Central Newfoundland Tour - Day 3

Gander Bay to Gambo (91 km)

September 15, 2017

I fell asleep early in the evening, and woke up even earlier in the morning. After tossing and turning for a couple of hours, I got up and had my breakfast under the stars in the pale moonlight. I packed up, said goodbye to Katharina and hit the road in darkness. Despite the early hour, there was a fair amount of traffic, which I am sure were all in for a bit of a surprise coming across a cyclist, of all things, along this remote stretch of Newfoundland road. As the sun rose I swiched the lights from my high beam to the low setting, and finally to off. Additionally, I had to repeatedly stop to de-layer as the world warmed up. Each time I removed a piece of clothing I was shivering, but that feeling would soon pass and be replaced by sweating until the next layer came off, at which point I would shiver for a while again, and the whole process would repeat. I stopped by a small brook to fill up my water bottles for the day as our campsite last night had only salt water available and I had almost run dry at this point. By 08:00 I had arrived in Gander and turned onto the TCH for the 40 km to Gambo. I stopped one last time to strip down to my t-shirt as it was now quite balmy, and then another stop to eat a snack. This stretch of road was endless hills, with ridge after ridge of long climbs followed by screaming descents... i.e. lots of fun! Arriving in Gambo had me speeding down another hill where I had a tense moment dodging a large oil slick spilled all over the off-ramp. As I pulled up to the stop sign, the entire road was covered in slippery filth and I went over onto the gravel shoulder to avoid it. A few more kilometers brought me back to Eric and Lynne's house where I packed up the car, said hello and goodbye to Lynne, and then drove back to Gander to find Katharina. She was just pulling into the bakery we agreed to meet at as I arrived, so perfect timing! Had a great lunch and then drove back towards Port Aux Basques as our Newfoundland vacation draws to an end.

Water stop.

Joey's Lookout above Gambo.

Total distance for this tour, not quite 280 km.

Rehydrating, Newfoundland style.

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