Quebec City, Quebec

I'm now in Quebec City sitting in a bar. People speaking French behind me, Stevie Wonder playing on a jukebox, gamblers playing on fruit machines. Outside the sun's come out and tourists are clapping along to some street entertainers - jugglers I think. I'm in the old town, Vieux Quebec, where there are many many tourists, and I'm one of them.

I was here yesterday as well, but spent most of the day sleeping after the 114km ride here the day before, cycling into the wind and for much of it cycling through rain. And the Quebec roads aren't good - though about halfway I found some cycle routes, mostly along gravelly paths and not as direct as the roads but much nicer and safer. By the time I got to the city, well after dark, the bike was as knackered as I was. It's now being looked after by a bike shop - they're doing a full service, including a new back tyre since the one on there was falling to bits. I've asked them to sort out the gears as well so that the chain doesn't keep coming off. Fortunately someone there spoke English.

I've now done over 1000km total, though probably only about half that is in the right direction. The route across Maine was very zig-zaggy, and then a did a 10km circle in Quebec the other night, dutifully following signs to cycle routes, but the signs didn't say where the cycle routes were going so when after an hour I arrived back at where I'd started from I decided to ignore the signs and cycle on the road in the direction I wanted to go.

They don't seem to like you cycling on the road here, unless there's a proper cycle path. Bikes are meant to ride on the pavement with pedestrians, but the pavements aren't very flat so you can't go much faster than the pedestrians, which kind of defeats the point of having a bike.

So while the bike gets repaired so do I. I've only been drinking water so far, sitting in this bar for several hours and they don't seem to mind but I feel I'd better order a beer, just so as to be spending some money.

St. Georges to Quebec City (114km)

Map

Jackman, Maine (USA) to St. Georges, Quebec - 83km (total so far 920km)

I was expecting this to be a touch day since it was over hills (mountains even) but it wasn't that bad at all. The main reason for this I think was the weather - either the wind had dropped or I was sheltered from it by the hills. If I was given the choice between cycling into a strong headwind or cycling uphill I'd opt for a hot bath and a night in watching the tele, but if whoever was giving me the choice said no, it's either hills or wind then I think I'd go for the hills. The thing with hills is you know they can't go on for ever - you've got to eventually get to the top and come down the other side. And when you're cycling into a strong wind and you can't manage more than 15km/h and cars are whizzing past you they don't have a clue what you're up against because cars don't feel the wind, and so I'm thinking they must be thinking God, he's a really crap cyclist going so slowly on a nice flat road and that's really demoralizing and makes it even harder.

When there is a strong headwind I find I can sometimes go faster going uphill than going down - I guess because the hill shelters me from the wind. Also, with all the paniers I have on the bike it's not very aerodynamic.

I get hooted by a lot of cars and I don't really know what they mean by it (cars have such a limited vocabulary). Maybe they're hooting to say "Yeah, go for it!" or maybe they're saying "Get the fuck off the road!" I don't know. Sometimes they stick a finger out of their windows - at least then I know what they mean, though I wish they'd stop so we could talk about it.

Map

Losing track of days and dates. Now in Greenville, Maine, sitting outside a public library near a lake. Did 133km yesterday and still feeling a bit knackered. Need to get something to eat and head off now cos it's getting late.