Day 3

Bellevue Beach to Clarenville
Distance: 88km
Cycling Time: 4 hrs 34 min
Average Speed: 20 km/hr
Weather: "Slightly" variable: Sunny and hot for the first hour, gray, muggy and foggy for the next few hours and sunny and warm for the last bit.
Terrain: Much easier than the first two days! Long gradual hills as opposed to long steep hills.
Mechanicals: 1 flat tire

We had a well deserved sleep-in after a late night and with a big pancake breakfast at the campsite we were ready to go. We finished up the coastal loop that we had started the day before (with a small detour that took us to Chance Cove and up a few more hills than we needed to do) and then got on the T.C.H. Until this point we had only ridden about 20km in total on the T.C.H., and to be honest I wasn't all that excited about getting back on it. After the quaint, seaside roads that we had spent the past two days on I thought the highway would lack the beautiful views and interesting distractions. However, it turned out to be a really good day. The going was much easier (I think the terrain today was our reward for the past two days!), as even though there were lots of hills, the incline on most was more gradual so it was easier to spin up them. From the highway we looked down over the many towns dotting the coastline. Although we passed many a sign warning of moose and caribou, we have yet to see any. (Some of you know that one of our goals for this trip is to get a picture in the MEC catalogue, potentially a shot of our bikes with the MEC panniers and some moose in the background?...)

I am still so amazed at the vast and raw ruggedness of this place. Even though I have been to Newfoundland once before, traveling through it on two wheels is just so much more intimate somehow, the sharp angles of the rock and gnarled vegetation is just so untouched. I saw a Newfoundfland and Labrador Tourism poster today that said "Is it possible to feel both lost and found at the same time...?" I understand it now...it certainly is possible... When we were in St.John's I was surprised to see the development of the capital city nestled right in beside the treacherous sea cliffs and stark landscape; certainly no buffer zone of suburbia there!

We made it in good time to Goobies (another great name!) and stopped for a quick bite at the Irving Big Stop. Funny how after cycling all day, a turkey sandwich on plain white bread and nothing else and a stale apple turnover can taste 5-star gourmet.

The kind folks at the Tourist Information centre assured us that it was only a quick 26km to Clarenville and that there were no worse hills than what we had already come through. With this piece of advice, we were off with Clarenville as our final destination for the day; gas station turkey and stale pastry fueled us along and we made it there in record time (even with a couple of MONSTER hills). The approach to the town did included two really fun long windy downhills, however, that made the earlier climbs worthwhile!

Sean had been craving Mary Brown's (like KFC but way better/less dirty) for two days now so that was our first stop. However, to our dismay we learned that all of the accomodation in town was booked up for the night (we had decided earlier not to camp today) and our only option was the St. Jude's Hotel back on the T.C.H., from where we had come from. So, with that information in hand we bought an 8-piece family dinner, strapped the chicken and taters to the back of our bikes and cruised back down the 2km hill we had just finished climbing. The scent of chicken wafting through the air the entire way down helped me forget that I would have to climb right back up this hill again tomorrow morning....