Thursday, 08 June 2006

Aylesford to The Lookoff (Nova Scotia)

It got quite blustery in the evening, and then the rain arrived. It rained quite a lot in the night, and I remember lying awake at about 3 am listening to the rain, but I slept quite well. It felt cold in the morning and I was in no hurry to get going. I was craving some salt, so I went to the camp office to buy some crisps (chips) where they had some [free] coffee on the go. Quite a few people seemed concerned to know if I'd slept okay in the tent with all the rain. By 9am the day had warmed up enough (12 C) for me to contemplate moving on. Although damp and grey it was staying dry, so by just before 10 am I was on my way.

I cycled along route 1 the 10 km to Berwick where I stopped at the Visitor Information Centre - it's handy to get a little local area map if you can. They cheered me up with the news that it was forecast to rain for at least the next week...! Oh good! I mentioned that I was thinking of going up to Dape Blomidon, and one of the girls said that it was lovely but that the last time she was there she had a bad experience. Someone was up there walking their dog and threw a stick for it to fetch. The stick went over the cliff. And so did the dog... For a moment I thought 'Oh, how awful' but then unbidden, an image popped into my head of the dog doing a cartoon-style wide-eyed 'Uh-oh' look and struggled not to laugh. (Is it just me? Of course it wouldn't be funny to actually see it happen, but it loses something in the telling.)

Berwick Library is closed on Thursdays, so I went to a little cafe to write some diary and have a pot of tea. From Berwick (Pron. Burwick, not Berrick as we would say) to Kentville was about 20 km and I went the whole way along the old rail trail. There's not much to see along the way as the route is flanked with trees, but most of the time I had to concentrate on the way ahead to pick a path through the puddles and gravel. Both hands firmly on the handlebar. At least the trees afforded some protection from the wind coming resolutely from the cold north east. I found that I had to share the trail with quad-bikes, motorbikes and the occasional lorry! He did pull over to let me past.

The Annapolis valley is a rich agricultural area with lots of farms and orchards. I've noticed that there is a small bird here that looks a bit like a blackbird but has red and gold epaulettes that flash as it flies - sort of like a blackbird that got a promotion.

In Kentville I had a tour of the one-way system trying to find the Visitor Information Centre. I asked them if there was much worth seeing/doing in town while I was here. "No" - at least they were honest. By the time I came out it was raining so it was a good excuse to do some internet at the library. (Photo for Neale) The rain had stopped by the time I came out an hour later (Is it too late to learn to touch-type?) but it was still pretty cool; my cycle-computer never showed above 14 C all day. I left Kentville heading north on the 341 and then the 358 towards Cape Blomidon. I stopped in Canning at the Firesdie Cafe and thought I was ordering a whole pizza, but only 1/4 turned up. Probably for the better. Little and often. Tasty too.

From Canning I didn't have far to go to the Look-Off campsite, but as the name suggests it's at a high location with views of the surrounding area. There were some hard climbs in those last 4 km north on the 358, up to about 180m. The campsite was at the same level as the cloud-base, but soon after arriving, the cloud had dropped down and so was the rain. I was the only person at the campsite. ($27.60, showers free) On the plus side though there was a big 'common room' with comfy chairs a wood burning stove and TV (2 channels)

Distance: 54.5 km
Cycling time: 3:45
Total distance: 1296.3 km