At long last spring has sprung in Nova Scotia. At least where we are, in the Annapolis Valley. The weather was so glorious today that we actually rode without jackets and without leg warmers. Wow! Perfect. Before I launch into today, I should mention that last night Lorie walked back down to the beach and took some photos of the sunset over the Bay (of Fundy). I think that I was conked out already... Anyway, the photos are great and you can see how far the tide actually drops. The woman who owns the little cabin where we stayed warned us to be super careful if we walk onto the tidal flats, as there are many rescues of folks who walk out too far and can't beat the incoming tide. No worries. As I said, I was conked out.
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| Sunset over the Bay of Fundy |
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| Ditto |
The morning was nothing but sunshine and coffee and we hit the road early. We had about 60 km to the town of Windsor where we planned to take a break. Along the way the views to the west were beautiful. And since there was really no wind, I had nothing to complain about. The first part of the day was great riding on quiet, rolling hills, with happy honks from drivers and waves from folks in their yards. Springtime sunshine brings out the best in everyone!
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| Looking across to Scott's Bluff |
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| Along the way |
As we pulled into Windsor we saw a nice cafe and pulled in. Before we could even lean the bike against the wall, two guys dashed out to great us to talk about riding and give us invaluable local knowledge about where to ride to get to our destination, Wolfville. They said that we definitely should not ride NS Route 1 out of Windsor, but rather divert onto Bog Road. "OK," we happily agreed. We stayed longer than we should have but it was a lot of fun.
The Bog Road advice was excellent and the riding was great. Thanks guys!
We still had about 60 km to ride to Wolfville and we made it pretty quickly. Wolfville is a little college town that is the center of Nova Scotia’s wine industry in the Annapolis Valley. The university dominates the town and gives it a nice feel. Here's the main part of campus:
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| Acadia University, Wolfville, NS |
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we got to town we decided to run by a winery that was just a stone's throw out of the way, Mercator Vineyards.
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| Just outside of Wolfville |
Lorie tried some of the wines and found them super nice. They're all estate grown and varieties of grape that are well-suited to the climate here on the west coast of NS -- moderate springs and falls, warm summers but tough winters. We ended up talking to the winemaker for a long time. She hails from NS but learned her trade in Central Otago, New Zealand, of all places. Since I'm driving the bike, I deferred on trying the wine but liked the idea of buying a bottle to go. It fit nicely on the trunk of the bike.
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| We don't carry a cork screw so the winery opened the bottle for us; hopefully we won't get stopped by the RCMP along the way to where we're staying. After settling into our room for the night at a BnB that saw its best days many decades ago, we walked through town (which didn't take long) and went to The Church Brewing Co. for dinner. Decent beer and food and just a nice way to cap off a perfect day. |
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| The Church |
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| Downtown Wolfville |
We’re staying two nights here so in theory tomorrow will have little riding. But we both kind of want to ride out to the coast to watch the tide at a local fishing harbour. The weather looks great, so why not?
Today's route:
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