept well at least. (62.47km 3h02)


september 4 sunday
my mood was strange that day. don't know if it was just that new brunswick didn't seem to be a good choice for cyclists or if there was anything else. we left late for caraquet which wasn't interesting at all. the arcadian historic stuff just got on our nerves. we think what the heck. they are all canadiens aren't they so what is all this fuss about culturel identity and so on???but we met some nice girls at the marina. one of them handed me her calling card so i called my mum and i was great to talk to her. everthing i ok at home. good to hear. after that we went with the wind along dull highway 11 to pokemouche, had bagels for luch (as usual) and went shopping in horrible tracadia sheila (a million cars ran through it while we were there) and finally tired reahed val comeau around 5 p.m.(73.40km 3h30)the family owned camp was close to the shore, empty and well kept. we even had a mosquito-shelter around our picnic table :-)


september 5 monday
it got really "cold" that night, only 9°C. i thought i heard a racoon poking through our food but there was nothing. highway 11 was straight and etremely boring (i begin to hate trees). the only nice thing was a stop in neguac where we had ice cream and fresh coffee from tim hortons (and began to get addicted to this establishment...)i followed my intution and found a real nice camp in oak point. so we stayed there though it was only 1 p.m. (55.28km 2h43)there we went through our stuff and decided what we would send to birgit (as mum had suggested) - quite a lot of things, my beloved blue jeans for example. i didn't wear them once. relaxed on the beach afterwards, went to the whirlpool and got ready for miramichi.


september 6 tuesday
this was the coldest night so far (only 6°C) and i suggest that's the limit of our sleeping bags and we left the warm ones at home... but i slept well and we got a couple of things done in miramichi. both of us had our hair cut, we sent the parcel to birgit in georgia and supplied with good food.after that we crossed the river by riding over a real cool and high bridge. had luch at black river and reached baie st anne (75.13km 3h41). i thought it was a gorgeous camp but i was wrong. we talked to some germans traveling by trailer and just got eaten by those d- f- mosquitos!!!!!!! therw were just millions of them - unbelievable!!!!!! what a horrible place. began to hate new brunswick.