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

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