Moose Wanderings

On why I haven't been blogging

2012-01-23T19:57:00.004-05:00

I could argue that as I haven't been biking, I shouldn't have to write about biking. However, as I still have some things to say about Australia, I don't have that excuse. In truth, I've been a bit depressed, partly from being a year older and not further along the road so to speak, partly from being sick for more than two weeks and not getting to the gym and partly because being a bit depressed is something of a ground state for me.

Anyway, I was at a dinner party about a week ago with my mother, the Mole (a biking cousin) and an old family friend (who was one of my teachers at library school). The old family friend is a devout monarchist to the point where he gets interviewed by the local media when something interesting is happening involving the royal family. The conversation turned to the Diamond Jubilee that Queen Elizabeth will be celebrating later this year (assuming she doesn't trip over a corgi and break her neck or something.) ;-) My mother first inquired if the friend would be heading over for the celebrations and then when getting an affirmative answer, noted that he would be going to the U.K. this year for exactly the same reason I wil not be going this year.

I still don't have any particular idea of where or when I will go on a bike trip this year. Part of me wants to see if I will be even able to take a three week chunk of vacation time convenient to my cousin's wedding in Victoria in August which would allow for biking in the American Northwest. If I weren't allowed to because of scheduling issues, I think I would default to doing the Calgary-Winnipeg leg of AMUAM JuNITO at another time, and only take a short, localized ("only" "Vic and Van") vacation for my cousin's wedding.

On wishing my nieces and nephew a happy new year

2011-12-31T22:36:00.002-05:00

Thanks to cellphones, time zones and Alice's assistance, I am now 3-0 at being the very first person to ever wish my nieces and nephew a Happy New Year. That is to say, I was the first person to ever say to Désirée, Edward and Anna "Happy New Year" ever in their lives. At least when it really counts, i.e. just after midnight on New Year's Eve, local time.

Anna, is of course in Newfoundland at this point in time.

A Happy New Year to my readers! With luck it will be filled with biking.

On why this isn't a recap of the year's cycling

2011-12-28T10:34:00.004-05:00

I have been wanting to write a recap of my year regarding cycling, nieces, nephew and mooses this festive season, but I have down with a persistant cold or the flu or something. I usually get a flu shot, but this year, I was in Australia when they were offering it at work. Anyway, I am too tired to compose effectively so that it why this isn't a recap. For that matter, I was too tired to properly attack my kidney stew this morning.
Happy holidays.

On why today wasn't my last day of biking

2011-12-18T19:35:00.003-05:00

My schedule now calls for me to work Sunday to Thursday. It is a bit of a pain, but I am putting up with the change a damn sight better than some of my co-workers. Anyway, this morning dawned bright, clear and quite cold (-12 C). A couple of hour later, I emerged to get on my bike to go to work, only to discover the Kryptonite lock was frozen solid!

I had ridden to work on Wednesday but as the forecast for Thursday called for pissing rain, I opted to BMW. I didn't use the bike on Friday or Saturday as my wanderings around Montreal lent themselves to using the Metro. Also, it was well below zero on both days. In hindsight, I should have been smarter.

I didn't have the time or brainpower (thanks to James' Christmas party the night before) to muck around with getting the lock open, so I BMW'd to work instead. When I got home this evening, I applied liberal quantities of hot water and WD-40 in order to open the lock. As the next few days' forecast read like a repeat performance of last week, I have brought Floria in for the winter.

On the arrival of winter, thoughts

2011-12-08T13:40:00.006-05:00

It was snowing lightly last night here in Montreal. When I looked out the window this morning, there was a light dusting of the white stuff hither and yon, but it seemed manageable and it was sunny. I even went down my front steps to assess the condition of the street. As I was unlocking die Fleddermoose, I noticed there were bit of ice frozen to the rims. At that point, I decided I shouldn't tempt fate. I went back inside, change and went to work by BMW. En route to the Metro station, I saw some school kids slip-sliding on some icy patches on the road. When I emerged from the Metro, a flurry had developed to the point that biking seems a somewhat perilous proposition. I don't know if this means the end of the biking season per se or just for today. Time will tell, but winter has arrived.

It definitely has arrived in Scotland. The BBC is showing some very dramatic pictures of a storm hammering the country at this point.
This image of a wind turbine going kaput drew me to this gallery. Wind turbines are a relatively common landmark when biking. I vividly remember them in Spain and Alberta.
As well, I saw some being delivered to the docks in Campbeltown.
So to see an image of one getting blown to pieces is very interesting. However, the gallery also has this picture of two trucks that got blown over at Rest and Be Thankful!

Having been over that pass several times in better weather and once on Leonardo I suspect that the drivers may not have reckoned on the changing wind patterns from a side valley. Then again, maybe the winds were simply so strong that nothing may have prevented the trucks from being blown over!

Me at Rest and Be Thankful in better weather

On a particularly dumb thing I did very early this morning

2011-12-02T21:43:00.002-05:00

Shortly after midnight or so, I was riding die Fleddermoose down Atwater after a particularly successful "beer-and-peanuts" style D&D game. Feeling I wasn't in a high enough gear and possibly under the excess influence of beer, I tried to shift up using my left-hand shift lever. As I was already in the higher gear and I used a bit too much force, the cable snapped. Luckily, I didn't have far to go to get home and there was no otherwise ontoward consequences to my boneheaded action.

In addition, as I am now working Sunday to Thursday, I could take die Fleddermoose into my local bike shop to undergo a quick repair today and not have to fret about how I am going to work as I haven't reassemble Leonardo. The staff at the bike shop really get a kick out of die Fleddermoose's "Batmoose" logo. While I was waiting for a new cable to be installed, I chatted with one of the staff members about biking in Australia and matters relating. He was somewhat envious of me as Oz was also on his list of places to go. It must be particularly frustrating for him as he gets a number of ex-pat Aussie bike mechanics going through.

On bits from the British Isles

2011-11-29T13:52:00.005-05:00

On why I probably will not go to Britain next year
One of the bike trips I would like to take would be to do some more biking in Scotland and get deeper into the Highlands. However, this was never on the cards for next year as I figured that the 2012 Olympics in London would make the trip needlessly expensive.

As I was cataloging a biography of Queen Elizabeth II today, I suddenly noticed that 2012 will also be her Diamond Jubilee and therefore another reason not to visit the UK in 2012. I is not that I am against the monarchy (indeed I am favour of keeping the monarchy) but the party will further increase the price of the trip.

I also wonder what the connections between the Olympics in London next year and the Jubilee are and will be.

On marmite
Since my trip to Australia, I have had a number of conversations on the subject of Vegemite and it's consumption. I find it makes a nice change from time to time. I am not sure if I have tasted Vegemite's close relative and predecessor, Marmite. That's why this story got my attention. However, the BBC's version seems to contradict this. ;-)

On my shoulders, a niece

2011-11-26T18:13:00.003-05:00

I was out in North Hatley yesterday for my step-niece's 18th birthday. Near the end of the evening, Désirée, my 3 year old niece was getting a bit restless. I therefore decided to have some fun and sat her on my shoulders. That made her night! She was tickled pink to be up so high, especially as everyone else at the part was an adult. Unfortunately, she wanted to tickle my face at times which was out of my comfort zone as I was wearing glasses as my contact lenses had been bothering me. Pictures of the event were taken and have been posted here.

On what comes next

2011-11-14T20:44:00.003-05:00

A colleague asked me today "What adventure will you go off on next?"

My answer was that "I don't know." Luckily I don't have to know for at least five months. Even then, when I will be asked to choose vacation times, I will have fudge room. A wrinkle in my selection process is that the trip to Oz has given me enough Aeroplan miles to go anywhere in Canada.

I began by wondering if I should use them to fly to out for Margo's John's wedding in Victoria, bringing Leonardo along so I could go biking in Washington State as well. I quickly nixed that idea as a waste as the nature Aeroplan miles is such that it is better to use them to go to out of the way places rather than between two well-connected cities. I may well still do that trip, just not will Aeroplan miles. The rough idea would be to take the ferry from Victoria to Port Angeles and go down the coast to Portland, Oregon. From there, I would go back up to Seattle via Mount St-Helens. From Seattle, I would take the train back to Vancouver.

Another possible ride would be to do the Calgary to Winnipeg section of AMUAM JuNITO. Yet another idea would be to go back to the Highlands of Scotland. I would also like to go back to Newfoundland and take three weeks to do Deer Lake to St-John's again, but by slightly different routes which isn't quite as crazy as it sounds. I would also take the time to visit Anse-Aux-Meadows by bus or car.

Still another idea came back to me while reading the BBC news website this evening. It featured a travel article about the Okanagan wine region. I had the thought that I could use my Aeroplan points to fly into Kelowna, and do a loop that would include the short bit I didn't bike on account of my chain breaking. I could also get in some wine tasting. I would design this tour to be more relaxed. Possibly by hauling a relative along to slow me down! ;-)

All possibilities, none of them definite.

Photos

2011-11-09T22:30:00.002-05:00

have been added to my photo site (see the link on the right) and will eventually be added to the blog.

On Dorval's domestic arrivals area

2011-11-05T18:55:00.004-04:00

In the last three calendar days, I have been in four airports and five terminals. This is the shabbiest by far. This unimpressive performance by Montreal is particularly bad as the first airport was Broken Hill's which is served by one small airline.

And Leonardo is apparently flying in via Toronto. At least this means I won't have wrestle him into a taxi and up the stairs.

Addendum:
Leonardo was dropped off on the curb outside my flat on Sunday morning. I suspect the cause of his divergent routing from Vancouver was the fact that my flight from Vancouver was full and that one of the design compromises of the Airbus 321 is that it doesn't have much baggage capacity. The Airbus 321 is a stretched version of the Airbus 320. The extra passenger capacity comes at the price of reduced range and cargo capacity. The Air Canada website lists the 321's cargo capacity as roughly a third of the 320's.

On Air Canada flight 194

2011-11-05T15:32:00.001-04:00

Definition of irony or possibly adding insult to injury: after losing much sleep over the Air Canada strike, I am sharing an Airbus 321 with a load of CUPE members returning from a convention. Some of them are apparently incapable of finding their seat on the proper side of the aircraft causing additional delays in loading Air Canada's longest single aisle aircraft. I have no great opinion of these people. They come across as if they don't listen worth shit. Maybe this is why they rejected two contract proposals in a row.

Then again, some sources suggest that social media is part of the issue. I have wondered if the growth of such networking could be dangerous as false information can spread too easily. Also, it brings the possibility of mob mentality and somewhere Terry Pratchett wrote something to the effect that a mob is only as smart as its dumbest member.

The flight was full and the overhead bins were jammed with carry-on luggage, some of them oversized. This meant I had to put my carry-on bag at my feet. This reduced the already-limited legroom available to me.

Northern Ontario rears its head. At our current rate, roughly two hours of a four and half hour flight will be spent crossing it. And people wonder why I don't want to bike across it.

On the floor in Vancouver Airport

2011-11-05T11:43:00.004-04:00

I have arrived in Vancouver and I am sitting on the floor waiting for the lineup at Tim Hortons to shorten. After three weeks, I need to order a simple double-double rather than a long black.

On Air Canada flight 34

2011-11-05T11:34:00.009-04:00

Note: In truth I should have written another entry before this one which would explain about the Driza-Bone coats and other bits. However, I didn't have the time on Friday (Oz time) and couldn't think about it on Saturday (Oz time). I am currently so zonked that I don't think I will have the spare brain cells to write it today, Saturday (Canuck time.)

With the added weight of two Driza-Bone coats, my luggage was much heavier than anticipated. Furthermore, the ticket machine at the train station was rejecting my cards. My credit card has been problematic in the last 36 hours. I have checked with Visa and the problem is the system and distance, not my card. However, in order buy a ticket to the airport, I had to find a bank machine which means further haulage. My hands are raw from all the schleppage in the last two days. Halfway across the Pacific I realized that I should have applied the Burt's Bees Hand salve that I carry for my hindquarters on my hands. I will be able to have access to it when I am reunited with my duffle bag in Vancouver for customs.

The train from Sydney to the airport is almost all underground which disappoints me. However, it is quick. It is also remarkable, as it is a double decker train.

Once in the airport, I got Leonardo out of storage and renewed the duct tape. The roll of duct tape I bought yesterday is slightly stretchy which makes it less predictable. Air Canada's mobile access has changed: I no longer can pay the bike surcharge nor do I get an electronic boarding pass. I think I unfairly disconcerted the check-in clerk by asking why. The Aussie clerk on loan from Quantas didn't have a clue. After disposing of the checked luggage, I had an outdoor breakfast next to a guy from Australian customs having a smoko. I politely inquired why I had to fill out an exit customs form. He said he didn't know, but it was a directive from Canberra. This Aussie exit customs added to the length of time it took to get through to the gate area. As it was followed by security, a random bomb pat-down (I should have pointed out my first name is Daniel not Achmed. ;-) ) and a queue at the TRS (Tax Refund Service) to get back the GST on the Driza-Bones, I had not quite enough time to investigate duty-free as closely as I wanted.

While made my way to my gate, I heard a couple of interesting gate calls. One was an Air Zealand flight to Queenstown. That center of extreme sports is located in the Southern Alps. I didn't think it had airport large enough to support trans-Tansman flights. I also suspected (correctly as it turned out) that the Air Kiwi plane (a 737 at best) would be dwarfed by all the heavy iron widebodies at the other gates. There is a lot of heavy iron at Sydney, I saw Airbus 380s from three different airlines (Quantas, Emirates and Singapore Airlines), 747s from at least six and a goodly number of the relatively unpopular, but long-legged Airbus 340. While looking out the window, I could see the reference markings on the Tarmac for the ground handlers to know where to stop aircraft of various lengths. They went from the very long Airbus 340-600 to the short Fokker 100 .The other odd call was for an Emirates flight to Christchurch. Emirates is a big Middle-Eastern airline that I find a rather improbable would flying into the South Island of New Zealand, especially as it only operates wide body jets.

As I approached the gate I observed a three year old having a bit of tantrum. I had the thought, "I hope the brat isn't sitting near me." Low and behold, he, his parents and infant sibling are across the aisle from me. A disadvantage of bulkhead seating. I know I was a borderline hyperactive kid myself but this kid needs more parental discipline, IMHO. Actually, he wasn't that bad but the bulkhead seat wasn't great for him as the TV screen was too far away from him to absorb his attention.
Two hours into the flight, I looked out the window. I was surprised to see we are flying over land. I looked on the map to discover it is the New Hebrides! Somewhat comforting to know there is somewhere to land around here.

The problem with this flight is that it left at midday. It is having hard time trying to convince me it is time to sleep! I have set my watch to Vancouver time (six hours ahead and a day behind in order to choose a decent time to try to get to sleep.

On getting to Sydney

2011-11-03T20:34:00.007-04:00

I got a taxi to the airport slightly before a beautiful dawn.
I finagled Leonardo and my duffle bag onto the Saab 340 which is the smallest plane I have flown in since flying to Anticosti in a Beechcraft 99 in the early 1980s. Getting in and out of the lavatory was a challenge.

At Sydney airport, I dragged Leonardo to left luggage in the International Terminal then took the train into Sydney where I checked into the Railway Square YHA.

On my last day in Broken Hill

2011-11-03T04:19:00.004-04:00

On Thursday, I walked down Argent Street to find some breakfast, explore the possibility of posting some bulky bits home and get a bike box. The first and third worked but the second got too complicated.

Later in the morning, I went to the Royal Flying Doctor museum for a nice if very sobering tour. I rode up to the Broken Earth Cafe and Restaurant for lunch, but was put off by the prices. I rode back into town where I had a cheaper lunch. I went off to look for a historical marker relating the Battle of Broken Hill but failed to find it. More on that later. I then went to White's mineral art gallery and mining museum. My route took me along a washboarded section of road. White's offered a fascinating glimpse of Broken Hill's mining history. The mineral art section consisted of pictures made by gluing various powdered minerals to surfaces. I wasn't impressed by the chart detailling the nature of the minerals, as it described bauxite as iron oxide, rather than as an alumnium ore. It does contain iron though.
I then found a historical marker relating to the Battle of Broken Hill. The latter was the only fighting to take place in Australia in the First World War. On New Year's Day 1915, a pair of Turks opened fire with rifles on a train carrying picnickers from an ice cream cart. Ten people were hit, four fatally. The train reversed out of danger and a posse of soldiers, police and angry, armed civilians quickly tracked down the two and shot them.
After looking at the marker, I noticed I was missing my bike computer. I retraced my steps through the museum and back to the washboarded road. There I found the computer, but it had been run over and screen was cracked and useless. My consolation is that it was on the last day and that I got about 10200 km out of it.

I went back to the hostel, arranged for a taxi at 5:15 tomorrow and packed Leonardo. Sydney tomorrow.

On the road with Mad Max

2011-11-03T03:49:00.013-04:00

I have a soft spot for the Mad Max movies which led me to Broken Hill as it was the nominal place where they filmed Mad Max 2 better known in North America as The Road Warrior. In fact, it was mostly filmed at various locations around Broken Hill, most notably, Silverton. The latter was my destination on Wednesday, and at 25 km out of Broken Hill, a middling distance there and back. Only fate had other ideas.

About 5 km from Silverton, I was lured by a sign to the Old Daydream Mine Tour. The sign said it was 20 minutes away (implicitly by car) which I "translated" as about an hour by bike. I had been flying along on the bike so I felt up to the challenge. Also, they promised fresh scones. The road to the mine site was unsealed and as a partial consequence had so much washboarding that my mirror fell off after about 500 m. It had been loose. I didn't notice until about 5 km later. When I did, I decided to hope for the best and keep an eye out on the way back. Along the way, I saw a fox, a wedgie and a line of ants.

Line of ants

I arrived at a ramshackle collection of buildings a few minutes before a tour was about to start. Along with a gaggle of grey hairs, Peter our guide and ex-miner at the big Broken Hill mine, showed us first around the remnants of the community that had grown there in the 1880's. I won't say prospered as despite the rich galena deposits, it must have been a miserable existence. Galena is an ore that produces silver, lead and zinc.
Anyway, these hardscrabble miners dug and backfilled a fair number of shafts. Peter took us down one of them. It was very low, dry and dusty. Luckily, I was able to keep my claustrophobia in check. All very interesting to hear but not to retell. One interesting bit was that someone, starting in the 1960's, had been going through the leftovers and doing some treatment to the ore before selling it to the big processing plant in Broken Hill. The scones were quite good.

Peter, the guide, was concerned about my water supply and topped up one of my bottles. For the record, I was carrying over 4L that day, the only day I had bothered with the 2L flexible bottle.
On the way back, I saw some feral goats descended from those the miners had brought. I saw something that I first thought was my mirror, but which turned out to be a large scaly lizard with a fat dumpy tail. In retrospect, I think it was a shingleback or Tiliqua rugosa asper. Later, I found the mirror.

In Silverton, I was greeted by...

...some emus......some camels. I went to the town museum. I was about to park Leonardo in the shade of a porch when I disturbed a long (roughly 1 m), slender lizard which had been there.
I asked the volunteer if he knew what type of lizard it was, showing him the digital image. He said it was a lace monitor or goanna. I am going to have to read up on Aussie lizards.

The museum was an exercise in clutter, a lot of the rubble relating to Broken Hill and not Silverton. One piece was a cheap reproduction of a Spanish sword the same as the one Philip got in France in 1984! There was one artifact whose significance I only twigged to when I was in bed that night. It was an announcement from the government in Chinese from the 1880s. The translation provided said that four bandits had shot three government officials and stolen a lot of money. The bandits were still at large and sometimes came out of the hills to buy grain. The government wished that people tell them if they knew where they were and not to help the bandits. I can't remember if there was a reward mentioned but there must have been.

Maybe I am slow on the uptake or maybe Silverton is a long way from the ranges North-East of Melbourne. However, I think the museum would have done better if they had added a card saying the notice referred to the Kelly Gang! I'm just saying it would help the foreign tourists.
One thing I didn't need explained was the various Mad Max related things. Outside the Silverton Hotel (itself famous from films including A town like Alice, was an VW Beetle tricked out as the Pursuit Special's Love Child, complete with a particularly pointless supercharger sticking out of the front hood. I say particularly because the supercharger in the original didn't actually contribute and the engine in the Beetle was in the back.

Re-reading this section, I realize that many of the references probably fly over the heads of many of my readers. I'd apologize, but this is my blog about what interests me. It will become clearer when get home and post pictures.
Anyway, next door there was a souvenir shop with a bad reproduction of the Pursuit Special and a couple of dune buggies modeled after those in the movie. There was a live Australian cattle dog that looked very much as if he was waiting for Mel Gibson to come back and drop of his percentage, possibly in the form of Dinky-Di dog food. After buying some souvenirs and a cold drink, sat on the veranda and shot the breeze with the owner.
He surprised me be saying that about six months ago people were in the area practicing stunts for Mad Max 4 Fury Road. I'd thought that movie was in development hell and would never see the light of day. The guy said that they had been doing shoots with 3D cameras complete with special vacuum cleaners to keep dust out the lenses. Apparently, further shooting had been halted because the land was currently too green. He told me where some scenes had been shot, particularly the Mundi Mundi lookout a few klicks further on.
I biked to the top of a nearby hill to a small private museum dedicated to Mad Max, featuring several original artifacts including a piece of perforated steel plate used as armour on the tanker wheels. There were also a couple of more accurate replica Pursuit Specials among other clutter memorabilia.
Afterwards, I headed on to the Mundi Mundi outlook. The Mundi Mundi Plains are staggeringly flat.
Some foreign tourists (possibly Italians) said that it was one of two places where you can see the curvature of the Earth. My comment was that I have been to three of them! I have seen the curve of the Earth on the plains around Montreal as well as any sea coast. For that matter, I think I can see the curvature at my Metro Station.
The road next to the Mundi Mundi outlook has been used in several movies. It shows up two or three times as different places in Mad Max 2, most notably in the climax where the tanker goes off the road after running into the Humongous' truck. In an earlier bit of the film, there is actually a sign saying "Mundi Mundi overlook". This bit of road is also used in Reckless Kelly as a part of the montages of Ned going to and from Kelly Island.

Going back, I stopped at the Silverton Hotel for a cold beer and peanuts. Thus fortified, I rode the 25 km back to Broken Hill seeing only 11 cars and one cyclist whom I passed.
Total distance was a hair under 90 km.

On the Indian-Pacific

2011-11-01T04:23:00.012-04:00

Adelaide is big enough to require the Indian-Pacific something like an hour to clear the suburbs. Part of this is that the train is very long meaning the engineer has to apply power slowly and carefully as he navigates the junctions and switches. Also, I suspect we are relatively low priority compared to the zippy commuter trains. The later seen to come in two flavours: the first is something that looks a bit like a modern Budd car, though a bit smaller; the second, probably a bit older have raised cabs at one end of each car which makes them look a bit odd when three are hooked together. The design strikes me as being of Japanese origin. (I have found out that they are 2000 class railcars are therefore nothing of the sort.) All are evidently diesel-electrics.
Unless I missed my guess, this Indian-Pacific service is a single which means it is only 427m long. A double train would be 711m long which is quite incredible to me. The single length is twice that of the Overland.

The cabin is very comfortable but of an older vintage than the Overland. It has crank operated Venetian blinds. The walls are painted in several shades of pale green that suggest the sixties institutional. On the other hand, there are showers and towels available.
I arrived in plenty of time after having bid farewell and thank you to Diane and Rob. Traffic was a bit heavier than previously as it was earlier in the day than my two previous trips to downtown Adelaide. Getting to the Interstate Rail Terminal involved having to make a somewhat hair-raising turn across a major junction. The queue to check in luggage was almost too short as it didn't give me time to remove the bags from Leonardo and stow my helmet in one the panniers I was planning on checking. The upshot of this was that I took longer with the clerk than was truly needed. Luckily, the people behind me didn't seem that upset. Unlike the railway stations in large Canadian cites of my experience, the platform was wide open to the public and I could wander up and down. This allowed me to make sure Leonardo was properly loaded into the baggage car. Non-passengers were allowed wish their friends and relatives off inside the train. The security announcements included the statement that anyone caught smoking would immediate removed from the train. This provoked a laugh from passengers and speculation about whether they would thrown from the train or dropped off in the middle of nowhere as train has no scheduled stops between Adelaide and Broken Hill! That probably makes this my longest non-stop rail journey!

The train's overall timetable includes a few several hour halts in minor spots in the wee hours of the morning. My theory is that these halts are there for three reasons. The first is to allow the train to arrive in major centers at godly hours. The second would be to allow the train to be replenished with fresh staff, fuel and other consumables. The final reasons would be to allow for the delays that could accumulate over a 65 hour journey.

After leaving Sydney, we rolled through grain growing area of the Adelaide plains. We pass massive grain storage and loading facilities. Unlike what I've seen in Canada, storage facilities include concrete surfaces with low walls. The grain is piled between the low walls and covered with great sheets of nylon which are weighted down with tractor sized tires.

In the station shop in Adelaide, I was about to buy some munchies for the train when I noticed they were also selling USB memory sticks in the shape of a Southern Rail locomotive in the colors of their various trains (the Indian-Pacific, The Ghan, etc.). I found the concept so original and fun that I had to get the Indian-Pacific one.

Once train was well out of the suburbs, I gave the Parents a call. In "the what a time to be alive" department, I couldn't think of what the proper method of dialing home to Canada, so I looked it up in my PDF version of Lonely Planet Australia.

It is Melbourne Cup day today. The train manager announced that a "sweep" would be run related to the cup. I then connected this with the fact that some some of the female conductors are wearing silly hats. Aussies for you.

My fellow passengers are mostly of what might be termed the grey-haired set. Unfortunately that now includes me on account of my beard. I could pass as non-grey haired if shaved. There are a few obvious backpacker types, but I'm probably no higher than the 5th percentile of age of passenger!

Me with my salt and pepper beard and grey-haired fellow passengers

Lunch was a chicken roll, a hot meat pie and a tinny of VB. "When in Rome..." There were four mates traveling together in the row in front of me. Three left for the Red Gum Lounge soon after we left Adelaide. The fourth one joined them once he had finished with the paper. They spent most of the journey there.

Leaving the grain plains, the train made its way through some hillier terrain to drier plains with mountains or at least ranges in the distance with smaller lumps nearer to hand. The ground became shades of yellow and red, covered by dry land shrubs and plants punctuated by the occasional tree or emu, though the frequency of trees dropped the nearer we got to Broken Hill.

Shortly after the train scares a trio of emu, the iPhone dings to say a text message has arrived. It is from Bell to "welcome" me to Australia. As the cellphone coverage indicator is at minimal, my guess is that we had been out of any coverage and as we returned into coverage, it "learnt" it was in Australia again and reacted accordingly. I turned off the ringer on the phone in case it happened again. When I turn it back on in Broken Hill, there was another such message.

A little later we put a pair of wedge tail eagles to flight. These sodding huge birds are my first "wedgies" and are very hard mistake for anything else. A minute later and a pair of emu start running.
The train has been running along besides a highway. There is precious little traffic on it. To date, I have only seem one three trailer rig on the road and that was a propane truck near Dadswell Bridge. At least, I think it was a triple. However, I gather road trains tend to be further into Outback than I have been so far.

As we near Broken Hill, the sight of a siding makes me think that we haven't passed another train since a bit after Adelaide. While passenger trains are few out here (two a week in each direction, I would have expected a freight train or two. Maybe they work the sufficiently low schedule of trains to avoid relatively expensive starts and stops. Perhaps it is Eastwards on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays and Westwards on Monday, Wednesday and Friday! ;-) Actually, that doesn't jibe with the little I know of the timetables. As we came into the station, I saw a freight train presumably full of ore poised to depart, heading West.

On the Adelaide Zoo, musings

2011-11-01T02:00:00.006-04:00

I visited the Adelaide Zoo yesterday. I did so in spite of the giant pandas that the zoo acquired recently at excessive cost. The pandas take up a disproportionate amount of space in the zoo. Also, they aren't particularly interesting. I found Australian critters to be much more fun.
The zoo has been very clever in some spots in how it has laid out the pens. The best example are the meerkat enclosures which are just in front of the giraffes. As the meerkats are small, people can look at the giraffes with an unobstructed view. It helps that both are African animals.
I embarrassed one of the zoo volunteers by asking what the birds I had taken a picture of were. They had been hanging around a zoo café hoping for handout. They were obviously not zoo animals but they were exotic to me with their crests. The volunteer wasn't sure but thought they were common wood pigeons. (I have since decided that they were crested pigeons.)

I also surprised a clerk in the shop by asking if there was a plush rainbow lorikeet that didn't make noise! There wasn't.

Afterwards, I moseyed through downtown Adelaide finding a used book store with a Footrot Flats collection the family doesn't have. I also found lunch in the form of some tasty lamb yiros and hot, salted mixed nuts.

The rest of the afternoon was spent at the Old HMAS Adelaide Gaol. Interesting, if slightly morbid.

When I got back to Diane and Rob's house, Rob had the TV on to the news. The big story was Quantas being ordered to end its lock-out. One side story was that Great Southern Rail had sold out Monday's Overland from Adelaide to Melbourne despite having added two extra coaches.

Over a supper of salmon and assorted roasted vegetables, we chatted about a number of things including the sometimes odd ways some Aussie words are pronounced. I gave the example of Wagga Wagga which sounded to me like "Wogga Wogga". Rob piped up that I was still pronouncing it wrong as "the second 'Wogga' is silent." ;-)

Rob has a crazy habit of getting very early such as 4:30 AM and then falling asleep at the supper table. ;-) Of course, I have get up at 4 AM on Friday to catch my plane to Sydney.

On the Overland

2011-10-30T18:04:00.006-04:00

In the "what a time to be alive department", the old railway station in Bordertown had no people working there, but instead had a sign listing train times and some numbers to call for more information. One of these was that of the train manager to be called while the train was in motion. In order to make the getting Leonardo on the train, I phoned him to let him know that I was bringing a bike and to ask where I should stand on the platform. I am suspicious that I was the only passenger getting on at Bordertown as he asked if I was Mr. Daniel G-, which I was. He told me that the train would first stop to load the bike and then move on for the passengers. He also said the train was about 30 minutes late.

I decided to make use of my Thermarest. I inflated it, and lay down in the shade to wait. The station is an attractive building near the center of Bordertown that is currently unused for any function. Were I an enterprising Bordertonian, I would buy it and use it as some sort of business in the restaurant or related line.
As the time for the train drew near, I deflated the Thermarest and began to chat with some locals who were waiting for people on the train. One old woman explained to me how the town used to be junction between rail lines featuring three different gauges! Broad, standard and narrow. I had noticed that the ties were such that they had three points to affix the rails, leading to two options. The woman said that it was only about five years ago that the conversion from broad to standard gauge had happened.

Eventually the train arrived. Unexpectedly, it didn't stop first for the bike, but immediately put down passengers. Leonardo was put in the last passenger car by myself and a railway employee. The last car wasn't being used by passengers, so I think they put it there to save time and hassle, particularly as they were running late. My suspicion is reinforced by the fact they didn't charge me for the bike! A good thing too as the official cost would have been $40 AUD. Incidentally, my fare was $31 AUD with a backpacker discount authorized by my HI card! I called Diane in Adelaide to let her know the train was late.
I settled into a comfy chair in the relatively empty last passenger car in use. After leafing through Southern Rail's on-board magazine, I moseyed forward to the kiosk to get myself a tinny of VB. The broad plains of South Australia zipped by with sheep and the odd kangaroo to remind me of where I was.
Eventually, the landscape became more hilly, before we crossed the Murray River at Murray Bridge. Then the sole locomotive began to have a hard job hauling the relatively long passenger train (by my standards) up through the ranges. The track was about the most winding I have ever been on. At least on a train. The Kettle Valley Railroad and the Columbia and Western trailways come close. There were at least six tunnels between Murray Bridge and Adelaide, and the speed of the train dropped as we wound our way past SA's famous vineyards.
Rob met me at the station. We loaded Leonardo into Diane's old Volvo station wagon. Rob stopped to pick Diane up at work before we got to their house on the edge of the hills surrounding Adelaide.
Over a meal of mushroom soup, veal, beer and South Australian wine, we chatted and gossiped away the evening. Rob is a relatively keen cyclist and had a supply of bike maps. Unfortunately, the most useful one to me was AWOL. He later printed off a copy from the Net. However, as it wasn't particularly readable, I made a point of picking up some more recent maps downtown today and giving them to Rob for his files. Rob told me that bikes sold in Australian are supposed to have their brakes reversed from the standard practice. That is the left brake handle controls the rear brake, etc. He wasn't sure why, but we agreed that it was most logically to free the right hand to make hand signals.
Adelaide isn't terribly hard to navigate for the novice except for relatively few exceptions. I bummed around...
...found some better bike maps of Adelaide before having...
...a meat pie floater for lunch. In the afternoon, I checked out the South Australia Museum.
In the evening, Rob, Diane and I went for supper at a very nice gastro pub where I had kangaroo again. I also paid figuring I owed them. Anyway, I should get going for today. Places to see and all that. Tomorrow, I will be taking the train for Broken Hill.
October 31, 9:00 AM local time.

On Bordertown Friday nights

2011-10-30T02:46:00.003-04:00

There are two themes happening. The first is plenty of action at two labyrinthine hotels with annexes full of pokies. The second is a prayer meeting at the ginormous Highway Christian Center.
Bordertown also has an enclosure full of white Western Grey Kangaroos. They are kind of freaky. Then again, the way 'roos bounce is kind of freaky in and of itself.

On a couple of long days

2011-10-28T06:34:00.008-04:00

On Thursday morning, I set off from Hall's Gap a little later than I would have but for a conversation with a friendly Aussie at breakfast. Following and sometimes ignoring instructions on a map given to me by a tourist information person, I pedalled along country roads with an assortment of birds as company. In addition to parrots there are herons and ibisis. I even saw an emu in the distance.

I deviated from the instructions by taking the short cut offered by some unsealed (I.e. dirt) roads. This experience rather confirmed the wisdom of my route change as the original plan could have seen ride over a hundred klicks on a dirt road. I found the dirt road mentally demanding as I always had to concentrate on avoiding the soft bits.
I joined the Western Highway near Dadswell Bridge and it's giant koala statue. It was as tacky as it sounds!

I got to Horsham in time for lunch and some Internet activity. From there it was a tedious slog against the wind to Dimboola which was a relief as it is pronounced as it is spelt! I made a very judicious choice of accommodation, much more than I realized at the time. Australia has any number of hotels, however the meaning of the word hotel in Australia is often better translated as "pub". However many pub/hotels offer cheap rooms.
As the only other option in Dimboola was a roadside motel, I decided that the Victoria Hotel, located just off the main drag was a likely a better place than the other hotel was located on the main street. This was a great place as my room was very reasonable at $45, a minimal breakfast included. Of course the bathroom was across the hall, but the high ceilings, wood paneling and many other elegant architectural features made it a wonderful throwback. The one off-note was the restaurant's food which was greasy.

I had noticed that my back tire was slowly loosing air. In Dimboola, I removed it to see if I could find and remove the cause. I found a bit of wire protruding on the inside of my Continental tire but not where it had entered the tire. I was unable to extract the bit of wire, so I covered it with a tire boot and put in a new inner tube.
As I was leaving Dimboola, I found out just how judicious I had been in my choice of accommodation the day before: the other hotel was closed owing to major fire a some point in the past. Also, my odometer went over 9999.9 km and reset back to zero.
There was generally a nice wide hard shoulder on the A8 in Victoria (or Western Highway) but once I crossed into South Australia (or Dukes Hwy) this ended leaving me to hover at the edge of traffic. I am kind of glad to be off it.

There are a lot of signs and facilities along the A8 that show the Australian road ministries are quite concerned about driver fatigue. Near Dimboola there was even a roadside place manned by volunteers that handed out free coffee or tea. This is a bit worrisome as it represents a response to a real problem.
A little after Kaniva, I changed into my Gore-Tex socks. This turned out to be a mistake as because I wasn't wearing rain pants, the rain ran down my leg into the socks where it accumulated. When took then off at border of South Australia, there was something like half a pint of water in each one!

I looked into getting a room at the Bordertown Hotel. After being warned it was DJ night and that my room would above the bar, I decided to look elsewhere. In the process of finding a motel, I found out that Bordertown is Bob Hawke's birthplace.
Bob Hawke is a former Australian Prime Minister who also held the Guinness world record for downing two and a half pints of beer.
Oh, yeah. The public toilet in Bordertown is in an old gaol.

On the net, back

2011-10-28T03:38:00.002-04:00

I now in Bordertown after a hard and later wet slog over the last day and a half. From Horsham, where I had lunch yesterday, to Kaniva this afternoon, I faced frustrating headwinds winds that reduced what should have been some great riding to a snail's paced grind. In Princetown, I happened to explain to the ex-Amsterdam hostel keeper that if I could keep above 20 kph, I was generally happy. He was overly impressed with my off-hand remark. Today, I reflected, the reverse is that when I can't do 20 on the flat, I get unhappy! As I left Kaniva, it began to rain. This had the salutary effect of reducing the headwind to a negligible level making for better time to South Australia. I have already mentioned to two people that I preferred the rain to the wind!

More later, time for a pre-supper doze.

On a good day

2011-10-26T06:34:00.000-04:00

I surprised myself on Wednesday by chilling. I started by badly cooking up some bacon and eggs on what turned out to be the worst stove in the hostel. I then climbed up to Chatauqua Peak where I stopped to chill at a couple of cliff tops where I could see both the valley in Grampians peaks and the hazy level plain stretching off into nothingness.

I moseyed back into town for a light lunch lunch followed by some hokey pokey ice cream, not unlike dulce de leche as to taste. After getting some stamps at the post office counter of an outdoors equipment store(!) I returned to the hostel but not before photographing an echidna opposite it. I then washed some socks and underwear before finding a lounge chair on which I read my book whilst listening to Midnight Oil on the iPhone.

Jason, one half of the staff at the hostel and a Peter Jackson look alike, not only recognized my Moosehead T-shirt for what it was but also commented favourably on the beer. Apparently, a few years back, he and friend had been touring in the U.S. where they found the beer to be like making love in a canoe. They went to a bottle shop (to use the Australianism) any looked around to find something more drinkable. Moosehead proved to be the winner. Since then he has a favourable memory of St-John, New Brunswick's finest.

Earlier in the day, I bought a packet of Tim-Tams which proved sinful as advertised.

I had some very good Indian food for supper before heading off to bed. That was a pretty good day.

On getting cornered by emus

2011-10-25T04:59:00.012-04:00

On Sunday, I took a time-consuming, but well-thought out side trip to the Tower Hill Wildlife Reserve or some such park. Tower Hill is a volcano that last erupted some 30,000 years ago, burying some Indigenous Australian artifacts in the process! No mention of whether any Indigenous Australians were also buried in the process. The crater is almost something out of a children's drawing of an extinct(?) volcano, with water filling the bottom except for a central craggy blob in the middle. As it was so dramatic (and, says the cynic, piss-poor for farming) it was turned into a nature park.

I am not sure about the exact timing of events, but some elements of native fauna, such as wallabies, took to the place. (Incidentally, I was surprised and overtaken by a black wallaby last night on a bike path next to downtown Warrnambool! A staff member at the hostel told me there was a group of 4-5 of them living in a park.) At a later time other native fauna, such as koalas, were introduce into the park. Again, the cynic suspects the koalas were to pull in the punters.

Anyway, the place is home to koalas, wallabies, kangaroos, emus and God knows what else. The emus surprised me with their size, presence and in-your-face attitude. Those birds are bloody big and it seems clear they know it. The big wallabies and kangaroos I have seen tend to look at you vacantly then bugger off. Not so the emus. To me, it was clear that "Should I kick him to death?" was an option going through their minds. This became a distinct factor when I took a walk in the park along some boardwalks through a marsh to a small island. I was absent-mindedly looking up in the trees looking for koalas (more on them later) when I suddenly noticed what I took to be a mother emu and a passel of chicks in my way. Talking quietly, I waited until they, most importantly the mama, wandered off into the undergrowth. I moseyed on a very short distance which got me on a narrow strip (3-4 m) land that led back to the mainland. When I got part of the way across, I saw another family group of emus, this one led by a male(?). I turned to head back the way I had come, only to find the "mama" emu blocking my path!
I inched forwards quietly asking the male move so I could get past him. Incidentally, I would have been happier if my digital camera battery hadn't died at that point! After several minutes of cautious stand-off, I managed to get past the male and the four chicks accompanying him. I later found out that the male emus do most of the rearing, so the presence of the female was something I will have to double check. The one I thought was a male had strong black and white markings on its head while the female didn't.

Emus appear to have their ears towards the back of their heads with very visible openings. I wonder if this is deliberate, so as to deceive predators into thinking they are being watched. They also have powerful legs with joints and muscles that move strangely as they stride.

As I got back to the visitors' center, I saw a small group of people pointing at some up in the trees. Putting two and together, I rushed back to the bike to get some charged batteries and then went to photograph the koala. The presence of the furball so near the visitor center causes the cynic in me to wonder if the park doesn't keep a koala or two handy! Koala wrangler makes a nice job description. This koala didn't seem to care in the slightest about the people. I wondered aloud about that this was likely a well-photographed koala!
After a light lunch in Koroit, I pedaled North. At first, I flew along but then the wind veered to come from the North so much of the afternoon was a hot and sweaty trial. I was about to stop to photograph the one live lizard I had seen when I caught sight of a large tractor bearing down. I pulled over onto grass verge to let it pass by. Australian drivers are very courteous as a rule but as this was a very wide tractor, I thought it best and courteous to give it lots of room. While Aussie tractors travel faster than Scottish ones, the lizard had buggered off by the time I was ready to photograph it.
The B&B I had earmarked for the night (not booked) wasn't answering the phone so I called the tourism office in Dunkeld, my intended destination. They suggested I phone Southern Grampians Cottages. When I spoke to Carolyn on the phone, the quote was slightly too high but she indicated that we could talk it down when I got there. When I did, I dealt with her husband George who put me in their one special, motel-like, "guest room" which was much closer to my needs as to space, facilities and price. Carolyn was slightly miffed that George had sold me the cheaper room.
The room was very nice with a few chooks peering now and again. So that's a shout out to Southern Grampians Cottages of Dunkeld, Victoria, Australia.

The day after saw me in wet weather gear as I rode to Hall's Gap through the Grampians National Park. There were lovely trees to compensate for the low clouds that largely hid the peaks.
The trees showed signs of a brushfire several years ago. There were also signs of some serious floods that had washed out some parts of the road, but which had since been repaired.

Near the end of the ride, I stopped by a lake to take a picture of some cliffs. There were some little corellas (white cockatoos) in the trees, squawking loudly. A feather from one of them was in a bush. As I went to pick it up I was surrounded by some crimson rosellas. One of them clearly thought I should feed it!
Then a beautiful sulfur-crested cockatoo landed on a branch in perfect photo range and displayed its crest!
Then a whole flock of white cockatoos flew by in a gaggle.
Coming into Hall's Gap, my tourist map had red markings on the road I had planned to take out of it along with a note about roads being closed due to flood damage. At the tourist info office, I was told that the roads in question were indeed still closed.
The detour seemed very significant. This was the element that caused a dam against various worries to give way and led me to the change of plans already discussed.
The grey kangaroos lounging about failed to raise my spirits.
Nor did the kangaroo I had for supper last night (in a restaurant: it is generally considered bad form in these parts to kill and eat the wildlife in the National Parks unless you are an Indigenous Australian. ;-) ). The kangaroo meat was ethereally tasty. However, it wasn't cheap. I could have got it cheaper at a shop that advertised kangaroo souvlaki(!) but I was leery of getting there for epicurean reasons.

On a new plan

2011-10-25T02:45:00.003-04:00

I have spent much of the day sorting out where I go from here. I think I now have a workable plan. I spend an extra day here in Hall's Gap to get in a hike and have a relatively chill day. (Which probably wishful thinking, given my highly strung nature. I spend the next two days riding West to Border Town in South Australia, where I will catch the train to Adelaide. In Adelaide, I will spend a few days with Diane and her husband Rob. Diane is an old friend of Margo. She has a strong place in family lore as the original owner of Tenzing the cat. Again family lore.

I would like send a big thank you to Margo for having rapidly given me the intro to Diane and Rob whom I would also like to thank. Simon, my roommate, last night was also very helpful with background information about this large country.

On a hitch in my plans

2011-10-23T23:31:00.006-04:00

Sorry if I haven't posted in a while but yesterday had me away from wi-fi. I have a partially written blog entry about yesterday, but it will wait.

My plan had been to head out of Hall's Gap to Horsham on Wednesday. Unfortunately, the road I was going to use was washed out a while back and still isn't repaired. There is a possible detour but it it would add something like half a day. I am not sure if I am up to it. The biking hasn't been feeling natural or easy, though I have had relatively poor luck with the wind, especially the stiff North wind yesterday. In a word, I think I have had to push myself too hard to do what I planned.

Part of me would like to catch a train to Adelaide from a nearby town and then the Indian Pacific to Broken Hill. Or some variation thereof. Then again, I am cold and damp right now in the Livefast Lifestyle Cafe waiting for the Hostel to open.

Why am I not happy looking at the white parrots outside?

Other considerations include the longer distances I will have face in desert with relatively little water. At a certain level, the desert scares me.

On schedule, back

2011-10-22T03:09:00.003-04:00

Hindsight being 20/20, I now know I should have pushed on to Princetown. I must stop doubting myself.

It was a fast, twisting downhill run to a river crossing, where I got on the Old Great Ocean Road. This unsealed portion ran dead flat on a flood plain to Princetown. I could easily have made it on the 20th.
There was a stop at the Melba Gully rainforest walk which was very interesting. Massive trees and ferns. Getting back to the road involved a bit of a climb which was welcome as the morning was quite wet and cold (full rain gear and merino jersey). The effort was warming.
I stopped in Princetown for eleven sea where I chatted with an adult family unit led by an older Aussie who had run a hostel in Amsterdam.

The next section of Great Ocean Road was the one I had been waiting for. It features sheer cliffs, stacks and plenty of shipwrecks. Pappy would like it. I stopped at a number of outlooks to admire the view. In doing so I kept meeting the same bunch of people including the family from Princetown. They were impressed I was more or less keeping pace with them. The wind was favourable.
After lunch in Port Campbell, the landscape changed into dairy farms spread over very gently rolling terrain. After two days of hilly terrain and the good wind, I flew along only stopping to photograph some white parrots, before getting to Cheese World in Allansford.
It had an agricultural museum, fine cheese and wine store and a restaurant which Lonely Planet said had good milkshakes. I had been looking forwards to one of these. Regrettably, the restaurant had just closed for the day. As I left, a couple said they had been seeing me now and again all day and were impressed at how fast I was covering ground.

I rolled tired but determined into Warrnambool (Warnerbol) where I got a bed at the hostel in a dorm with an ex-patriate Irishman from Limmerick.

Today I went to a beach side cafe called Simon's for a second breakfast. The man running the place was very friendly. As I was finishing, he came by to offer me a free cup of coffee and a homemade yo-yo. The latter is something like a large melting moment.
Afterwards, I braved the cold water and big waves (by my standards) to get a brief swim in the Ocean.
In the afternoon I visited the Flagstaff Hill maritime village museum. It was some amusing hokum but it had some fascinating stories of the local trading ketches. They seem to have sailed into the 1960s!

On the top of the Otways

2011-10-22T03:07:00.002-04:00

In what I hope doesn't become a habit, I cut my day short again. There was at least 700 m in climbing and it has turned wet, or possibly just damp. Also, I slept badly last night what with the heavy winds.

Shortly after leaving the motel in Skenes Creek, I came across a strange mammal by the side of the road. I took a few photos and set off for the tourist information centre in Apollo Bay. I thought I knew what the mammal was but I wasn't sure how it was spelt let alone pronounced. So being a librarian, I asked. It was an echidna. Pronounced "ekidna" and not, say "enchillada". (Also, the city I arrived in is pronounced "je-long" and not "gee-long".) As I sort of suspected, it is a particularly odd mammal being oviparous like the platypus. Pics will follow eventually.

I had a proper second breakfast in Apollo Bay and updated the blog. I also saw some galahs feeding on a lawn. Climbing out of town via a ridge there were a couple of large black parrots on a tree. After a 300 m climb, I arrive at Mait's rest, a spot named after a forrester who used rest his horses there on his way from A to B. The place has a short walk through the rainforest complete with signs about the massive mountain ash trees and the black carnivorous snails. Near the start there was something about the half the size of a raccoon scurrying through the underbrush. I haven't a clue what. The path wove its way around giant tree ferns which were wonderfully aromatic adding to the alien texture of the place.

Back on the road, I passed a black wallaby before I could stop. I turned around to whip out the camera but it bounded away into the sweet smelling eucalyptus before I could get the camera ready. A little later some black and yellow parrots flew by.

The road dropped back to the sea, before climbing again, up 420 m to Laver's Hill where a bird feeder being patronized by several species of parrot (crimson rosellas and Australian king parrots) and a laughing kookaburra influenced me along with the increasing rain to cop out early.

It was also another 32 km to the next town and I wasn't sure of accommodations. The Lebanese owner/manager of the motel I stayed in was in a bit of a tizzy over the death of Kaddafi, something I had been entirely ignorant of. He seemed surprised I didn't know. Then again, until that evening, I hadn't known about another visitor currently in Australia, namely the Queen.

Short entry

2011-10-22T01:59:00.002-04:00

I am near the end of my first rest day in Warrnambool. On schedule. This posting from a lousy coin operated computer. More to follow when I sort out wi-fi on the iPhone. I haven't been able to post pictures. Yet.

On Australian roads

2011-10-19T19:13:00.001-04:00

I assembled Leonardo yesterday. No major issues.

I then took the train into Melbourne to visit a map store and see some sights. Unfortunately, the map store was no more. I asked at the outdoors store next door if they could direct me towards some appropriate maps. They sent me to the RACV after some discussion as to my map needs. The discussion was prolonged by my jet lag induced inability to understand the acronym for the Royal Automobile Club of Victoria in strine.

At the RACV store, I had hard time finding a suitable map. Midway through, I started having a dry throat induced cough that made me look like a spaz to the staff. I got a map atlas which I slice out the bits I needed.

I went to the Immigration Museum, but before I went inside, I was overcome by a wave of fatigue, and opted to go back to Gelong. I decided I would delay my departure and see more of Melbourne.

On the return train, someone was talking about the Gelong Cup horse race and how some small businesses shut down for it. I listened out of one ear as the plain sped past me. Unfortunately, the Gelong cup was today (October 19) and my beautiful Victorian B&B was full up so I had hit the road today.

Today was sunny and eventually very hot (the forecast was for 28). I have been slugging back the water. The Gelong Cup is something of public holiday, so I had to haul the box of stuff I am sending ahead to Broken Hill for 50 km before finding an open Post Office! Lots of spandex cyclists on the road today. I chatted to a cycle trekkerr going the other way. He was heading back to Melbourne after having gone around the country. He asked about my plans. When he heard my destination was Broken Hill, he said the winds should be quite favorable.

My goal was Apollo Bay and its hostel. As the afternoon wore on and the Great Ocean Road wound ever on, I found myself getting very tired, despite some red bodied parrots fluttering around. When a motel with a restaurant came to my attention, I said "enough" and got a room despite it being only about 6 km short of Apollo Bay. I my defense, the receptionist wondered if I had heat stroke from my exhausted and breathless speech. Also, I have pedaled 110 km in hot weather.

A bus load of seniors arrived at the motel just before me. I shared a buffet supper (good for carb loading) with them along with fair amount of chitchat.

I don't know about the heat but the mileage should be less tomorrow. Then again, I expect more hills.

On the floor in Sydney airport

2011-10-16T18:45:00.003-04:00

Leonardo, bike shoes and bits of food passed inspection. I am catching my breath before attaching the wheels to the bike box. Everything arrived and I have at least two hours to change terminals.

Addendum

I have made my way to cheap domestic terminal with too much time to spare. I will have to wait for a while before I can drop off my bike and duffle. I have had a wrap and I am lying on the floor out of traffic to wait. I am half tempted to get out my Thermarest!

On Air Canada flight 33

2011-10-16T18:43:00.002-04:00

I am smack in the front of the cattle class section with a window seat which I paid for. Worth the price on flight like this. Thanks to the sleeping pill Mummy gave me I was asleep for most of the first half, getting up a few times to take a leak. Incidentally, bandanas make excellent, if possibly inelegant eye blinds.

Though I have flown on 777s before, this is the first time I have been far enough forwards to see the huge engine pods close up. I have heard they are about as wide as a 737's fuselage! A little after dawn, I could see the reflection of the fuselage on the engine pod. A little more than two hours to go.

Funny how airlines have images. Fundamentally, they all offer much the same experience, but I have cheerier impression of Air New Zealand staff, than Air Canada on this flight. Dumb thing to say given the status of labour relations. But there was a solictousness about the Kiwis that was nice as they went up and down the aisles offering water to stave off dehydration in the passengers. I'm hungry.

While outside air temperature is -57F, the window blinds are hot to the touch.

As the plane left near midnight and I had set my watch to Vancouver time, I have not reset it to Sydney time as it is easier to keep track of where we are in the flight that way! About an hour to go.

I have been wearing my glasses with a strap so I don't have to worry about where I put them. I taken a bunch of "panda" pictures of myself with the iPhone that will get posted at some point.

Sorry Margo if this isn't about biking but I'm bored and need to write.

When breakfast came around, I asked for coffee and orange juice. Being me, I apologized for being "greedy". The flight attendant said I wasn't as I had been asleep most of the way. Implicitly, she was saying I hadn't had the supper offered after take-off or the sandwich offered around 6 AM Vancouver time! ;-) Mummy has oft times questioned the wisdom of the timing of airline feeding times.

My game plan for Sydney airport is to get through customs and quarantine, change terminals, check into Jetstar and have lunch.

I filled out the Aussie landing card twice. The first time was around 6 AM Vancouver time. Looking at it at 1:30 PM, I had trouble reading my own handwriting in places, so I figured I should fill out another one! The bio control questions want to know about animal products. Does that include wool? I have wool socks, a woolen Mactaggart tartan scarf and a merino wool jersey. If memory serves, the merino wool comes from New Zealand!

We are stopped at the terminal, waiting to be sprayed with insecticide. At least those noisy engines are stopped.

On Air Canada flight 195

2011-10-16T00:21:00.001-04:00

The flight is full and late due to baggage paperwork issues and too much baggage. I hope Leonardo wasn't the issue or that leaving him out was the solution. Lots of people with laptops, so I feel at home being the geeky with the Divanita! We are approaching Vancouver so I will save this now for later posting.

On significant relief

2011-10-15T17:31:00.000-04:00

I am waiting to board my plane to Vancouver. I am very relieved as I am now past a stage of worry. Boxed bike was 20.50 kgs. Duffle was 16.25 kg. Thank you Robin for the lift.

On vague relief

2011-10-12T19:57:00.003-04:00

Well, it seems that I will probably get to Australia on schedule after all. I should be more relieved than I am, but I am conflicted as to my sympathies to unions as stress emerged today in my union capacity at work.

I was somewhat amused to note that the aircraft depicted in the article is a Boeing 777 at Vancouver airport as I will be boarding such a plane on Saturday, assuming more nonsense doesn't rear it's head. However, the picture shows a 777-300ER, whereas I will be flying in a shorter, but much longer-ranged 777-200LR.

On how bicycles and moose shouldn't be combined, part II

2011-10-12T15:42:00.003-04:00

Nearly a year ago, I wrote about a CBC article describing someone who advocated hunting moose using a bike. This article came out today, which confirmed my general suspicions about the legality of hunting from vehicle. From the article, it seems the people involved are serious yahoos.

On why you should always wear your helmet while biking

2011-10-11T22:45:00.001-04:00

Follow this link and find out why!

On why I will be taking binoculars with me

2011-10-10T22:16:00.007-04:00

I was going to summarise it in one word, namely "galahs", except when I looked up the word in Wikipedia, it wasn't one of the birds I had seen in Ned Kelly, the 2003 movie starring Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom. Those birds were mostly green with some very colourful patches around the head. That probably makes them lorikeets of some description. (I now think they were rainbow lorikeets or Australian ringnecks, but I could be wrong.)

The point is that this post has already led me to find out that there are 50 plus species of parrot in Australia. As my definite exposure to wild parrots is limited to some kea and my possible exposure to a glimpse of a kaka, I'll be damned if I let the opportunity to engage in some serious parrot watching slip past me! There will also be kookaburras, wedgies and what have you!

In other packing news, I have done a goodly amount of packing: Leonardo is boxed except for the seat which is currently on Floria and my duffle and carry on bags have been partially filled. I have been using an adapted version of the list I had devised with Margo's assistance for Newfoundland. As a number of items will not be available to be packed until the day I leave, assuming I leave, and others have multiple locations, I have been ticking off the various bits using a variety of coloured highlighters that I acquired for map annotation way back when I was planning my first trip to Newfoundland! Blue highlights mean my blue carry-on bag (i.e. one of my rear panniers), orange means my red duffle bag, green means stuff I will be wearing on the plane, and yellow is for things I can't pack until Saturday. Unfortunately, my bike computer is now AWOL.

Addendum
After being threatened with railway shares, the bike computer resurfaced.

On what I was afraid of

2011-10-10T09:24:00.002-04:00

I had earlier written about how the strike threat by Air Canada flight attendants was a potential hitch in my plans. Margo or Chris had commented that the determination of the Federal government to legislate them back to work was an answer to my prayers. Unfortunately, it seems that the tentative deal that they had worked out earlier has been rejected and that they are set to go on strike as early as Thursday. While, the Tories seem poised to legislate the flight attendants back to work, there is the distinct possibility in my book that Air Canada flights will still be in a state of flux and uncertainty by Saturday even given best case scenarios.

My feelings are along the lines I don't need this stress.

On re-organizing my packing strategy

2011-10-01T20:49:00.005-04:00

In some cases, you never know how good you are at something until an outside element gives you pause to reflect. One example of this was on a car-camping trip I was on to Nova Scotia in 1986 with my parents, and siblings Alice and Philip. We had arrived at a campsite and proceeded to set our tents, etc. After a while, we were greeted with applause by the people at the next site over. They were impressed at how quickly and efficiently we had set up our tents, etc. Of course, they didn't know we'd had worked out our roles in a long trip from California to Quebec the year before, so we all knew who does what when arriving at a campsite. However, we hadn't realised just how good we were until our neighbours at the camp ground applauded us!

After five years of biking touring, I like to think that I have worked out a reasonably efficient method of packing my gear into my set of MEC Cordura bags. The "office" of books, electronic support devices (battery charges, etc.) and other dry odds and ends go in the front left bag. Tool kit and rain gear in the front right bag. Sunscreen, toilet paper, cup, cable lock and bug dope go in the back pouches of the rear bags. I have been more flexible about the main compartments of the rear bags as their contents vary somewhat depending on the trip. In Newfoundland, for instance, the right rear bag was clothes and food, whereas the left one was largely given over to camping gear. In short, I knew what I could carry and where I would carry it.

This meant I didn't have to think too hard about in the pre-trip planning and packing stage. This went out the window when I bought a pair of yellow Ortlieb Front-Roller Classic waterproof pannier bags this afternoon. There are two reasons for this. The first is that they are somewhat larger than the MEC Cordura PF-21's they are replacing, and therefore my overall volume budget it larger than it was. In addition, as they are waterproof, it no longer makes sense to put my tools and rain gear in the front right bag. Also, I am adding sleeping gear to my usual load, hence more volume. I could add a bag on top of my rear rack, but that isn't ideal. Anyway, my plan is to do a test pack of the bags on Leonardo in order to see what works best. One advantage of this is that I can then put much the gear into my duffle bag, ready for the trip to Oz. Hmm, that reminds me that I should include the duffle bag in my packing experiment!

Or maybe not. I should mail it to my end point. Hmm, I must investigate the Australian postal service.

Addendum
I looked up the Aussie post office and mailing a parcel of duffle bag, and bits looks like the sensible option. Subsequently, I inquired of a hostel in Broken Hill, and they said they could hold the parcel for me, so that looks set.

Using the logic that I wouldn't remember all the bits, I stuffed most of the things on my packing list into 3 out of my four panniers, excluding one of the front ones. I could do it, but the rear ones were very full. I am still dithering about whether to seek out additional volume.

On a new word I just invented by accident

2011-09-28T14:54:00.002-04:00

In the last two days, I misspelled the word "aristocrat" or its derivatives several times as "artistocrat". The last time I so misspelled the word, I had the idea that I should coin the word. "Artistocrat" would mean upper-class and wannabes in the art world, either aristocratic or pretentious artists or artistic or artistically pretentious aristocrats. Actually you could throw in artistic prima donnas, their sycophants and the rest of the demi-monde as well. Please use the word.

On chuckles, trials and tribulations

2011-09-25T15:57:00.009-04:00

Chuckles
A little over a week ago, I was in my gym in the midst of doing some bends when I realized that my ride in the Eastern Township's Challenge that I had completed the week before, covered nearly exactly the same roads as had been ridden by an old friend of Margo's back in July.

She had contacted Margo looking for ideas for a three day bike tour in the Eastern Townships. Margo then passed on the request to my mother and me. We provided her with a suggested itinerary and as well a place to stay for a night (my mother very kindly offered Margo's friend the use of her house despite the fact my mother was in Newfoundland). Margo's old friend took up our advice and my mother's hospitality and seems to have had a great time.

The route was Stanstead-Compton-North Hatley-Magog-Stanstead. Shift that one notch and you get nearly the same as the longest version of the Eastern Township's Challenge, i.e. what I did. Only, I had done it in one day, whereas she had done it in three!

This thought gave me the giggles to the extent that I had to stop my exercise for a bit.

It is not a fair comparison as I was in "go fast mode" on a lightly laden bike whereas Margo's friend was out for a sight-seeing tour with clobber for three days. As well, her route was probably a bit longer and took in some less well-surfaced roads. Also, there is the age factor as she is about Margo's vintage.

One morning last week, I was getting my bike ready to go to work when one of my neighbours commented that "Y'a pas personne plus en forme que toi!" ("There isn't anyone more in shape than you.") I demurred out of modesty and the fact that I have body image issues. However, I later reflected that given my performance at the Township's Challenge I should think of myself as being in very good shape.

Trials and tribulations
On the same Saturday as the chuckle event, I took Leonardo in for a tune-up and wash prior to going to Australia. The guy at the bike shop embarrassed me by pointing out one of the bolts on the rear rack was missing, and that others were loose.

In addition to pointing out a few things I wished them to look at, I also asked them if they would sell me a spare derailleur hanger. As the bike shop isn't a Devinci dealership, the guy suggested I try Le Yeti (another bike store and one which I patronise from time to time) instead as they would likely have the piece in stock. I did so, but as Leonardo was being tuned up, I was riding die Fledermoose. Unfortunately, it seems you have the exact bike on hand to figure out which hanger to use, even though I knew I had a 2006 Devinci Destination. I wasn't overly impressed.

The following day, I took my iPhone to a Bell Boutique hoping to get it unlocked by them so I would be able to get a temporary phone number in Australia. The people at the store told me that Bell didn't offer unlocking services, but directed me to another store nearby. This was something of a storefront operation. The guy made a comment I didn't understand about the iOS of my iPhone being too up to date. What I did get was that it would be more expensive than if it had an older version of the operating system. In any case, I left the phone with him overnight.

After work on Monday, I picked up Leonardo at the bike shop. The tune-up had just been finished. The person I dealt with had been doing the work. He observed that threads on my derailleur hanger were a bit damaged and suggested that it should be replaced. As I had already noticed this the last time I had reassembled Leonardo and was already going through the motions of getting a new hanger, I think I was very well prepared for his observation. I did, however, verify with him the the proper procedure for replacing a derailleur hanger. ("Remove the rear wheel, unbolt the derailleur, unbolt the old hanger, bolt in the new hanger, bolt on the derailleur and replace the wheel.")

After bringing Leonardo back home, I set off to get my iPhone. The person I had dealt with the day before wasn't there, so it took a surprising amount of fiddling around by the shop people to find my iPhone. Not very impressive. A quick examination of the device showed that it had been wiped. "No big deal," I thought, "I can restore it by plugging it into iTunes." This was definitely not the case. Three hours later, at least five attempts at restoration and a lot of sweat and anxiety later, my iPhone wasn't working at all. I phoned Apple to see if there was anything they could do about it. After taking my particulars, I was instructed to take it to make a Genius Bar appointment at my local Apple Store. Fortunately, you can do that on a Windows computer, and I made an appointment for after work the next day. However, as I was of two minds as to the legality of what I had asked to do, I was rather scared that I might have turned my iPhone into an expensive paperweight. I called James to vent. As usual, he was able to calm me down and I admitted to him that this was possibly a good time for something bad to happen as I have a comfortable amount of money in my bank account.

Riding to work the next morning, I was crossing Sherbrooke Street when I heard and felt an alarming clunking from die Fleddermoose. A quick check revealed that the back tire had been pierced by a screw. This happened at the same spot where this had happened to me last year! To add further insult, the tire so pierced was the Schwalbe Marathon that I had bought to replace the tire damaged in the previous incident!

Already upset by the iPhone situation, I was very agitated. I attempted to get a taxi. I wasn't sure if I wanted to go home or to work. I eventually decided to replace the inner tube and ride carefully to work. I had phoned my superior at work to let her know that I would be late. Actually, I had phoned my superiors as the first time I called, I dialled my old superior by mistake.

At lunch time, I wrote up a problem history for my iPhone and tried to make it clear that I had done what I did in good faith. I printed out a copy and took it with me to the Apple Store. It may sound nerdy, but I knew I was under stress and that I communicate better by writing than by speech. Also, the Apple Store is fairly loud. In any case, the guy at the Genius Bar at the Apple store read my document. He then took a quick look at my iPhone and then my file at Apple. Luckily, I had gone for an extended warranty and he interpreted my actions being in good faith. He therefore simply replaced my iPhone, free of charge.

My relief was very substantial. I had (and have) a lot of warm fuzzy feelings towards Apple. In fact, I decided then and there to get an official Apple World Travel Adapter Kit. The latter has the various bit you will need to plug your iPhone into the wall in most countries. I had been debating between various recharge options.

The session at the Apple Store was over quickly enough that I was able to get to a major bike store just in time to buy a 700x28C Continental TouringPlus tire before the store closed. I am very sympathetic to store employees not being happy by customers coming in at the last minute. On the other hand, I was there to quickly buy something very specific and not entirely inexpensive.

In case, you didn't guess, this last purchase to was to replace the tire that had been pierced in the morning. A case could be made that I might have been premature in replace the Schwalbe, but as the screw had pierced the tire substantially (I'd had trouble removing it), I felt there was no percentage in keeping the tire. The structure of the tire had probably been compromised to the point were it was an accident waiting to happen.

On Friday evening, I went up The Main on Leonardo, first to Schwartz's and then to Le Yeti for not one but two derailleur hangers. Earlier today, I replaced the existing hanger and then gave Leonardo's wheels and mud deflector a scrub.

I spent part of this afternoon re-entering phone numbers into my iPhone. This has resulted in at least one person getting a blank e-mail from me. If you got one, please accept my apologies.

It hasn't been an easy week.

Saddles
When we were in Newfoundland, Margo commented that the saddle on Leonardo was looking a little rough around the edges. I had been thinking the same thing. As well, I had found the saddle wasn't as comfortable on the first few days as I should have. The root of that problem is that the saddle on die Fledermoose isn't the same type as the one on Leonardo. At one point, they had been the same, but time and weather meant that I had to change die Fledermoose's saddle to another similar but not identical saddle. All this to say that if I get a new saddle for Leonardo, I have to get one for die Fledermoose. In fact, I have chosen and bought new saddles.

However, I don't want to go through the saddle breaking-in process for both bikes right now. My trip to Australia is three weeks away and I am simply not going to get enough riding on Leonardo in. Instead, as Leonardo's old saddle now has a finite life expectancy, I have put it onto die Fledermoose in order to get my bum into the proper shape.

On a potential hitch in my plans

2011-09-13T18:46:00.005-04:00

It seems that Air Canada flight attendants have voted to go on strike starting September 21st. As I plan to be leaving for Australia on October 15th and that I am a union representative at work, I hope that Air Canada manages to reach a deal with the flight attendants to avert a strike.

If that fails, I really pray that Parliament will order the flight attendants back to work before October 15! This probably makes me a hypocrite, but late October, early November is a lousy time for a stay-cation in Montreal.

On Continental TravelContacts, rolling in the Townships

2011-09-10T20:37:00.006-04:00

I did the Eastern Townships' Challenge bike tour today. As I wrote earlier, the route this year was on very familiar roads. Most notably, it went through North Hatley, my home town. Having lived in Montreal for a baker's dozen of years, there were some changes to some familiar sights, but also a lot of nostalgia. One relative downside was that I was frequently tempted to take some of the shortcuts that I knew of. The only temptations I gave into were those to use a pair of bike paths on the rail bed of the Massawippi Valley Railroad: first from Beebe to Ayer's Cliff and then from Capelton to North Hatley. The former shortened my distance a bit and let me avoid the 143 between Stanstead and Burrough's Falls. Both of them let me avoid a number of relatively unnecessary hills. As my total distance was 152.38 km, I think I was justified. The theoretical distance was approximately 154 km.
I did this on my relatively fat 700x37C Continental TravelContact tires. I didn't really need such heavy duty tires, but today was my main chance to try them out before Australia. I went like a bomb on them. At lunch time on this cool but sunny and nearly windless day, I had an average speed of over 25 km/h! Going down the legendary Katevale hill, I hit 74.8 km/h! That is my highest biking speed ever! I am now totally sold on the TravelContacts!

Admittedly, there may be a math factor involved as the tires may have an actual circumference less than their theoretical circumference. This is important as the circumference is fed into my bike computer so it can figure out how fast I am going and how far I have been. This also calls into question a previous statement of mine that wider tires are typically slower. I will need to figure this one out.

Of course, it wasn't all cruising and claret, so to speak. My bum was sore at lunch, and remained so until I lowered my seat slightly. The after lunch portion was a bit of drag. I had to remind myself to pace myself rather than let myself give into the urge to push myself too hard in order to get over the frustration of not going faster, especially as I knew that I would be facing the long and steep hills out of North Hatley on the way to Katevale. There are two hills. The first goes by the old family summer house and ends with a decent downhill that is utterly ruined by the fact that the pavement is poor and it ends in a rough wooden bridge just before a longer and steeper climb. The surface means you can't convert much of the kinetic energy you gained going down into potential energy, i.e. altitude on the other side. As I was aware of these long climbs, I stopped in North Hatley to attach my iPhone to my handlebars and play Midnight Oil on it to give me a boost. Just after I got into Magog, I began to feel some pain in the big toe on my left foot. After a while, I changed my socks from lightweight biking socks to heavier wool ones. This seemed to help somewhat.
My parents also participated in the Challenge. My mother did the basic route which was theoretically about 110 km, and she came out with a total distance of about 111 km. My father “wimped out” ( ;-) ) in North Hatley with a distance of 78.52, thus avoiding the 35 odd km to Orford and the associated hills as North Hatley is distinctly lower than the Mount Orford ski center. (Of course, he then mowed the lawn which is something I would ride 35 km to avoid doing!) My mother finished before me, and I was very glad she was there as I could let her do the driving back to North Hatley, right away as I was somewhat exhausted. I could have driven home, but only if I had waited about a quarter hour.

On the number of bike tires in my flat

2011-09-03T20:58:00.005-04:00

The number is 10, though only 8 if you ignore the ones currently on Leonardo. The latter are 700x37C Continental TravelContacts that I installed this morning. I had ordered them from a local bike store back in July and they only arrived on Wednesday. I am hoping they will proved useful in Australia. In the meantime, I have put them on to break them in and to get a better idea of their characteristics. This has meant that I had to take off the close fenders and put on simpler deflectors.

Of the others, 2 are the knobby 700x35C Kenda Kommandos that Floria came with. 2 are the 700x28C Kenda Kwick Rollers that Leonardo came with. 1 is the 700x28C Kenda Kwest that I bought in at the Canadian Tire in Gander. I don't have a high regard for Kenda tires. There is also the 700x32C Continental Touring Plus that I ordered from the MEC while in Newfoundland, but which failed to catch up with me on the Rock. This was briefly on Leonardo before the TravelContacts arrived. Its "mate" is a 700x32C Schwalbe Marathon Plus from before Schwalbe's quality control went South. (These last two are Leonardo's "pavement" tires.)

The final one I am uncertain as to its exact nomemclature. It is a 700x28 tire produced by Specialized as part of its Armadillo line. The exact variety is unknown as the identifying label has faded over the years. It first saw service on the Castafiore before doing yeoman duty on Floria. However, it was getting very old so I replaced it a few weeks ago on the advice of my local bike shop. It was replaced by a 700x28C Continental Touring Plus, from the MEC in Montreal. I should have added it to the recycling pick up.

The five assorted Kenda tires have seen relatively little use but on the other hand, I don't see a real use for them. Well, apart from using the "Kommandos" if I were to know I would be riding in a mucky environment. Of course, if someone wanted them, they could have them gratis.

On the other hand, Leonardo's "pavement" tires are simply waiting for their call to arms. What that would be, I don't currently know. Next year is a long way away.

The fact remains, that having 8 bike tires not currently fitted to a bike in one's flat is at least one too many!

On one of the advantages of being a bike-geek

2011-08-30T19:14:00.004-04:00

One the common attributes that people to me is that I bike to work and that I am somewhat bike obsessed. This is not a bad thing as there are worse things to be labelled. In fact, I rather revel in the label.

It has its uses. A notable one came up earlier this week. On Monday, I was given a new schedule that will start in November. I will be working Sunday-Thursday, rather than Monday-Friday. I took it better than most of my professional colleagues (who are also getting new schedules). However, on Tuesday I suddenly realized that the schedule was in conflict with the Tour de l'Île and the Défi Métropolitain. I approached my superior about this conflict. She didn't hesitate for a moment before saying that I would be allowed to alter my schedule for those weeks, given that I was such a bike enthusiast!

On four (possible) muck-ups in Australia

2011-08-29T22:13:00.005-04:00

The first was applying for a more expensive visa than I needed to.

The second I noticed, but not chronologically, was booking a flight from Broken Hill to Sydney on Regional Express without verifying whether they take bikes and at what cost. In theory, they should but in practice, who knows. I have made an inquiry. The thing is, I could have worked things to stop riding in Mildura where I would have had more of a range of exit options.

The third I noticed but was probably the first muck-up was not checking the exchange rates. I had an idea the Australian dollar was worth a little bit less than the Canadian one. It turns out the reverse is true. Thankfully, the difference is not severe.

The fourth I noticed, but which happened before the Regional Express blunder was not to notice that the Jetstar flight I booked flies into Melbourne's secondary airport near Geelong, not the main one. This actually could be an advantage as if I found suitable accommodation in Geelong, I could start from there, rather than central Melbourne, as Geelong is apparently about 70 km to the South-West of Melbourne. The downside is that I would have to take a train into Melbourne to see the sights. Then again, after three flights, including one that comes in at number 23 of the 30 longest commercial flights list (15 hours 25 minutes spanning 3 days on the calendar so I will never see the light of day on October 16, 2011), I may simply be unable to function sufficiently to get into Melbourne!

For the latter reason, I am strongly tempted to book myself a private room in a quiet establishment in order get some quality sleep, rather than a cheap room in one of Melbourne's many quality "youth" hostels.

None of these issues are critical, and in the latter case, "it's an ill-wind that blows no good".

On biting the bullet

2011-08-24T20:19:00.005-04:00

I have booked my flight to Oz.

And applied for an Aussie visa online.

And had it accepted.

And then discovered I could have applied for a significantly cheaper version.

On being blown to the horizon

2011-08-24T20:10:00.004-04:00

We started early, but not so early as to miss a squirrel picking up and eating a fallen scrap of Alice's chocolate cake. If she was using the standard family recipe which includes a bit of coffee, there was the possibility of the red squirrel going hyper on caffeine. This trope has been explored in the movies Hoodwinked and Over the hedge with "hilarious results" to borrow a phrase from old British TV listings.

The wind seemed against us most of the day. Initial and optimistic applications of sunscreen were relatively in vain as bright sunshine gave way to significant cloud cover.

We stopped in Clarenville for lunch as well as some internetting at the tourist information office. The next one in Goobies beside the statue of Morris the moose didn't have wifi. In fact, their computer had a dial up connection. The road out of Clarenville was quite dramatic, almost hacked out of a cliff!

We spent the night at the Tanker Inn which is a blue collar motel in Arnold's Cove. It was built in the early seventies to serve the workers at nearby Come-By-Chance whose refinery has a nicer name than history. In 2009, it was bought by Korean state oil company. At supper, there were two East Asian men at a table near us along with a group of Westerners. My theory is that the Asian men were Koreans from the head office.

The next day saw fog turn quickly to rain and what might have been an interesting crossing of the isthmus to the Avalon Peninsula turn into a wet slog. There were some sightings of dramatic barren landscapes in the fog, but nothing to lift our spirits. At Whitbourne, we stopped at the tourist information office to figure out where we would spend the night. After some debate, Margo suggested that we call it day and hole up in the nearest motel or similar. Chris and I heartily agreed to this suggestion. Unfortunately, the nearest accommodation proved to be in Broad Cove, 10 km or so off the TCH, between South Dildo and Dildo, towns so rude that their names can't be used in certain Southern States. ;-)

The next morning, we got up late in order to get to a nearby whaling and sealing museum. It was poorly labelled, badly organized and glossed over the fact that whaling in the area had been a short-lived boondoggle. It did have an interesting photo of a two-headed Minke whale fetus that had been cut out of its mother. The museum also spared us the worst of an intense downpour.

The day passed fairly drearily until mid afternoon when a young woman on a lightly laden touring bike passed me out of the fog on a hill. A little later, I came up to here at the turn off the TCH we intended to take. We chatted for a bit as I waited for Margo and Chris and she for her dad. She and her dad had set out from Victoria some nine weeks earlier, after some pleasantries we parted company, they straight to St. John's and we to Witless Bay.

The fog began to lift as we proceeded along route 13, with a stiff tailwind. The landscape was very windswept with few and stunted trees. There also sign saying you should stay off of the road in bad weather. We whizzed along the road.

The Atlantic seemed to lurk just beyond the curve of the Earth, beckoning me, the horizon having been brought. I had the feeling of being blown to the end of the road.

Near the sea we turned South to our efficiency unit where our hostess spoiled us with raisin buns and banana bread. I got to use the phrase "my cup runneth over" in conversation.

The next morning we rode to Bay Bulls, site of an ignominious RCMP operation, but more importantly, the embarkation point for a boat tour to the nearby Witless Bay Ecological reserve, where we could see puffins. I had selected the Gatheralls company for our tour as it used a catamaran boat that was likely to be the most stable for Chris. Puffins are iconic birds but I had never seen one in the feather before, as the little buggers like life out to sea. Hence, it was great fun to go on this trip especially as the guide kept a lively patter, full of bad jokes. "You will also be seeing some common murres, known as guillemots in Britain. Here in Newfoundland, we also call them good with gravy."

After lunch, we climbed out of Bay Bulls onto relatively level upland with a strong tailwind that made biking very nice. I would use the adjective "pornographic" except that making love isn't pornographic. It was that good. It was easy to maintain speeds over 30, and not hard to break 40 along the flat, well paved surface. All to0 soon we ran out of road as we came into the outskirts of St. John's.

We hung a right to go through Petty Harbour on our way to Cape Spear. I am afraid we didn't do justice to the beautiful village and surrounding area. There was a lovely twisty downhill in a narrow ravine down to Petty Harbour.

There were several tough hills before we got the Eastern-most point which were all the harder as we knew we would have to face them going the other way back to St. John's! Mind you, we also got some damn good downhills in one of which I hit 70.8! That is faster than I had gone before in Newfoundland.

We posed for photographs and Margo waved at Finisterre. I hadn't known that there had been a gun battery there during WWII. It was somewhat ironic that on my first bike trip that I had visited Fort Casey in Washington State. The guns in that battery had intended for use against the British, but these guns were used by the British. The irony comes from the fact the guns at Cape Spear had been lent by the Americans and were of the same type and vintage as the ones in at Fort Casey! It is not impossible that the guns had seen service in both places!

While gazing at the broad Atlantic, a large helicopter belonging to Cougar Helicopters circled and hovered over an oil rig support vessel before lowering a man on cable to the vessel.

We hauled our weary selves over a last hill where St. John's lay wrapped around it's harbor. After an illegally fast descent, we found our hostel. M&C installed themselves in their double room while I chose a bed in a four bed dorm room. There was a big man in the furthest bed. From the widespread belongings, I got the idea he had been there a while. Among his gear was an electric guitar and a laptop from sometimes came third rate recordings of his music. Or possibly recordings of his third rate playing. He left with his guitar in the evening, presumably to busk.

A Brit joined me in my dorm. He was on his way to Labrador and confirmed my suspicion that Mike, the big guy had been there awhile. M, C and I found some very traditional Newfoundland cooking at a nearby restaurant. I had fish and brewis, cod tongues and figgy duff, washed down with some Qidi Vidi 1892.

Unfortunately, I didn't get much sleep that night as Mike snored something fierce. To say his snores were loud would lose the opportunity to use similes along the lines of "he snorted like a congested sperm whale." Around 2 AM, the Brit left with his sleeping bag to sleep in the kitchen. I followed suit.

The next morning C insisted that we back to the same restaurant as it had baked beans. Apparently, he and M are at opposite ends of the baked beans appreciation spectrum. As M runs the kitchen, he doesn't get them often! I had toutons.

After searching for rare and elusive bike boxes, we returned to the hostel where I complained about the company in my dorm: not only Mike and his snores but also a mouse that I saw rummaging in my luggage. The staff kindly moved me to another room, closer to that of M&C.

That afternoon I visited the Railway Coastal Museum. I was rather amused to find out that the "Newfie Bullet" had been so named by American GI's precisely at the time the railway had been at its most useful. With my historian’s eye, I could see the various gaps in the displays' narrative where embarrassing bits had been left out. My take is that Newfoundland's railway shouldn't have gone beyond Corner Brook, which in turn should have been the Gulf Terminus. I didn't see a whole lot of economic activity past or present between Port-Aux-Basques and Corner Brook. That is a lot of needless track mileage and therefore expenditure. This debt meant that the railway was both under capitalized and probably drained away money from other Newfoundland investments which might have meant more business for the railway. Another issue for the railway is likely the poor education of Newfoundlanders which meant that its employees probably weren't as good on average as they were elsewhere. The low funding and low education probably led to a cycle of make-and-break and make-do that made the Railway increasingly dysfunctional. There was probably serious political interference as well as one of the reasons for the failure of Newfoundland as a dominion was excessive and corrupt public spending.

When I got back to the hostel, I took apart Leonardo and then joined Margo and Chris for a walk up Signal Hill. We passed some statues of the provincial dog breeds (i.e. Newfoundland dogs and Labrador retrievers). At the top of the hill, I was intrigued by one of the displays which had picture of the first shipload of American GI's arriving on January 29, 1941. Read that date again. Nearly a year before Pearl Harbor. Neutrality, mein arse!

There was a man walking his Newfoundland dog at the top. Schooner the dog attracted many photographers and was quite prepared to pose for them!

We returned to town via a cliff-side path that didn't do much for my acrophobia. Along the way, we had a discussion about the origins of the brightly-coloured paint schemes used on the houses in St. John's. I put forward my opinion that the colours are probably a fairly recent phenomenon as until relatively recently bright pigments were relatively expensive. As well, given the relative poverty of Newfoundland, paint was probably something of a luxury for many households.

We tried to find a restaurant that had been recommended to Chris and Margo by a cyclist from Seattle who had befriended us in the hopes of finding a bike box. Unfortunately, either the instructions or Chris' memory of them were inadequate so we ended up at the India Gate restaurant for a fine meal.

The next morning, we went to a record store to buy some Newfoundland music. On the way back, someone stopped me to ask about the shoulder strap fittings I had added to my MEC bike pannier. He owned some and thought it was a great idea! I feel vindicated: my idea has gone viral. Possibly.

Anyway, later that day I caught my flight back to Montreal and here I am.

Since then I have had the following thought. How does one explain the Newfoundland sense of humour testified by the relatively large number of Newfoundland comedians (Rick Mercer, Mary Walsh, Greg Malone, Andy Jones and the guy from the tour boat company in Terra Nova Park to name a few). Here is my theory: given that the island has a harsh climate, a tough surrounding sea and a relatively inhospitable geography, you would need to be able to laugh or you would either go insane or leave. Natural and social selection means that current Newfoundlanders have evolved a very good sense of humour.

On kindness to strangers

2011-08-15T10:20:00.006-04:00

Newfoundlanders are a kindly bunch on the whole. At the information centre/park HQ in Terra Nova National Park and federally paid bridges area, a man at a tour boat company told us where the people at the other tour company from whom we wished to rent kayaks from were. He also cracked me up with the line "This is summer in Newfoundland. We were hoping it would fall on a weekend this year!" Summer is the season in evidence this weekend. We set out from Alice and Mark's in the sun, only slightly slowed by me stopping at Canadian Tire to a temporary replacement tire. We had lunch at Joey's Lookout above Gambo.

As it was such a nice day, we tried to ask Alice and Mark to join us at Malady Head campsite. We couldn't reach them so we went to cousin Richard the author in Eastport. He was welcoming within the limits of his small house which meant we were camping on the porch. I used my bivy sack for the first time only to be driven buggy by the black flies. Around midnight I snuck into Richard's back pantry with my sleeping bag and Thermarest. My rest was poor on the whole.

Alice, Mark and Anna joined us for a day of kayaking and yacking at the previously mentioned place in Terra Nova. Anna seemed in a happier mood than the day before.

Late in the afternoon (4 pm), we set out for our sleeping destination. This was in one of three different towns at distances 34 km apart in total. Between a stiff headwind and my fatigue, we ended up at the closest option, Charlottetown.

We snagged the last room at the handy motel where we encountered the nice guy from the boat tour. While Margo exchanged pleasantries, Chris and I wondered about the bike with the bags on it was. It was heavily loaded in back but had nothing in front. This put too much weight on the back tire in our opinion. We were soon approached by the owner who wanted to know if we knew where the nearest campsite to the East of there was. (This was a nominal East as by "East" he meant closer to St-John's as "eastbound" on the TCH at that point meant actually going West!) We did but warned him it was 32 odd km away. More conversation revealed that his bike was broken in a remarkable number of ways. He had a broken spoke in his rear wheel and it was one we couldn't fix even though I carry spares. His rear hanger on his derailleur was broken. Margo thought I had one she had given me, but I didn't have it nor do I remember ever having one. Luckily Chris was able to bash his old hanger into back into shape with a couple of rocks. His rear mudguard had lost most of its bolts and nuts, becoming a danger in the process. I provided him with a number of replacement nuts and bolts. We couldn't fix his very loose front end. It was loose to the point that I strongly recommended he take the bus the rest of the way to St-John's. Chris agreed with me. However, Joseph, the cyclist, was determined and set off again.

He had taken the bus and ferry from Toronto to Port-aux-Basques. He had set out on Wednesday evening (it is Sunday night as I write this) which makes for some very long days on a cheap looking hybrid bike (Globe Vienna I think). He mentioned he had taken apart and reassembled his front end several times prior to departure which may mean his fundamental issue was chair-keyboard interface!

On the Atlantic shore

2011-08-12T14:30:00.005-04:00

I am lying on a sofa chez Alice and Mark. Newfoundland can surprise you as I discovered on Sunday. As I biked along the TCH, I saw a car that I took for a Bently, but was in fact a fancy Chrysler. I was telling myself that this wasn't Montreal and didn't have fancy cars, when a Rolls-Royce went by! I kid you not.

We got to the dock in Triton in good time on Tuesday. "Our" fisherman, Michael Roberts, showed us his speedboat and his longliner. After some discussion, Chris decided that the speedboat was just too small for the comfort of the bikes and his notoriously weak stomach. So we went in the 50 foot or so inshore fishing boat. It was a first for Michael to take paying passengers. His dad was along for the ride and did most of the steering.

There was a serious swell, but it was also very manageable. There were some fairly dramatic cliffs to look at but the highlight came near the end of the crossing when a number of Minke whales decided to entertain us with their antics to borrow a phrase from Stephen. Actually, all they did was surface briefly in places that there were more than one of them. But the were Minke whales which was treat enough!

We rode out of Leading Tickles on a winding road that brought us through Port Leamington where we had lunch. Shortly after lunch, I spotted and retrieved a cellphone by the side of the road. Just as I came into Northern Arm, I saw what was probably an ermine run across the road.

We spent the night in Bishop's Falls at an inn. There was a flyer at the reception desk for a Chinese restaurant that I had seen along the way. However the flyer didn't give the street number and I couldn't remember how far it was. A quick Internet search showed it was at 14 Main street. We were at 10 Main street! We walked over to the place. The food was pretty good considering. Margo tried to talk to the waitress in Mandarin but unfortunately she spoke Cantonese.

I noticed that day that my front tire was beginning to split. I consulted with Chris and we agreed it should be replaced as soon as possible. I ordered a replacement from MEC to be sent Alice, but there has been a bit of a snafu. I should have phone Cycle Solutions in Corner Brook and asked them to put a tire on the bus. I bought the old tire along with Leonardo and it has served for about 10000 km.

The next morning we crossed the Exploits River on the TCH then immediately turned onto a minor road that was almost overgrown but which I knew from satellite reconnaissance the night before went through. Chris asked me if it was the T'Railway. I said "No", because the asphalt was too old. My guess was that it was an old bit of the TCH. Later, a pickup truck pulled up beside me and it's owner asked to chat. He had seen us the day before near Northern Arm and was curious about us. Friendly Newfoundlander that he was he told us that my suspicion about the origin of the road was correct.

To avoid some hills we took an acceptable portion of the T'Railway to Notre-Dame Junction. We made Lewisporte in time for lunch at Tim Horton's. We rode along the shore, stopping in Campbellton to buy some wine for our hosts. These were Eileen and Gordon in Boyd's Cove. Eileen works at the same Library as I do and had offered to put me up when she heard I would be in the area. She greeted us warmly in something of a flurry of assorted cousins and a pair of pugs. She fed us fresh cod while fretting slightly as to thereabouts of her husband who was off cod fishing, in the recreational fishery. He is otherwise a university professor in electrical engineering at McGill.

The next morning, we went to a Beothuk interpretation centre that explained a nearby archaeological site. Very interesting with respect to what they did and did not find. No cod or auk bones but they did find polar bear bones.

The weather turned wet as the day progressed, and as there was nothing of note between where we were and Gander, I took off at my own speed get past the dull woods and rain as quickly as possible. (We have since decided against doing the remainder of the "Gander Loop'' and going straight on to cousin Richard in Eastport tomorrow.)

Alice was at home with Anna to greet me. Anna seems to be in a fussy mood, but que sera, sera. We have had a very relaxed day in Gander. After lunch, I went to the RCMP detachment to turn in the cellphone I found, then proceeded to the Museum Atlantic Aviation Museum. It need a few signs on the outdoor aircraft. Also the tires needed pumping up and the Canso(Canadian variant of the Consolidated Catalina)'s main wheels didn't match. Otherwise, it was a very nice little aviation museum. I was somewhat surprised at how much the Canso main wheels intruded into the sides of the fuselage. The museum's Lockheed Hudson looked like it had been used for passenger transport post-war. The place is much more the Gander Aviation Museum than the North Atlantic Aviation Museum.

After getting the makings of supper and making guacamole, I sat down with Margo and Chris to work out our route for the next few days. I hadn't really plotted the trip past Gander beyond a rough framework. We are now set to get to St. John's about a day ahead of the rough schedule.

The weather has been fairly poor and the locals keep saying they can't remember a summer this cold. This reminds of a Gilles cartoon.

I made black bean fajitas for supper. Margo baked some bread, made salad and some apple crumble for supper.

Did I mention I saw Minke whales?

On errors in recent posts

2011-08-09T17:26:00.003-04:00

The last couple of posts were done via the iPhone which is relatively hard to edit with. I will fix the problems later. More typing issues will be present in future posts.

On getting to Triton

2011-08-08T19:54:00.006-04:00

Yesterday we camped near the junction of the TCH with 410 under the power line next to the TCH a.k.a Sheppardville. Margo cooked the rice that I had brought to go with the curry that I had left in my freezer. She made Thai shrimp and veg stir fry to go with the rice. The place had favourable signs: fresh moose tracks and no vehicle tracks. However, it was a shade too close to the junction so we had too much noise of trucks slowing down or speeding up.
The day had gone much as I had expected except that the rumble strips gave way to nothing! And there was much rejoicing! We had lunch in the greasy spoon in White Bay. The road leading to the junction with the 410 was dead straight for what seemed like 10 km, so we could see the service station getting nearer. The road was being resurfaced, but as it was a Sunday, no work was being done. However, at the Iceberg Alley gas station, a group of roadworkers were putting so asphalt right near the pumps. My suspicion is that they government workers on their day off working for beer.
Margo and Chris' tent was generous for two but tight for three! In addition, the bikes were a bit too close to the entrance so I kept kicking the tent pegs when I tried to get in. I have much to learn about how to pack my bags for camping. The night went by fitfully and my sleep was poor leaving me with sore arms and a pain in the small of my back.

Today was hard mentally and physically. I found it hard to act as wind break for Margo and Chris as I couldn't keep station very well. Partly mental fatigue. The physical bit was the bad night's sleep in tight quarters and the presence of more hills.

We got to Triton where we amazed a barmaids by saying we ridden from Sheppardville today. I don't think we told her about tbe Bangkok to Paris trip! Triton has a new museum housing the skeleton of a sperm whale that had washed ashore near the Codroy Valley a while back. The guide was obviously very proud of the museum but spent a bit too much time on the generalities of sperm whales (which I knew very well) and not enough on the specifics of the specimen. Apparently it had been spent to Drumheller, Alberta to be mounted for display!
Tomorrow, we cross to Leading Tickles in a boat that may be too small for comfort.

On getting things together

2011-08-06T16:00:00.006-04:00

Well, I got to the Birds' Nest B&B where Margo and Chris had taken over my rather small room. Small, but at least it provided shelter together and was a symbol of the owner's great flexibility as Margo and Chris hadn't been supposed to be there at first. He is an expatriate Brit who is involved in a new restaurant in town. The B&B also acts as a bit of an internet café.
Thankfully, Margo had eased up on her idea of leaving Deer Lake today. This made for a much more leisurely day in which I could reassemble Leonardo without urgency while Margo and Chris cleaned and oiled the drive chains on their Surlys. Afterwards, we took our bikes on a very short test run into downtown to mail off my duffle to St John's, have lunch in the new restaurant and get food for the next few days. Unfortunately, I had forgotten my curry in my freezer in Montreal. I have just had a nice snooze. We hit the road tomorrow.

On getting to the airport

2011-08-05T19:24:00.007-04:00

Well this is embarrassing. I am having trouble writing a blog entry on my iPhone. Anyway, I think I have found a solution.

I got a ride with a very good taxi driver, as recommended by the Mole. He asked me if I had my ticket and passport as I got in. Apparently, he has had problems in the past. I didn't have or need a passport and this puppy I'm using is my ticket. However, I did forget my sunglasses but I remembered only a few blocks away. We went back to get them, as well as a second pair of bike gloves. In the process, I noticed that I hadn't latched the front door!

I saw Mark arrive from Halifax. As well, Judy Berlyn was there to pick him up! Small world.
I am now past security, waiting for my plane, listening to a group of Newfoundlanders talk in English and Joual. (They might be from the Lower North Shore.)

My first post from my iPhone.

Addendum: I can see Leonardo on a luggage wagon waiting to be loaded.

I have arrived Deer Lake with all luggage.

On ironing out transport issues relating to Newfoundland

2011-08-02T20:23:00.005-04:00

Via a technique of rare cunning (e-mailing the town of Triton) I have managed to find someone to transport Margo, Chris and me from Triton to Leading Tickles so that portion of the trip is solved. It looks like a fisherman will give us a lift.

Furthermore, I have arranged for a taxi to get me and Leonardo to the airport on Friday. My cousin the Mole is on good terms with a friendly taxi driver with a van. Not as clever as the wheels, but the circumstances demand it.

Addendum:
Out of curiosity, I used Google Maps to figure out how far it is by road from Triton to Leading Tickles. I had been using the approximation of 80 km. In fact, it is 210 km! By water, it is about 11 km!

On issues with Australia

2011-08-01T20:20:00.004-04:00

On playing chicken with Air Canada
During the last week, I thought I saw a very good deal on flights to Oz. However, I didn't jump on it as I wanted to wait until August to put the charge onto my credit card. When I tried this morning, the price was the previous standard one. Either I had checked using earlier dates to see what it would cost closer to the date of departure or the tickets sold out quickly. Either is possible, and to be honest I have been a more than a little distracted of late. However, it did highlight the fact that I am in a financial game of chicken with Air Canada.

On the wind patterns in Australia
My working plan has been to start in Broken Hill and go to Melbourne. This is, by and large, a North to South route. It has the psychological advantage of starting in a small town in the Outback and going to real goal: the Indian Ocean and Melbourne. As well, Melbourne has a lot to offer the tourist with a day or two to kill, before his train back to Sydney. Not mention bike shops that would provide a bike box. Conversely, biking in the opposite direction has the issues of trying get out of a large city on a bike (no easy task for the unfamiliar), riding towards what is comparatively little more than a fly speck on a map, and ending up in a smallish town with little to do in order to kill time before your flight back to Sydney as well as a relative shortage of bike shops and their bike boxes.

However, the winds tend to blow South to North in that part of Oz. As well, the longest days in my propose itinerary are the days between Broken Hill and Mildura which would probably be better at the end (when I am in better shape) than at the start.

Anyway, I can wait much longer before deciding which way to ride in Australia.

On my passport
My old passport ran out on the 13th of July. I had applied for a new one at the beginning of July. A notice saying they had tried to deliver it was in my mailbox last week. Unfortunately, I was only free to go to my local postal branch this afternoon. This was much more exciting than it otherwise as there had just been a heavy thunderstorm resulting in some flash flooding. In order to get to my destination, I had to traverse this major puddle.

Taken with my iPhone

You can see a motorcycle on the left of the picture. As I approached this obstruction, I saw it's rider, a young black woman, consulting her cellphone, evidently trying to figure out a way around it. It was deep enough, that my feet got wet pedaling through it.

At the postal outlet, the guy behind the counter knew instantly not only who I was, but also where to look for my postal needs. Rather than look under parcels, he went to the registered letter drawer. I am a little worried by this as I have no idea what his name is. He falls under my mental label of balding-red-headed-probably-gay-Québécois-man-who-works-at-the-postal-outlet. I don't get all that many parcels or registered letters, but he no longer asks me to provide ID except for pro forma reasons.

Riding home, I went by a different street, which turned out also to be also somewhat flooded. The same black female motorcyclist was coming the other way and smiled at me with the comment that there was a lot of water. Fortunately for me, I could walk my bike through the un-flooded pedestrian portion of the underpass.

Anyway, I am now in a better position to apply for an electronic Aussie visa.

On the meeting of my nieces

2011-07-31T21:14:00.007-04:00

If you've read the description of the nature of this blog, you'll know that I reserve myself the right to use this blog to occasionally indulge in my nieces, nephew and mooses. The latter don't feature in this entry though the first is prominent. The middle one is only tangentially mentioned. (Sorry Edward.)

My sister Alice and my new niece Anna arrived in Montreal on Friday. Owing to traffic, Pappy only picked me up after picking up Alice and Anna up at the airport. I barely got a chance to look at her before getting in the front seat, with her behind me. It was a little strange and slightly hard to take to have this little bundle of joy behind me, and not be able to properly see her!
When we got back to North Hatley, Désirée, my first niece, (now three years old) was at my parents' house as my brother Philip and Dominique were off having dinner together. As the senior cousin, she greeted her new cousin with interest as well as bit of refusal to be photographed. (I suspect that she is slightly fed up with being photographed by parents and grandparents.)
Alice said that Anna was reasonably good on the flights from Gander, so Alice wasn't overly exhausted. She therefore agreed to pose for a few photos on the sofa. After a bit, I got Désirée to join in the session.
Anna is about three months old and, as you can see in the photographs, is in a slightly roly-poly stage, with plump "hamster" cheeks. She is a mite fussy, but can be utterly charming. My meeting was at the oldest age of any of my nieces or nephews to date. Edward was three weeks old when I first met him and Désirée was one day old!

On Saturday, Alice put Anna in her complicated wrap thingy, and went to the market along with "Granny", Désirée and your humble correspondent, a.k.a. the doting uncle.
This being North Hatley in summer, we ran into quite number of friends, all of whom were eager to greet the new arrival. Among them were my best friend James, Jenn, his wife and my quasi-niece Isla. We made some arrangements to have lunch with the latter two and the former had to drive into Montreal to pick up a friend at the airport.

After lunch, there was a drift towards the PV for swiming and socialization. Isla and Désirée are of an age (give or take six months) and had a lot of fun playing in the water...
...sometimes by themselves...
...and sometimes with Alice, Dominique and Jenn. Here they are playing ring-around-the-rosie.
Granny, Anna and myself watched from the shore. There was a short-lived and relatively unsuccessful attempt to introduce Anna to Lake Massawippi. Still lots of time.
Anyway, here is me holding Anna in my parents' front hall. (Note the smile on Anna. Of course this may be because her Mummy is behind the camera!)

On preparations afoot

2011-07-29T14:32:00.003-04:00

As Alice and Anna are arriving this afternoon in Montreal, I decided to arrange to take the afternoon off work in order to greet them at the airport. This also means I will be 3 for 3 in the first uncle (or aunt) on my side of the family to meet new nieces or nephews!

Anyway, I have been using the time to do some preparation for Newfoundland in the form of washing and treating my soft shell jacket. I am also cooking some curry for the first night on the road. (Once the curry is cooked, I will freeze it. It should keep long enough that way without external refrigeration.) There is a pile of biking gear in the living room, waiting for me to figure out how exactly I should pack it all up for transport.

Hmm, and I probably should start boxing Leonardo for the plane, as I won't have all that much time to myself before next Friday as I am heading out to North Hatley this evening.

And to top it off, the price on tickets to Sydney has just dropped a bit. If they are still that price next week, I think I will book my to Oz.

On assorted topics, heat-induced ramblings

2011-07-22T20:15:00.005-04:00

It has been excrementally hot here in Montreal this last week. Consequently, this post may seem disjointed. (And may contain typos.)

Luckily, I bought an air conditioner about a month ago, so I have been able to sleep, despite the noise of the thing. I resisted getting one for years on the grounds of environmentalism, machismo and sheer inertia. However, either I'm getting older and less tolerant of extreme heat or Montreal is getting more heatwaves.

I bought my unit at a nearby big box hardware store. As the unit weighs roughly 70 lbs, I quietly borrowed one of the stores' shopping carts and used it to transport the air conditioner the few blocks to my flat. After hauling it up the stairs, I immediately returned the cart to the store.

It took me a couple of weeks, some duct tape, several magnets, some leftover corroplast and the spirits of Macgyver and Michael Weston to get it properly installed in my window frame. It is now cooling my bedroom, even as I write.

This foresight avoided me having to be a last minute shopper of the variety that I saw three of this afternoon. As I was locking my biking and going into my gym in the Forum, I saw no less than three people waiting for taxis or significant others to pick them and their new air conditioners up!

Of course, my foresight didn't stop me from biking to the MEC after work on Thursday, in order to pick up a squishy bowl and spork from Margo, through the hottest day so far. Shortly after leaving MEC, I passed a park with a water play area. I parked my bike and dunked my head in a spray of water. Still, the trip was a mite "mad dogs and Englishmen".

On the short arm of coincidence
Earlier this week, Margo and Chris flew in to Moncton to start their Atlantic Canadian trip that will see them meeting me in Deer Lake. As it happened, yesterday, I happened to glance at my brother's blog where I saw that he was in nearby Shediac. I made rapid e-mails and comments to both parties as it would be such a waste if they crossed each others' paths without realising it. As it turns out, they did see each other near Shediac, so I hope they stopped for a chat and possibly a photo or two. Philip and his family have rarely seen Margo and Chris, so this was a good and fun opportunity. I am not even sure if Chris had ever met Désirée before. I do know that Margo met Philip's family at Alice's wedding.

I like to think that my string pulling caused this meeting. I call the encounter the short arm of coincidence as it isn't extremely unlikely on the whole. Not like bumping into someone from North Hatley in the main square of Cuzco, Peru!

On Floria, grumbles about the rack

2011-06-27T19:46:00.007-04:00

There was an intermittent pinging sound coming from Floria die Fledermoose's hindquarters this morning which I studiously ignored until a red light on Cavendish. Looking back, I was horrified to discover that the one of the pieces of metal between the rack and the seat stay had come adrift. Moreover, it was the sheet metal of the rack itself that had broken. The words "metal fatigue" probably cover the the reason. I rode the rest of the way to work grumbling that wasn't it a pity that there was no longer a Canadian Tire (or other such store) in the mall across from work where I might buy a few washers and put it all to right.

I debated whether I should head over after work to the MEC for a new rack, go to a hardware store instead of or before going to the gym. Fate intervened before I made a decision: on the way back from work the rack broke on the other side in the same place. I had to affix the milk crate and rack to my backpack in order to get them home.
The "slots" in the central piece of metal show where the braces were and the metal that broke off. The lower slot was the one that broke first. This was an MEC mountain rear cycling rack. In order to get a replacement quickly, I cannibalized the silver coloured MEC seatstay rear cycling rack from Leonardo. In the process, I noticed that the latter rack had sturdier attachment points than the former (which were sheet aluminum). Consequently, I think I will get a new MEC seatstay rear cycling rack for Leonardo in black, instead of a new MEC mountain rear cycling rack for die Fledermoose. The advantages being a sturdier rack and that a black rear rack on Leonardo will match its black front rack! Trivial: yes. But as both racks cost the same, why not have Leonardo colour coordinated?

On thick tires in the Laurentians

2011-06-26T11:02:00.009-04:00

I owe my existence to the Laurentians: my maternal grandparents met skiing there, and later had a skiing honeymoon! Come to think of it, Aunt Lorna, my maternal grandmother's sister, met her husband skiing there and also had a skiing honeymoon.

A bit of my youth was spent skiing in the Laurentians, though not all that much. Some of the memories included my sister (aged ca. 18 months) walking around the house we had rented with the aforementioned grandparents with her feet in a pair of stainless steel dog bowls, much to the disappointment of Granny and Grandpa's Brittany spaniels who associated the noise with supper! Another was seeing Time Bandits quite late after coming back from the Laurentians.

These trips tapered off in the mid-eighties or so for various reasons. One of them might have been a badly timed trip at the end of February 1983. I know the date as there was an issue of some of the people sharing our accommodations going off to see the last episode of M*A*S*H.

Since about that time, I have never been in the Laurentians, at least, in the heart of the ski area.

Until this weekend.

On Saturday, I went in the Défi de Tremblant. The parents had been thinking of coming, but instead headed off to Newfoundland. Consequently, I went by myself in a rented car. Things got off to a shaky start when my alarm went off at 6:30 after a bad night's sleep. I had thought I had set the alarm for 5:30! Prevoyantly, I had everything more or less ready, including my duffel bag of gear leaning in front of the fridge in order make me remember the water bottles therein.

Driving up the Laurentian Autoroute, I was struck by how twisty it was. As well, the frequency of the hills made me nervous. The light, irregular rain was only a relative bother.

Owing to the situation with Canada Post, I hadn't received my kit, so once at the start (located at the Centre de villégiature Tremblant), I went to the information desk to see if they had it there. Neither my name nor those of my parents were on it. I could have sworn I had signed up. Anyway, something was worked out and I was issued with a bracelet and map.

While changing into my biking shoes and generally organising myself, I studied the map and the associated topographical curves. I decided on a 131 km option which warned of a 4 km un-asphalted section. I set off through the misty rain along an alarming amount of what seemed like down. Alarming, as I knew I would have to go up much of it at the end of the day when I would be tired! The disadvantage of starting these Défis at the bases of ski hills is that they are usually above the surrounding area and thus you have to go up at the end of the day. However, the topo curves weren't especially accurate yesterday, as a few tough hills didn't really show on the map and a couple of bits I thought would be tough, turned out to be a biker's dream.

Cyclists resting at the top of particularly steep hill

The upside of going up the hills, was that there were a few terrific (or possibly terrifying) "whee" (or possibly "aiee") moments. A case in point was one hill a little after the above photograph where I my "whee"-ing turned to "aiee"-ing when I realised that there was a distinct "Quebec speed bump" at the bottom of the hill. (Distinct culture and distinct roads). I didn't have a mishap, but I bless the Mavic wheels on Leonardo as when I checked my bike computer, I discover that I had hit 68.1 km/h! That is the third highest speed I have clocked.

Québec used to have some thoroughly eccentric first names. Owning to a much reduced birth rate and other factors, many of these colourful names are now only seen in old signs, such as the name of the bridge above.
The skies were mostly grey with moisture falling frequently. Although, it wasn't a hard rain mostly, it was a moist rain. I spent a certain amount of time wiping sweat from my brow and rain and condensation from my glasses. I also had trouble finding the optimum shirt switching between a Lycra jersey (above) and a merino one (see below). Eventually, I decided on sticking to the merino. At lunch time, I realised that I would get better ventilation from my helmet if I took off the headlight mount (note above).

While the map warned the optional bit I had decided upon warned of unpaved sections, it didn't mention several shorter unpaved bits on the regular route between Amherst/Saint-Rémi-d'Amherst and Huberdeau. If my memory isn't too far off, my impression is that it added up to more than 4 km! These Défis appeal heavily to the Lycra/spandex racing bike crowd. I passed a few of them on the dirt sections with a certain smugness as I didn't have a problem with the surface owning to my 700x32 tires! One of the racer types looked very irritated.

At lunch, I chatted with someone who had been surprised that the break was at 80 km along the route. As I had only done 57 km, I surmised that he must have taken an optional bit that added 25 km. It turned out that he didn't have a map on him and that he had been following some other people who looked like they knew where they were going. He wanted to know what was the fastest way back to the start. I showed him on my map where to go.

Bicycle traffic dropped off after I headed off on my optional loop. I almost felt worried as the frequency of Défi signs dropped off. But I persevered, traveling along besides farms, lakes and cottages. Shortly before I hit the unpaved section, I was past by a couple of racers. However once on the dirt, I was more of less keeping them in sight. Just after the dirt, they stopped at a dépanneur in Arundel where I chatted with them. From their grumbling, I could tell they'd had a tricky time on their narrow tires. I had barely noticed the difference on mine.

After Arundel, the route went past the village of Barkmere on Lac aux Écorces which shows the combination of English settlement and nationalistic Québécois renaming. After another tough hill, the route came to a well made provincial highway. Either there was a slight down slope, or a trailing wind, but I seemed to settle into warp drive cruise mode, zooming along in the high 20s, low 30s. It was glorious. However, it came to an end when the route veered off onto a side road that went through a covered bridge.

(Note the merino jersey and the lack of headlight mount)

In Saint-Jovite, there was a rather...interesting sign in front of one house.
After passing the remains of the Gray Rocks Inn, I finished at around 4 o'clock, having ridden for 5 hours, 34 minutes and 2 seconds, over a distance of 130.36 km, at an average speed of 23.4 km/h, (max 68.1), and with the expenditure of a nominal 2398.8 calories. (The latter statistic is a joke as the bike computer doesn't take into account weight, rolling resistance, hills and countless other factors.) I wasn't looking forward to the drive home on account of fatigue and like factors. I had made up my mind to let myself recover a bit at the car before heading back to Montreal. I even pondered spending the night in the Laurentians.

In this light, I was rather glad that my parents weren't along for the ride, as generally I find them very determined to return home as quickly as possible. They probably wouldn't have gone as far as me yesterday (owing to weather and terrain) and thus would have likely finished earlier. Combined with the atmosphere at the departure/finish site, they would have been itching to leave, whereas I wanted to catch my breath a bit first. Among other things, I wanted to shower as the humidity was nearly 100% and I sweat a fair bit at the best of times! I inquired at the information desk where I mind find said shower. I was directed to go into the Tremblant "village" to a certain spa/aqua park. Arming myself with my clean clothes and shampoo, I wandered into the un-themed theme park known as the Centre de villégiature Tremblant.
My parents would have loathed it, my father especially with his aesthetic penchant. It was surprisingly crass and remarkably scattered in direction. As example, I ask you to consider this purveyor of food.
Red and black check and a name with an apostrophe (where is the OLF?!) says anglo. Poutine, says "Québécois, ben raide". This is the first time I have seen the word "poutinerie". I could go on, but my overall reaction is WTF?
The weirdness of the place is partly cultural as the resort is appealing to a market from outside Quebec, as indicated by the above ad for Porter Airlines. The fact that it is Porter, not Air Canada also tells me that the place is looking at the "executive" market rather then the great unwashed.

After washing in the shower, I headed back to the car where I made a brief effort to nap, before heading home. Thoughts of staying in the area over night were cast off by the resortiness of the area and the fact that I brought neither my contact lens case nor a book. I did stop for supper just outside of St-Jovite, as it was going to be a longish drive and I knew that the traditional Chalet-Bar-B-Q was shut for repairs after a fire a week or so ago.

I found the overall experience a bit weird as while the Laurentians have been in the background for much of my life, about the only thing I recognized was "La porte du Nord" which used to a restaurant Granny liked. The location and name is now a combination of tourist information and fast food chains (McD's, Timmys and St-Hubert). Otherwise, I was mentally adrift as only a few names were familiar to me. The landscape certainly wasn't. This is somewhat significant as I justly pride myself in having a very good mental map. Yet, somehow this area wasn't registering. It might be that this was the first time I had seen the area in summer. When I spoke to my mother about the day, she commented that she didn't know most of the places I spoke of, so it was likely that the Défi avoid the "skiing" parts of the Laurentians.

I also find it interesting how many of the villages I past through had "anglo" names (Arundel, Weir, Barkmere) rather than "Québécois" names (Sainte-Jovite, Conception, etc.) . The names suggest that the colonisation of the Laurentians wasn't as "pure laine" as is commonly thought.

On the racetrack, speeding

2011-06-19T19:32:00.004-04:00

The Gilles Villeneuve Formula 1 racetrack is a "road course". This is more than a little ridiculous as it has nothing to do with the actual road network of the Greater Montreal area. Cars are allowed to drive on it, but they don't really go anywhere. As well, the speed limit is only 30 km/h.

Cyclists, rollerbladers and pedestrians are also allowed access (assuming there isn't a race on) as it is part of both the Route Verte and the Trans-Canada Trail. The latter bit is particularly weird when you think about it. As the track is carefully resurfaced every year or so, on account of the F1 races, cyclists, especially road racer types, use it as it is relatively free from traffic, the surface is superb and there is relatively little in the way of hills. You get all kinds from kids learning to ride to serious spandex types, with a relative bias towards the spandex crowd trying to get their cadences up. (Guilty.) Evidently there had been a bit of trouble at one point regarding them, as Vélo-Québec reported that they had negotiated with the authorities to have them stop applying the speed limit (30 km/h) to bikers.

Anyway, I took Leonardo out for a jaunt today that took to in the Gilles Villeneuve. In order to get a good workout in, I pedalled rapidly around the circuit for more than half an hour, breaking the speed limit fairly often. As it was a very nice day, it wasn't that hard. Much nicer than it was the previous Sunday when they were holding the F1 race!

On the circuit, bikes are directed down pit lane, at the end of which were three middle aged women with digital SLRs taking pictures of the passing cyclists. On my last circuit, I stopped to ask them why they were doing so. Apparently, they were practicing their camera skills. Rather disappointing really! I had thought of much more interesting and flattering theories.

After zooming around the Gilles Villeneuve and seeing nary a sign of its well-known rodent, the legendary, if often short-lived, Marmota monax urbinova suicidius or kamikaze woodchuck, I went along the strip of land that divides the St-Lawrence Seaway from the river itself. I did this a while back, only today the weather was nicer if buggier.

I came back via the shoreline bike path, only to be halted at the St-Lambert locks as they were in use. There was an electronic sign which said that it would be 40 minutes or so before the bridge would be lowered. However, there was someone there who said that as it was opening for pleasure traffic, it would only be 20 minutes or so. When asked how he knew this, he replied that as he had to use this route to get to work, he made a point of checking out the Seaway website to see when large ships were due through the locks!

As I had come over via the Pont de la Concorde, I went back over the ice breaker bridge. (On the way over the Pont de la Concorde, I had the idea that maybe a partial remedy to Montreal's bridge problem would be to extend the Pont de la Concorde over the Seaway via a drawbridge.) As I rode over the ice breaker bridge, I chatted with the guy who knew the schedule of large ships for a bit.

All in all, it has been a pretty good day.

On the difference between landscapes in dreams and reality

2011-06-12T10:35:00.005-04:00

In a Skype conversation with Margo and Chris a few days ago, I discovered that they are thinking of starting their Atlantic Canada bike trek in Moncton rather than Deer Lake. They wished to know how long I had taken to get from Moncton to Deer Lake a few years ago. I was able to send them an Excel file of my odometer readings from that trip.

While checking the file before sending it off, I noticed that my distances were fairly short on the whole, in fact much shorter than I remembered. Looking back, I was loafing along at a certain level partly as there were things I wanted to see, partly as I was approaching distances fairly conservatively and partly because I was traveling "bed to bed" meaning I was always stopping at a place where I was sure of getting a bed. Given the layout of Atlantic Canada, this more or less predetermined the length of each day.

Margo and Chris will be much less affected by this given their ability to camp. I wonder if this means my information will be of less use to them in the Maritime provinces compared to Newfoundland. In the latter province, the distances were much higher on average owing to the lesser density of the population and things to stop and see.

I offered to snail mail them the road maps I had torn out of the Atlantic Canada Back Road Atlas and waterproofed. They asked me to wait until they had a better idea about whether they will do this. Nonetheless, I have been thinking about both their potential trip and the trip I made back in 2008.

For this reason, as I lay in bed this morning only partly awake, I was thinking about what information I could provide them. (I am a librarian, after all: the desire to deliver information is a hallmark of my profession.) This morphed into thinking about the landscape of Newfoundland. As I was only partially awake, the "Newfoundland" landscape was that from an old dream. It was smoother, much more "yuppified" and quaint, fewer trees and somehow...much more remote, much further away from anywhere. As if it were on the distant edge of the World. I couldn't figure out which airports I would be using, nor could I even remember their names!

Then I woke up a bit more and everything snapped into reality: Deer Lake, Gander (whose airport I will not be using on this trip) and St. John's. As well, the memory of the actual landscape of Newfoundland (rugged, but relatively low hills, trees, and indifferent, "blue-collar" architecture) came vividly to mind. As well, as I have been to Newfoundland twice in the last few years, it seemed very much nearer and "realer".

Dreams are funny things. Yet I wasn't quite dreaming this morning, I was half-awake, or possibly only a third awake before I moved into two-thirds awake when stark clarity hit!

On a revised map of my forthcoming trip to Newfoundland

2011-06-06T14:00:00.008-04:00

Prodded by Margo's reference to my upcoming trip in Newfoundland in her recent blog posting, I edited the map of the potential routes I might take. To wit, I added the Trailway portion from Howley to Badger in purple. Not a big change, but what the hey?

View Biking from Deer Lake to St. John's in a larger map

(For the record, blue means by road, red by boat, and purple by bike path.)

On the route of this year's Eastern Townships' Challenge

2011-06-03T18:49:00.003-04:00

I was poking around Vélo-Québec's website for more information about the Tremblant Challenge (such as what day it is!), when I decided to look at the route of this year's Eastern Township Challenge. I was was in for quite a surprise on the whole.

As in several previous years, the challenge starts at Mount Orford. From there, it goes through Magog (possibly a bad idea, but I'm not the one making the route) and heads down the Eastern shore of Lake Memphremagog to Fitch Bay, then turns inland to Ayer's Cliff, then up the 143, down Sherbrooke road into North Hatley and back to Magog via Katevale, fortunately, down the infamous Katevale hill. Side excursions go to Standstead, Hatley, Compton and Waterville.

What intrigues me about this route is that with a few exceptions I know all the roads in question, having grown up in North Hatley. Of the many Vélo-Québec Challenges or Défis I have been on, none have been in quite so familiar terrain. This will likely significantly change the nature of the experience as one aspect of these events is the discovery of new places and landscapes. This time, my parents and I will know parts of the route down to the last pothole! There will be less discovery for us on this one.

As well, I already have some reservations about some of the route choices made by Vélo-Québec. The extended bit on the 143 being the most notable! I also wonder whether the extended versions will incorporate not one but two segments of the former Massawippi Valley Railway now converted into bike paths.

All in all, it should be interesting but in a different way than usual.

On a use of smartphones

2011-05-29T19:52:00.004-04:00

Today was the first of Vélo-Québec's Défi's of the summer. There are usually three. The first is the Défi Metropolitain which happens somewhere quite close to Montreal. It usually happens the last Sunday in May, a week before the Tour de l'Île. The third is the Défi des Cantons de l'Est (or Eastern Townships Challenge) which, as the title suggests, takes place in the Eastern Townships, usually in early September. The second challenge has no fixed name as it moves around significantly from year to year.

Anyway, my Father and I participated this year. (My Mother was sick). This year the tour started in Point Calumet on the North Shore of the Ottawa river and took us through Oka and Kanestake (quite possibly on that road) featuring tobacco shacks, and riverfront house with lawns right down to the water's edge (if this is what Venise-en-Quebec is like then the flooding in the Richelieu is no surprise), before looping back inland through farms and various villages that make up greater Mirabel. I opted for the "127" km loop which my final odometer reading was 133.55 km, average speed 23.6 km/h and max speed of 58.2 km/h. However, it ceased reading at least once on account of the rain that dominated the day.

The rain was off and on during the morning, until at around 11 or so it started coming down very persistently. It was a fairly warm rain to the extent I ride without rain pants, but it was draining. When I got the lunch point, I went inside a skating rink to eat out of the rain. While I was eating, I check out Environment Canada's weather radar image for the area. Thankfully, it showed that the rain would soon be over. A considerable relief, let me tell you. I am very thankful for my merino wool biking jersey.

After lunch, I rode on, stopping near the end at the Intermiel apicutural centre where I bought a couple of bottles of mead. That corner of Quebec seems to be rather littered with what I think of as slightly upscale day-trip tourist destinations: orchards, sugar shacks, vineyards, soaperies and the like. (Also, discount tobacco shacks in Kanestake.)

Early in the day, I stopped at a gas station to get some gatorade (having stupidly left our waterbottles in the fridge). As I was fitting the bottles onto my bike, a local asked me what foundation all these cyclists were riding in aid of! I was half-tempted to say it was an inverse fund raiser for the RAMQ (Régie d'Assurance Medical du Québec): the more we rode, the less it would have to spend! Ah, 'thons and Québec. ;-)

At one point, my father (who opted for a 76 km ride) was interviewed and photographed for a Japanese magazine. I presume the people involved (1 Québécoise and 1 Japanese) thought he looked like "a colourful character". It would be fun to learn if he makes the cut. Also, what the Japanese public thinks of my Santa Claus-like father. Pappy later said to me that from the people he had seen, he thought he was oldest one there. I am not so sure, though he probably was up there!

Anyway, I am now bathed, fed but still somewhat sore from it all. Oh, my clipless pedals and cleat shoes worked fairly well, though at times they felt a bit loose. At others, I nearly forgot about them. This was slightly dangerous coming to a halt! In light of this last element, I think it best to take die Fleddermoose in the Tour de l'Île rather than Leonardo.

On a disappointing aspect of a recent movie

2011-05-25T21:15:00.002-04:00

I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean : On stranger tides last night. I enjoyed it more than the two previous movies in the series but something was missing that I couldn't pin down. However, when was reviewing Margo and Chris' photos of our trip to Spain in 2007 the missing element became obvious. There was no "Bring me that horizon" type moment.

I borrowed that phrase from the first movie, quoting Captain Jack Sparrow, and have used it liberally in this blog. To me it encapsulated the joy of being on the road on a bike, the discovery that awaits just over the horizon. Unfortunately, the movie lacked the wide open environments that lend themselves to such moments. Too much of the movie is in London, inside ships and sets or on land at night (i.e. sets again).

In addition, I am restless as my big bike trips for this year are months away. Still, the Défi Métropolitain is this weekend and promises to be pretty good. Or so I hope!

On a formula that goes down well after a bike to work in cool weather

2011-05-18T08:52:00.003-04:00

1 cinnamon bun courtesy of a co-worker + 30 seconds in the microwave = hmmmmm!

Thank you Flo!

On metadata, musings

2011-05-17T19:57:00.003-04:00

I recently installed Google Analytics on this blog, so if you are reading this, beware: I know what country you are viewing from and what browser you are using! Not that I really care, I am only curious. The most used referred trafic seems to come from Margo and Chris' blog, though Google Images picks up a number of my photographs.

The most viewed individual post in the last week is "On a fascinating choice about how to get to Australia". I am not sure what that means.

I also have readers from as far away as Iran and Singapore, not to mention Chile and Argentina. Obviously, a certain amount of the latter trafic is Margo and Chris!

The most curious thing about the stats is that most of my visitors are using Firefox, though the fact my parents and I all use that browser might play into that!

On an interesting conversation with a cousin

2011-05-15T21:49:00.003-04:00

Yesterday, I was at a rather late birthday party for people in my family with birthdays in April, a.k.a. the April Birthday Party. In many ways, this serves as an annual family reunion for my Father's rather large side of the family. (Just to put you in perspective, I have more than 30 first cousins on that side! "Only" 24 assorted relatives were there!)

I made of point of closely questioning a cousin of mine who had just come back from Australia. I wanted to know which airline and route he had flown and his opinion of the two areas I am thinking of (Perth and Melbourne). It turns out that he had been to Australia on a number of times. He was of the opinion that generally the best option was to go on Air Canada via Vancouver, and to change planes in Vancouver rather than Toronto. He knew the where and what of Kalgorlie-Boulder (the theoretical starting point of a Perth oriented trip) as his business involved him in mining concerns which are definitely dominant in that town! His two cents worth of the two areas was that Victoria was a more interesting state to visit compared to southern Western Australia. From my reading, he does have a point.

However, I recently came across the fact that the climate in Western Australia would be sub-tropical whereas Victoria is largely temperate. Given that I have spent the vast majority of my life temperate climates, it might be fun to try out the sub-tropics! Then again, it might be far too hot.

I have spent part of this evening working on a date-distance chart for the Broken Hill-Melbourne option. The timing seems to work though I am uncertain as to the exact terrain I will be facing. As well, I am fully aware that it only an approximation as the area is well populated allowing for the easy extension or contraction of a cycling day. I am going to have to build up something of a database of the facilities along my projected route.

I have been using Google Earth to get an idea of what is available. In some shots, there is dramatic evidence of the wildfires that swept the region not too long ago. I can only hope that I don't have any problems with them! Not that I am terribly worried about that as there is bound to be reasonable warning that would allow me to change my route and/or get a lift to somewhere safe.

On a good quote from a decent Prime Minister

2011-05-11T13:35:00.002-04:00

In the current issue of Canadian Geographic which is devoted to the centennial of Canada's National Parks, there is a very amusing quote about how one park was created:

1976. While flying over Baffin Island with his wife Aline, an awestruck Jean Chrétien resolves to make a park here for her. Chrétien later explained, "When I returned to my office...I consulted the Minister of Indian Affairs, who was myself, consulted the Minister for Northern Affairs, who was myself, and consulted the minister responsible for parks, who was myself, and they all agreed on the matter." As a result Auyuittuq National Park is created.

One could quibble about too much power being concentrated in one cabinet minister, checks and balances and all that, but on the other hand, national parks are good things on the whole! Then again, Chris once told me about meeting Chrétien by chance much later in what I think was the Yukon and coming to the conclusion there was nothing they could really have a discussion about!

On Airbus 380s

2011-05-10T21:12:00.002-04:00

I have referred to the Airbus 380 before in blog entries both recent and not so recent. I saw one fly over Montreal today (probably Air France). I have this to say about them: they are honking big planes!

On a decent trial run

2011-05-08T15:36:00.004-04:00

As it was a nice sunny and dry day, I took Leonardo out for a spin in order to test out a few things. Most important of these were my new clipless pedals. They worked very well, though it is still harder for me to click into the left one than the right one. I had to raise the seat about a quarter of an inch to get an optimum pedal stroke.

I also trialed attaching my iPhone to the handlebars using a JOBY Gorillapod Tripod that was given to me for Christmas and a special iPhone cover from JOBY that allows you to attach an iPhone onto a JOBY Gorillapod Tripod. I had intended to only try it out as a source of music while biking. It works in such a capacity though I wouldn't bother using it for subtle music or spoken word.

However, I came to realise that the lack of a bell on Leonardo was a bit dangerous and that I really should get a replacement. I had ridden across the ice-breaker bridge and then westwards along the Seaway to the locks at Sainte Catherine. I had been planning to cross onto the South Shore and proceed back along Boulevard Marie-Victorin. I thought about extending my trip to go to MEC over by the Marché Centrale before remembering there is one in Longueil. Here is where I began to experiment with another use of the iPhone for biking: suburban navigation! Using the map and GPS lite functions, I was able to plot a course to the MEC and get myself a new bell. However, I did have to apply my own navigational skills as the map functions don't have a "bike" setting. In the process of all this, I mused that Vélo-Québec could do worse than to create a bike navigation iPhone app! Come to think of it, I should explore what is available already!

Time to go grocery shopping.

On a frustrating afternoon

2011-05-05T19:24:00.006-04:00

The rear brake pads on die Fledermoose were in need of replacing so yesterday, I picked up some brake pads of the cartridge variety at my local bike store. As I then went to the gym, and it was raining, I put off replacing the pads until today. (It has been raining since Monday.)

This afternoon, I arrived home in a heavy downpour and hauled die Fledermoose up the stairs and into my living room. After setting up the bike stand and removing the rear wheel, I discovered that my rear brakes weren't cartridge type brake pads. I had thought that the brakes on die Fledermoose were cartridge type, but for some reason the rear ones weren't! I replaced the rear wheel, lugged the bike downstairs and rode off through the light rain to the bike store to get new, cartridge-type pads. At this point I was hoping the store mechanic would install the pads and spare me the farting around that comes with installing new brake pads as I was in a grumpy mood which is not conducive to precise adjustment. No such luck, so with the newly acquired brake pads, I went home through the very light rain and with the sight of a rainbow.

Once home, I installed the pads. During the process of fine tuning, I noticed that my rear rim is distinctly concave indicating wear that bears watching. In addition, the wheel is slightly out of true and as luck would have it, the spot in question is where the wheel reflector is. The presence of the reflector makes it that much much harder to true the wheel.

I still have to clean and re-oil the chain as there were signs of rust on the chain this morning. I last oiled the bike a week ago. I am getting rather tired of biking in the rain!

Post-posting scriptum
To clarify: I had thought my rear brakes had replaceable cartridge-type brake pads, so I bought the replacement cartridges. It turned out that me rear brake pads weren't that variety. So I replaced them with the replaceable cartridge type.

On some exercise I got today

2011-05-02T20:06:00.005-04:00

I got my usual cardiovascular workout biking to and from work today. After work, I went to the gym to get in some anaerobic exercise (weight lifting).

After that, I went done to the polling station to exercise my democratic right to vote. There was a considerable turnout and I had to wait in line for quite some time. When I finally got the poll area, I was right behind some morbidly obese oaf who had been put to the front of the line on account of his "disability". It took forever for the ladies manning the poll to find his name. After he waddled over to the booth, he took a very long time to decide whom to vote for. Really very annoying. Of course, I was a bit grumpy as I was hungry. On the plus side, I actually voted for someone as opposed to against someone, contrary to my earlier prediction.

Update:
Overall projected results: bugger!
The candidate I voted for projected results: not bad.

On a certain royal wedding gift

2011-04-30T11:39:00.003-04:00

I didn't watch the Royal Wedding. It was far too early and anyway, there is far too much hype surrounding it. The extremes people have gone to are almost beyond belief. According to the Montreal Gazette, you can buy "Crown Jewels condoms of distinction William and Catherine Royal wedding souvenir".

Closer to home and more in keeping with the theme of this blog, the Bixi company and the mayor of London have given a special tandem Bixi to the royal couple as a wedding present. This is a bit of really shameless self-promotion as I doubt the couple will be able to get much use out of it, though maybe they will tool around Windsor Park or something other large Royal Estate.

I also wonder if there was any consideration given to Prince William's height. He is 6'3", more than an inch taller than me. When I tried a Bixi, I found the tallest seat height too short for comfort. Did Devinci think about this or did they apply the "one-size-fits-most" philosophy of the standard Bixis?

On how I shall upgrade my pannier bags

2011-04-29T20:30:00.008-04:00

The MEC has come out with a new version of the Cordura bike panniers I and many others have been using for years. I am not wild about the new colour schemes they offer: they are rather bland in my opinion. (Unfortuantely, this is my opinion about many MEC products of late: the colour palate is much too subdued for my taste.) The new features that did intrigue me were that they now come with a better handle (for hauling the bags into your room) and, best of all, plastic attachment points for attaching a shoulder strap.

I have been using my panniers in a similar fashion, only using some of the webbing loops to attach a shoulder strap I took from another MEC product. This wasn't an optimal arrangement, but it did the trick. Now that I have seen the new panniers, I think I will get some suitable bits of hardware and sew them onto one of my rear panniers. Come to think of it, I have some old bag bits that could be adapted to give the bags a better carrying handle.

Of course, now I have to decide which pannier bag gets the upgrade: left one with a Canadian flag or the right one which is the more accessible as I usually leave the right (chain) side exposed!

On the new niece, the nephew and bike trip dates, update

2011-04-22T21:05:00.003-04:00

On the new niece
Mummy is now in Gander giving Anna her first visit from a relative, and doubtlessly giving much desired motherly advice on mothering to Alice. I met Mummy at the bus station and we went to Chinatown for lunch at the No.1 Cristal Restaurant, a quick and tasty Vietnamese place I quite like. I gave Mummy bagels and Chinese barbecue pork buns for Alice and Mark, a onesie for Anna and a DVD of the King's Speech for Mummy for her birthday, which was yesterday. After lunch, Mummy caught the 747 bus to the airport.

On the nephew
At long last, Margaret has posted a new batch of photos on Picasa. See them here.

On bike trip dates
I received confirmation from my superior for my vacation dates. Newfoundland will be the second and third weeks of August. I have worked out a very tentative, and approximative breakdown of roughly where we are likely to get to on any particular day. There is ample room for change as there is about 3 days unused (not including rest days) at the end assuming I am on the Rock for the absolutely longest possible period of time. I don't see this as a problem, just an indication that Margo, Chris and I will have time to spare. I had known that the trip was a relaxed two weeks. Now, I know just how relaxed it will be.

The Oz trip will be starting the third week of October. I started looking more carefully at how I would get to either of my proposed starting points (Kalgoorlie and Broken Hill). Unfortunately, while both are rail accessible, their rail services both have frustrating prohibitions on them. Kalgoorlie has wonderful high-speed rail service from Perth, only bikes aren't allowed on board as apparently the high-speed train doesn't have a baggage car. Broken Hill has three trains a week from Sydney. Two are Indian-Pacific services which arrive in Broken Hill early on Thursday and Sunday morning (too late and far to early). The other is the Outback Explorer which leaves Sydney early Monday morning, i.e. just before I would arrive in Sydney, assuming I leave Montreal on Saturday. Of course, I could theoretically leave Friday, get to Sydney on Sunday, and get on the train on Monday, though that might be pushing it. Then again, I could just fly into Broken Hill or Kalgoorlie, but that almost seems like cheating.

Plenty o' time to think about it.

On a fascinating choice about how to get to Australia

2011-04-19T20:33:00.002-04:00

I was poking around the Internet last night, looking at various options for getting to and around Australia. Expedia showed an interesting price on a ticket from Montreal to Sydney via Air Canada so I went to the Air Canada website to get more details. As expected, there was no direct flights from Montreal to Sydney (quelle surprise). However, there was only one change of plane required. I poked a little further before I was taken aback during the flight selection process as there seemed to be a glitch with the second of two flights needed to get to Oz. Even though the flight number was the same (33), some of my options said it had no stops, but others said it had 1 stop. It took me a few minutes to figure out why: Air Canada flight 33 leaves from Toronto, lands in Vancouver where it takes on more fuel and passengers before making the trans-Pac hop to Oz. The Air Canada website was giving me the option of joining the flight in Toronto or in Vancouver and I hadn't noticed the difference in transfer points or times! ;-)

Having had the time to think about it, I think that given the price is the same, I would opt to change planes in Vancouver for a number of reasons. The best reason is that with an artful selection of flights, I could probably score enough to time to briefly see Margo, Chris and/or other West Coast relatives. Another reason would be to limit the amount of time spent in the same fricking aircraft. Flight times are liable to be more or less the same, but the amount of time spent in the trans-Pac hopper will be the less. I believe I have mentioned in past posts that I am not a happy flier for all my knowledge about and enthusiasm for aviation. This contradiction perplexes me, but I am much happier for knowing about it. Now that I think about it, an hour or two with relatives in Vancouver would probably be a very welcome release of stress. Yet another reason to select Vancouver as a transfer point.

This is, however, a hypothetical exercise at this point. I have yet to have my vacation choice approved, let alone decided where in Australia I will be biking. For all I know, the Air Canada fares to Sydney will skyrocket by the time I decide and I will end up flying with Quantas out of Los Angeles or San Francisco. I must also confess, I had kind of pictured myself flying in one of Quantas' Airbus 380 super-jumbos rather than an Air Canada Boeing 777. Come to think of it, 4 engines are more comforting on a trans-Pac flight than 2!

On a new niece

2011-04-14T22:05:00.010-04:00

There was a message on my answering machine when I got home this evening. My only sister has just had a baby girl! No name as yet. My sister is reportedly exhausted (with good reason). Details will follow at some point!!!! Congratulations, Alice and Mark!!!!

15/4/2011
Update from Granny: 7 lbs 3 1/2 oz, probably Anna.

late on 15/4/2011
Update from Alice: Anna Gabrielle Walton.

16/4/2011
Alice phoned me and I got to hear "AW"! (as in Anna Walton and as in "Aw, how sweet!" :-) ) . I had wanted to speak to Alice, but was afraid of disturbing them. Everyone seems to be fine.

18/4/2011
Photos here.

20/4/2011
Photos and a video here. Yes, some are the same as I posted.

On another sympton of being a devout cyclist

2011-04-11T21:33:00.004-04:00

A while ago I started a list on this blog along the lines of "You know you are a devout cyclist when..." or something like it.

So anyway, as pretty much every one of my readers knows, Canada is in the midst of a federal election. My major reaction, aside from a resigned shudder of disgust at having to vote against a party rather than for a party, has been one of "Hmm, come May 3rd, I could easily score some primo free corroplast for reinforcing bike boxes, by taking down and, err, recycling some of the election posters!"

And people call me a cynic.

On what Gander needs

2011-03-27T18:43:00.003-04:00

I wrote earlier about a lack of a proper center to Gander. Since then I have been reflecting on the matter and have come to an interesting conclusion based on past experience. In short, it needs local LeBarons.

For the benefit of those readers who don't know me, I grew up in North Hatley, where the LeBaron family has had a very important influence on the town since before its incorporation. The town grocery store has been in the family for over a hundred years and three generations. Joey, the current owner and her sister Naisi are who particularly interest me in the context of Gander.

As I mentioned, the LeBarons are local family who have been in the community for a long time and who have contributed much to it. Generally, they have been business people running various enterprises. I find it significant that the largest brick house in town was built by a LeBaron. However, prominence doesn't necessarily equate to the type of innovation I see Gander needing: I am reliably told that Joey LeBaron's father ran the grocery store with little imagination.

On the other hand, his daughter took the hard nosed business wisdom he gave her and combined it with an inquisitive and curious spirit she seems to have acquired during her adventurous youth. When she took over the store after his death, she brought in numerous exotic products and made the simple grocery store into what is probably one of the world's best. Admittedly, she had the benefit of the markets created by both a university/yuppie population as well as a wealth summer population. But the fact remains that she was able to foster and cater to a more culinarirly adventurous population. In fact, I think she has single handedly raised the culinary horizons of the town, including the yuppie population.

As for her sister, well, Naisi has an artistic sensibility and talent that impresses me every time I see either of the two of her creations that hang in my flat. She combines her artistic side with a business acumen that while not quite as sharp as her sister's is there nonetheless.

What these sisters have brought to North Hatley is a wider, more diverse outlook on the world while at the same time, being local and business oriented. They were not outsiders to the community. As such, they could elevate the culture of the community without having to deal with complications of being some high-faluting city slicker.

This is what Gander needs. A few local people who can combine experience (culinary, artistic, or other) from elsewhere with a serious business sense and a willingness to take a few cultural risks to elevate the ton of Gander.

Don't get me wrong. Gander is a nice town. It is just that it could do with a few LeBaron types!

On pedals, shoes, Spain, Australia and more

2011-03-19T19:22:00.002-04:00

This entry is going to be a bit of a grab-bag of smallish items. At least, I intend them to be smallish items. Knowing me, they will probably end up larger.

On pedals, shoes and the first ride of the year

When I bought Leonardo, I opted not to go for clipless pedals for a number of reasons. Partly it was financial as getting the relevant shoes would have been yet another expensive decision to make and I was getting tired of making them. In addition, I didn't feel up to learning how to use brake-shifters and clipless pedals at the same time. However, as Leonardo came with a set of clipless pedals, I kept them against the day I would be up to the challenge.

Late last fall, I bought a pair of Pearl Izimi X-Alp Seek biking shoes that were on sale at MEC as well as a pair of the relevant cleats. Anyway, today I took Leonardo out and rode him with my assorted bits and pieces to the Cycle Technique bike shop to learn how to put the various bits (bike, pedals, shoes and cleats) together properly, with the emphasis on properly. Most of my readers will know that I am reasonably clever mechanically. All that had to happen, installation-wise was few bolts had to be unscrewed and then others screwed in. The only thing that I wouldn't have known was which set of bolt holes in the shoes the cleats went into. However, it was very comforting to get an expert to tell me these things. It was also very comforting that both the expert and another customer were envious of both my clipless pedals and my shoes. They were both aficionados of clipless pedals and seemed to know what they were talking about which made their praise more reassuring.

The mechanic put Leonardo on a stand and had me try clipping in and out of the pedals. For some reason, I found it harder to get into the left pedal than the right. Luckily, I found it very easy to clip out of both. This, the mechanic said, was the important bit! Anyway, I have now joined the ranks of clipless-pedal users.

I have also taken my first bike ride of the year on Leonardo rather than on Floria which is somewhat unusual but utterly logical under the circumstances! Admittedly, it was a rather short ride! Out to the bike shop and back, the latter using clipless-pedals in the real world.

On Spain

In the process of weeding the Children's non-fiction collection at work last year, I came across a book entitled: "À la découverte de l'Espagne d'aujourd'hui" published in 1979. It consisted mostly of pictures of landmarks, and by removing a handful of pictures, you could republish it as "À la découverte de l'Espagne des anciennes époques"! The handful of pictures that would have to be removed featured Mediterranean beach resorts. While old buildings are usually the most interesting ones, and thus are most often shown in such books, it was very interesting to see the relative lack of development of Spain at the time (only just after Franco died) compared to when I was there, some thirty odd years later. Obviously, I removed it from the collection!

On Australia

I have been doing some reading on biking in Australia. My impression at this point is that the Broken Hill to Melbourne option is more interesting at this point than doing something around Perth. From my admittedly limited reading, the area around Perth, while beautiful and interesting, doesn't have the variety of landscapes and ecosystems that the Broken Hill-Melbourne run would have. At least in a loop version. Perth might be more interesting if I could figure out how to do a one way run involving Shark Bay. However, that would probably involve a very long bus ride.

On idiot cyclists

About a week ago, I was walking to my local grocery store when I noticed a doofus cyclist have a complicated and somewhat dangerous interaction with a car, pull across the intersection and get on the sidewalk and proceed along it. As I was leaving the grocery store, the same cyclist came along the sidewalk with a bag in one hand going in the opposite direction. Trying to make a point, I "accidentally on purpose" "failed" to see her in time. Consequently, she had to stop. I said that she should really be on the road, and on the right side of it. She angrily told me that "there wasn't enough space for her" which is a serious load of bull. (I have been biking on that street for years and have never had a problem.) She then proceeded down the sidewalk, before crossing the street dangerously weaving, partly on account of the fact she was steering with one hand (the other holding the bag). A woman who witnessed the incident commented to me that the cyclist was a danger to herself, especially as she wasn't wearing a helmet. It came to me later that the cyclist was wearing a parka with the hood up which limited her vision and hearing. What an idiot.

On evangelicals

Between the time change and too many late nights, I slept in this morning. Around 10:30 in the morning, my doorbell rang. Out curiosity (I wasn't expecting anyone) I answered it. A young man greeted me and said that he was doing "bénévolat" in the neighbourhood (the conversation was in French and the direct translation doesn't quite scan). Okay, whatever, thinks I. The man went on, he was doing a survey about Jesus... "No, I am not interested! Please go away!" In French says I.

I am an agnostic Catholic, borderline theist. This means that it is the Catholic God I have considerable doubts in. It also means I have considerable dislike of those who try to shove God at me.

I also have little tolerance for bullshit, especially in the form of dishonest evangelicals, especially Protestant ones. Why do I say Protestant? Well, this is Quebec where the default is that you are Catholic unless proven otherwise. Consequently, Catholics don't go door-to-door trying to make other people Catholic. (Actually, Catholics rarely do that even elsewhere.) I say "dishonest evangelical" as saying you are doing a survey about Jesus as "bénévolat" is both dishonest and evangelical. Nobody, but nobody would ask to start a real survey about "Jesus" by saying it is about "Jesus", you would describe it as "religious attitudes" or something similar. Also the fact he didn't have a clipboard at the ready was suspicious. By asking about "Jesus" he betrayed the fact he was an evangelical on the prowl or should I say the "prothel" (as in prothelytise). While they rarely pay you to prothelytise, I don't consider it "bénévolat". Thus, he was approaching me under deceptive pretenses which is something that I really dislike.

The fact that his goal was also something that I have no interest in was also a negative, but I would have respected him more if he had been more honest in his approach. What is about these bloody American influenced evangelicals that they are so f***ing dishonest about the way they go about their business. It is one thing to want to convert people, if rather annoying. It is another to go about it by deception. This whole business about intelligent design is a hugely disingenuous and enormous project by these f***ing evangelicals to counter the scientific arguments against the literal interpretation of the Bible. It is monumentally dishonest, which rather discredits the people and the movement behind it. It also runs counter to some of the ideas running through the New Testament which in my interpretation Jesus discourages blind obedience to text in favour of using your god-given intelligence. This further discredits these loons.

On this year's biking

2011-03-10T21:08:00.005-05:00

Biking in Australia

Well, between a municipal tax bill and delays in signing the new contract at work (and the associated retroactive increase, lump-sum payment) I don't think I will be able to afford to go to Oz in May or June which puts a damper on biking from Alice Springs to Darwin. However, as I have previously mentioned, there are other places to bike in Oz. Probably just as well as I have yet to make a start on reading up on Australia.

Biking in Newfoundland

I was reading one of the Library's copies of the Trans-Canada Trail guide to Newfoundland, mostly for background information, when I stumbled across a section about the bit between Deer Lake and Badger. It gives the scenery a definite thumb's up with the Topsails (a series of four bald mountains which it compares to Ayre's Rock). Caribou and moose sightings are described not just as "possible" but "probable". The downside is that the surface is rated "C" for most of the way and "D" for the last 20 km or so. In short, 100 kilometers of loose, rutted gravel, frequented by ATVs and pickups. If I were to attempt it, I would have to invest in wider tires. Possibly Continental Travel Contacts in 700x42! Just to give you an idea, Leonardo is currently fitted with 700x32 tires. (The second number is the width in millimeters.) Unfortunately, now is probably not the best time the bring up this possibility as Margo and Chris seem to be in the middle of a prolonged stretch of South American ripio and would probably enjoy the relatively bland Newfoundland asphalt! ;-)

Biking in Quebec

A few days ago, I signed up for the usual summer events put on by Vélo-Québec. I was embarrassed to discover that I had let my membership lapse. I also signed up another year as a card-carrying member of Vélo-Québec.

Also, there was a large snowstorm on Monday which dumped something like 30 cm of snow on Montreal (and 75 on North Hatley!). Someone at work asked me if I had biked in that morning! Evidently, my sign I hung the wall near my desk saying "No, I am not still biking to work. I am a devout, not a fanatical cyclist" isn't big enough!

On the potential bike trip in Newfoundland

2011-02-24T17:53:00.008-05:00

I recently got an e-mail from Margo relating to some comments I had made in my post about Newfoundland. I would like to clarify that while I am thinking of biking in Newfoundland in the next fiscal year (2011-2012), I am also thinking of biking in Australia as well. Provided I don't lose too many days to sickness between now and May, I will have enough vacation time to do both.

A few months ago, I spent some time on Google Maps looking at distances from places. As welll, I looked at possible alternatives the Trans-Canada Highway. Here is the map I created.

View Biking from Deer Lake to St. John's in a larger map

If a bit in the middle looks a little sketchy, it is because it represents three alternatives. Here it is again in more detail:

View Biking from Deer Lake to St. John's in a larger map
Rather than take the Trans-Canada between South Brook and Bishop's Falls, I would instead go out to Triton and take a boat to either Leading Tickles or Cottrell's Cove. From either location, I would go to Bishop's Falls and rejoin the Trans-Canada. There is a boat tour operator in Triton that I suspect would be willing to do the job. (I haven't contacted them as I have no idea when I would be going to Newfoundland other than sometime this summer.) This section of the trip would be very much subject to the weather as you don't kid around with the North Atlantic, even in summer. Hence the various routes.

Margo indicated that she and Chris might wish to join me on the trip. I welcomed her interest especially as I had been thinking of experimenting with camping on this trip. Margo and Chris have a huge amount of experience in this regard. Also, cycle-camping is easier logistically when you have several people.

On when iPhones annoy you

2011-02-21T18:23:00.005-05:00

This isn't really about the standard subjects. In fact, it rather resembles the User Tolerant Liveware blog. But what the hell?

As most of you know, I am a librarian. Being a librarian goes beyond your 9 to 5 job. I once said to a colleague that you know you are possibly of the librarian-ish disposition when you notice that when you visit someone's house, your eye is inevitably drawn to their bookshelves. Not necessarily to judge what is on the shelves, just to see what it there. (However, if you start to rearrange the books on the shelves, you are possibly certifiable. Probably certifiable if you arrange the books according to Dewey and definitely certifiable if according to the Library of Congress.)

One the occupational hazards of being a librarian is that one is drawn to bookstores. I think I mentioned before that when I was in London in May, I was in a decent sized bookstore in search of batteries. When told that batteries were to be found in the stationary section that would only open in 15 minutes, I made a comment along the lines of "Oh! What a torment for a librarian!" Anyway, I was in a French language bookstore yesterday with my iPhone. I took notes on it about potential books worth buying. However, I had to type in the ISBNs manually. Thirteen digits is a lot, especially when you know that barcode readers are available for iPhones.

Consequently, when I got home I installed a barcode reader on the Divanita. While it works on UPC and ISBN-13 barcodes, it doesn't work on the 14 digit barcodes that my library uses on its books. I tried finding a relevant iPhone app for this particular task, but I am unable to find one. While it is above and beyond the call of duty for me to have an app capable of reading ITF-14 barcodes on my personal iPhone, I find both surprising and annoying that there doesn't seem to be iPhone app for it.

At the same time, what a time to be alive! We are living in the future!

On e-travel and related matters

2011-02-12T21:38:00.011-05:00

As some of my readers may know, I have a certain dislike of cellphones. Indeed, I can get ratty (to use a Mark-ism) when people go on about their cellphones ad nauseum. Until a month ago, all the cellphones I owned (all two of them) were minimalist second-hand jobs acquired from relatives.

That changed about a month ago when I got an iPhone 3GS. I had initially thought of getting a notebook computer, but then realised that by getting an iPhone I could combine the computer function with the cellphone function and get a lite-GPS into the bargain at a lighter weight. (I would also get a camera, but that would be a secondary consideration as cellphones are lousy cameras.)

What you can do with an iPhone boggles the imagination. What you can't do, does the same. In essence, Apple, for some reason, doesn't want you to manage files on your iPhone, but instead want you to use iTunes on your computer to do so in a remarkably convoluted way. It is quite annoying, really, that such a user-friendly device is quite so user-unfriendly. I am tempted to dub her the "Divanita" for her prima donna like qualities in diminutive package.

However, my iPhone is addictive and quite useful all the same. A case in point is how I used her last week.

I had accumulated enough Air Miles (largely from shopping for groceries at IGA) to earn myself a low season ticket to Gander. The trip had a number of purposes. The primary one was to see my sister Alice and her husband Mark. Another was to see Newfoundland in winter. In addition, I was hoping to make a few notes about biking logistics for my proposed AMUAM JuNITO part V project this summer. (Deer Lake to St-John's).

Anyway, I went the e-boarding pass route, using the Divanita. In addition to that, she proved useful in plane travel as not only could I inform Alice of my progress, I could also play Angry Birds on the iPhone while waiting for my connection in Halifax.

Gander and it's inhabitants suffer from the fact that it was laid out with cars rather than people in mind. In fact the original site of Gander was abandoned in the fifties or so, because of the airport. This is not as bad as it sounds as the town was largely built because of the airport. There is no real downtown core and related atmosphere. In addition, it is, in my limited opinion, too large to be intimate and too small to be diverse.

Alice and Mark aren't wild about Gander either. Case in point, they very much miss the vibrant community of Norris Point. In fact, the day I arrived, Alice and I drove to Norris Point for not one but two parties.

Both parties combined elements of what you would and wouldn't expect in community parties in Newfoundland. The first party was a celebration of the Chinese Lunar New Year. It seems that there is a certain number of children in Rocky Harbour were adopted from China. In their honour and as an excuse to have a shindig, their parents organized it. Much of the population was there, or so it seemed. There is a passage from the Great Big Sea song "Up" that goes "So, pile your boots up in the corner/Hang your jacket from the door/There's thirty people in the kitchen/And there's always room for more." The fact that I was a near total stranger, didn't seem to phase people.

The second party was a shed party (and in a real Newfoundland shed at that) that featured beer-tasting of beers from around the world. The first was from Cameroon! Unfortunately, one of the beers I brought from here was off. A pity, as it has been good in the past.

The drive to Norris Point was fun as I saw a trio of caribou by the side of the Trans-Canada Highway near a water course called "Crooked Feeder". There is something very odd in the way they move their rumps as they jog away from you. Sort of like they were wearing diapers. It was the first time I had seen caribou in the wild. Alice was surprised to see them there as it didn't fit her mental picture about where they hang out in Newfoundland in winter. Later, someone who seemed very knowledgeable said there was a herd that tended to hang out about there in February. In addition, we had to stop for a moose shortly after entering Gros Morne Park.

Alice and I stayed with Gary and Sheldon. On Sunday, we went skiing with them and Sue (of Bob and Sue's Gros Morne Adventures) on some immaculately groomed trails near the visitor's centre of Gros Morne National Park. Alas, it was a bit too tame for my liking, and as snow was falling, we didn't have much of a view. Much more fun was returning to Gary and Sheldon for a lunch of sandwiches made from the genuine Schwartz's smoked meat I had brought.

Alice's original plan had been to drive back to Gander on Sunday, but as the snow was falling heavily enough to make driving conditions marginal, she wisely opted to delay our return. I left the decision with her as it made little difference to me where I spent the night.

I made pizza that night, largely from memory, I might add. And darn good pizzas they were too!

Driving back to Gander, I observed that significant portions of the road would have been very demanding the previous night. I pointed this out to Alice along with the observation that she had made the right decision about driving. Of course, about an hour later, I made a very wrong decision.

I was driving out of Badger when Alice observed that I was driving a little too fast and then watch out for the huge chunk of frozen slush that had fallen off a truck. I had been driving for a little too long, I was going a little too fast and I was a bit distracted by negotiating the bridge. I hit the chunk with Alice's car. It broke the right hand end of the front bumper and cracked the windshield wiper fluid tank contained therein. In addition, as the front right wheel surround was attached to the bumper, that came adrift. As far as I could tell, there wasn't any damage to the actual wheel. Alice wasn't so sure and we tried unsuccessfully to find a mechanic in Badger who could tell us definitively. Eventually, we decided the car would make it to Gander. However, I had to cut off the wheel surround with my jackknife and unscrew a piece of the bumper as they were rubbing against the wheel. I tried to patch the windshield wiper fluid tank with duct tape but was unsuccessful as the plastic was too wet for the tape to hold.

Fortunately, I had previously arranged to rent a car for the rest of the trip, starting that day. Consequently, Mark, Alice and I had some transportation. Alice arranged for her car to be repaired at a garage in Gander. As luck would have it, there was no significant damage beyond that which I described. This meant that Alice's car would be ready by Thursday when she and Mark were to set off on a journey will take them to Saskatoon and back, via surface transport, mostly Via Rail.

(Yep, you read that right: Via Rail. Their plan (currently in progress) is to drive to Port-Aux-Basques, take the ferry to North Sydney, drive to Truro, where they get on the train. They will get off in Drummondville tomorrow morning where my Father will meet them and drive them to North Hatley. On Tuesday, they catch a train to Toronto where they will get on the Canadian, which will get them to Saskatoon, by about Thursday. I am not sure how long they will be in Saskatoon, but they will go back the same way they came, excluding only North Hatley.

I am not sure if I admire or pity them. I believe in train travel, but in moderation. ;-) )

I felt that the accident was my fault and that I should pay for the damage. Alice was more of the opinion that "Shit happens" and that she and Mark should pay. We eventually compromised on splitting the bill 50/50.

On Tuesday, I drove to Terra Nova National Park via Eastport. In Terra Nova I did some more skiing on overly groomed and extremely tame trails.

On Wednesday, I went skiing on trails of Gander's Airport Nordic Ski Club. There, I finally found a ski trail that really made bringing the skis along worthwhile. Ironically, the other skier there warned me against going on that particular trail. It was not that the trail was dangerous, long or scenic. Rather, it has been snowing nearly every day in Gander for the last month or so and for various reasons, that trail (Red extension) hadn't been groomed. Consequently, I was breaking trail through very deep snow. The other skier was right to warn me. However, I was right to take it as I wanted the challenge and relative workout it represented. I was sweating heavily and stripped off my fleece jacket to ski in a lightweight merino hoodie and a gore-text jacket. Hardly extreme skiing, but a darn good workout all the same.

That night, we drove to Grand Falls-Windsor to catch a comedy revue of notable Newfoundland events of 2010. It was mostly dominated by references to Danny Williams which got on Mark's nerves and he opted not to watch the second half. The revue started with a personification of Hurricane Igor (as in a mad scientists lab assistant). Later they stole some blatantly borrowed from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. A less blatant theft was an exchange from Monty Python's Life of Brian.

Flying out of Gander, I made the relative mistake of opting for a window seat in a Bombardier
Regional Jet. It felt claustrophobic, more so by the constant commentary from a kid in the seat in front of me that very quickly grated on my nerves. He was just a little too loud. I think also he reminded me of the kid I once was. I was also feeling a little hot. It may have been the fleece jacket was was wearing, but when I was getting off the plane in Halifax, I noticed that a girl in the seat behind me had a cat with her. As I am slightly allergic to cats, I may have been having a reaction to it. (Note to self: in future, when traveling by plane, check for cats.)

Anyway, getting to biking and e-travel, in my travels in Newfoundland I made a number of observations on possible places to stay and eat and jotted them down on my iPhone. I also had some practice in using the GPS functions for urban navigation.

On where I won't be going in Australia

2011-02-01T20:36:00.003-05:00

If I needed an additional reason not to go biking in Queensland next year, (quite aside from the fact that it doesn't meet my requirement of bordering on the Indian Ocean), this news item on the CBC rather provides it. While the flooding will be over by the time of my visit, chances are that much of the tourist infrastructure will still be down.

Whatever the "Strine-ism" for "God help the Queenslanders" is, I wish it on them. Cyclone Yasi on top of the saturated ground is going to make one hell of a mess.

On how I am glad I am not biking to Newfoundland right now

2010-12-22T19:54:00.004-05:00

I came across an article on the CBC news website about how a storm is disrupting ferry traffic between North Sydney and Port-aux-Basques. It made me remember my crossing, and made me reflect on how delightfully uneventful it was!
The article also featured this picture, which brought back memories. If my memory is correct, I stayed in the Radio Station Inn B&B which I believe is the house nearest the center of the picture, just to the left of the bright headlights.

On when my transportation lifestyle works

2010-12-12T22:08:00.002-05:00

In a previous post, I noted that I sometimes regret not owning a car. However, today I had the pleasure of not only feeling smug about it, but also getting an advantage from it. I am a member of a car-sharing organization. As I had a few things to get at Ikea, I used one of their cars to get to the store this morning. I parked close to the exit, and walked over to it. As I did so, I saw that there was a few spots that were reserved for "green" cars as close as can be to the exit of the building. That is to say hybrid, electric or "shared" cars had priority parking. In fact, "my" car-sharing organization was specifically mentioned on one of the signs. Just to take advantage of this, I went back to the car and parked in the reserved spot. Not that it made a huge difference!

On the end of another biking year

2010-12-08T19:46:00.004-05:00

Well, it seems that last Friday was the last day of biking for me for 2010. Not a bad year all told. Highlights included a second major bike tour in Europe and Floria die Fleddermoose making it through her first year with only one major hitch, and that was hardly her fault.

It has been snowing every day since Saturday, with 24+ centimeters hitting the ground on Monday rather unexpectedly. The "B" in BMW continues to be problematic (see previous entry). I am already missing the freedom of the bike.

This is how high the snow was at my back door on Monday

I will have to watch myself these next few weeks with regards to diet and exercise if I don't want my paunch to expand further. While overall I am fit, I think I have a bit too much abdominal fat as it is.

On missing the B of BMW

2010-11-26T13:58:00.002-05:00

As the forecast was for freezing rain this morning, I brought Floria in last night, on the grounds that only a real lunatic would bicycle in freezing rain. Instead of riding to work, I would BMW it. As most of my readers will know, BMW stands for Bus Metro Walk.

Walking was dicey as it was a bit icey, but manageable.

The Metro part went okay.

It was the Bus part that gave me trouble.

When I left the Metro at Plamandon station, there was longish line for the 161 bus, situation normal. Except, the bus didn't come, didn't come. Not only that, but there were no buses going in the other direction as well. After about 15 minutes and few unsuccessful attempts to get a cab, I decided to walk it. 35 minutes of slippery walking later I saw my first bus, going the other way, on a different route right in front of the Library. As my walk had followed the route of the 161, I had witnessed 50 minutes of 161 non-activity in both directions at rush hour.

Dear STM, if service is interrupted on a major bus route, would it be too much to ask for you actually try to inform people at major points?

On Australia becoming a little more real

2010-11-15T20:00:00.003-05:00

About a week ago, my co-workers and I approved a new collective agreement that had been in the works for about three years. The start date, if you can believe it, of the contract is officially, July 1st 2006! The end date will be the 31st of December 2012. This means it is already more than half over and it is yet to be signed! The signing will take place in about 2 or 3 months meaning early in the new year, I should be looking a nice chunk of retroactive salary rises that may well be enough for a flight to Oz by themselves! All this to say that the trip seems that much more likely.

In addition, after some reading, about the exact definition of the Indian Ocean, I can add a new possible route to the mix. It seems that the seas West of Tasmania is considered the Indian Ocean. Therefore, by the "red desert" and Indian Ocean criteria, a Broken Hill to Melbourne run, via, say, Portland, would fit.

Reading recent entries in Margo and Chris' blog, I wonder what Margo's reaction would be to all of the very venomous snakes to be found in Australia, none of which have the rattlesnake's courtesy to warn people off! ;-)

On a possible narrowing down of places to bike in Oz

2010-11-09T20:19:00.003-05:00

I finished reading Bill Bryson's A sunburned country on the weekend. From it, I drew a few ideas about where I might choose to go on my proposed trip Down Under. Not so much specific ideas as broad things that I would like to say I have seen.

One very broad thing, namely the Indian Ocean. The nearest I have been to said ocean is New Zealand. And the only oceanic swimming I did there was on the East Coast! That is to say, the far side of New Zealand from the Indian Ocean!

Another broad thing I would like to see on my trip would be what Bryson described as the red-baked desert clichéd image of Australia. Actually, this is a thing that has attracted me from the start.

In broad terms, to combine these two purposes I have two options as I see it. Option one is Alice Springs to Darwin. Option two would be to work out some sort of loop around Perth. Margo has pointed me at a bike touring website that proposes such as a loop.

On biking to work in cold weather and my fitness level

2010-11-02T22:49:00.003-04:00

Biking in cold weather
Late fall weather has been around for a couple of weeks. One of my co-workers asked me if it was tough biking to work through the cold. My response was "No, but I get ice-cream headaches" to which she added "Without the benefit of having eaten ice-cream!" I got a good chuckle out of that. I started using my polar fleece balaclava given to me by my sister many years ago. Thank you, Alice.

On my fitness level
Generally, I don't see myself as being particularly fit. I am not unfit, but on the other hand, I have a bit of a paunch and all.

However, yesterday I suddenly realised that I am fairly fit, if not rather fit. A somewhat rotund acquaintance of mine goes to the same gym as me. Our schedules are different and I only see her as she is leaving on Mondays as I arrive. The last couple of times, she has made comments to the effect that she is utterly tired after her session with her trainer (roughly an hour). Today, I had the thought, "Hey, you know, when I leave, I am tired but not wiped." From this, I conclude that either I am not putting enough effort into lifting weights, or I am actually pretty darn fit, all things considered. I prefer the second opinion.

On a very good improvement on my daily commute

2010-11-01T20:28:00.002-04:00

I will start this entry with a message I sent to the City of Montreal this evening.

Revenant du travail cette après-midi (Nov. 1) j'ai eu la bonne surprise de voir que on a prolongé la piste cyclable de Grand Boulevard jusqu'à la rue deMaisonneuve. Ça fait des années que je pensais que ça serait une bonne idée de faire cela. Mes félicitations à qui le droit!

In English: "Coming home from work this afternoon (Nov. 1), I had the pleasant surprise to see that the Grand Boulevard Bike path has been extended to de Maisonneuve. For years, I have been thinking that it would be a good idea to do that. My thanks to whom it may concern!"

What I didn't say is that the new development means that I can now do legally what I had been doing illegally for a number of years. That is to say, ride against traffic for one, short block on Grand Boulevard in order to cross Sherbrooke Street at a light. In my defence, I always admitted to myself that what I was doing was illegal, and that if challenged I would offer no pretense of innocence, only the explanation that doing so was the safest of a number of poor options.

For the price of some paint and the time it took to paint it, the City of Montreal has thoroughly justified my faith in my ability to determine the best route on a bike. I don't often say it, but here's to the City of Montreal!

On how my nephew is taking after his uncle

2010-10-27T22:09:00.003-04:00

ROTFL!

On how bicycles and moose shouldn't be combined

2010-10-26T19:29:00.007-04:00

There was an article on the CBC News website describing how one Newfoundlander is combining moose and bicycles. Namely hunting them on his bike. I am not sure if this is entirely legal, let alone fair.

There are laws against hunting from vehicles, though I don't know if they apply to bikes. Furthermore, hunting is rarely done from horseback (except in some cases) so I have serious doubts about the legality of the whole business.

Part of the rationale of not hunting from vehicles is to give the prey a sporting chance to bugger off before the hunters get in range. Using a bicycle would therefore be unsporting and potentially upset the balance.

Also, the article doesn't describe how he carries his rifle while cycling. I wonder how safe that is. Come to think of it, what are the rules and laws about transporting a firearm by bicycle?

For the record, I am not against responsible hunting. I won't say I am for it, as I am not pro-hunting. Rather, I have better things to do than weigh the pros and cons of responsible hunting, let alone try to go out and change the status quo. I am prepared to enjoy the benefits of hunting in the form of the very occasional bit of moose meat that comes my way. Before anyone points out that I shouldn't be eating my totem animal, I would like to say that it is my spiritual-value system and I can live with its apparent hypocrisies quite happily!