Romancing the Bicycle |
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Romancing the Bicycle |
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Just in case anyone thinks you have to have all the right gear and know everything about cycling, we would like to share this UNtechnological TDC story with you!:
As I cycled up that last hill and then into St Johns, New Foundland, windblown and drenched to the skin, 7,200 kilometres closer to New Zealand and 7,200 kilometres further away, I remembered back to when the seed of the idea of cycling across Canada was planted in my mind. It was some 10 months earlier and about halfway round the world from this point. I was teaching in Thailand at the time and one of my Canadian friends told me about how her sister had done this "Tour du Canada" trip.
"I could do that", I thought, "but of course I'd want to do it on my own and carry my gear. That'd be a true challenge". However the more I thought about having my gear carried for me and the route planned for me, the more the idea of crossing the country with Tour du Canada appealed, especially as I was already sure I was going to do it 'this summer'.
At that time I cycled most evenings after work on a borrowed, far too small, sort of mountain bike. I'd just taken to cycling as a way of unwinding and getting some exercise. I rode 10 kilometres at the most! Though I did manage a possibly 60 kilometre ride, a time or two in the weekends, with one of my Canadian "Roomies".
The morning of Saturday 14th June, 1997 dawned, my day of departure from New Zealand, and eleven days before the Tour was to start. My bags weren't packed yet and I didn't have a bike! However, I did have shoes with cleats and the pedals, and I'd just about learnt to ride with them, (but I also had to make a quick trip to the local bike shop to get them taken off my brother's bike so they could be packed!)
I had been back in New Zealand for 5 weeks and I had been "training" on various borrowed bikes. It had been a time of catching up with family and friends, as I wasn't sure how long I would be away. Before I stayed with anybody I had to check they had a bike I could ride while I was there! Those weeks had rolled by, with my distances increasing from 15 kilometres to possibly 90 in a day!!! How was I ever going to cycle 180 kilometres?! I was starting to think, "What have I let myself into?"
These thoughts remained with me over those next ten days. First of all arriving in Vancouver not knowing anyone, but as a friend had said to me, "At least you know the language!" Of course I had forgotten that I wasn't arriving in a truly foreign country and actually I was going to stay with relations of another of my Canadian friends. I'd often joked when I was in Thailand that I should have Honorary Canadian citizenship, having spent so much time with my Canadian "Roomies" and colleagues. (I'd also joked that perhaps I'd fall in love with a Canadian and get married and end up living in Canada!)
The day after I arrived, the bicycle hunting started, and two days later the bicycle of my dreams was to take form. It still had to be put together, but after two more days, which were spent buying other required equipment, it was ready. I had just four days to learn to ride it, and on the opposite side of the road from what I was used to!
At last it was Orientation Day and time to meet the rest of my travelling companions. The feeling of "What have I let myself into?" started to subside a little, as I realised there were others feeling as inexperienced as I was. At least I had camped before, I knew how to cook and I had changed a flat tyre at least 3 times before! (That's counting the time when I put the leaking tube back in by mistake!)
As I listened to the description of the route my doubts started to increase again. The idea of discourteous traffic sounded so much worse when riding on the right hand side of the road! However, with this group of people, ranging in age from 18 to 73 years, and with a wealth of talents and skills, there was sure to be someone who could cope with cycling with an inexperienced Kiwi?!
It is now 18 months later, and I am amazed to think that for 66 beautiful summer days I cycled across Canada, while folks back home in New Zealand were trying to avoid the wet and cold of winter. From Vancouver, B.C. to St Johns, New Foundland, the trip that took 55 cycling days, 11 rest days, 20 rolls of film, and at least 200 bananas, (but not one peanut butter sandwich, which was the staple lunch diet for most of my companions!) I had no flat tyres, but a broken derailleur so 10 days cycling using only the middle front chain ring, numerous cuts and grazes and bites, grease tattoos from the bicycle chain, (I would get off on the wrong side!), a hole in my shorts and my leg, a strained muscle in my side for most of the journey and of course I didn't manage to escape from the inevitable saddle sores!!! And I fell in love!!
It was like being in another world as we made our way through the mountains of B.C. and the wheat and canola covered prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Past the lakes and forests of Northern Ontario, through the undulating tree and crop covered hills of Southern Ontario and on to the Nation's Capital. Then, into the romantic countryside of Quebec, the windblown forests and beaches of New Brunswick and across the Confederation Bridge to the sun soaked potato land of Prince Edward Island. From there by ferry to Nova Scotia with its coves and bays, and finally to St Johns, New Foundland in the blustering, wind driven rain. Even in the conditions of that last day I knew that every scrap of energy and all the money I had spent had been totally worthwhile. I thought to myself, "Who needs to go to Heaven?"
Now, as I experience my first ever winter of snow with that amazing Canadian, who coped with an inexperienced Kiwi cyclist, I marvel at our good fortune. We never pass a day without reminiscing about some part of that incredible journey and realise that it was just the start of many such adventures in our lives together.
When asked about a honeymoon we reply, that spending our lives together is our honeymoon, and we have already planned to travel through another "Heaven on Earth", leading bicycle tours from tip to tip in New Zealand.
Celia Hope (nee Pyke) - TDC '97
Port Hope, Ont.
905-885-1946
PS She may be a bit of a romantic, but most us were! And.. she could estimate the time and our speeed & distance within a km or 2 without any gadgets!
Tim Hope
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