Saturday, 10 June 2006

Blomidon Provincial Park to Wolfville

I awoke at 6 am bright and eager but one look outside the tent scuppered any thoughts of a scenic hike. It had rained a lot during the night and now I was enveloped in a fog of low cloud. Payback time for yesterdays sunshine. I went back to sleep for a while but things got no better, so eventually I decided to do a hike anyway and hope that the weather would improve. I spent a couple of hours hiking the Woodland, Interpretive and Jodrey trails. The Interpretive trail had some interesting informations panels (but boring as photos!) but there were no views to see from any of the lookout points on the Jodrey trail.

The mist seemed to be clearing as I got back to the campsite but just as I had packed up everything except the tent, the rain arrived. And then the thunder. (Why does the thunder here rumble on for so much longer than at home? There must be a scientific explanation.) In a break in the rain I started to pack up the tent, but as no sooner had I got the flysheet off than it poured with rain again and the inner got soaked. I think that God has a grudge against me for all the bad things I've said about him.

From the park it was about a 20 km ride back to Canning where I took shelter from the rain in the Fireside Cafe again. Being a Saturday it was bursting at the seams. Having fortified myself with some heavy German Chocolate cake and some tea I set off again. This time the heavens really opened and I was soon wet through. Not a nook or cranny was dry. At least it wasn't cold so I was happy in shorts and sandals. It was even good fun in a masochistic sort of way; a car coming the other way splashed me with a huge puddle. Normally you'd be pretty annoyed, but now it was like "Ha, do your worst, I'm wet already!"

From Canning to Wolfville was about 16 km - all in the rain. When I arrived I was lucky enough to find 'Valley Stove and Cycle' on Main Street who made a quick job of repairing my broken spoke for a bargain $12.08 - while I dripped puddles of water onto their floor. After that I went to the Visitor Information Centre to find out what my local accomodation options were. The nearest campsite was only 10 km away, which was an easy trip, and the only other option was a B&B. The cheapest in town, by a country mile was the Garden House, which turned out to be very pleasant, and the host Brian, very informative and helpful. As luck would have it, this was also exactly where my friends Tom and Gail were staying, and we arranged to go out later in the evening.

Having dumped all my wet dripping gear in the garage and changed into some dry clothes, I then went out for a busy afternoon; I went first to the library for internet. When the library closed at 5pm, so the sun came out, so I dashed up to the Botanical Gardens in the campus of Acadia University for a whistlestop tour. Then I dashed back to the B&B to collect all of my clothes for an early evening trip to the laundry before meeting up with Tom and Gail back at the B&B.

We went out to the Library Pub and ordered some food, although we put our order on hold as Tom was determined to go and see the Chimney Swifts come home to roost. In a chimney. I wasn't convinced that they really existed, but I kid you not. They do. Believe it or not. In the gathering twilight the swifts swopped and fluttered, in groups or just 2's and 3's. They would disappear from view for a while and then come back, although you could always hear their chattering call. We watched them for about half an hour as they performed their nightly aerobatics. Suddenly at 10 past 9, and in less than half a minute, the flock made 3 passes during which in groups they all plunged from view into the chimney no more than 2 ft across and disappeared from view. You wouldn't believe it unless you'd seen it. So, they do exist. Chimney Swifts. Not like the tooth fairy or Santa Claus (Sorry if this last bit is news to you)

It was a thoroughly pleasant evening, Tom and Gail were great relaxed company.

Distance: 36 km
Cycling time: 2:30
Total distance: 1371.7 km