June 17, 2016
Thunder Bay: The 17th and 18th of June, 2016 AD
It felt strange to wake up all alone in the forest, with no one to wake me up complaining about the mosquitoes and other bugs, no one to amuse me by cycling the wrong way. I wondered where Vivian was. I hoped she was okay.
I cycled a few kilometres to Kakabeka Falls and stopped to take a look, and I was very impressed by what I saw. I would actually have to rate them as the best waterfalls that I had seen in Canada, and maybe even making the top ten list of best waterfalls ever. Certainly top twenty.
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After the falls I found a gas station in Kakabeka with wifi and connected to the Internet to discover what had become of Vivian. Her messages made me feel even worse for reacting the way that I had. She apologised for her comments to the man in the cafe, which had apparently been a joke, and thanked me for having stuck by her for so long. I had a bit of a lump in my throat. Especially as I knew now that I wasn’t likely to see her again. The previous day she had cycled for a while and then hitched a lift in a truck the rest of the way to Thunder Bay. Another group of five cyclists, calling themselves the Canadian Coasters were there, and she wanted to catch them up so that she would still have someone to ride with. The Canadian Coasters, a group of five older riders, had been a day or so ahead of us almost the whole way across the prairies. We caught sight of them a couple of times, met them once, but generally they had been pulling ahead of us and we would just hear reports of them having passed through places, unmissable in their matching bright yellow shirts. I was pleased to hear that Vivian would have others to cycle with. I felt like I had done my bit, and passed on the baton.
The reality of the situation, however, was not so much that I had helped and supported Vivian across the prairies, but that we had helped and supported each other. I probably benefited from the company, and the distraction from the boring ride, every bit as much as she did. I could look back on our time together positively. And in the weeks and months to come I continued to follow Vivian’s progress. She did not end up cycling with the Canadian Coasters for long, instead going it alone, and actually thriving. No longer restrained by slow old me she began to cycle 150 kilometre days, albeit only because she wanted to get it over with as quick as possible. She passed through her home town, Sudbury, and, against my expectations, resisted the temptation to stop, but continued cycling alone all the way to the end of Canada, finally standing triumphantly at the Atlantic Ocean in Newfoundland. It will all make for a great movie, I’m sure. Certainly her story is an inspiring one - a city girl with no experience of the wild, little cycling experience, no camping experience, no idea how to read a map or follow directions, making it all the way across Canada, despite wanting to quit (and being told to quit by her family) almost every day. To this day I remain in awe of her stubborn determination and willpower.
But I was alone as I entered the shockingly big city of Thunder Bay and made my way to the home of Frank, my warm showers host. It was strange to think that Vivian had been here, enjoying dinner with the Canadian Coasters just the previous evening, before moving on a few hours before I arrived. Frank was an exceptionally kind and generous host, and he regretted that I had not made it with Vivian, as he would have got his personal best record for most cyclists staying in one night. This night he only had four - myself and three young Quebec boys, themselves riding across Canada. I offered to prepare dinner, and the guys went to get some missing ingredients. They asked if there was anything else they should get. “How about picking up some beers?” Frank suggested. The boys looked at each other, then said they couldn’t buy alcohol. They were only 17/18.
They were really nice lads, going the opposite way unfortunately, but good company for the evening. Frank was a great host too, and an inspiring one. He was technically clinically blind, though that didn’t stop him doing the things he wanted to, like cycling around the world. He actually had some form of tunnel vision, and no peripheral vision, but that wasn’t enough to stop him cycling, so he’d gone ahead and biked the world, as you do. This was particularly inspiring for Dea when I passed on the news to her. She was still recovering from her eye infection of course, although there was great news as the vision in her left eye, which had dropped to as low as 20% when she’d returned home to Denmark, was now back at 80%. Perhaps slightly inspired by the news of someone declared as clinically blind cycling around the world, she was at about this time setting off on her own cycle tour in Denmark. It was a practice run, and if all went well she would soon be setting off west across Europe to come and meet me as I pressed on east. Motivation, if ever there was some.
Luckily for you, Dea wrote her own blog about these practice tours, a fantastic first attempt at doing so. At the risk of losing all my own readers here is a link to her journal, Cycling my roots
I remained in Thunder Bay for most of the next day. My bank card had been blocked and I had to call the UK to get that sorted, and find somewhere to exchange some Australian notes so that I could buy groceries. I think there was also football on. So it was 5 p.m. by the time I eventually got around to doing any cycling. With it not getting dark until nine, this still gave me enough time to get through Thunder Bay, where thankfully I had quite a few bike lanes to escort me. I saw the vast Lake Superior for the first time, before continuing out of town on Lakeshore Drive. This was not as picturesque as it might sound, being lined with properties on both sides and consequently not actually being on the shore of the lake. But I did manage to get down to the lake once, at a park. Frank had told me that he asked one thing of all his guests - that they must go down and touch the lake. I went one better and ran into it for a quick dip, setting up my camera on timer to prove this to Frank. Despite being mid-summer the water in the massive lake was completely freezing, and I hurried out again, my body tingling all over from the cold.
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Friday 17th June - 62km
Saturday 18th June - 35km
Today's ride: 97 km (60 miles)
Total: 52,414 km (32,549 miles)
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