After 15 months wandering about Canada I finally reached the edge of the New World — Cape Spear in Newfoundland. The most easterly point of the North American continent is only 3,500kms from the British Isles, far closer than the 6,500kms back to Vancouver, where this final Canadian adventure had begun. Stepping ashore on the 'The Rock' (as Newfoundlanders refer to their wild homeland) the dense accents, the rugged countryside and the good-humored drinking were far closer to their Gaelic roots of Scotland and Ireland, than the rest of the neighboring Canadian continent. In fact the three weeks spent cycling around the Maritime Coast were a more leisurely European style ride than the lung-busting haul down the Rockies I’d experienced last summer.

Beginning in Quebec's Gaspe Peninsula, we bumbled along the Saint Lawrence River and I bumbled through recollecting five years of high school French. Leaving Quebec we expected communication problems to be solved, but the rolling melodies of the Maritime tongue took as much concentration as the previous baguettes and bon vin rouge. Nova Scotia's Cabot Trail was the next cycling route planned, but a mix of wild Atlantic storms, pub-crawls and a day spent drinking on lobster fishing boats with the locals meant that the bikes remained unused for a week. As the weather and hangovers cleared, we boarded a ferry for Newfoundland and a final week on the bike. Reaching Cape Spear marked the end of the road and a celebratory drink again on George Street, Saint Johns — the street with the highest density of bars in North America, in the Continent's easternmost city.

With the riding and Irish-influenced drinking over, it was time to haul back across US Highway 90, from Maine to Washington in four days. Before Paul Simon was moved to "Wartime Prayers" in his most recent album, he'd 'walked off to look for America'. Although our view was from behind the windscreen, crossing a dozen northern US states, we nonetheless saw enough to realize that the place was "Still crazy after all these years."

Today the bike is boxed and ready for the Qantas flight, leaving Canada again to settle back in Australia next week. So now all that’s left for me is a farewell to Vancouver, and this traveler’s return to my homeland Down Under.