November 28th. Finish location: St. Georges Junction. 45.1km today.

November 29th. Finish Location: St. Fintan’s. 41km today.

Total for 28 road days = 1,212.4km

Many thanks to Katheryn, Stewart and Bernie Cochrane for their unbelievable hospitality. I can honestly say they could not have done more. I spent 2 lovely nights in their Pascedena home and they drove a lot to and from my finish/start locations picking me up and dropping me off. Thank you so much

I got a very late start out on the highway. 11.30 start which put pressure on me for the day as I didn’t get finished till after dark.
Also made an error in only carrying 1.7 lt of water into this service devoid area. There was one long steep hill which took about an hour to get over.. It was cold and windy. Was a bit stressed about the water situation as one dehydrates more in cold weather. Some light snow flurries.
There was no real camping locations till near the end of the day as off the road it was fairly forestry and at a slope. Also had to be careful not to camp near the road as I don’t fancy a dumping from an early morning snow plough!
To be honest I really didn’t fancy camping at all because I had already gone through the .7 lt water bottle and just had the 1 lt thermos. That would go in no time with a cup of tea in the evening also in the morning and night sips. Then if I decided to mix oatmeal I would need a bit more.
What do they say in survival situations?
Rule 1. If you got little water…Don’t eat.
What I was really thinking about was the next day. People are giving me unreliable information as to where the next service station/ water area is.

So I pushed on running in the dark for one hour till I got to St. Georges Junction. Here the communities are off the highway. St. Georges is 4km off. I had a feeling there was a service station had I continued but I was not sure. I decided to run into St. George’s knowing that these km will not count.
It was a steep hill down. So steep I figure it would be a waste of the first hour in the morning, but it had to be done.
I stopped at the first house to ask to sleep in the garage.. No deal just got water and then asked for the mayors name and address. My head was buzzing a couple of different directions about what to do by now, still thinking about camping.

I continued to the foot of the hill and turned left. Went into a convenience store to ask for further directions to mayor Anderson’s house as suggested.
I mooched around trying to get an invite from a couple of people by asking where was a good sheltered place to camp. Sometimes I almost feel I am prostituting myself.. But hey, how do you run around the world on a low budget without hustling!

The lady inside was giving me vague directions then as one would imagine luck prevailed when the mail delivery woman came in for a purchase. She didn’t seem too friendly after I explained my mission.
So I went in the general direction of the mayor’s house until I noticed the fire hall with a couple of fire engines outside. I wheeled Nirvana inside to the surprise of a few of the fire fighters.
It looked to me like they were volunteers.
I flashed the Magic Letter and asked could I sleep there! One of the lads, a man called Jerome Bennett came out of the office saying that due to government regulations that wasn’t possible, however I was welcome to stay in his seaside fishing cabin for the night!

We lifted Nirvana into the shortly to be decommissioned former ambulance, now a fireman transportation vehicle and headed for his cabin about 2km away.

Once inside the small cabin Jerome lit two oil lamps. There was a sofa for me to sleep on. He offered to light the wood burning stove. I told him not to bother as I was going straight asleep. I looked around. There were pictures of fishing vessels, fishing nets on the walls of the dimly lit homemade cabin. It was now 8.30pm. I rolled my sleeping bag out on the sofa and settled down to sleep.
I was thirsty all night. I woke up about six times to sip on the two liter bottle of lemon drink I purchased from the convenience store. It was sweet and felt salty. I hate buying water and that’s why I chose the soda. Felt that was value. But in future may have to reconsider this rule for the more practical one.

Inside Jerome's fishing cabin.

Got up at 8am, later than I planned. I was wrapping up my gear when Jerome came over to ask me to his house for some breakfast.
It transpired that Jerome worked with Mike Keating from Gander ( mentioned so much last week as he took great care of me in his home and on the road ) for the very same power company.
He told me his family name Bennett is a derivative of a French name. His ancestors came here in the 18th century. They were of French descent. French people were forced out of the area by the British but his folks managed to escape and hide out as many other French did to eventually settle in and create their own French communities. Port aux Basques being one obvious example.

Not wanting to have the experiences of yesterday I was well stocked up with water and also filled the 2 liter empty soda bottle with water.
Jerome hitched up his trailer and we returned to the cabin to pick up Nirvana to transport me back to last nights finishing location of the junction out on Trans Canada Highway 1.

I only got 3 km before coming to the Ultramar service station I was unsure about last night. Even though I was soon after breakfast it’s still hard to pass these beacons of refuge being so rare on the highway.
Went in and had a French Vanilla coffee and some chocolate. Two very friendly ladies were scrubbing the floor of the restaurant.. I turned on a bit of charm.. Mentioned about the World Jog.. They thought I was a cyclist! Then were impressed I was running. Then I hit them with the smack..

” Do you give complimentary cappuccino refills to around the world runners?? ”
” Ha Ha! Help yourself! ”

About an hour later on down the road Mike Greene and his wife Linda pull up in their car. They get out and walk across the road. Mike is holding out a Tim Horton’s coffee!

Here you are Tony. I read on the forum and checked out your blog.. I know you like coffee!

So we chat on for a while and Mike and Linda ask me to stay in their place tonight.

I stayed at Mike and Linda Greene's house at Stephensville Crossing.They took great care of me.

Its in Stephensville Crossing about a 45 minute drive back past the way I came. They offer to pick me up at 4.30 on the road. What about the buggy?
Mike has given me an update on the road. He knows the area very well. There is a service station about 28km away at Saint Fintan’s junction. I suggest I leave it there for the night and return for it in the morning.
He drives ahead to get permission.
When they returns I offload much of my baggage and pour out the 2 liters of water = 2 kilos to me.

The sun is out now. The wind is minimal. I am wearing two pairs of gloves these last two days instead of my usual three.
Sometimes I even take off my hat…Getting bold!

There were some glorious down hills lasting a couple of kilometers. Then the uphill but they were not so bad. Every time I drink some water I seem to pee it out within a couple of minutes.
The pressure is off for tonight. I enjoy the run in the afternoon and am ahead of my 4.30 schedule to meet Mike. So I ease down a lot as I have to think of recovery and tomorrow. I run nice and easy for the last hour. There is much construction on the road. They seem to be widening it in places and working on a bridge.
There is not much traffic. I am running on the left side of the road towards the traffic. I can see far down the road so can run on the road moving back towards the hard shoulder for approaching vehicles. Sometimes it’s not necessary as the vehicle moves out to the overtaking lane. I usually wave when they show this courtesy.

Then Mike passes me on the road 20 minutes early. I pull into the service station five minutes early.
We bring Nirvana into through the door. The attendant says we can put her behind her counter.
” But you don’t have much room! ” I said after realizing this would take up half the space.
” Don’t matter! I can work around it! ”
Instead I push my faithful into the passageway of the adjoining restaurant and lodged it in beside a freezer.
Mike went to get me a coffee as I unpacked a few items for the night. The lovely attendant said the coffee was on the house.. Thanks!

Just as we were going Jerome’s cousin, Alphonsis comes in and offers to put me up for the night. Alphonsis lives just 10km away so I guess Jerome phoned. I have already committed to Mike and am so sorry for Alphonsis making such an effort… It’s great there are so many wonderful people in the world.. I am amazed by the hospitalitity afforded me here in Newfoundland.

On the way back to Stephensville Crossing Mike is telling me all about his running passions and how he trained hard running everyday for 90 minutes no matter what the weather was, even -20! He has a 2.31 personal best for the marathon.
Now unfortunately his running career has been curtailed by injury.
” I been in sport all my life Tony. I was a gym teacher when I retired.”

He has a great understanding of running injuries and the bodies metabolic workings.
We arrive at Mike and Linda’s house. Linda has a lovely roast beef dinner. Mike talks about art his other passion.. He is self-taught. Later I see his works. He has painted copies of several of Vermeer’s works to a very high standard.

Mike Green the Vemeer painter

Over a lovely roast beef dinner Mike and Linda tell me about how the British defeated the French in the 1713 battle in Europe. How that spilt over from Europe to Newfoundland. He says the Brits more or less just tolerated the French allowing them just to fish and that’s how they set up in Port aux Basques.

Mike has a contact in a town called Doyle’s about 50km away.. Doyle is ideally placed for me as it’s halfway to the Port. It turns out his contact from his school teaching days would be delighted to host me but will be out of town tomorrow. She makes a call to her friend, another teacher called Crem Reid. Crem says he has a place for me for tomorrow night.
So we call Crem and I arrange to call him when I reach Doyle.

These short daylight days don’t help me as I always need an early start. I don’t always get them. People understandably ask me for time of arrival, as one can imagine I can’t always be sure.

Newfoundland is just one of the most incredible places I have ever been to.

Nov 26th Deer Lake To Humber Village 36km

Nov 27th Humber Village  To 10km South Of George’s Lake  50.4km

Total For 26 Road Days = 1,126.3km

Both Nights Commuted Back To Pasadena As I Am The Guest Of  The Cochrane Family. I Commute Back To Finish Location To Continue.

Had a comfortable night in the truckers lounge last night. No truckers showed up. I guess they slept in their cabs. Was messing around on the computer till about 3am and then decided to take a chance on the ‘ do not sleep sign ‘ So I just rolled up on the coach and had  about 4 hours sleep.

I made my own breakfast this morning. I love the instant oatmeal they have here. Maple syrup, cinnamon etc, just add boiling water. We don’t have the instant type in Ireland, just microwaveable oatmeal. I would never order it in a restaurant as you just get one sparrow  portion size. This morning I put 4 sachets in my bowl along with banana. Hey its cheaper when you are in a truck stop convenience store.

Out on the road it was pretty windy. A little cold but nice.

My destination tonight is Pasadena only 23 km away. Too short really and I don’t really want to start running half days. I like to get in around a marathon for a day. I have run a few days in the 30′s when that’s were the services were. Have never been presented with a low 20′s till today.

I am staying with the Cochrane family. Stewart, his wife Bernie and their daughter Katheryn. When I met Stewart on the road yesterday I mentioned this  and asked that if I ran on for a few more km after Pascedena would he pick me up on the road and return me the next day. 

” No problem Tony, anything you need just tell us! ”

At the bottom of  a long steep hill 4 tree surgeons were having their morning break in their pickup on the hard shoulder. A boisterous one asked me where I was going. Mischievously I said, ” Dublin ”

Then he asked.. ” Where have you come from ? ”

So I said… ” Dublin…. But the long way… Around the world ”

” Have you nothing better to do? ” He asked.

I pushed on up the hill. Halfway up I saw another pickup from the same company with what looked like the lads foreman. For a joke I was tempted to say to the foreman..

” Have your lads nothing better to do than drink coffee and eat sandwiches! ”

But I didn’t.

Just over the top of that hill a Mountie cop came along. I was running in the hard shoulder on the left facing the oncoming traffic. The Mountie pulled up about 20 meters ahead of me on the right.

I thought to myself, here we go again someone is after phoning them to say I was running on the highway with a baby!

I  straightened up, untangled the Irish tricolour flag from the handlebars and got my best running style going. I didn’t look over at the Mountie but out of the corner of my eye I noticed that as soon as I got dead level with him on the opposite side of the road that he just made a 180 uturn and drove off.

A few km later I saw a sign for Subway restaurant on exit 12 to Pascedena. Subway is my favourite fast food restaurant. Thinking it was just off the highway I exited and ran about another 3 km there and back to the highway. I was a bit annoyed with myself as this extra distance doesn’t count and because of this I didn’t reach my planned stop of Steady Brook before Stewart came to pick me up in his car. I marked and photographed the finishing spot for a convenient and easy to find location for tomorrow.

On the way back to Pasadena, Stewart told me he was born in Scotland and his family moved to Newfoundland when he was 8 years old. He works as a geologist here. 

His young daughter Katheryn had answered my appeal on the Running Room forum looking for contacts here in Newfoundland.  She has been incredibly enthusiastic and helpful and has even arranged for her running club Corner Brook  AC to run with me for a while tomorrow

I am delighted about this as it will be a first for the World Jog. I was supposed to have groups run with me on other occasions but for one reason or another it never materialised.
Corner Brook is only a few kilometers away and is Newfoundland’s second city ( after St. John’s ) with a population of 35,000.

Back in the Cochrane house Stewart is giving me a hard time about the stench from my clothes… It’s a week since they were washed! I am not sure if he is teasing me or being honest!

We have a delicious dinner of a lovely big juicy steak  mash, veg and some of Katheryn’s delicious homemade chocolate chip cookies.  Stewart tells me about a problem Newfoundland and Labrador are having with Quebec over a major power plant called Churchill Falls.

A few people have said this to me that it seems like Newfoundland and Labrador have been screwed by Quebec which supplied the cash and built the eco-friendly wind-powered electricity generating plant which is so huge that it provides power to the whole east coast of  North America and is New York’s main source of power. Quebec takes 95% of the profits for doing nothing now. Ok they did initially put up the money but the feeling here is that re-negotiation is long overdue.

It has just been announced that Newfoundland and Labrador are fighting back by building their own 6 billion dollar plant in Muscat. They will not take any business from Churchill Falls as apparently there is enough business for both of them.

I  ran the 6 km from my previous nights finishing point to meet the runners of  Corner Brook AC. I had a half loaded Nirvana, it was a joy to run so lightly.

I met about 8 members of Katheryn’s club in the parking lot of Tim Horton’s.

A lovely bunch of runners who  donated 65 dollars to the World Jog charity, AWARE.

We ran together for about 12k. The lads  were eager to push the buggy and I had no objections! The pace was a bit nifty but I just hung in there.

It started to drizzle rain. Later on I heard it was snowing in Ireland. I have just been managing to stay ahead of it here.

When it was time for the runners to depart one of them called Andrew had a strange request. He got me to autograph his Ipod with an indelible black marker he had brought!

Then I realized I forgot my water bottle but was saved by having my 1 lt thermos. So I made some tea  and tucked into the huge lunchpack that Bernie had prepared.

There was some beautiful scenery but absolutely no services in the further 32km I ran bringing my total for today to 50.4km.

Katheryn finished work in her running shoe job for Arthur James Clothing at 4pm and came out to pick me up. She reckoned I could get a discount on some running shoes. Problem was that by the time we would get there they would be closed.

So Katheryn phoned them and fair play to the two young lads there they stayed open an extra half hour to accommodate me. I bought two pairs at about 30% off. I don’t want to name shoe manafacturer as I have had no success in finding a shoe sponsor yet.

Back in the house I did a one hour telephone interview with a journalist for the Irish Times. He said it will be a big piece for the Saturday or Monday sports supplement around Christmas time.

Speaking of Christmas I expect to be somewhere in Maine, USA for the day. Unless I get an invite it will be a normal running day for me.

The World Jog is going to plan, I don’tlike the word schedule as it sounds too restrictive. My plan was always for about 1,100- 1,150km per month. Because my target finish date is 29th October I am counting each month to finish on the 29th and start on the 30th. I started on 25th but as I did not count the Dublin marathon and then I lost 5 days transit from my finishing point in Ireland to my starting point in North America. So, I am taking the liberty of adding the 4 extra  days to this first month of the run.

I always reckoned I would hit Nova Scotia in the beginning of December. I had the 2nd in my mind. It looks like I will be taking the ferry there on Wednesday night.

I met members of Corner Brook AC outside Tim Horton's

A nice change to run free without pushing!

24th and 25th November 2010.  Baie Verte Junction to Deer Lake.

Yesterday: 51.9km.   Today: 43.4km. 

Total for 24 road days = 1,039.9km.

Got a little fright when leaving the Junction Inn this morning. I was locked in as the building didn’t seem to open till 10am. So I filled up my 2 litre Pepsi bottle from the bathroom sink… I don’t know about drinking this water but don’t they say drink dodgy water first and worry about illness later!

I carry iodine tablets anyway so it would have been only a minor inconvenience for my 50 odd kilometer run today.  I managed to get out a back door after pushing a thank you note and the room key under the lounge door.

Didn’t get far, 400 meters to be exact before I found a place that was open for brekkie. Didn’t fancy a long run on an empty stomach.

This restaurant seemed to have a fascination with icebergs. All kinds of trivia on the menu card.

 An iceberg found in Newfoundland was 6km wide, 13km long and 20 meters high and weighing several billion tons. It would have been able to provide a liter of fresh water for everyone in the world for every day for 4 years! Another one that drifted in from Greenland travels at an amazing rate of 7km per year and that’s considered fast! This one could provided 250 tons of water for everyone in the world and weighed in at 1.7 trillion tonnes!

I  eventually got going. It was very cold, drizzly rain. I got to the top of Mt. Sykes and made a mistake of stopping for a cup of pot noodles with the water out of my thermos  that  I got from the iceberg place. They wern’t worth the bother and as I was at the top of the pass I got colder again!

It was a major battle trying to get my hands warm again, slapping them against my body. Slapping  one hand at a time as I held the handlebars with the other hand. It was like this for almost two hours. Then I spotted two moose hunters parked on my hard shoulder on the way down the mountain. They waved me to a halt. I was making warming up gestures and was just about to ask to get into their pickup for a warm up when one of them said they needed to get moving after the moose and yet they both wanted to be ‘ entertained ‘ by my travels… Sorry lads… The show is over.. I told them I better keep moving before I get colder. Down the  mountain it warmed up a lot.

Hunting season is always in the wintertime as the animals come down from the snow covered and cold mountains for grazing and warmth. Newfoundland has a huge problem with the moose running onto the roads. There were 660 moose and vehicle collisions last year. Many of the small motels I have stayed in are not very busy this time of year but get some business from people that don’t want to risk driving at night for fear of collission.

I ran into Hampden Junction, 51.9 for the day.

The local restaurant hadn’t even got an electricity supply, let alone an internet connection or an ATM which I badly needed as everything was run on a generator.

This time my ‘ high profile ‘ arrival barely raised an eyebrow, not even a question – I wondered had they been reading recent postings!

I camped in the local park under some steps for a local tourist attraction. I just pulled out my tarp and sleeping bag. It was so cosy that I had to take off my shoes, gloves and hat during the night.

The tarp was great.. No messing with pegs, poles, catches, fly sheet and all the usual mess that is created by unpacking bags when a tent is put up. I was on the road in 10 minutes.

The big news today was 1,000km were clocked up after 3.5km. I took a couple of photos of myself!

The First 1,000km Run

It was nice and mild today or comfortably chilly as I like to call it. The running was easy for the first 30km – nice and flat, easy climbs and nice downhills.

This part of Newfoundland, the westcoast, as they call it doesn’t seem to be as populated as the eastern part I just came through. I miss all my chats with the locals as I am not meeting many now as towns are further apart with little in between.

I keep forgetting to tell you that because Newfoundland has no southern road it has added about a week and a half to my time here as I had to go north and am now heading south to get to Port aux Basques ferry port to Nova Scotia.

On the Road at about 24km I met Katheryn’s father Stewart who has obviously been reading this blog as he brought me 2 Big Turk ( extra large bars) and shared his coffee with me   We had a chat for about 20 minutes. He had to go to central Newfoundland on business and knew he would meet me on the road.

Thanks very much Stewart!

Stewart Cochrane delivers 2 Big Turk Extra Large Chocolate Bars And Coffee To Me On The Road!

Katheryn sent me an invite to stay with her family before I left Ireland. She has been one of the World Jog’s most enthusiastic followers since she read about it on the Canadian Running Room forum.

Katheryn I ca’nt seem to get through to your number. No worries I told your dad my plan for tomorrow. See you all sometime late afternoon/early evening.

The Big Turk and sweetened coffee gave me renewed energy as I was zipping along at 11-12kmph. Through some beautiful countryside. Most of the snow had gone from the fields but some of the small roadside streams were frozen over.

Beautiful Countryside

Then I had a big energy dip about 5km before reaching Deer Lake. I think I should start carrying some bananas on the road.

I went into the truck stop and stuffed myself silly with muffins and ice cream before having a couple of pots of tea. Told the waitress I wasn’t hungry enough for dinner and spent about 3 hours on their wi fi. Then out of embarrassment I ordered the local Newfoundland dish,  cabbage, corned beef, carrots and a nutty potato type dish of sorts.

Mangan never leaves anything on his plate but after an hour of swishing around salty corned beef in my mouth I gave up and surrendered.

Went across the road to a swanky hotel, think it’s called The Deer Lake Hotel.

Went in the door after placing Nirvana in full view of the window. Inside I was told they were closed!

” Closed but it’s not even 8pm! ”

” No sir this is the restaurant, the hotel is the other side of the foyer. ”

Had a glance over across the foyer. A hot chick was on the hotel reception. Went outside. Re-positioned Nirvana outside her window. Came back in. Flashed Magic Letter to hot chick. Big smile, lots of confusion. Manager is called out and tells me senior management would have to approve a complimentary night even though I have offered a story to their local paper interviewed in their hotel. Nothing can be done as senior management went home while I was swishing my mouth on blueberry muffins and corned beef across the road at the truck stop.

Hot Chick tells me a likely hotel is about a couple of minutes away. I question hot chick carefully and it turns out thats driving into center of town, about 5km away.

Yes, I am wondering if my Magic Letter or my own skills are having a dip in form.

I retire back across the road to truckstop to type this blog in the truckers lounge which I have gatecrashed. A sign says no sleeping. I turn up the heating. I intend to go in a have a shower . There is nobody in the truckers tv lounge but one keeps looking in the door every few minutes. Think he has a problem figuring out my logos, running tights  outside compression shorts and charging gps watch. I expect to get kicked out any minute now.

November/23/2010. South Brook to Baie Verte Junction.

Total today 34.3 km Total for 22 road days = 944.6km

On the way into Eddy’s for breakfast this morning a sweet elderly lady donated 5 dollars to the charity.. She was at pains to get her name right. She told me a couple of times but unfortunately I can’t remember as I didn’t have my book handy to write it down. Sorry lady but thanks for the donation to Aware.

The waitress greeted me with a big pot of steaming coffee.

” Coffee sir? ”

” Of course, I can’t operate without it in the morning. ”

” I can save you a journey too because if you got any of those hungry man or hungry trucker breakfasts or anything that resembles hungry or big well that’s what I want! ”

I always believe in having a big breakfast as one never knows what will happen on the road, so it’s nice to get off to a good powerful start!

On the way out a man behind the gift store counter is shaking his head and asking me am I mad.

I say. ” Morning, You must be Wallace? Thanks very much for your very kind offer of the room for the night.I slept really well and had a lovely hot bath ”

It has snowed overnight and he tells me they don’t even want to go outside to tend to the gas pumps.

I say. ” Well, I guess there are people with bigger problems than me, I’m only cold. ”

Then I add.. ” They say it has to warm up to snow? So I am sure it will be a better day than yesterday… ”

Gotta keep working on the ceann.

I push on. It’s not too bad as the snow is not sticking. The roads are fairly busy and clear. The snow plow has been out. The hard shoulder is slushy. I put on my Ipod. I listen to Jerry Fish and then to Whitesnake. I’m in Heaven as it’s only cold for the first half hour.

Today is a short day, just 34km. A little shorter than I wanted but tomorrow looks like a 55er, just like yesterdays 50 odd nothing likely to be in between, just a scattering of empty holiday homes.

Sometimes the shorter days are the more tiring for me. I don’t understand why.

By now I am well conditioned to running a marathon or more every day. I don’t even feel tired or think about stiffness at the start of each day. I bounce out to the road.

As I mentioned before, pushing a buggy is about a 20-25% extra effort  workload. Usually after 30km I am working hard mentally. The head goes down. It can be a mental grind.

Today I played games trying to estimate the amount of land covered by snow as opposed uncovered in the fields. I reckon 65% snow.

Earlier, after 13km I stopped for an English toffee cappuccino and a bar of chocolate in an Esso Station.  I discovered the candy was a Turkish Delight, my favourite. I had just picked it by the colour of the wrapper, now I will seek out Big Turk every day.

12km on I  am sitting on a guardrail is it called a crash barrier? This is by now my most frequent roadside location for a hot drink from my thermos.

Then there is a massive hill. At it’s steepest I clock my slowest speed so far of the journey,  3.9kmph going up the long drag.

The day is nearly done, just a little more than an hour.  I got to pee about 3 more times before the finish. Gotta give up the coffee. I don’t really care now, just pee on the spot when there is a break in traffic. Biggest problem is taking off my 3 pairs of gloves.

Don’t know why I am so mentally jaded early today.

It feels like I am in competition again. Feel like I am in the second night of a 48 hour race. Eyes closed, just running, open eyes again a few seconds later.

I start using my mantras. Then I add the song to the mantras that was so successful in competition… I sing it aloud, I feel better. I see a sign for The Junction Inn 5km away. I check the distance on my gps wristwatch. That should be 33.7km

I count down the kilometers. It’s easier now. I push Nirvana on ahead and get about 15 meters a time. I have a hand strap wrapped around my left wrist so I don’t lose control. So I keep pushing and prodding her forward on and on.

I arrive at The Junction Inn. The bastards built it 600 meters further than they said.

Many Thanks To The Junction Inn.

The sign on the door says they got wi-fi so I pull out my netbook computer, logbook bag and instinct tells me the Magic Letter

I go inside and talk to Brent the owner. I tell him it’s too early for me to eat so I just want a cup of tea and a Big Turk. So we chat about my route and the usual questions as I power up the netbook. He asks where I am going to sleep. I truthfully have already spotted a couple of nice places. I never lost that instinct from my world cycle 30 years ago. Just down the road was a park with some open day shelters. Also as I sat in the restaurant I pointed out of the window to a white building that seemed to have nice cover.

I tell him I got a good sleeping bag, a tent and sometimes I don’t even bother with the tent as I got a lightweight tarp.

So I send off a couple of emails. A lad called Matt from Truro, Nova Scotia gives me an invite, I will be there in a couple of weeks.

Brent goes off. A woman called Val and an older lady come in.

The same questions… The same answers.

I am just about to post last nights update on this site.

Val can’t believe I want to camp either. I think she is one of the owners when she says she will give me a good rate. I ask how good. She says it’s normally 100 dollars but she will give it to me for 40. 

I say with tax that will be 50. She says, no 40 including tax.

I say it’s still too expensive for my budget that I will camp tonight.

Val says: ” You will come back to me later tonight when it rains! ”

Then I say… ” You think it’s going to rain? Funny Wallace said that to me this morning. ”

” Who is Wallace? ”

” The owner of Eddy’s restaurant and motel… They gave me a complimentary room last night…. I am just about to put a nice piece up on the blog at the moment…Am having trouble downloading pictures as it’s a bit slow….”

I point at my netbook.

 I had the Magic Letter face down on the table. It’s laminate, the blank back side made it look like a place mat. I think I could have easily gone off without it.

Quick as a flash I followed up my comment by flashing the letter. Both ladies read it with keen interest.

Then Val said… ” We will provide you with a free room for tonight but the satellite system does not  work! You will get what you see on this television.”

” Thanks very much Val! Don’t worry about the television as I only watch the news and weather on Newfoundlands NTV. ”

” We would be delighted to have you Tony.

”  We will put you in room number 10.

”Let me go up and turn on the heating for you! ”

Amazing people!

So I went to my room and the television was already tuned to NTV. The weather was on. It showed snow storms all over Canada, saying some journeys were impossible. I saw Gander which I passed through just last week was having a bad time. Many flights to the international airport were cancelled.

It also said today in Calgary was the coldest place on the planet after the South Pole!

 Thanks Val and Brent And The Junction Inn  :)
A run around the world would not be possible without the good decent people like I have met in Newfoundland.

 Their website: www.junctioninn.ca

REASON WHY TONY IS RUNNING THE WORLD JOG PRESS HERE

I urge anyone who is looking for an interesting cycle/other type trip to consider Newfoundland in the summer… It’s like Ireland without the rain!

And if you do please check out Eddys.. They gave me a complimentary motel room!

Today November 22/2010.  51.6km Total for 21 days = 910.3km

I had a nice conversation with the Chinese woman Jenny owner of Kellie’s Restaurant and motel over breakfast before leaving this morning.

Jenny tells me she came to Canada 15 years ago with her family and there is no way she is going back now.

She tells me she is from the south and the weather is so mild all year that no heating is ever required.

My own information from one of my friends who has walked across most of China for over a year is that the central part is cold,cold,cold with no heating in the hotels in the evenings. Christolph Rehage is very much into photography so please check out his award winning site for excellent stories and photos of his journey through China www.thelongestway.com  Anyway that will be about two years time and I will be a great supporter of global warming if thing change by the time I get there!

It is only in the last couple of months that I have realised the reason I have not been able to get the idea of a world run out of my system is because I have been subconsciously feeding this monster by my involvement with about a dozen such adventurers.

After my rest period in Badger the running seemed easy today. It was bitterly cold for about 3 of the almost 7 hours on the road. I just kept plugging away at a nice steady pace. It seems that in the cold every small niggle comes out to play. I took a couple of Ibuprofen as such things helps with the cold. A couple of times I felt slight pains in my ankles and just switched shoes. This also gave me the opportunity to break in a new pair of shoes.

I saw a sign for Eddy’s restaurant and motel around 4pm. It’s funny that sometime I get a hunch as to where I will be spending the night. Almost an hour later I stopped my gps watch for the day. I read 51.9km but I usually subtract a little each day, so rolled this back to 51.6 even though they are extremely accurate I still like to do this. At the end of each day I usually run past the entrance to my nightspot and leave the road at the exit to that location as it is a tad bit easier to continue on from the exact same spot the next morning.

So I do what I always do… I made a high profile arrival wheeling Nirvana right into the restaurant! If I can’t do that I generally have her parked in an equally high profile spot like a passageway. I ensure all my logos are in place and then the conversation usually begins along the usual lines of…..

”Hi There I saw you on the television a couple of weeks ago and on the road today. ”
” So where are you off to? ”

” Oh just running around the world!…. ”

Questions…

Then I am in auto-mode…

So I tell Lisa the very friendly lady behind the attached gift store counter that I am going inside to have a bite to eat.

” So where you going to stay tonight Tony? ”

” I was just wondering if the owner would let me camp around the back please? ”

” Walace is the owner and he is very nice, I am sure he would give you one of those empty motel rooms as we are not busy now. ”

” Here Lisa can you please show Wallace my Magic Letter… I just happen to have it here in my hand and it explains things better? ”

I went inside and had a lovely shrimp,mash and veg dinner.

When I return Lisa hands me key number 4.

” There you go Tony… Number 4 has a wheelchair ramp and you might find it easier to get the buggy in!

” I am sure you will enjoy a hot bath? ”

”  Hey Lisa great idea! Please thank Wallace for me. ”

So they say cold icy baths are better for recoveries?

To hell with convention…. I had a very hot two hour bath listening to my music on the computer

Later I turn on the television for the news and weather. It seems everywhere is about 2 degrees in the day with windchill factor making that minus 15.

Nights are usually around minus 5.

REASON WHY TONY IS RUNNING THE WORLD JOG PRESS HERE

Thanks very much Eddy’s Restaurant and motel for your incredible act of kindness.

Many Thanks To Eddy's Restaurant And Motel, South Brook, Newfoundland For A Sponsored Night.

Coffee on the guardrails

Having a rest day here in Badger Newfoundland has allowed me a chance to catch up on my emails and news.
 
Being a very strong trade-unionist I must admit I was a bit torn between making the World Jog a political statement or just keep it non-political.
I was even tempted to make the very first day on the road of this world run a protest walk from Dublin to Newbridge in Ireland. A protest walk against our shambolic government, a government that doesn’t give a toss about it’s people.
Today the IMF and the ECB are in Ireland talking about a bailout for a country which only a few years ago was the envy of most of the world. Three or four years ago according to our politicians we were about the second or third richest country in the world (per capita)
I never believed that. Working in construction I could see that we were overbuilding, building too many housing estates and offices.
The government were creaming off a nice hefty stamp duty tax for every house that was built. They were in denial that the good times would never end. Anyone that stood up to them was laughed at and called a traitor.
Our economy was built and heavily reliant on the construction industry. They never believed that the good times would end and that the immigrants that filled those houses would one day go home. Truth is they didn’t want to know they were so greedy taking this up to 9% stamp duty on the purchase price of a new home. Now we have serious negative equity problem. Many of our citizens are trapped with paying off over-inflated house prices.

Unfinished ghost housing estates and construction sites. It will cost more to maintain them and just like in Detroit and Michigan it will probably be cheaper to just knock them down and create a few more jobs for our ailing record all-time high unemployment list.
 
Our politicians boasted about how great we were on radio and television broadcasts. Then they had the brass neck to say the very next day that we didn’t have the money for life-saving operations for our young children and the elderly. All this while our government agencies abused our resources flying around the world on useless junkets , spending a fortune even on their partners hairdo’s to say the least.
 
I never did make that protest, I just ran away. Like most Irish people I just shrugged my shoulders and moved on.

Oh! For the French and the Greeks.
 
While all this was happening far away in Burma a woman called Aung San Suu Kyi  DE TAILS  refused to walk away.
 
Suu Kyi is from a military and political background was the leader of a pro democracy party in oppressive Burma. Last weekend she was released due to constant  international political pressure from her illegal house arrest which began over twenty years ago.
The irony is that her release coincided with the end of the sham ‘ democratic ‘ elections in the Asian state.

Aung San Suu Kyi

 
The Burmese government gave Suu Kyi  many opportunities to walk away, to attend to ill relatives abroad. She refused, believing the government could not be trusted to allow her to return to her home country in order to continue her pro-democracy protest.
 
Irish rock band U2 penned a very emotional song in support of Suu Kyi called Walk ON PLAY
 
This song has always been one of my favourite songs and in recent months since my preparations for the World Jog kicked into place it has become my firm favourite. The irony is that I am a runner. But to me this song symbolises freedom, or more correctly the lack of it.

For many months I have been playing this song even on repeat. When I play it, I always take one big look around my surroundings. I thank God for my freedom. It never fails to stir my emotions.

 U2 have been performing this song on their current 2 year 36O world tour. If you look  closely at  the video linked above  you will see  Amnesty International volunteers circle the outer track of the bands 36O degree stage. The volunteers are holding up masks of brave Sui Kyi. So far on their tour I have seen the Dublin band play 5 times. On each occasion when the band play this song I have almost been in tears. I look forward to see them play twice in Anaheim, Ca. in June, that will be really interesting.

In a letter from U2′s Edge he advises caution:

” Dear tony,

I’m sure, like us, you’re delighted with the news of the release of Aung San Suu Kyi in Burma at the weekend. We should all be relieved, if cautious, that she has been able to take a step towards freedom.

However, we must remember that her release is not part of any political process but is designed to get positive publicity for the dictatorship after the blatant rigging of elections on 7th November. We must not forget the thousands of other political prisoners still suffering in Burma’s jails and must do whatever we can to encourage the international community to engage the junta in dialogue.

We will continue our support of this remarkable woman and her campaign, and as always we count on your continued input and continued vigilance.

Thanks
Edge

When I play Walk On on my Ipod on the World Jog all I can do is just look around and value my freedom which so many people around the world just don’t have.
 
It’s amazing that so many Irish begrudgers have lambasted Bono for ‘ mouting off ‘
 
U2 have been hugely responsible for the foreign debt of 14 African countries being written off . Some day we may need Bono to do a nixer in Ireland.
 While our useless and most unpopular government of all time still wont resign. They still still believes that they have done nothing wrong, even with the IMF and the ECB sipping coffee at their very own table in Dublin. 
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BkIH2nI5DJ4

Well after my last posting, no surprises for guessing  my song of the month, or even the year.

It has to be U2′s…….  Walk On!

Please PRESS HERE to play.

Walk On
Lyrics Courtesy of Artist(Band):U2

And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage that you can bring…
And love is not the easy thing…
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can’t leave behind

And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it’s a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong

Walk on, walk on
What you got they can’t steal it
No they can’t even feel it
Walk on, walk on…
Stay safe tonight

You’re packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly for freedom

Walk on, walk on
What you’ve got they can’t deny it
Can’t sell it, or buy it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight

And I know it aches
And your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Home… hard to know what it is if you’ve never had one
Home… I can’t say where it is but I know I’m going home
That’s where the heart is

and I know it aches
How your heart it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on, walk on

Leave it behind
You got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason
All that you sense
All that you speak
All you dress-up
All that you scheme…

Am in a motel in Badger. 45km today. Total to date for 20 road days = 858.7 km.

Gander to Badger, 17-19 November 2010.

Got a nice early start out of Gander; just after 8am as Mike left early for work.
He had given me a contact for tonight’s destination in Notre Dame Junction just a little over a marathon away.

I clipped along the Trans Canada Highway enjoying the nice fresh morning that it was. Still can’t quiet believe I am living my dream after all these years, now more than 20 since I first got the idea.
It’s funny that no matter how hard the hill, how cold it is or any hassles I have I am still very upbeat.

The Trans-Canada is 7,777km long stretching from St. Johns to Victoria, B.C. It’s almost 50 years old and officially the longest paved highway in the world.

Terry Fox, a Canadian athlete DETAILS who had his foot amputated due to cancer became a cancer awareness fundraiser. He set out from St. John’s to run a marathon a day all across this, the second largest country in the world. Unfortunately Terry’s cancer worsened and he had to quit just outside of Thunder Bay.

To be honest the amount of hospitality I am receiving is astounding and to list all the incredible acts I fear I will bore the reader but anyway I feel they have to be mentioned.

Well I got stopped by a lad called Alfred who was on his way back to Nova Scotia. Alfred gave me his address and said I was welcome to stay in his home when I got to Amherst. He bought me coffee and a cake.

I arrived in Notre Dame Jct just after 2.30. The contact that Mike gave me didn’t work out as he wasn’t home. I waited a while and then went off to camp in the Provincial Park.

Next morning the nicest of park rangers greeted me as I was packing up…

” Morning sir! Did you sleep well? Not too cold?

”I drove by earlier and didn’t want to disturb you!

” You just come on over to the office when you are ready for a coffee! ”

Shelby told me that he has been working for the forest service for over 25 years.

He loves Newfoundland and in fact he has never been off the island.

He is going to the Virgin Islands later in the year for a 20th anniversary with his wife and says if he could go anywhere in the world it would be to Ireland… Yet another island… Guess he feels safer on islands.

” It’s funny you camping there I was only watching the television last night and an advert came on for Ireland..”

” The tourist board? ” I asked.

” No for some shampoo, Irish Mist I think, I just love the way they talk and love the way you talk!

” You got enough coffee there? Here let me empty out the fridge here and give you everything we got here for the road!

” But that’s your lunch?

” No that’s only the emergency food we never have an emergency here… Everything is so nice and peaceful here…

” You know Tony we got no crime on this island of Newfoundland ( about the same size as Ireland )

”Too bad I didn’t see you arrive here last night you would have had a nice warm place to stay.”

So I mixed some instant oatmeal and had another coffee then went to brush my teeth, couldn’t find my tooth paste.

” You go on in there, Tony and use mine. ”

So it was time to push on. I ran on past some wonderful scenery, beautful lakes and rivers which I am told are great for fishing.

There were lots of forestry workers out cutting down some pine trees. Oh that delightful aroma, I filled my lungs with it several times.

Great to be out in the open.

I came up to the exit for Bishops Falls, a small town of 3,600 population. Been having problems with people giving me accurate directions.

I mean I don’t ever want to go too far off the highway to a town as then I have to return without counting those kms. They usually say not too far only a few minutes drive! Not far for them, far for me.

Asked a couple of moose hunters how far to town.

” Just there ”

He points straight across the crossroads.

” Less than a kilometer? ” I ask.

He just nods.

Next thing I find myself on Main Street. Later I am told its the longest street in the world without a stop sign. About 7km long! Luckily its parallell to the highway and I don’t have to backtrack, I just subtract the access/exit bits.

On the way I am waved down by two old codgers Bob and Fred for a chat.. I thought they were putting up Christmas decorations. They are in fact preparing a fence to fight off the winter snowfall….

They are very busy, say they would love to have a coffee with me and press 8 dollars into my hand.

” Go and have one on us and warm yourself up! ”

I get about 10 minutes down the road and a trucker called Dave gives me a Pepsi and a bag of  sweets!

I run on. Spot a place that sells ‘ British style fish and chips ‘ I get about 20 meters past it and have to turn back so overbearing is the aroma.

The guy behind the counter is probably Indian from India. He gives me a huge plate of fish and chips with 3 pieces of cod for 9 dollars.

Three very young girls come in. They are probably about 7, 9, and 10 years old. They call him Jay.

They are very mature. They are are talking about the price of housing against the cost of rent.

Then the young one does what I have never seen any child in my life doing… She actually spends her money on buying bottled water.

It’s getting late now… Haven’t run far today as this town was less than 35km away from Notre Dame Jct. An easy day… A lot of dilly dallying…. This is what it’s all about running and having fun meeting the locals as I go.

I continue on aimlessly up Main Street. A red car pulls up alongside me.

” Are you the fellow we saw on the television that’s running around the world? ”

” Yes that’s me! ”

” Well me and the Mayor of Bishop’s Falls want you to stay in town. You got a bed for the night”

” Who is the mayor? ”

” I’m Liz and Bob my husband that’s driving is the mayor.

” We would love you to stay… ”

Liz gives me the address. Another 3 km up Main Street. Just wondering where the moose hunters thought I was going!

I tell Liz I will be there in about 20-or 25 minutes and if there is no sign of me to send out the posse.

So I push on Nirvana… I get an escort of 3 young boys on bicycles… My first escort of the World Jog.

Got many like this when I did my world cycle all those years ago.. Usually in the developing nations. Hordes would follow me on bicycles..

You could tell by their eager tone they couldn’t quiet figure out what I was up to. They used to follow me everywhere, even behind a hedge to pee.

I thought these lads were sneering at first. Then they became very friendly. Their names were Jordan, Brendan and Emmanuel.

” Where you going now? ”

” To Mayor Hobb’s house ”

” It’s just past the Church another couple of km away… You will like him…He is a very nice man. He used to be my teacher. ”

Inside their lovely house Bob tells me how difficult it was for him when he moved here first.

” I am a city man from Ontario and when I came here first and went to the store if I was third in line and it took so long to get served because the first in line was chatting so much to the shopkeeper. I was so impatient and frustrated.

”It’s so easy-going here now I am the one having the chat with the shop-keeper and keeping everyone waiting!

” Well we looking to do some big business with your country especially Limerick but now because of the recession things have slowed down a bit but we are working on it again.

” You know this town maybe very small but we got some well respected international companies here.

” You remember that Alaska oil spill a little while back?  Well the company that sorted it out was an oil specialist company from right here in Bishop’s Falls.

” The chief executive was well respected in the world of the oil business..

” Do you know Tony there was a Saudi prince that sailed his luxury yacht to Houston, Texas for an oil conference and expected to find our man there…

” Well you know what the prince did, he rang him up and I was there when he took the call in his office…

” Next thing the prince charters a jet to Halifax, Nova Scotia and comes into Bishop’s Falls in a helicopter!”

” Did he have any body guards Bob? ”

” For what? ”

” In case he got mugged, did he have any jewelery with him? ”

” Nobody gets mugged in Newfoundland, you know he had to have a second room for all his jewelery.. ”

” So you had fish and chips? ” says Liz.

” We had that last night, I suppose you don’t have room for pork chops now? ” What… Course I do… runners need to keep their protein going! ”

We had a delicious dinner and the crispiest veg I ever did eat.

Liz told me they always cook more than they need as they always have someone drop in or they pull someone from off the street.

Over dinner Bob told me about his work as a teacher in a remote aborigional indian reserve area of northern Ontario with the Cree Indians DETAILS . It’s in an area called Addiwapiskat in Fort Albany.

There is a high burn out of teachers there as young teachers go there thinking it’s going to be easy but it’s far from easy.

There is obviously the usual problems with alcohol abuse. It’s banned on the reservation but smugglers make a fortune selling a small half litre of spirits for about 110 dollars and it costs just 11 in the liquor store here.

” And where do they get the money for this? ”

” From the Canadian government… Many of the Cree spend all their money on alcohol..Nothing else just a couple of flasks a week. ”

” They think differently to us as they are so remote and out of touch, that’s understandable and they don’t have any concept of value.. ”

” You know they sell the most beautiful artwork you ever saw for about 20 dollars a piece, pieces which would sell easily for 500 dollars here.. Many of the teachers bring back lots of it. ”

” Let me wash your clothes ” says Liz.

His sharp eyes spots me changing into the best of my soiled clothes.

He will have none of that. Every piece of clothing I have is washed and I changed into the mayor’s Canadian sweatshirt and tracksuit bottoms. Bob was once a fine hockey, tennis and cross-country athlete.

I get off before 9am and run the short distance to Great Falls Windsor. I think it was about 15k and I get there in less than 2 hours.

I make for Tim Horton’s famous coffee shop as I suspect they may have wi-fi.

The queue is out the door. I’m about 20th in line when a man up the top of the queue spots me, points to me and says to the waitress.

” You see him… I passed him on the highway and he is running around the world…Give him whatever he wants for breakfast! ”

Reg calls me forward, he already has his breakfast, gives me his Tim Horton’s credit card! I order a large coffee and a sausage and egg sandwich.

I sit down beside Reg. He tells me he used to own a paper mills which closed down a few years ago and now he enjoys his retirement…

We talk about the weather..He can’t believe I am travelling through in the winter.. He rushes off to Wal-Mart. I try unsuccessfully to log onto the internet.

Reg returns. He has bought me a portable grill fire..Its meant for charcol but he says the hunters put wood into them. It’s like a 1 gallon bucket with a big handle and a raised vent area underneath. He gave me a bottle of starter fluid and a packet of bungee chords to tie it on to Nirvana. says he would have tracked me down on the highway if I wasn’t still there.

I promise I will give it a try and if I don’t like it I can throw it away or give it to someone else.

I tie it to the top of the buggy..It’s not heavy, just cumbersome. later I stuff my tent inside it and put it inside and pull off the huge handle.

Out on the highway there is a bitter cold wind.. I am well wrapped up and am comfortably cool. 15 minutes later Mike passes in his company pick-up. He has a great job, driving around just delivering notes to people that don’t pay their bills. I get into his warm vehicle for a chat. He has bought me a chicken and chips lunch and a Pepsi as he knew he would bump into  me!

I am so stuffed I can only drink the Pepsi and tell him I will eat the food later.

He told me that during nine eleven his town, Gander hosted 6,500 people that were diverted there and there was a massive operation for a few days serving them 3 meals a day. He said there was a good book written about it. The conversation came up because Reg had said multi-millionaires had hidden out in Newfoundland and the locals gave them everything, even their own food.

I pushed on again, first it looked like rain then a few snow droplets. I saw a few ominous snow ploughs being transported back the direction I had come.

So what do you think Reg does? He goes home and tells his wife Madge about me! So Madge makes up some batch loaf cheese and ham sandwiches, trail nuts and dried cranberries and a flask of coffee and they are waiting at the entrance of what looks like a disused railroad yard.

I park Nirvana at the side and get into their military green-coloured Landcruiser. A couple of trucks turn into the entrance and I am worried my Chariot will get run over! Its nice and warm in the Landcruiser and I eat the sandwiches and who do you think turns up to find me eating sandwiches and not his chicken lunch? Its Mike on the way back home, so he stops and Reg shouts over…

” I am looking after him now! ”

Reg tells me that he loves helping people and if he never did anything for anyone ever again that he could never repay the things that were done for him.

Reg and Madge go off and Mike tells me he may not see me again as I am going out of his area now.

It’s about 15km to Badger now.. I run on, arrive about 5pm.

It’s another small rural town..

I go into the Ultramar service station. The attendant is very friendly..

She says it’s cold, I say yes but I am happy… I am very upbeat, I go outside and eat Mikes chicken dinner and drink tea on the bench outside…

Then I go inside to warm up…I am not so upbeat now!

I decide I will go over to Kellie’s Motel and try to use my  MAGIC LETTER (as described before, a letter of introduction from the Lord Mayor of Dublin)  and try to hustle for a reduction. I guess I could do this more often but it’s a thing I have to be in the mood for.

I go outside… A woman called Shirley is parked outside and sees I am running around the world. She says she wants to take my photo but its too cold outside..

She asks me to sit in the passenger seat, takes the photo, shows me what resembles a weird Halloween costume with my balaclava pointy headed up to the roof… She turns up the heater, apologises for the cigarette smoke in the car. Says she will follow the website.

She asks me what the charity is I am running for. I say an Irish charity called AWARE DONATE PLEASE! which councils mental health issues and aims to take the stigma out of depression. She says her daughter is a psychiatrist. Gives me about 6 dollars for Aware then takes it back and gives me her entire purse, including the purse for Aware. I count just short of 12 dollars! She says her husband is inside the service station and will be sorry he missed me! I was wondering what he would have though of me sitting in the seat beside his wife!

I wandered over the road to the motel. They are a Chineese family. They tell me it’s 68 dollars a night and I offer 25. The mother reads the letter and agrees. I say…

” Better to have something for an empty room than nothing?”

She nods.

Ming helps me up the steps with Nirvana and has to move the bed to get the buggy inside..

He turns on the heating….

I am toasty now!

Camping in Notre Dame Park.. The nice park ranger gave me breakfast.

The Mayor and the First lady of Bishop's Falls Bob and Liz Hobbs.

Main Street Bishop's Falls

Reg with the bucket heater

Just outside Gander

Moose wanderings on the road is a huge problem here. Some drivers drive very slowly causing further problems.

14 – 16th November.
Deep Bight to Gander.

Hi all.

Just want to say I am very disappointed with the SPOT tracking… I  don’t know what is the problem as I take a bearing about 4 or 5 times a day. It’s very frustrating to see my progress has not been tracked. I am very close to throwing this ‘ mom and pop ‘ technology in the bin. I consider it really to be only a gimmick for the site to be honest.

Left Charles at Deep Bight on Sunday morning feeling very strong after the serious protein from the moose steaks but also left the steak for the road in his fridge  

Rambled on through Clarenville and into Port Blandford and went into the store for batteries. Got talking to a few of the locals. A really nice guy gave me 20 dollars for some beers, so too  did his friend and another 5… And I don’t even drink beer!

I was tempted to stay but as it was only around 3.15 and I had made many stops for my measly 30 odd km I decided to push on. Ran on into Terra Nova National Park. I put on a high viz vest and red flashing light for my back as it was dark. After about 30 km I came to Charlottetown,which seemed to be a small village in the National Park.

Dennis the owner of the Chode Choice Motel let me stay in one of the nice cabins for only 20 dollars.He said they normally charge 90 and that’s prob 100 after tax, so I was delighted with my bit of hustling!

Then Dennis brought me over some bread, noodles,eggs, tea, coffee, juice, butter, cookie…How thoughtful…Thanks Dennis.

So it was a late night as I did a major clean/throw out and got Nirvana nice and lighter now.. Every piece of equipment has to earn its keep from here on!

The nights are cold here as is the start of the day but the days are unseasonably warm. Most locals say it’s not like November weather, more like October.. They say it could change any moment  and I could be caught in a major dump any day..One never knows..They say because it’s north Atlantic it’s even more unpredictable than in other areas of the world.

I sometimes wonder should I just put the foot down and really try to make some serious progress..I am running more now than I really want to. Ran 68 yesterday and today, Monday another almost 50 to Gambo.

On the way I continued for about another 25km through the National park.

Near the exit I stopped at Mary Brown’s famous chicken and taters place. On the way in 4 hunters gave me 5 dollars each for  lunch! Nice people here in Newfoundland.

Well I arrived in Gambo and ran the 2km off the route (not counted) and went into Sheila’s Restaurant for dinner.

The man at the next table started talking to me and said that his house was demolished by hurricane Igor that went through this town a couple of months ago. Said he was living with his sister and about to move into rented accommodation tomorrow and that insurance didn’t cover him. For a man that had such a recent upheaval  in his life I was impressed by his upbeatness.

I asked the manageress, Bev if I could camp behind the restaurant and was in bed by 9pm.

Slept soundly till 8am with two pairs of socks on.

Bev and her husband Chas invited me in for breakfast so I didn’t get away till after 10 but what the heck this is about socialising and I don’t have any major schedule.

Chas works for the Canadian Government flying airplanes into remote areas of the North-west territories of Canada to areas that are occupied by the Inuit Indians. He said its a 3 hour flight to drop in their food and supplies as there are no roads. He works one month on and then has one month off.

I walked the 2km out of Gambo before the clock began for running. ran up a couple of steep ones. Didn’t know the grade but my speed was down to 5.2 kmph! They were leg sapping and after about 25km I was a bit beat up after the last couple of heavy days, I guess.

Mike Keating pulled up in his pickup around 2.15. He said he had a great time in N. Ireland, Scotland and France in March as his daughter is studying in Scotland he and his wife made a vacation of it.

Mike works for the power company and seemed very interested in my travels. He gave me an energy bar and when I asked if there was a backpackers hostel there he invited me to stay in his place. So no messing about with phone numbers I got the address and directions of where to turn off the highway.

Am having problems with my phone and often there is no reception anyway.

On I went for a couple of hours and noted a 24 hour Mc Donalds, had it not been for Mike I probably would have settled for that as they sometimes got wi-fi.

I was very tired at this stage and ran on till i got to the turn off of the highway and walked to his house, 41.9km and 3 stops today.

My God! It’s always great to have a hot shower after a couple of days on the road.

Mike’s wife was away visiting  their son in St. John’s so he cooked a delicious chicken supreme dinner followed by some tasty banana bread.

We had a really nice chat also with his son Lorren who is a sparky who insists that more people get electrocuted by 110 volts ac as opposed to 220 in Europe, contrary to what we had thought in construction sites in Ireland where everything is stepped down to the safer 110v.  Lorren says, and I guess he may have a point that with 110 people become complacent and think it’s safe.

They also had another 18 year old friend over who is a student air pilot…fantastic land of opportunities.

Total km’s for 17  Road Days = 736.4

Terra Nova National Park. I ran through much of the Park on Sunday night.Was a bit scarred the Park Ranger would pull me off the road.

I continued through the National Park on Monday morning and had a friend join me for my break.

Bev and Chas wave me on my way after breakfast in Sheila's Restaurant

Goodbye to Gambo

Hello to Gander

Whitbourne to Deep Bight.
12-13 Nov. 2010.

I pushed my way on out of the Avalon shamrock-shaped peninsula on and on over some beautiful rolling hills. Getting into the swing of the hills even though some are about 2 or 3 km long. I just let gravity do the work. I push and run, falling against the buggy and as it rolls I keep running and gravity aided push it up those long hills. As they say: what goes up must come down  
Some of the descents are amazing and I need to be careful not to run too hard as I don’t want to get injured, besides that’s a very tiring way to run.
I am running along the Trans Canadian Highway that stretches all the way across this massive country, from St. John’s to Victoria in British Colombia. Along the hard-shoulder here is a ‘ rumble patch ‘ great for dozy drivers keeping them on the road but a pain for cross country cyclists (not to mention cross country runners!) and joggers alike.
Just outside of Goobies I met my first journey cyclist of the trip. Shaun from Ontario is spending a couple of months travelling across his country. We chatted for a while and he is going to email me some of his contacts. Shaun is hoping to get to St. John’s over 180km tonight and will be cycling into the late night to meet a friend and catch a flight.
 
I ran on for another 3 hours stopping a couple of times for a cup of herbal tea from my one lt thermos, yes that’s one of my best ideas. I fill it up every morning in the place I am staying, I lasts the day and if I happen to be camping still have a hot drink without cooking.
 
It was at one of these stops just 5 km before Clarenville, a size able town I pondered my situation for the night. Did I really want to go there at 5pm with darkness closing in. As I sat on the guardrails just off the hard shoulder I looked down the hill to my right and saw what looked like an interesting village.
 
I wheeled Nirvana down the steep slope into Deep Bight a village of 500 residents.  looked for a place to camp, ended up laying my air mattress and sleeping bag out under the sheltered steps of the United Church of Canada. I pulled on 2 pairs of socks, plenty of clothing and settled down for the night at 6pm. Also had my Dazzer 2 dog deterrent ( ultra sonic humane ) device handy in case of any wandering black bears. 
Not sure if it works on bears but felt a bit more comfortable than using a bicycle pump. Probably wouldn’t be impracticable anyway by the time I got out of the sleeping bag and got my 2 pairs of gloves off!
I slept long and well, wakening up about half a dozen times before instantly falling back to sleep.
 
While I was packing my gear up at 8am Charles a nice friendly, middle-aged, ’ salt of the earth ‘ type of person drove over in his pickup.
 
” You ok there boy? Anything I can do? ”
 
” Well Charles.. Thanks very much, My name is Tony from Ireland and I am running around the world ”
 
” Anything you want…Just you tell me.. ”
 
” Thanks Charles Yes I could murder a cup of coffee! ”
 
I wheeled Nirvana over to Charles’s house. Soon the coffee was on the table, bacon and eggs were sizzling in the pan.
What a meal!
 
” Anything you want Tony…Just you tell me.. ”
 
” Well Charles maybe I will just take a rest day if you don’t mind? ”
 
” Boy I can’t believe you slept out there under those church steps..You just wait till I am going up there on Sunday what I got to say to the other parishioners! ”
” Yooou know what we say here in Newfoundland? ”
 

” There’s no price tag on the doors of Newfoundland. ”
 
” Next time you just go on and knock on some body’s door. ”
 
Over breakfast Charles gave me a very interesting history lesson of Newfoundland. How the Italian explorer, John Cabot DETAILS  came over from Bristol while working for the British in the 15th century, plundered the area as he went.
”Then there was so much fish in the sea all you had do was put a bucket into the water and it was full…Now we only got crab and shrimp.”
” At that time the area of Newfoundland was occupied by the Beothic Indians so the Brits rounded up some Micmac Indians from Nova Scotia to run them out..Got the Micmacs to do their dirty work, they did. ”
 
” I think we got some Micmacs in our government, Charles! ”
 
” Then the French came in and had a battle with the British over Newfoundland but the British drove the French into Quebec.
” However you look on this map here and you will see there is one area south of Newfoundland which is still owned by the French..
” It’s like going to France, you need a passport to go there… Many people travel over there not realizing they need to have a passport and have to return on the next ferry”
Charles pointed out the Island of St-Pierre and what looked like 2 other island connected by a long bridge, Great Miquelon and Little Miquelon.
” So eventually Newfoundland got independence in the 1920′s. There was a referendum, we could have joined the United States but we chose to join Canada ”
” We got a lot of oil off the Atlantic coast but its only recently just become economically feasible to drill for it…We still depend a lot on fishing and forestry. ”
 
later Charles brought me out moose hunting. He already bagged one this year, a four pointer as they are rated.
” Four pointer? I asked ”
 
” Yes, you count the number of antlers and usually the lower the number the younger and more tender it is.
” My moose was about 175kgs after skinning and boning and that’s a baby, they often weigh twice that..”
” We just hunt for food reasons, we get enough meat for a whole year from one moose and still give half of it away.

” Tony you don’t have to worry about those black bears out there as they are all in hibernation ”

” That’s great Charles, you set my mind at ease. ”

” You really need to watch out for them coyotes as 5 or 6 of them suckers can take out a young moose ”

” Thanks Charles! ”
 
So we drove along on through forested gravel trail areas a couple of hours before dark when moose are best sighted.
 
We passed a couple of hunters that managed to bag a 19 pointer.
 
” That would be an amazing one for sure one of the biggest I have ever heard of probably 350kgs! ”

We drove slowly, Charles looking out at the left side while I eagerly checked out the right side. In between us with the barrel pointed down to the floor was his 303 British hunting rifle. I shifted about uncomfortably..
” Does that thing have a safety catch on? ” I asked..
” Don’t worry Tony the cartridges are not even loaded! ”
” I was just worried about my feet. ”
” Wouldn’t do to blow your most important bits off then! ”
Funny when I worked in construction and heard loud noises of falling objects it was feet I seemed more concerned at protecting rather than my head…
 
A few minutes later we braked suddenly…. Did he spot a moose? Visions of him blasting out the window past me made me miss a beat..Charles reached for his binoculars, I reached for my camera, he was sweating, fluid was pouring down my leg, did I pee myself?  No just spilt the Pepsi!
 
We drove on to the end of the trail head till we reached a large sand pit where youngsters were playing around with ATV or all terrain vehicles. Small powerful utility vehicles great for zipping cross country pulling lumber and fallen moose back to the road.
On the way back we sighted 3 other ATV’s with no occupants.. Charles reckoned they got one and were busy chaining it..
 
” Look Tony footprints! ”
 
” You mean moose footprints? ”
 
” Not unless they were wearing rubber wellies! ”
 
So it got dark and we drove back to Deep Bight, past the road that leads to Bonavista peninsula where John Cabot’s fleet came in to the Americas all those centuries ago back to the house for dinner.
 
Charles’s wife, Florence was home from work and gave him a ribbing about not having dinner ready…
You boys been out playing again, its me that should have that rifle.
 
Guess what we had for dinner??
Cabbage,turnips,potatoes and ……Moose! I had 2 big delicious steaks and another wrapped for the road for tomorrow! 

What a day… What people!

Why is Tony running the World Jog? Press HERE  for his background information and how it all began.

I had a 14 hour sleep under the church steps in Deep Bight. Just as I was packing up to hit the road a voice called out..

Then Charles invited me in for breakfast.

Competition for Nirvana.. Charles's ATV