We're in Pembroke tonight, a tiny community on the west coast of Nova Scotia. Our cabin is right on the Bay of Fundy. We took a long walk along the beach (they call it the "ocean floor" here) and did some beach combing. There isn't anything in the way of marine critters, other than lots of little snails, but there is a lot of cool rock formations.
It is fun to watch the tide as it races in and out between low and high tides. They say that here in Pembroke the difference between the mean low tide and the mean high tide is 45 feet. That's a huge swing, the biggest in the world, they say. And the locals seem pretty proud of it and love to tell us the stories (especially warning us to be careful as we walk on the beach, as apparently unwary beach comber's get surrounded by the incoming tide and end up having to be rescued.
Like most communities we've visited, there is really nothing open. We did find a general store about 10 km up the road from our cabin, in Walton, and we bought stuff for dinner. We forgot to get anything for breakfast, though, so we'll fill up on coffee.
We rode from Truro to Pembroke and the theme for the day is one that has been oft repeated this trip: cold and windy. The ride was about 100 km and the first 50 was straight into the strong wind. But at 50 km we turned at a headland and the corner was about 150 degrees. That meant that the wind was (kind of) at our backs. A blessing!
We also forgot to get anything for breakfast yesterday, so this morning we were hoping to come across an open cafe. At about km 35 we rode into the tiny hamlet of Maitland and saw a general store, and right next door, a cafe called Mud Slide. We stopped. But it was closed until noon. Argh.
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| Mud Slide on the left, General Store on the right. Local guy in between |
But wait, a guy came running out and said that he's not open yet but would make us coffee since we looked bloody cold. Yes!, we accepted his kind offer. And make us coffee he did. It was, without doubt, the best coffee we've had on this trip. He prided himself on his skills with an espresso machine and his pride was well earned. We even went for a second cup of his wondrous brew, and bought a couple of muffins from the general store. And he even brought out a dish of home fries for us to nibble.
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| Lorie's latte |
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| A local inside Mud Slide Cafe, Maitland, Nova Scotia |
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| Home fries for sustenance |
We were truly frozen and the respite did wonders for us. While we were there, 4 or 5 locals came in (they do this every morning) and had their coffee klatch. They were very curious about us and we had a nice, long conversation. with lots of laughs. We are the first cyclists that they've seen this year and thought that we are nuts. Maybe so.
Once we hit the downwind/sidewind part of the ride we warmed up a lot. By the time we got to the cabin, though, we were pretty tired. A nice shower helped. Then off to the beach.
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| The Bay of Fundy in the distance; the mud flats are indistinguishable from the tilled fields |
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| The Walton Pub -- under a billion served! |
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| We stopped for some tea -- too tired for anything more than that. |
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| An arch rock found on our beach walk |
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| The tide going out on the Bay of Fundy |
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| New Brunswick in the background |
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| Pinot grigio seaweed? |
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| Our cabin for the night. |
Our little cabin has a secret doorway into the master bedroom -- it is hidden behind a bookshelf and is right out of an Agatha Christie movie!
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| Open... |
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| Closed... |
What fun!
Until tomorrow.
