Day 114: Enfield - Dartmouth

km today: 41.13
total km: 7624.33

Turtle Power!

We’ve decided that we have to do more cycle touring after this trip because we’ve only just perfected all of the tricks of the trade in terms of cheap living. Squatting is a good start, but squatting right next to trucker stops where showers are available is like staying in an all inclusive free of charge. We had to pay for the showers of course, but the provision of free wireless internet and the use of the lounge with cable T.V. while waiting for the shower to be cleaned (a regular occurrence to keep them up to standard) made it seem free.

Squatting now requires no effort whatsoever. In fact, we really do enjoy it more than staying in a campground. We just realized that we’ve gone two solid weeks now without paying for a night. We love it.

Our ride was short today, but it wasn’t quick. We set off on a late departure into the wind and soon discovered that Katie’s stomach was less than thrilled with its breakfast. We took it quite slow and easy to avoid making things worse and decided that it was definitely time to break our squatting streak. Katie was in need of a couple of days off in doors, with a real bed and access to a hot shower. Out came the trusty Lonely Planet and the cell phone. Only moments later we had contacted, literally, every Halifax/Dartmouth hotel, hostel, and B&B listed in the guide book and found that not one of them had any availability. It’s mid week in late September. Why Halifax is the place to be right now, we couldn’t tell you. Once again, it seemed like we might be making our own campsite.

Thankfully, our luck turned as we neared the city. First it was with the spotting of a toonie on the busy Highway 118 shoulder, which, in turn led to the pulling over and spotting a beautiful scenic bike path directly adjacent to the busy Hwy 118. We happily took this path most of the way to the tourist info center where we quickly discovered that there are, in fact, far more accommodation establishments in Halifax and Dartmouth than just the ones listed in our guidebook. We are now staying at a very affordable Dartmouth B&B. We’ve just enjoyed our hot showers and are eagerly looking forward to enjoying our real bed.

Sunset over the "Lion's Gate Bridge" twin that links Dartmouth with Halifax.

B&K

Day 113: Truro - Enfield

km today: 52.12
total km: 7583.2

A sick turtle.

Katie’s health refuses to return. Though our squat site was quite pleasant (pic) her body could have used at least one night in doors. We decided that we better take it easy today. Only a km into our ride, we discovered the campground we had been searching for last night. Apparently our ride in the dark took us right through Truro and all the way to Hilden, about 8km beyond. Had we known we were so close to the Hilden campground, we’re sure we would have pushed on, lured by the prospect of a shower and the possibility of internet.

With the odd gingerale break and a couple of siestas we made it to Enfield without too much resistance from Katie’s stomach. According to our map, there was a tourist info center and a campground either in Enfield, or in the vicinity (these maps are very hard to read sometimes). After a consultation session with a cashier and all five locals in the lineup behind us at Home Hardware it was decided that the info center and, therefore, the internet was actually at the airport 6km away. The idea of blogging in the airport and then having to find a place to stay was very unappealing to us. It was also pointed out during the huddle that the Irving truck station en route to the airport was a good source for information. As the glowing Irving sign came into view we figured we may as well check it out, especially since another pit stop wouldn’t hurt. We’re glad we did. Posted on the doorway was a sign advertising “Free WiFi” and a quick investigation of the interior revealed other luxuries such as T.V. lounges, a convenience store sizable enough to provide produce and, most importantly, showers.

Autumn leaves.

The next task was finding a campsite. We figured that since it was such a warm evening another night in the tent would be ok on Katie’s ailing body. Especially when we found our campsite right across the street from the Irving. Seriously, we could poke our head out of the tent and see that monstrous sign glowing on the other side of our personal river side campsite.We think that it was probably one of the best campsites we’ve stayed at. We were wholly sheltered by coniferous and deciduous trees galore, had our own personal river and the walk to the Irving was no longer than to some of the bathrooms at some of the bonified campgrounds we’ve stayed at.

Feeling squeaky clean and wonderful, we went to bed happy and refreshed.

B&K

Day 112: Amhesrt - Truro

km today: 122.5
total km: 7531.0

We weren't kidding, the turtle is back in full force.

This morning's driveway.

Well, that wonderful smell of baking bread comes from the Wonderbread factory right next to our campsite! It got us thinking. How exactly does cheap factory bread taste when it’s fresh from the oven? We figure it must taste pretty good. Pretty much anything tastes good when it’s fresh from the oven.

Buying bread was actually the goal of our first stop of the day today. There was this brilliant “Ben’s Bakery Outlet” right across the street from our campsite. Over-supplied with cheap bread, we headed out toward Truro. Finally the wind was with us today! We just sailed along the highways. The first and last 1/3 of our journey was on Hwy 104 which is very much like the Island Highway in scenery and efficiency at getting you from point A to B. For the middle 1/3 of our journey though, we detoured onto Hwy 4. The woman at the bakery informed us that this section is the old highway, is much more scenic and avoids a very nasty hill section. The old and scenic part caught our attentions, but as soon as the word “hill” was mentioned we were all ears.

This little detour was a marvelous idea. The road was almost deserted and the scenery really was beautiful. The only unfortunate thing was that we were about 1 week early to witness the changing of leaves. Most importantly though, it seemed as though we went downhill far more than uphill. Our route only involved one major uphill section, a bump of a hill compared to some we’ve climbed, that was followed by an amazing 20 straight minutes of downhill. Not scary 17% grade downhill or anything like that either. It was so fun.

Clouds with real silver linings.

Just 1 week too early. We naively put the idea to rest that these leaves only turn brown.

Perfectly healthy for almost the whole day (the 11 hours of sleep probably helped some), we thought that Katie might be almost rid of her illness. But as we approached Truro her condition took a sharp turn for the worse. Deteriorating rapidly, we decided that taking a room in the nearest hotel was the best idea for the evening. The only problem, there was only one hotel that we passed and it had no vacancy. We couldn’t even find a campground, so it was back to squatting. Every single time we have tried to find a campground or a motel we’ve inevitably ended up back in the bush. At least we’re saving money.

B&K

Day 111: Cape Jourimain - Amherst

km today: 63ish
total km: 7410ish

It's back!

A 6 pack of eggs and a pot of oatmeal fueled us off Robbie’s lawn and out of Cape Jourimain. We needed fuel today too as the wind that shook our tent and kept us up much of the night was still blowing strong today and, big surprise, it was blowing in our faces. Our pace wasn’t aided by Katie’s new bout of energy zapping sickness. Aches, pains, and nausea plagued her all day. Brandon would even go so far as to diagnose her with delirium. He was dumbfound and flabberghasted as he watched her take out her squeeze bottle of energy gel, take the lid off, turn it upside down, and proceed to squeeze it all over herself AND our Lonely Planet guidebook. Her intention was to take a drink of it but we guess she just forgot to hold it over her mouth. Never again will anyone turn to pages 394-395.

We'd heard from Reuben that New Brunswick bike trails have nothing on Quebec or P.E.I. trails and he was right. This one dissolved into loose gravel and big rocks after about 1km in.

The leaves are starting to change!

It was meant to be a short journey to the New Brunswick - Nova Scotia border, but seeing as how we had no full size highway map for New Brunswick we managed to over shoot our desired turn off by a good 20 km or so. This resulted in our riding a full 55km before finaly making it out of NB. Unfortunately, thanks to the combination of ailments that hindered us today it took us nearly four hours just to cover those 55km, and that was over fairly level ground! It was after 4:00 PM by the time we stepped into the Nova Scotia Info centre, and it was here that we held a lengthy discussion as to the design of our journey’s finale. The info centre lies close to 500 km away from the North Sydney ferry terminal.

We finally found a provincial sign. Who cares that it was on the opposite side of the Rrans Canada and oriented to the West.

We turned 180 degrees and found this, a much more impressive sign. It was kind of odd though, inside the lighthouse was a woman who just stared at us the whole time we were there.

Over a bag of trail mix, some leftover oatmeal, and a few pb^2s we came to a final decision. We’re saving Newfoundland for another time. Instead, we’re going to take a closer look at Nova Scotia and then return to the formerly neglected New Brunswick which houses our new final destination - St. John New Brunswick rather than St. John’s Newfound Land. As we’ve said we were at first disheartened by the prospect of a cross-Canada journey that discludes Newfound Land, but with Katie’s now diminishing health we don’t think that she could make it across those barren and mountainous 908 km.

We rolled into Amherst, ate some Tim Horton’s for dinner (which Katie’s stomach made her thoroughly regret later) and found a brilliant campsite that was right next to an aromatic bakery. Our nostrils were happy as we fell asleep.

B&K

Day 110: P.E.I. - Cape Jourimain

km today: 94.85
total km: 7343.3

We alerted everyone ahead of time that we were planning on making an early departure. It was just after 11:00 by the time we actually made it out the door. Knowing our habits well, no one had heeded our warning. It was difficult leaving the company of family, but we’re almost on the final stretch and if we hurry we’ll have time to get back to enjoy thanksgiving with family.


Following Gerhard’s instructions, we easily made it onto the Confederation Trail where we were treated to 93 km of peace and tranquility. The trail is far removed from civilization, running through wetlands, farmland and forests. It made it easy to cover the distance to the Confederation Bridge.

"Cruisin together."


At the bridge we summoned the shuttle bus (bikes are not allowed on the bridge). Robbie, our chatty chauffeur, patiently explained and answered the many questions we had regarding the currents, ocean depths and ice strain around the pillars of this 12.7 km monster that links P.E.I. with New Brunswick (it withstood the force of a 9km x 13km chunk of ice that was 3m thick without so much as a shudder).

Apparently Robbie took a liking to us and answered our question of where the grocery store was by offering to drive us straight to it, even though it is 9 km off the route. His kindness and generosity didn’t stop here as he also offered us the use of his grocery store adjacent (and campground adjacent for that matter) lawn as our campsite for the night.

So far we like New Brunswick. We haven’t found a provincial sign yet though.....

B&K

Day 109: P.E.I. Sightseeing

The day started out bittersweet. We discovered that the ferry traveling from North Sydney, NS to Argentia, Nfld is seasonal and sets out on it’s last sailing on September 24th, three days from today. It’s 385km from Liz and Gerard’s house to North Sydney if we take the ferry from P.E.I. to Nova Scotia, thereby, skipping New Brunswick all together. There is no way that we can even cover this distance, especially since the ferry leaves at 6:00 am leaving us only two days, really, to get there.

This was a huge slap in the face to us. There are two sailing options to Newfoundland: a five hour ride to Port aux Basques on the South Western coast, or a 17 hour ride to Argentia on the South Eastern coast. The former leaves you 908 km from St. John’s via the lonely Trans Canada Highway - the only trans provincial road, while the latter leaves you a mere 133 km from St. John’s. With our diminishing time we were opting for the 17h cruise. The thought of those barren and mountainous 908 km is not so appealing these days as it seems that after over three and a half months and 7400 km this country is finally starting to wear us out (and our wallets for that matter). We were at first disheartened by the prospect of a cross-Canada journey that discludes Newfoundland, but after some tough deliberation we decided that we didn’t want to rush the rest of our trip just to get to St. John’s.

Our first reaction was to decide that Newfoundland was out of the question and, to instead travel down the Annapolis Valley in Nova Scotia and then loop up the Bay of Fundy via St. John, New Brunswick back to P.E.I. But as the day went on our spirits were low. For 3 1/2 months we’ve had our sights set on St. John’s as our final destination. It just made sense to us we guess. It was proving difficult accepting the idea of skipping Newfoundland all together and, by means of our route, not having a true final destination.

Late afternoon we called another board meeting. The idea of scratching Newfoundland was really bothering us. Our compromise was to b-line through New Brunswick and Nova Scotia and attempt the grueling 908 km ride to St. John’s. I won’t be easy but we figure it is the only way we’ll be satisfied.

All of this mulling occurred over a pretty cool day of sightseeing in Charlottetown (although we’d best go back to see it when we’re not mulling). We started our tour with the mandatory stop at Province House, where the idea of Canada’s confederation was born. From there we walked around downtown, stopping in a few pretty neat boutiques. We got a first hand look at how to make stained glass windows from an artist who allows people to come back to her studio and watch her work. Then it was onto the soap shop where we did some really good spying for “It’s a Beautiful Day Soapworks.” Mom you should really look into doing a chocolate soap. Dad, just imagine the opportunities for your label.

According to Liz this is actually a common occurrence in P.E.I. Granny apparently thought so too.

This was just too tempting.

On our way back we pulled a drive-by on The Royal Canadian Legion Branch #1(!), a site that we were actually quite excited to find at one point, but the anticlimactic site of the public library-like structure didn't inspire anyone to stop in for a pint.

We wrapped up our day with another wonderful family dinner, complete with the 20lbs of carrots that we picked from the garden (our instructions were to “pick enough for yourselves and a little bit more for the rest of us.”) We thought that we had picked a normal amount.

B&K

Day 108: Magdelen Islands - Liz and Gerard's House

km today:
total km:

After four days of operating on “island time,” having to wake up at an hour requiring an alarm clock was a jolt to the system. We got our second jolt to the system at Tim Hortons, a slightly odd place to have our last meal on this mostly un-commercialized island. It was fast though (well almost - they just didn’t quite understand our impeccable French accents and messed up our order), and we had a ferry to catch.

We cruised down to the ferry dock and right onto the ferry without having to buy or show a pass. We were beside ourselves with excitement. Had we just gotten on for free? Saving seventy six dollars would certainly be a highlight to the day. So we discreetly settled into the journey and read the crossing away. Not surprisingly, we were the fools. The ticket booth is on board (not very well marked we might add) and the army of extremely vigilant ticket police found us before we had even made it back to our bikes.

Arriving on the P.E.I. side was like stepping back in time. It was warm! Like it had been in mid August and it was apparently a “cool” day according to the very chatty tourist information employee. Also surprising was the fact that we now have to get used to greeting people with “Hellos” rather than “Bonjours.” We won’t be butchering anymore French until we’re heading back to Montreal.

Though P.E.I. is, of course, more developed than the Magdelens we still feel like we’re on “island time.” Popular conversation topics are golf, weather and a lot more golf. Confederation trail suited the casual atmosphere to a “T.” Free of traffic (of any kind really) we joyfully meandered to Liz and Gerard’s.Katie was so excited at the opportunity to take a cheesy photo it took Brandon 3 tries to snap a keeper because she kept putting her thumb or head in the way of the sign.

Very necessary barriers to keep out ATVs.

All to ourselves!

The atmosphere at the house was not so serene, but buzzing. We arrived to a VERY excited Granny Joyce who had already been staking out our arrival from the top of the driveway. Open arms and lots of kisses welcomed us in. It was great seeing (and for Brandon, meeting) Liz and Gerard after a highly anticipated reunion. Staying in a waterfront cottage would be a luxury at anytime but enjoying our surroundings with family hosts elevates the experience a number of notches.

It was especially touching being with Granny. It seems like ages ago since she hosted us on only our second night into the trip when we were still so scrawny and naive as to what lay ahead. It’s just so cool how she’s here to see us almost through. She too clearly got a kick out of seeing us again but wasted no time in making fun of Katie’s new “odd” short hair cut. As she told Pat/dad in reference to Katie, “She’s not fat, she doesn’t really look that different, but her hair is short, and it just looks odd.” A few hours in and the insults were rolling, the wine was flowing and we were loving it.

B&K