The last couple of days in Montreal have been messy, drinking partying and catching up with old work buddies and friends.
It has been fun and all but lack of sleep and excess consumption of alcohol had got me feeling not quite right.
I had to make a decision to whether I went back to BC to do some boarding or return to South America to travel to places I hadnt seen yet.
Whilst on facebook a very good friend I met in Kelowna helped me out with the decision by flipping a coin. I did want to see her back in Kelowna but she may even come down to the south to do a bit of travelling herself so perhaps then we can meet up.
I paid $305 from Burlington, in the States to Bogeta, Columbia – not a bad deal eh?
The weather changed for the better for the beginning of the coming week and I thought I might as well continue the cycle trip to Quebec City, adding another 300km to this journey, this getting me out of Montreal and see the sights along the way visiting some people I had met on previous adventures.
Saturday, 22 October 2011
07/10/2011 – 09/10/2011 4 Days in Montreal.
Thursday, 13 October 2011
06/10/2011 Day 43 Cycling Across Canada
Distance Traveled:Over the bridge from Hawksbury to Montreal 108km
Money Spent: $5 for food $10 for smokes and $12 for celebratory beers
Time cycling: 5 hours 01 minutes
Moving Average: 21.4 km/h
Total Distance Traveled: 2921 km
It was cold last night but I had picked a great place to camp in between trees to get away from the wind so I slept quite well.
I set off by 11 after messing with my camera figuring out some new features and settings. Like yesterday I cruised and enjoyed the lovely weather and having a tail wind all the way into Montreal was a bonus.
A lot of the people I met today suggested I should cross back over to the Ontario side to cycle into Montreal but I didnt take their advice and continued on the north side of the river – this turned out to be a better option as there was very little traffic and on occasions I found paved dedicated cycle paths into the city.
I could certainly tell when I got closer to my final destination because the girls got progressively more beautiful... Montreal is known for the stunning woman and as I have been here before I know its true.
It took me longer than I thought it was going to get into the city but the amount of traffic lights to get into downtown really annoyed me, also those absolutely stupid 4 way stop signs – why not have the greater flow of traffic uninterrupted then yield signs for traffic on the adjacent roads... it just makes more sense – fuck them, I really hate them.
Anyways I made it to Alex's place just before dark; Alex is a very good friend of mine who I worked tree planting with for 2 years, he has invited me to stay at his while im sticking around MTL.
He lived with 3 guys – Jo, Simon and Phil ( the latter I planted with on my first season), and started the evening off with some home brewed beer.
It was get catching up with Alex and we later headed out to some of his friends places around the city to drink more and have a good time... it was a fantastic night that led to us hiking up Mont Royal (the big hill in the city) to see the view and mess about with sculptures along the way.
There was a suggestion to make some food at two of the girls place who we were partying with where I volenteered to cook up a feast... ahhh, my speciallity, cooking whilst drunk in an unfamiliar kitchen catering for drunk people... I honestly love it! Meanwhile Alex headed home because of school the next day but I stuck around with Sarah, Danielle and Matt after cooking up a cream/bacon pasta dish.
As easy as it was to impress the girls one of the girls (Sarah) invited me to stay in her bed as I certainly wasnt in the state to cycle the 6km back to Alex's at 5.30 am.
One thing led to another and I had a fantastic evening... im hoping Montreal while im here is going to be much like I experienced tonight – good state of mind, great weather, fun people and exciting experiences.
Thats it, almost 3000km from Kamloops to Montreal on a bicycle across the country in 42 days (although skipping the prairies and part of Ontario).
Thankyou to those who helped me out along the way, I wouldnt have enjoyed this trip nearly as much as I did if it wasnt for you all!
I will be continuing this blog but for the time I spend in Montreal ill be summarizing the events and shenanigans that occur. Thanks for reading.
Jono out
Where I camped last night
Messing with my Camera
Shots of Landscapes in Quebec
I thought this was funny because normally old people look for the viewfinder on all point and shoot cameras (the old style way), this time when i asked an old person to take a picture of me he was looking for the screen, yes, my camera has live view but i don’t like to use it. Times have again changed.
PUMPKINS!
Shoes on powerline’s mean there is a drug dealer nearby – this was a native reserve so its probably true. Pic on right – some people i met possibly drug dealers
Getting into Montreal on a bike path.
05/10/2011 Day 42 Cycling Across Canada
Distance Traveled:Orleans to Over the bridge from Hawksbury N45 37.199 W74 34.856 85km
Money Spent: $15 All-you-can-eat Chinese $5 for groceries
Time cycling: 4 hours 09 minutes
Moving Average: 20.4 km/h
Total Distance Traveled: 2813 km
Again, waking up to the smell of cooking bacon is THE best and only way to wake up in the morning – I love it, dont know who wouldnt, unless of course your Jewish or Muslim...
Bens Dad Steve cooked up a very good brekky for all of us and it took me till 11 to get ready to leave. The reason why it took me so long is because several days ago a few eggs broke in one of my pannier bags and 'chicken period' leaked everywhere and now there was a foul odour emitting badly around my bike. I washed it thoroughly but still there is a residual smell emmitting.
Finally after several days without any sun it came out, it was a beautiful day although a little chilly but perfect for cycling.
I cruised all day not pushing myself because my Achilles tendon on my right foot was having an issue with all this peddling, its not painful ache so ill be fine.
I stopped where I could to take some pictures of the random things I passed as I now have a nice DSLR camera that I need to get used to and to improve my photography skills.
Although I have already cycled into Quebec I followed the Ontario side of the river to Hawksbury to cross the bridge there to make my way to Montreal.
I have less than 100km to get there so tomorrow, like today, I am going to take my time and enjoy the cycle. I finished up the day with an all-you-can-eat chinese buffet but because I was stuffing my face full of food making the $15 worth my while I disappointingly missed the sunset over the bridge where I wanted to take a bunch of pics.
Ben’s Sisters Dog, part Labrador, part German Sheppard and part pit-bull – what a great combination
Pictures of stuff and Me along the way
Messing with the camera - adjusting the zoom while the camera takes the exposure
Lack of a sunset in Quebec
My first HDR with my new camera – i still have a lot to learn.
04/10/2011 Day 41 Cycling Across Canada
Distance Traveled: Hull, QC to Orleans 32km
Money Spent: $600 for a new camera
Time cycling: 1 hours 30 minutes
Moving Average: 21.1 km/h
Total Distance Traveled: 2728 km
Finally after waiting for Diane (My ex) to message me all day yesterday I got a response in the early hours of the morning giving me a terrible excuse why she left me hanging (hanging – I couldn't have used a better word referring to past and present). She had a job interview at midday and so I went to meet her at the hospital where she was applying.
In all honesty it was fantastic to catch up with her but I had all the stories in the world (no pun intended) and like I do with everyone I chit chatted about my adventures and experiences, she unfortunately did not have much to say about the last couple of years but reminiscing about old times when we were together brought up fond memories (good and bad).
I couldn't stay with her long because I needed to get out of the city and make my way to Orleans where I had organized accommodation through warm-showers.
Also I had organized to meet with someone from Kijiji (another form of Craigslist.org) to purchase the DSLR camera I have been looking at and wanting for quite some time now. I got Jeff (the seller of the DSLR) to meet me in front of the parliament building to do the transaction.
Now, here I did very, very well, the camera was in absolutely perfect condition and brand new it costs $900, I got the camera for $600 with a 32GB memory card, a spare battery, all accessories and a camera bag that retails for $120 for free – that's $1200 of equipment for $600. BOOOYAA!!!!
Jeff was young and a little naïve and as such he threw in all the extras without thinking about it, I certainly was not going to complain.
It took quite some time to go through checking the camera for faults and whatnot and I didn't get out of downtown Ottawa till after 7. I cycled into the night and through some very sketchy foggy areas to get to my host through warm-showers in Orleans 30km away from downtown.
I arrived safely at 8 where I was fed a hearty dinner and given several beers. There were a few people at the house including Ben's folks, his mate that joined him cycling westward across Canada and Ben's girlfriend who could not stop asking me questions about travels and also about my hair. We stayed up late drinking, comparing routes we took across the country and shared our stories. Good times and fun people.
I now have a nice camera to take better photos.
Bad example – it may take me a while to get used to the camera
Tuesday, 11 October 2011
03/10/2011 Day 40 Cycling Across Canada
Money Spent: $2 for coffee.
It seems yesterday after cycling in the rain I caught a bit of a cold, the usual symptoms of a runny nose, loosing my sense of taste, you know deal.
I had to run a few errands today, I wanted to buy a new camera (Unsuccessfully), repair my ipod (Unsuccessfully), look at and perhaps purchase a new laptop (Unsuccessfully), and return some car keys I found on the side of the road on Hwy 7 (Successful).
The keys I found had a yoga class tag on it, so I went to the place and got chatting to the very pretty receptionist about my trip and returned the keys, unfortunately the tag was no longer valid nor was it linked to a name and I wasnt going on a wild goose chase to find the woman who the keys belong to. The receptionist was grateful that I even made the effort to return the keys and she offered me a free 'hot yoga' class... looking at this in hindsight I should have taken her up on the offer... actually... WTF was I thinking... what an idiot I am, Damn!
Btw, 'hot yoga' is a yoga class in a steam room/sauna, not anything sexual, bending in different positions.... thinking about that girl now, god damn it, I should have taken her offer!
I was suppose to be meeting Diane this afternoon so I kept my plans free for when we meet up.
Aimlessly cycling around the town in the rain waiting for Diane to message me on where to meet, I got bored and went to the Hostel where those two guys, Mark and Cole were staying; they were not there but it was good to chat to some other travellers about their adventures.
Getting late into the afternoon still no message from Diane, I gave up and went back to Alex's folks place... what a waste of the afternoon. If I knew she wasnt going to show up I would have gone and got drunk or ran some of those errands listed above. Obviously im a little pissed off but whatever, im looking forward to hearing her excuse.... Why the Hell didnt I do the yoga class with the hot receptionist! Stupid me! Im stabbing myself in the chest over this one...
I offered to cook dinner for Ruth and Serj as appreciation for having me at theirs but they refused and we had another lovely meal with some of Serj's homemade Pesto.. yum yum.
02/10/2011 Day 39 Cycling Across Canada
Distance Traveled: Unused farming area to Hull, QC 47km
Money Spent: $0
Time cycling: 2 hours 44 minutes
Moving Average: 17.0 km/h
Total Distance Traveled: 2696 km
I had a great night sleep last night knowing that I only had 30km or so to ride into the city and had all day to do it.
I took my time to get into the city finding a nice cycle path that led me right into downtown following the river east stopping by various spots to take photos.
I have been to Ottawa before where i saw the main attraction which is the parliament building but I returned there to get some photos with my bike before cruising about the market area just to kill some time.
I bumped into Cole and Mark who I met a few days ago on the highway... we organized to meet in 2 days time to join each other when cycling to Montreal. Its going to be nice to cycle with some people as it has been very rare to even meet people cycling in the same direction, keeping in mind that it is getting to the end of the season for cycling so not many people are doing it.
I got an email from my ex girlfriend saying that she wasnt able to meet me today so I hopped over to the next province of Quebec to continue my adventures on the other side of the river from Ottawa where I was staying.
Alex, a good friend who I tree-planted with told me I could stay with his Mum and step Dad at their place a 15 minute cycle to the downtown area of Ottawa.
Ruth and Serj (who I have met before 2 years ago) trusted me with a key to their home and fed me a fantastic dinner that was delicious. Now that im in Quebec its about time I start learning some French, Serj helped me out with some of the basics just to get me started but some of the words I knew from working in France all those years ago were coming back to me.
Ill be needing to put my head down and do some studying. At least over the next fortnight or so.
Some balancing rock structures
Making it to the Parliament building in Ottawa
01/10/2011 Day 38 Cycling Across Canada
Distance Traveled: Sharbot Lake park to some Unused farming area 92km
Money Spent: $15 for junk food
Time cycling: 5 hours 09 minutes
Moving Average: 17.8km/h
Total Distance Traveled: 2649 km
Wind Wind, Viento (Wind in Spanish), F***ing Wind
Well, at least it didnt rain. Look at the positives right?
Today was very cold and like I mentioned before there was plenty of wind coming directly at me and when it wasnt blowing in my face it would push me off the shoulder of the road. It was hard to keep a constant pace and the wind certainly demoralised me. I would have liked to make it to Ottawa for a night out on Saturday night but it didnt work for me. I could have pushed on into the night but I would have been exhausted and haggard.
The highway opened up to a freeway where I was given a very nice 10 foot shoulder to play on, unfortunately I had to get off the freeway because pedestrians and cyclists were not allowed... shame :(
I camped 30km from downtown in some unused farming area which tonight I will hopefully get a good nights rest. Tomorrow I get to see my ex-girlfriend who I havent seen in two years but to be honest I dont know how I feel about seeing her... Im just going to say im not fussed about meeting.
Um, cooked some good dinner (rice, re hydrated Jerky and vegetables as a soup) then went to bed.
Apparently there is going to be flurries of snow tomorrow morning which certainly is not going to be nice but I have only 30km to the center of the city.
Not suppose to be cycling here… oh, no… but whatever!
Monday, 3 October 2011
30/09/2011 Day 37 Cycling Across Canada
Distance Traveled: Norwood to Sharbot Lake Provincial park 116km
Money Spent: $0
Time cycling: 5 hours 10 minutes
Moving Average: 22.4km/h
Total Distance Traveled: 2557 km
I woke at midnight having had the sickness pass, I honest have no idea what caused it but im so glad that it only lasted as long as it did. Because I already had somewhat of a lengthy sleep I organised some of this shit (blogging, journal) and grouped all the pictures I have taken over the past few days. I was on the road around 9am after packing my things, something im constantly getting faster at doing.
The morning I was making very good pace along the relatively flat roads despite not much of a shoulder and having avoided running over the remains of frogs and tortoises – there was honestly dead frogs or what looked like dead frogs every few meters on the shoulder of the road, some disembowelled, decapitated and others rotting away – seeing this would put you off frogs legs for sure.... maybe this is a sign that im getting closer to Quebec.
Anyway, as I was saying I was making good pace and one stop off at a rest stop – that you dont get to see much of in Ontario – I sat myself down and made myself an excellent lunch (Potato Mash, Poached Veggies and chili tuna).
At another stop off I met a pair of cyclists, Cole and Mark who started their trip in Toronto, I briefly chatted them before they set off back on the trans-Canadian trail which I want to avoid because this section is not well maintained.
Mid-afternoon the weather certainly took a turn for the worse and it started pissing it down. When the weather is relatively warmish, like today I dont mind the rain but as soon as it gets too cold, touring cycling is not enjoyable.
Still, I got fed up with the rain today and found a provincial park to set my tent up in and as no one was there I wasnt going to pay for it :)
I camped right by a lake so I thought it was about time to use the fishing rod that was giving to me a few weeks ago. Things didnt go too well as the first line in snagged on someone else's broken line, other attempts got stuck on to the logs under the water and I gave up when part of the reel broke off... I will however get this replaced and will attempt another time in the future.
Morning… Midday… Fishing at night
29/09/2011 Day 36 Cycling Across Canada
Distance Traveled: Reaboro to Norwood 84km
Money Spent: $30 for bike stuff $10 for some cigarettes and a few dollars for coffee.
Time cycling: 4 hours 04 minutes
Moving Average: 20.5km/h
Total Distance Traveled: 2441 km
I woke to the smell of cooking bacon in the morning... yum yum!
I without hesitation ran downstairs at Marnie and Steve's place and sat down for a hearty breakfast, I tried to help but they had everything prepared.
They havent had many people look them up on the warm-showers list and I think I was their 5 visitor over some time, but this couple are a prime example on how friendly Canadians are, their hospitality was like no other and I cant thank them enough. Marnie, by the way, those freshly baked Muffins you made this morning were incredible! I will be asking you for the recipe as a favor for teaching you that magic card trick ;).
Marnie, showed me some of their farm and took me to the Trans- Canadian trail that ran alongside their farm that had been maintained much better than what I cycled on yesterday morning.
Im hesitant to cycle on it because I dont want to risk another flat tire and although the terrain was much better I took the risk and used the trail to get to Peterborough.
In Peterborough I went to a bike shop to pick up a new pump and despite the forecast prediction mostly sunny periods for the day it it started pissing it down. I browsed the store chatting with the staff there and thought it was about time to fix some fenders onto my bike, just to kill some time waiting for the rain to pass.
Ben and Terry, the two guys I dealt with at the store were even kind enough to give the fenders to me at a great discount... im going to call this discount “The Cycling Across Canada Discount”. They even gave me some good advice on what route I should take to get further east. Thanks fellas!
On route I was passed (on two occasions) by a Google maps car, the second time I took note of the coordinates of the location so hopefully ill be seen on Google maps street view at: N 44 15.134 W078 08.588
As suggested by the bike shop guys I took highway 2 as the main highway (HWY 7) is busy with absolutely no shoulder to Hastings. I munched down some of my food at a park and set off again... this is where things got a little weird... whether it was something I ate or drank, I all of a sudden became exhausted and dizzy... Several times I even almost vomited. Whatever it was it didnt feel good at all, I only made it 10 km down the road where I had to pull in behind what I think is the fire station of the town of Norwood and pitched my tent. I got as far as putting my mat on my un-erected tent and crashed holding my stomach trying not to throw up.
Later I managed to pitch my tent and set it up for a rainy night but fuck, I didnt even eat dinner my stomach hurt that much. Not good.
Marnie and some mushrooms…
Cycling the Trans-Canadian Trail
At the Bike shop where it pissed it down and me attaching the fenders onto my bike.
More Locks… apparantly the oldest one remaining in Canada… one of the sights of Peterborough
Where i started feeling sick in Hastings.