… don’t even fix a price,
until he gets you to the other side.
Beware that hooded old man
at the rudder!
And then the ferryman said
“there is trouble ahead, so you must pay me now – don’t do it!”
The lyrics from this song
make me believe that ferrymen have never been the most reliable or trustworthy
people in history. Will they take you on board? Will they bring you to the
other side? Will they…??
The hooded old man was a
hooded women marching the line of people waiting without a reservation in front
of the Labrador Marine Inc. Office in Blanc Sablon about 2.5h ahead of
departure time.
I called them ten times to
make a reservation, but they couldn’t even be bothered to pick up the phone. Now
I have to wait to be given my number that will determine whether or not I go
across to Newfoundland at 10:30am or not.
BTW - 10:30am Newfoundland
time not Quebec time where we are (-1.5h) or Labrador 15 min North of us (-
0.5h) – I am glad they decided to align on one time zone when it comes to ferry
times since I was getting confused.
My request to the hooded
lady to get two numbers since George was still on his way to Blanc Sablon from
Red Bay was answered with – No can do!
When I suggested that a bike
should always the able to fit in on the ferry I was told that “ a strapped down
bike takes as much space as a car”.
I can’t believe they made 25
people wait till 10:15 to finally bring on some cars and called for “one
motorcycle”. That was the time to say goodbye to George since I was planning to
catch the next ferry in Port aux Basques leaving at 11:45pm that day and I
would not be able to make it if I didn’t get on the “Apollo” now.
So after a quick “goodbye”
and “ride safe” I was the last one to get on the ferry and the stern door went
up right after me.
A friendly lady on board
inspected my work to secure the bike and showed me the way to the upper deck
for the 90 min run from Blanc Sablon to St.Barbe.
I booked my ticket for the
Port aux Basques ferry from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia online as soon as we
left.
“The Rock” destination of
last year’s trip greeted me with heavy gusts, some rain showers and wasn’t very
welcoming at all.
Memories from a little over
11months ago came up – remember this, “oh, this is new”, ate here, stopped
there…
2015
2016
I am going down the coast at
good speed; only the strong wind is forcing me to throttle back here and there.
A late lunch on the road and soon I am approaching Port aux Basques where I met
an interesting biker group from Prince Edward Island last year. Let’s see who
is lined up for the ferry “Highlanders” this time.
I park the bike behind an
almost identical BMW 1200GSA and a Suzuki V Strom with the registration “Ironbutt”! He must be a member of the “IB association”; you have to ride 1000
miles in 24h to become part of it. They have a 24h run close by every year and I
was thinking of doing it but organized rides and memberships are not my thing
really.
Minutes later I am really impressed
when talking to “Ironbutt” – he not only did a CCC100 – which means “Coast to
Coast to Coast in 100h” – in his case Miami to San Diego and back, but also Key
West to Anchorage and back in 16 days.
Personally I don’t mind
pushing distance once in a while, but this is endurance riding and I rather try
going places others don’t. Well, Anchorage can’t see too many bikers, or?
We boarded the ferry bikes
first, strapped down the rides and I found a good seat to spend the night. I
ended up sleeping on the floor for a couple of hours and must have snored, when
I woke up the seats around me were empty except for a dad with two kids taking
shuteye on the floor as well.
Thomas
Odometer reading (at the
ferry)
Today: 376.4 miles
Total: 2163.3 miles
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