Our stay at the Icelandic Horse Farm in Bridgetown NS has been wonderful. The family that owns it echos so many of our experiences, both in terms of life and lifestyle that we connected immediately. They are wonderful people who we've really enjoyed. And their animals are a joy, Bobby the sheltie who likes to bark at me, Maggie the sheltie who is as sweet as could be, and the tiny puppy Ischka who has stolen Lorie's heart and convinced her that she wants an Icelandic Sheep Dog. Oh Oh.
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| Ischka |
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| Maggie watching our bags |
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| Bobbie, as close as he'd get to me... |
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| Ischka gets two photos because she's so sweet |
Days off from riding are simply too busy to do blog posts. After tons of coffee and food with Dan and Lizi we took off with the bike unloaded to the relatively nearby fishing village of Annapolis-Royal to search for world famous scallops. It is probably worth mentioning that the dashed lines on the map mean that the road is gravel, or more likely, a dirt path. It is only about 15 km to Annapolis Royal and 15 km back but the weather was pretty wet. That's not a deal breaker though, as we've become rather accustomed to wet. It was Sunday and we knew that not much would be open in town, but we had 4 hours to kill before the restaurant opened. So we did everything one could do in a tiny fishing village on a rainy Sunday afternoon. We went to the German bakery and had coffee and pastries. We went to the local brewery and sampled their beer:
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| All the breweries in NS are into donating money to Ukraine and calling out Mr. Putin for what he is |
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| We love the artwork on these cans. "Huyla" roughly translates to "dick head" |
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| Great beer |
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| Behind the pisser in the men's room |
We went to the local wine tasting room, and then to dodge a particularly ambitious rain storm we went into a museum that was a military fortress for many hundreds of years. We learned a lot about the tragic history of the Acadians in NS at the hands of the British. The Acadians were well accepted by the aboriginal inhabitants in the late 1600s and 1700s because they did not seek to take land, but instead reclaimed wetlands for agricultural use. But the British did what the British have always done and did the great purge (aka genocide) that sent the Acadians to (eventually) the lands that would become Louisiana, and a terrible cost to the Acadians. The natives didn't fare much better but were deposed to small sections of land.
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| Fort Anne, Annapolis Royal NS |
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| Wine tasting on a rainy afternoon |
Fortunately, Acadians have returned to much of NS and the other Maritimes and are working hard to maintain their heritage. Here's their flag:
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| The Acadian story is fascinating. |
After the wine bar we still had another hour to kill, but the rain had stopped so we found a bench to sit on. Miraculously, the clouds parted and the sun came out. Must be a message in there somewhere, eh?
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| Annapolis Royal looks better when it isn't raining |
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| Local art |
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| Looking south toward Digby, the source of our dinner |
We sat down at precisely 1700 and ordered our scallop dinners. I have always loved scallops and the Digby scallops did not disappoint. It was well worth the ride and the wait.
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| Our restaurant |
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| Digby scallops #1 |
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| Digby scallops #2 |
It was getting a bit late and we had 15 km to ride home, so we hit the road. We had a strong tailwind and made it in no time at all.
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| Tide on the way in |
Next Scene: this morning.
We had a good sleep and after a hearty breakfast we bid adieu to our friends at the Iceland Horse Farm, heading all the way from the west coast of NS to the east coast. Turns out this was our longest day on the bike and there's a big hill betweenxt the west and east coasts. But the weather was civilized, if a bit cold, and we made 125 km and 1500 m of climbing in good time (the phrase "good time" being used entirely relative here). We arrived in Bridgewater, which is just a stone's throw up the LaHave River and which is a lovely old village. We're knackered but have decent accommodations. A shower made us feel a lot better and as soon as I'm done with this blog post we're heading out to find some grub.
Once we made it to the top of the climb we rode across a long, high plateau. There were a bunch of beautiful lakes and the scenery was awesome.
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| They're pretty but probably invasive... |
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| A high elevation lake |
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| Another one |
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| The LaHave River |
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| I hope that a white bike doesn't mean the same thing in NS as it does in Oregon... |
It feels bittersweet to have made it to the east coast. We know that we have only a few short days of riding before we make it to Halifax, and all that comes with that -- packing the bike up, getting ready to head home. But there are adventures ahead of all that, so stay tuned and be well.
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