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The in between …

arreterlaspcaroule

After being able to listen to the high tide releasing its waves on the beach during the night, I quietly got up to make myself... a coffee.



I took the time to enjoy the place. Admit it’s pretty!  So I quietly left... really quietly, around 10 a.m., to refuel and begin the journey proper.  So I set off from Baie-Comeau on the 389 towards the Manic 5.

Having already done this route a few years ago, what was my surprise to discover an almost straight road (I'm hardly exaggerating if we compare to the old one) up to Manic 2!


Then, on the other hand, it’s still the good old road! The one that allows your square tires to regain their roundness!! Just fun juggling the gears and rocking the bike from side to side.  Besides, it’s not just the bike that rocks, the temperature too! Between Manic 2 and Manic 5, the temperature went from 26 to 14! To the point where, a few kilometers from the energy motel, I stopped to change gloves, put on an underlayer, change my neck tube... in short, I was cold!


Back at the Manic 5, the serious things begin. I tackle a 100 km gravel road that is more or less rolling depending on the location.  And here, I must admit that the Africa Twin is in its element! “Off-road” mode engaged, you just have to let it go and simply tell it where to go, it does the rest… or almost :) A real pleasure! A little over an hour later, I reached the Relais Gabriel and continued for around twenty kilometers to get to the Uapishka station.


This is where I will spend the night and from where I am writing to you.  The people there are super friendly, but the campsite is not suitable for motorbikes! To the point where, after having my location indicated to me, I found myself in very soft and very deep sand.  And of course, while trying to put it in the other direction, for the start the next day and because I anticipated some problems, I got bogged down and I put the bike down!!! I had removed the luggage, but the fuel had just been filled, a good 250 kg more!


As I had just met two bikers, Eric and Odile from Montreal, at reception, I went to ask for a hand.  Eric came to help me by telling me that he too had just laid his own, but that his sand was less loose. In short, after we straightened it out and got it out of the soft sand, him on the handlebars walking alongside and me pushing, we put it on a harder place from where I could leave tomorrow. My tires are not made for sand, no doubt about it.  All this under a full-blown attack of black specks that devour you purely and simply! Unpleasant is absolutely the wrong word! I am eaten in both eyes, lower eyelids, neck and ears!!! Really… To the point where tonight, there’s no food preparation, tomorrow morning no coffee. I eat my seed mixes and a protein bar.




Fortunately, it's raining at the moment, so that gets rid of it.  On the other hand, I hope this will stop because tomorrow I have to pack everything up.  But overall, I'm not likely to come back here.  The only positive point, and the one that makes me here, is that I am camping on the edge of the eye of Quebec! It's just beautiful.



In short, tomorrow another piece of technical road and the start of Labrador!!!

Ha, yes no network… I will send this to you as soon as possible.

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