Day 44 - Grand Falls-Windsor to Gander

97.1 km - Total so far 2,927.20 km 

RWGPS: https://ridewithgps.com/trips/15777318
Relive: https://www.relive.cc/view/g12663127135

So glad we slept indoors last night because it rained pretty hard. It would not have been pleasant to pack a soaking wet tent. The destination for today was a campground in Gander. Gander was made famous on Sept. 11, 2001 when flights from Europe were diverted here to land. 

As Hélène and I were making our way towards Gander, we could not help to notice how nice the scenery today was as compared to yesterday. We have only been in Newfoundland for eights days and as best as we can recall, we have had day's of "Wow" scenery followed by day's of "Okay" scenery and the pattern seems to repeat itself. Can't wait to see what is in store for tomorrow. 

On the road today we ran into some major construction, a new bridge going up. As you can see in the picture below (looking back after we had passed the bridge). The road leading to the bridge was well signed for all road users. As expected, there were a few signs just before the bridge: a no fishing sign (pretty standard), a no pedestrian sign and the one that caught us off guard was the "no cycling on the bridge". We looked for the shuttle bus to take us across (like Confederation Bridge in PEI) but alas, one could not be found.  

We had no choice but to illegally cross the old bridge.  

What is it like to bicycle across Newfoundland? With the three pictures below we hope to give you an idea. The first picture was taken just before we crossed the bridge above. What caught our eye was the road disappearing over the mountain. From the left side of the picture, follow the tree line and you will see a lighter spot just below the tree line.

On the left of the picture, that lighter spot is the road going
over the mountain

In the second picture, we have made it across the valley floor and are beginning our climb towards the road to get over the mountain. Just follow the road and you come to a section of the road that appears to be going right. This is the lighter spot on picture one.

From the left, follow the tree line and see the top of the road
disappear to the right

In the third picture, we have made it to the top. Looking back, on the left side of the picture you can clearly see what looks like a white silo. To the right and in line with the silo, you can see the road where the first picture was taken from. Only when we had reached what we thougth was the top of the mountain, did we realise that we had still quite a long ways to go before beginning to descend on the other side of the mountain. We would repeat this pattern many times over before getting to Gander.

To the right of the white structure (left of picture) where we stopped
and took the first picture

We had a strong tail wind for almost half of the ride today. It was so strong that on a few shallow climbs, we did not have to pedal at all and were pushed up hill at an almost steady 20 kilometres per hour. 

The mandatory river picture

One of the "Welcome to Gander" sculptures

If you don't think you should protect yourself from the sun, have
a look at my helmet. It was red on 21 May. Part of it is tuning white

We have very friendly neighbours at the campground. Two couples from Fogo Island (yes another place we must visit). They were kind enough to cool my beer in their fridge and offered us their truck, if we needed to go get groceries and the like in town. We have never experienced that anywhere yet on the mainland. 

60.34 miles - Total so far 1,818.87 miles