Day 18: Rivière du Loup to L’Islet-sur-mer

114 km (71 miles) – Total so far: 1,808 km (1,123 miles)

You may be deceived into thinking a ride down the right bank of the St Lawrence seaway would be one of the easier days. I was. Sometimes, most times it seems to me, the wind is not your friend and on those days you yearn for rain or hills or something to take the effort out of cycling straight into the teeth of the demon. To achieve 12 mph on the speedometer was worth celebrating.

I finished last night with a Titanic which probably made that wind worse this morning. It wasn’t a great beer, but after the Keith’s IPA it was welcome. I did a few jobs on the bike this morning and away just after 10. I wanted to cover 100 km so as to make Quebec City reachable tomorrow. In the afternoon the wind strengthened, but with the aid of a few drinks stops I got to where I had hoped.

I had read that the quaint French villages on the way down this coast were pleasant. Pleasant is the right word if you are on the type of trip where you are looking for something for the mantelpiece. Plenty of antique shops, sculptors, galleries, perfect gardens and houses painted in an arty way.

Route Verde 1 was the route for the whole day and will be tomorrow. It’s a bit of a con really, Route Verde 1. It is just the shoulder of route 132, and quite often, no shoulder. It’s okay to ride on, but it’s certainly not a purpose bike route. There are plenty of trucks and traffic, most of whom are considerate, some of whom aren’t. There is a section of roadworks XXX where the traffic is diverted. I spoke to the flagman and he said a bike could pass, but sometimes would need to walk. It was 5 kilometres and probably necessary to walk half of that, and very muddy. That made the day a lot longer also.

L’Islet-sur-mar looks an interesting place. Much less busy than St Jeane the previous village and a cafe with decent food and artisanal beers.

Distance 114 kilometres Max Speed 51.9 km/ hr Ride Time 6 hrs 12 mins Average Speed 18.3 km / hr Departed at 10:10 am Arrived at 5:00 pm