Ride Day 7: South Along the West Coast

 

We awoke this morning to nothing but blue skies and not a cloud in sight. Awesome! Still cold, and some wind, but the sunshine is what we need!

 

 Last night at dinner with the innkeeper and his family we watched a bald eagle swoop down right in front of us and grab a big trout out of the river. Our photos weren't great, but what a show.

Fresh trout for dinner!

We have a fairly short and easy ride today, southward down the west coast of Cape Breton Island. The wind was strong and it was cold so we bundled up! After about 20 km we took a detour to the little fishing harbour in Port Hood, and bought another lobster and a kg of mussels. Since we had only 60 km more to ride, the extra weight wasn't a burden.

Buying lobster from the lobstermen

The road is close to the shoreline and the views out to the Gulf of St. Lawrence were amazing. As a bonus, once we passed by Port Hood the wind was at our back.

Gulf of St. Lawrence

This area is famous for its Celtic music and every little village has gigs every weekend. Sadly, we are just a few weeks early to enjoy any of the shows.

Soon enough we arrived at the little cabin that we are renting for the night. The guy who owns them was surprised that we are on a bike -- the first cyclists of the year for him. So he upgraded us to a nicer cabin. He's the sixth generation of his family to have lived on this piece of land, for 220 years his family has owned it. The cabins are not that old, of course, and his family switched from farming to inn-keeping relatively recently, but it is an amazing place. The cabin is really nice and the views are outstanding.

The view from our cabin

The view of our cabin

This is the Ceilidh Coastal Trail

We have been riding on the Ceilidh Coastal Trail, in the photo above. It is a gravel path that used to be the rail bed for the Inverness coal trains. It is a great trail to ride and there is no traffic at all. "Ceilidh" is pronounce "kaylee" and, according to locals, is a Gaelic word roughly meaning "kitchen party."

We strolled down to the beach and looked for agates. No luck, but there are lots of cool rocks with writings from aliens:

It means something to something...

Back at the cabin, we boiled the mussels, and par-cooked the lobster prior to throwing him on the barbeque.

The mussels were great. The lobster was good but is much better just boiled, I think.

Tomorrow we cross the causeway from Cape Breton Island to the mainland of Nova Scotia, then turn west toward the ferry to Prince Edward Island. It'll be three days before we make it to the ferry, so stick with us for the ride.

:)