It’s not that the internet and Wi-Fi are unknown in Newfoundland, it’s just that they’re pretty much unknown in the nether regions of the Northern Peninsula, where we’ve been traveling for the past several days.
We spent four nights between Gros Morne National Park and L’ans aux Meadows. If Peter Jackson had come from Newfoundland, he would have filmed Lord of the Rings here instead of New Zealand. And I say this with the authority of someone who’s never been to New Zealand, so bear that in mind. Still, there’s an other-worldliness to landscape. Bogs and tundra. Rocky morains and rough, glacier-cut mountains. The fog… the mist, the oceanscapes….
There’s one road up to L’ans aux Meadows so this doesn’t really require the assistance of a GPS. Coming back down you could choose to ride through St. Anthony’s — which boasts a Tim Horton’s and a “mall”– and take a slightly alternate route for about 30 miles or so before merging with “the road” back down. We took a pass on the mall.
The roads in Newfoundland, for the most part, are arranged like a tree with branches rather than a web or a network. You ride the main trunk, branch off to a smaller provincial road, and finally turn down a small road to one of the innumerable coves, points and harbors. From there your only option is to either to swim, or turn around and back-track your way to the main trunk… most likely the Trans-Canada highway. There are painfully few loop routes on the western 3/4 of the island and this can eat up a lot of time.
In the five days since we’ve been on Newfoundland, we’ve had two days with truly nice weather. Blue skies. Puffy clouds. Views far and wide. The other three days have been much like the first three days we took to get here. Either in-and-out of rain — maybe a spot of sun — or more often than not, a perpetual misty twilight were it’s impossible to tell east from west or the time of day, as the sun is completely hidden by the clouds and the entire cloud-covered sky is a uniform gray.
While we feel huge temperature swings as we ride, the actual temperature has been remarkably consistent; between 60ºF and 64ºF. What changes is the degree of humidity, or the dew point. Our experience is that the dew point in the mountains has been very nearly at the ambient temperature. This gives us not only a sense of warmth, but also that nasty, misty, drizzle that’s so irritating on a helmet’s face shield. As the humidity goes down — but the temperature remains the same — we feel much cooler. We’ve found our selves adding or removing layers and adjusting jacket-vents while the thermometer barely indicates a change in temperature. Riding in a pelting rain, however, can be downright bone chilling… Regardless of humidity.
As I type this, I’m sitting in a fine 1½ star motel in Clarenville, Newfoundland. It’s clean enough and large enough and it has WiFi, so I really shouldn’t complain. Looking out the window I can see torrents of wind-blown rain power washing the bikes. Oy! This is gonna be a fun day. But at least this will wash off some of the 18 pounds of bug guts I have decorating the cowling of my bike.
We’re killing some time in hopes the weather at least dials the intensity back a notch. But we’re only 160 miles to St. John’s and a dry room in the city. We’ll spend a couple of days there exploring the area, then it’s a day-ride to the ferry followed by an eighteen hour transit and back to continental North America.
