Thursday, 15 June 2006

Pictou to Merigomish (Nova Scotia)

The campground had a slow PC with internet access, and someone had pulled up the weather forecast; rain all day today (apparently the tail end of hurricane Alberto) but better from tomorrow. (How many times have I heard that!)

The campground is just outside Pictou, so I cycled through town to the Visitor Information Centre and then back into town to find some breakfast. While I was eating I could see the rain had already arrived, and it wasn't long before it was raining heavily. The library didn't open until noon, so I set off out of town and stopped at the supermarket to stock up on food and hope that the rain would stop.

It didn't.

The rooute out of Pictou took me onto the main 106 highway and a long causeway across the bay. I'm sure that on a nice day there are some fine views from here. Once across the bay I took the first exit off the highway anto the road through Abercrombie to New glasgow - where I encountered my first traffic jam. I dodged past the queues into the centre of town in search of a quiet little cafe - somewhere where I wouldn't be too embarrassed to sit and drip. Cafe Italia looked promising - dark and closed except for the OPEN sign in the window. Inside was a different story, every seat was taken except for one barstool by the window, so I dripped my way to the counter to order my iced cinnamon roll and vanilla latte. When I was in New England they had a saying: "You don't like the weather? Wait 5 minutes it'll change!" Here, either they're more patient or the weather is more persistent as they say "Wait half an hour, it'll change!" And it's true. When I came out half an hour later, sure enough, it was raining worse...

I had my directions to the nearby library where I sheltered for an hour doing blog and checking on Englands lame progress to half time with Trinidad and Tobago (0-0) I set off again into the rain and soon got lost in New Glasgows one-way system. Someone driving past saw me puzzling over my sodden street map and stopped to help. He happened to be going in the same direction that I wanted and so drove slowly enough to lead me to Merigomish Road. After the customary chat I was on my way, on the right road, in the rain. After about 10 km I again had to use one of the main highways for a short section between junctions 27A and 27 of the 104. There was lots of spray from the passing cars and lorries, but luckily at the times when I had to cross the road to enter and leave, it was quiet.

I now only had 16 km to go to my chosen destination for the day - the Cranberry Campground, but it soon turned into a real ordeal. Earlier in the day there had been no wind and the rain was falling calmly straight down, but now the wind was throwing the rain into my face from the north-east. The last 10 km seemed to go by very slowly - which I guess it did.

Just before I got to the campground I saw a sign for the LBR gas/store/restaurant which turned out to be just a couple of hundred metres past the campground turn. I went to the LBR first in the hope of some hot tea and some food. The restaurant was closed (they're going to replace it with a liquor store which makes more money!) but the lady kindly offered to open it up and cook me something, which she did while I had some tea. I think she felt sorry for me being wet through. Battered haddock and fries; normally I wouldn't touch tomato ketchup with a barge-pole, but I think if you'd written 'calorie' on a piece of paper I'd have eaten that too. She also gave me a couple of big chocolate-chip cookies for free, for dessert. So kind once again.

I found the most sheltered spot I could find at the campsite, pitched the tent, crawled inside and stayed there. $18 - showers free, although I didn't venture out for a shower as I figured I'd already had a 3 hour shower today - the last hour of which was a power-shower.

Distance: 57.9 km
Cycling time: 3:40
Total distance: 1744.5 km