Friday, July 25, 2008

Up and down and into the wind along the Matapedia to Sainte-Florence

After getting an incredible welcome into Metis, we were treated to an equally impressive sendoff this morning.

A crowd of 100+ people had gathered for our 9am departure, and cheered us on as we wheeled our bikes onto the Beach road outside my house. Lots of cameras took pictures while I went to find my 90-year-old grandmother, who was waiting in the middle of the street with her scooter donning a helmet to lead us out, with the firetruck trailing us. Kids, parents, and grandparents alike dusted off their bikes to ride East out of town with us to the highway, before the following crowd stayed behind as we rode off.

Turning onto highway 297 after Baie-des-Sables, we ran into steep hill after steep hill as we climbed up to the Matapedia highway (also the 132). Once there, the road flattens out as it runs along the river valley, Southeast towards New Brunswick.

In Amqui, we were met by their fire chief who trailed us out of town until the far side of Lac-au-Saumon. There he switched off with one of his colleagues to take us to Sainte-Florence. We didn't know the area very well, so we were lucky that he asked us where we had planned to stay for the night. We hadn't gotten that far ahead in the plans, so he warned us that there was essentially nothing between Sainte-Florence and Matapedia, another 50km away, which would make for a long day. Thankfully, he led us to a municipal campground where we could get set up. Another big thanks to the region's firefighters, who have been very supportive of us and extremely cooperative.

Once in, it was Jon's turn to make dinner, the last meal of the competition. He went for a fettucine carbonara of his own creation, with baguette on the side. It was good, but it was now up to the judges to decide. Each person ranked the other meals 1-4, with a reverse points system to make a score. We must have saved the best for last, because Jon came out on top, followed closely by myself, then Pat, Brian, and Mike respectively. We'll have to find some kind of prize for Jon, but until then, he gets bragging rights as MMR's Iron Chef.

Tomorrow we'll cross into New Brunswick as we make our way along the coast.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Getting closer and closer - 10 more sleeps. xxxxx's

Anonymous said...

I am happy you got to cycle through the Matapedia, which is one of the prettiest drives I have ever taken, so can imagine it was much more breathtaking cycling through. Did you see any salmon fishers? That's the coolest, watching them carry their boats down to the river!!