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Deb & Walt bicycle Nova Scotia! Starting in Portland Maine, and then continuing through Newfoundland and back! Page 2: The French Coast and the Annapolis Valley! |
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| Yarmouth,
Nova Scotia! You probably want to make reservations
before you come here. We didn't, and so we stayed in an old place
with no air-conditioning. Normally I'm sure you wouldn't need it
here, and it was a lot cooler than Maine. But 80 degrees is eighty
degrees, and it still was hard to sleep at that temperature.
As you can see it's an old town, built very close. It was very nice friendly place. We had a good breakfast and didn't go far before we were out of town.. |
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Just a few miles out we encountered this crop circle. My guess is that it was made by second grade teachers from another planet!! |
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got warmer as the day went on. Soon we discovered why this was
called the French Shore. Only a limited amount of English was
spoken!
We stopped in front of this church to take a drink and remove a layer of clothing. When Deb whipped off her shirt, a priest came out of the church and closed the door! I guess they are a little conservative out here.... |
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Nova Scotia is a seafaring island. Almost everyone lives next to the shore, and seems closely involved with the sea. The fishing boats look very tough, just like the ones in Alaska. |
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French Shore was the home of the Acadians, who were driven out by the
English, and then for some bizarre reason wound up in Louisiana, evolving
into
the Cajuns. I was wondering if such things as Gumbo and Jambalaya
were invented up here and traveled with them.
I was a little disappointed, there was no Gumbo to be found. And as near as I can tell, they discovered spices after they got to Louisiana. The food was a little bland... |
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It
wasn't as hot as Maine, but everywhere we went it was still hot for the
locals. It was probably in the mid-eighties when we stopped
in to get a drink at this shop. The woman running this place came
out and put this umbrella over me to keep me out of the sun.
I must say that Nova Scotia and Newfoundland were populated by the most accommodating people I have ever seen. |
| Continuing
along, we spent the night in Digby, where we met an old fisherman who told
us of the importance of Haddock. "Cod was bad", he
told us, "it has worms!" After that we went on a
Haddock Fish and Chips spree for the next five days.
Haddock is as easy to find up here as a Hamburger in the USA. I haven't desired any more lately... |
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The next morning we started up the Annapolis Valley. This is some of the most beautiful bicycling I have ever seen. Nice roads, and almost no traffic. This is all English speaking country now, but originally it was the heart of Acadian country. |
| As we neared our Destination of Kentville, the traffic got kind of heavy. I found a clever looking detour away from the main road, but it turned out to be difficult. The long ride (88 miles) and warm temperatures were getting to Deb on this particular day. |  |
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So we blasted down this road back to the main road, where I was hoping to get some emergency pizza into Deb. She pushed her way to the front of the line and got a few slices. Soon she perked right up and was ready to go. |
| Beautiful old houses outside of Kentville. Deb set a personal record this day by cycling 88 miles. | 
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The next morning we were to head across the island to the Halifax area. We made a wrong turn right where Deb is standing. |
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road was not really well marked, and we got confused for a little while.
Of course, we would not ride the main road when we could help it.
Instead, we were on
the road that used to be the main road.
Apparently, over the years it has become less important to keep it well marked. |
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This is one of the things I had wanted to see in Nova Scotia. Its the Minas Basin of the Bay of Fundy. The only place in the world with higher tides than our home in Anchorage Alaska! |
| After
a million hill climbs crossing the interior of the island, we arrived at
Dartmouth, a suburb of Halifax, and found a nice place to stay with
fresh Haddock!
It was another long day of over eighty miles, all in the hot sun. We were both turning dark brown, Debbie especially so, as she has a genetic head start on me. But I can hold my own in a 'tan-off' as we shall see. After all, I do have a Southern California heritage... And by now my sunburn from Maine wasn't hurting so bad... |
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