Grafton -> Belleville 78km
The highlight of this day was a stop at Earthwalk, Eco Education Centre. Located just outside of Colborne on a 5 acre plot of land it seems eons away from the hustle and bustle of the city. Peace and quiet surrounded us as we coasted down the driveway to the centre. There we had a snack of freshly picked beans and tomatoes before heading to one of the classrooms for a workshop on "getting your message through" some helpful hints on how to engage your audience were shared with us by Garnet McPherson the program's director. We also learned about the house and how it had been built, essentially carbon neutral using solar power to both heat and cool the house. We had lunch there and were then joined on our ride by a couple of locals who pedalled with us to Brighton.
We stopped for ice creams in Carrying Place a small town about half way through the ride. There we determined that yet again we had managed to lose a member of the group. Eddy was nowhere to be seen and only after some thorough searching by the support vehicle did he turn up having taken a substantial detour! The rest of the ride was uneventful and we arrived in Belleville about 6pm only 2 hours behind schedule! We were supposed to meet with the mayor there but I guess he got tired of waiting around and the town hall was quiet when we arrived. We headed on over to Organic Undgeround a great cafe/multi-use space where we were spending the night. The space didn't have showers so we decided to go the Y we heard was just a few blocks away. We started walking and 45 minutes later were still walking, I guess we should have asked just how far a "few" blocks is. The sauna there made it worthwhile and I had a great sleep that night.
Belleville -> Kingston 92km
Just me and the guys. again. Rita had to return to Toronto for the day and Eddy had to get back to school so our group had dwindled to 7. We left early and made great time as we followed the shoreline east towards Kingston. I finally finished all the Harry Potter books, perfect timing as the tour is almost over! We stopped in Bath for lunch and had arrived in Kingston by 3:30pm.
We went to a tar-sands teach in at Queen's led by Clayton Thomas Muller of the Indigenous Environment Network. He is a great speaker and I was happy to learn more from him. He also told us that Mercury is in retrograde which apparently makes people late, miss connections and generally behind schedule. This makes sense as we proceeded to miss two ferries and a train all within the next two hours! We finally made it over to Wolfe Island by 10:30pm our final destination for the night. While waiting for the ferry we amused ourselves by playing Zoom, Schwartz, Bflude..something, Kingston's citizens were probably wondering what kind of crazies were in town as we crawled, hopped and ran barefoot around the ferry terminal. Or maybe they took no notice since it's frosh week at Queen's and many weirder things are going on!
Today we are having a rest day, this morning we had a tour of the wind farm on Wolfe Island which was very interesting. The structures are very impressive once you get up close. I don't know about you but I would much rather have a wind turbine in my backyard then a coal-fired or nuclear plant! I guess tonight we will just chill out and try and get a good night's sleep before we head out for Westport tomorrow!
Apologies for the lack of pictures but I forgot my camera cord! Will post some next time I have reliable internet!
Friday, September 11, 2009
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Days 52 & 53 Riding with a new crew
Toronto -> Oshawa 80km??
Left Anubha's after a great stay in Toronto. I was shown that my preconcieved notions about Toronto were completely wrong and it is a very down to earth and friendly city after all. Thanks too very mu
ch to Anubha for having me stay and showing me a great time!
I met with the new crew at union station and got ready to ride out of the city. The majority of the group decided to ride the GO train to Pickering but, the west coast crew plus Leslie decided to brave the busy streets and pedal our way out.
Stopped in Pickering for a photo shoot in front of N.A's largest wind turbine, largest but solo...and in front of a nuclear station... let's think about that for a minute. After that the whole group rode into Ajax and there we met the mayor Steve Perry who rode with us through town. We stopped for lunch at a park on lake Ontario and then got back on the Waterfront Trail to continue east along the lakeshore.
We spent the night camping in Darlington Provincial Park, our site was on the cliffside looking out onto lake Ontario, pretty stunning! It was fun to be part of a larger group again, we had a campfire and played games by the firelight before retiring to our tents.
Oshawa -> Grafton 65km so far
Odometer number 5 is now functioning! Hopefully knock on wood this one will last the rest of the trip! It should considering there are only 5 days left!
We left the campground around 10, our group having already shrunken by 2. Emma had to head back to TO for work and Ted was heading into town to have a broken spoke repaired before he could rejoin the tour. He left me with the map and directions to continue east, assuring me that they were straightforward and easy to follow... I don't know if I'm just bad at directions or he is exceptionally good but we managed to split the group into three, spend time backtracking and do some bushwacking all within the first hour! After trying to leave hints for groups further back as we twisted and turned through the forest we finally gave up and left the trail for a service road running parallel to the highway.
We met back up with Ted at lunch time just outside of Port Hope and I was happy to relinquish the role of "leader" back to him. We stopped in Cobourg for a tour of a geothermal company and then continued on to a press conference at a local cafe, we chatted with local press and did a mock ride by for a good photo opportunity. Check out these links later today or tomorrow to see the articles. Northumberland View, Today.com, The Northumberland News
That brings me up to right now where I am currently blogging away at the Go Green Together office. Big thanks to them for organizing the press conference, riding with us into the city and letting us use their office for blogging! We have a few more clicks to go but have been revitalized by fresh lemonade, fruit and coconut cookies at the cafe next door. End destination is Ted's families farm.
Left Anubha's after a great stay in Toronto. I was shown that my preconcieved notions about Toronto were completely wrong and it is a very down to earth and friendly city after all. Thanks too very mu
ch to Anubha for having me stay and showing me a great time!I met with the new crew at union station and got ready to ride out of the city. The majority of the group decided to ride the GO train to Pickering but, the west coast crew plus Leslie decided to brave the busy streets and pedal our way out.
Stopped in Pickering for a photo shoot in front of N.A's largest wind turbine, largest but solo...and in front of a nuclear station... let's think about that for a minute. After that the whole group rode into Ajax and there we met the mayor Steve Perry who rode with us through town. We stopped for lunch at a park on lake Ontario and then got back on the Waterfront Trail to continue east along the lakeshore.
We spent the night camping in Darlington Provincial Park, our site was on the cliffside looking out onto lake Ontario, pretty stunning! It was fun to be part of a larger group again, we had a campfire and played games by the firelight before retiring to our tents.
Oshawa -> Grafton 65km so far
Odometer number 5 is now functioning! Hopefully knock on wood this one will last the rest of the trip! It should considering there are only 5 days left!
We left the campground around 10, our group having already shrunken by 2. Emma had to head back to TO for work and Ted was heading into town to have a broken spoke repaired before he could rejoin the tour. He left me with the map and directions to continue east, assuring me that they were straightforward and easy to follow... I don't know if I'm just bad at directions or he is exceptionally good but we managed to split the group into three, spend time backtracking and do some bushwacking all within the first hour! After trying to leave hints for groups further back as we twisted and turned through the forest we finally gave up and left the trail for a service road running parallel to the highway.
We met back up with Ted at lunch time just outside of Port Hope and I was happy to relinquish the role of "leader" back to him. We stopped in Cobourg for a tour of a geothermal company and then continued on to a press conference at a local cafe, we chatted with local press and did a mock ride by for a good photo opportunity. Check out these links later today or tomorrow to see the articles. Northumberland View, Today.com, The Northumberland News
That brings me up to right now where I am currently blogging away at the Go Green Together office. Big thanks to them for organizing the press conference, riding with us into the city and letting us use their office for blogging! We have a few more clicks to go but have been revitalized by fresh lemonade, fruit and coconut cookies at the cafe next door. End destination is Ted's families farm.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
