Quebec’s Eastern Townships: Cycling From Montreal to Granby

We spent a week cycling around the Eastern Townships of Quebec, enjoying beautiful bike trails, parks, lakes, and delicious food and drink. Here are photos and recommendations from the first day of our Eastern Townships self-guided cycling tour. It is a pleasure cycling from Montreal to Granby, Quebec.

Begin in Montreal

Cycling from Montreal to Granby route map
Montreal to Granby

Day 1 involved a few hours at the bike shop in Old Montreal acquiring our rental bikes, getting them fitted, and gearing up with the panniers. By the time we left the city and rolled across the two bridges, it was almost noon.

Cycling from Montreal to Granby bridge selfie
Our selfie on the bridge leaving Montreal

Quebec Bike Paths

What a pleasure! We rod on bike paths almost the whole way, and they were nice paths. Well-paved, separated from the road, with good views, these bike paths are fun to ride. We are looking forward to a week of almost all separated cycling paths. For people who spend their days cycling in “lanes” marked by painted images of bicycles in Toronto, this was heaven!

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Day Trip to Roatan

On Saturday, I took a trip “off island” for the day. After 5 weeks on the tiny isle of Utila, working hard to complete my DM training, a day trip to Roatan sounded like a fun change of scenery.

GROUP OUTING TO ROATAN

This was not a solo trip. Instead, UDC arranged it and a bunch of instructors and DMTs took the early morning boat from Utila to Roatan. We did 2 dives and spent a few hours walking around another island with cars and lots of shops! A big change of pace for me to go to the big island, and a nice escape from the studying.

GOOD TO GET AWAY

It’s amazing how exciting it was just to be somewhere else. I love Utila and it’s laid back atmosphere, but it was still fun to go somewhere with a gelato place. And to dive new dive sites. Day trips are a great escape!

DIVING IN ROATAN

The dives were great. From my limited experience and what I have heard from other divers, the diving in Roatan is better than Utila. Apparently the marine park has been protected for a longer time, and I could see the difference in the coral health and especially the size of the marine creatures.

For our dives, we visited a wreck and a site with cool swim throughs, and saw some much larger grouper than we see on Utila. A nice eagle ray and a swimming turtle completed the fun morning of diving.

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Utila Diving Photos and Videos

The diving has been really nice here in Utila over the last few weeks. The underwater visibility is great these days now that the rainy season is over. I have been bad about posting while busy finishing up the Divemaster training (SO CLOSE!). We aren’t able to bring cameras on training dives because we are working, so I only take photos on our “fun dives.” Here are some Utila diving photos and videos.

fun dive photos

Here are a few underwater shots from some fun dives I’ve done lately.

Trumpetfish Utila Diving Photos
A trumpetfish

I found my red filter so moving forward the photos will not be so blue! But for now, this is what I’ve got, including this pretty angelfish.

Angelfish Utila
Angelfish
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