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Published: July 30th 2011
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String Instrument
Is this a giant cello, or a super giant violin? Or a double-super giant fiddle? Note: Due to slow internet on the ferry photos won't be uploaded until later, and due to the bike computer being below deck, neither will the statistics.
As we get closer to the end of our trip, our mornings seem to start later and our days are getting shorter. Part of that is because there are more and more things we want to break for, and part of it is because we can really sense the finish line. Today, it was mostly because we only had 20 km to go, and then could go no more.
We slept in, had a relaxing morning, and didn't check out of our hotel until the 11 am deadline. After that we headed over to the orchestra building to check out the gigantic cello, and look around a bit. Then we did the 20 km ride from Sydney to North Sydney. We planned to take our time, but the ride was short and the day nice, so we made great time.
Once in North Sydney we found a little park, and relaxed, had a picnic lunch, and rested on the grass by the water. We had a great view of our ship.
Last Stop Mainland Canada
This small town houses all the ferries to Newfoundland The departure time was supposed to be 5:00, and we were told to arrive by 3:00. We assumed there would be a bit of a buffer, and actually went in to grab some last minute food at a restaurant around 2:30. The food took a little longer than we were expecting, and we started to become anxious.
At five to three, we called the booking number again just to ask when the latest we could arrive was, and the lady on the phone told us that under no circumstances could we possibly arrive later than three if we wanted to get on the ferry. It was 3:00 by the end of the call. Very stressed out, we got our food (which hadn't yet been delivered) to go, and booked it to the ferry. The entrance was not quite where we thought it was, which added even more pressure, but we quickly found the way, and headed to the ticket booth. Once there we were reassured that we were not at risk of missing the ferry, and the woman from the phone had been off her rocker. We calmed down instantly, but had another little scare when they couldn't find
Lunch Time
The meat spent a few days unrefrigerated and we worried it might make us sick, but we ate it anyway. It all worked out for the best Therese's booking. Eric's was in the computer as it was supposed to be, but Therese's was nowhere to be found. Even a search under her name for all upcoming ferries turned up nothing. Eventually, somehow we found the booking: it was under Cherese St-Denis on a trip FROM Newfoundland BACK to Sydney in four days. Considering that we booked not only at the same time, but IN THE SAME PHONE CALL, this was shocking. More poor service from the booking staff - they really need to get their act together. On the other hand the lady at the ticket booth was very nice and reassuring, and helpful fixing the problem with the mistaken booking. Even after everything was all sorted out and we got to our place at the front of the loading line (yay bikes!) we still had to wait until about 4:00 before the ferry started loading.
While waiting in line, other than eating our lunch, we got a chance to converse with the other cyclists taking the ferry. There was a retired french couple on a tandem bike who had started their trip in Trois Rivieres this summer, but who had biked from Vancover to Trois
Our Ferry
We had some ice cream and watched cargo being loaded on to the ship Riveriers last summer, so were completing their full Canada tour. They were very knowledgeable, and a lot of fun to talk to. They told us that contrary to what you might think, biking up the hills in the East was harder than biking up Mountains in the West. In the rockies they said, though you might go uphill for a few hours, it was always a gradual uphill, but in the maritimes the hills were much steeper, and often had very steep tails at the end of already long uphill stretches (we were familiar with the phenomenon).
The other biker on the trip was Karl, who lives in Toronto not far from Eric, but started his trip in Quebec City. He was a lot of fun to talk to as well, and had some great stories for us. He had started his trip with his girlfriend, but she flew back home from Halifax, and he was doing the last stretch on his own. Since none of us had sleeper cabins, we ended up meeting up with Karl again in the lounge, and hanging out with him for the rest of the evening. We headed over to the all you
Don't Fall Off
Therese almost fell trying to get this full side view of the ship. Just joking, we were very safe can eat buffet together, and shared stories over a long dinner.
The ferry itself was very nice. The lounge/bar area was full of couches in bright neon colours, with some TV's, a bar, a snack bar and a tourist gift shop. There was also a movie room downstairs, and some live entertainment. The internet was incredibly slow at the start, though a little later on, when less people were trying to use it, it was a bit better.
Today, we found out that the biggest festival in St. John's is going to be going on when we arrive on Sunday (or Saturday night if we're super-stars and get enough sleep tonight). Pretty lucky for us, and we're excited! On the other hand, it looks like it might be hard to find a place to stay when we arrive, so we might have to improvise. We're going to try the University as usual (we'll call as soon as we're close enough to land for cell reception), and if that doesn't work we'll come up with a new plan.
10:00pm and time to get some sleep tonight. It's going to be interesting, but we'll manage.
Stats:
Departure time:
Goodbye Mainland
In the background is our last view of Nova Scotia for a while 11:30 am
Arrival time: 1:10 pm
Total distance travelled: 26.1 km
Total time on bike: 1h 26m
Average speed: 18.1 km/h
Trip distance: 2071.9 km
- E and T
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Tot: 0.081s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 47; dbt: 0.033s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Mom
non-member comment
You made it to "FERRY LAND"!
Enjoy the ride, again, you two always seem to manage to get out of some tight situations I hope Newfoundland is worth all the trouble it took to get there. Where and when are you meeting up with Shira again? Enjoy the big Rock! ( Don't forget to bring me back a little rock.) Love MOMxxxxxxxx