Distance: 55km
Elevation: 924m
I got up and felt tired for the first time on this tour. It was both emotionally and physically.
Now that the tension to perform and make progress every day was about to get released, my system was telling me that we had done a lot of work lately.
I took a long route but relatively flat route to cycle to Cape Spear, the most eastern point of Canada.
It was an old lighthouse on top of a cliff. The climbs were the amongst the toughest of the entire TransCanada. Normally, I would have pushed Rosinante uphill – but not today.
I had cars waiting impatiently behind me on the narrow road uphill, waiting for me to get off and give them space. But I did not care. I would push uphill until my eyes popped out.
Finally we were up top and it was beautiful, a truly epic scenery.
After I had pushed Rosinante up the cliffs, I asked a gentleman to take a picture of me and mentioned that I just completed my TransCanada. Within minutes the word spread and I was surrounded by tourists who wanted to congratulate me and shake my hand and who wanted to take pictures of me.
One said “we have seen you on the ferry, and and the highway, and now here. How do you do all this?” Others asked “Will you cycle back to Vancouver now? What a question – against the wind?
After many attempts, the best picture was done by a 19 year old – the younger ones simply know how to do this!
I wasn’t quite sure what to feel. I felt fragile and a little confused. I felt that nobody could really understand and appreciate how one felt after completing something like a TransCanada.
Yes, there was the sense of accomplishment, of gratitude and also a little pride to have mastered all the hardships along the way. At the end, there are only a couple of thousand people in the world who have ever completed a TransCanada.
But there was also sadness that this chapter of my tour around the world would now close. And I was also still stressed by the highway experience from the day before.
I reached out to Shannon and Marco, my fellow cyclists from PEI, to share my feelings with them. They had experienced the same but they had each other to share their feelings.
I cycled back via the direct route to St. John’s and went to Quidi Vidi lake (nobody knows for sure where the name comes from) were a lot of TransCanada finishers would dip there front wheel into the water. I didn’t quite see the point but I thought I might as well do it, too.
Later I found out that there is also a Quidi Vidi Harbour. So, I screwed that on up. I had to laugh about myself. Preparation does have its merits.
Afterwards I cycled to my “home base”, dropped off the panniers, and went to Canary Cycles where I had made an appointment long ago to box Rosinante up for the flight home.
I went back, had a shower and shaved and then ventured off for some souvenir shopping. Wade, my host had given me some great recommendations.
I got myself some Newfoundland T-Shirts and also bought some camping cutlery for my future tours.
Once I was back “home” I could not wait to put on some clean clothes again.
Later, I went into a pub for dinner. It felt great to be sitting there, soaking in the feeling of having accomplished something that is unimaginable to most people.
When I came back, I had a longer chat with Wade, who was working as an exhibition manager at the local museum. Great guy.
Around 10pm I went to bad with a silent smile on my face.