Central Newfoundland Tour - Day 2

New-Wes-Valley to Gander Bay (98 km)

September 14, 2017

Woke up at 05:00 and went out to pee while staring at Orion under to a perfectly clear sky, after which I returned to the tent for another hour of sleep. I got up and had coffee while watching the sun creep slowly downwards into our quarry, and then packed up while Katharina had her breakfast. We hit the road to a glorious day just a bit after 08:30. We pedalled on to Deadman's Bay and stopped by the sea for a break. According to our map, the coast road continues for another 5 km or so before rejoining the highway, so we pedalled through town, eventually hitting a sign declaring that the road is "unmaintained" beyond this point. We continued anyway, but the road quality rapidly began to deterioate. We had now travelled far enough though that turning around was not appealing so we pushed on, slaloming around the potholes and skidding across the softer sandy areas. Eventually we came to a large washout and could barely pass this obstacle following an ATV track. Another couple kilometers of this did bring us back to the highway though, and we happily turned our bikes onto the solid asphalt. I might have a few choice words to say to the Newfoundland tourism board and their map that shows this disaster of a road as a major throughfare. Anyway, back onto smooth pavement we pedalled along the coast to Musgrave Harbour where we stopped for lunch at a small diner. Katharina announced that she was done here and we set out to find a hotel where she would stay the night while I continued on the route to get the car and pick her up tomorrow. We found the hotel which was locked, and called all four phone numbers listed on the door with no answer on any one of them. Resigned to her fate we continued on together. Another 45 km and a lot of German cursing, brought us to Gander Bay where we tried to find a place to camp. We stopped and asked a gentleman doing yard work at a house along the way and he suggested following an ATV trail out to the beach, which we did. We found a nice grassy and rocky point, which with the exception of some garbage and the noise of ATVs crashing through the woods, it is quite a nice spot. The calm weather made it the first evening that we have been able to sit outside and enjoy a relaxing supper this trip.

More lonely roads.

Stopping for a break in Deadman's Bay.

Unmaintained roadway.

Maybe it could use a little maintenance here.

Camp at Gander Bay.

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