The ground was still very wet this morning from last nght's hard rain. My bike was spared riding on wet roads though since this was a day by alternative transportation. Wandering by bike waited until the afternoon.
My bright shiny blue car kindly offered transportation to me and my purple bike. I thought about driving up the coast road, but I opted for the shorter distance straight up Route 2. Even so, the drive took the better part of two hours. My destination was North Cape, the northwest tip of PEI. There is a wind farm there, and it's the point at which the Northumberland Strait and Gulf of St. Lawrence merge. It's a beautiful place to wander or to just sit and absorb the sights: the windmills, the reef leading out from the tip of the island between the two bodies of water, the red sandstone cliffs that were very much undercut, dunes, grasses, birds, a seal fishing offshore. Then there were the sounds, the birds, and faint sounds from the rotating windmills.
The tide wasn't at a low enough level to support walking out along the reef. The birds probably preferred it at that level since that meant that the offshore but still out of the water clumps of rocks belonged to the birds. They could perch there with no two-legged creatures disturbing them. I spent some time walking along the water, both on the rocks at the water's edge and along the top of the sandstone cliffs. The cliffs weren't very high, but they were high enough that it would be unpleasant falling into the water or onto the sand from the top. They were pretty severely undercut, so walking along the actual edge definitely would not have been a good idea.
I had a pretty funny conversation with a woman who was sharing the view with me at North Cape. When I asked her where she lived, she said that her home is in the only part of Canada that is south of the United States. I looked at her and said "that must be Windsor", and her jaw dropped. It surprised her that a stranger from the northeastern part of the United States knew that; I have to admit that the only reason that little piece of information was floating in my head was from the time (many, many years ago) that I lived in the Detroit area. Funny.
As I walked past a dark and empty frame on the wall at the visitor center at the North Cape Wind Farm, it suddenly came to life and started talking to me. Luckily I had my camera close at hand.
My next stop was Tignish. Even though the day was barely half over, I thought finding a place to stay before I headed out on my bike would be a good idea. The Tignish Heritage Inn is in the center of town, and it looked very interesting. For a while it looked like I would have the place to myself for the night since at the time I walked in I was the only guest - and they had no reservations for the night. There is a staff member here until midnight, but I'd be on my own from then until 7am. Sounds a little odd, but it would have been interesting to be in this beautiful old building on my own. That isn't going to happen though because two couples checked in while I was at dinner. This is a beautiful building. It was a convent from 1868 until 1991, and then the building was restored and reopened as an inn in 1995. There are 17 rooms, all with private baths. There's a living room with comfortable chairs, and a continental breakfast is included. That works for me, and another big plus is that all of staff are very friendly, a source of good information and good converstations.
Ah, finally time to ride. My bike and I did an out and back ride along the coast. I was going to do a loop and return on an inland route but I decided I'd rather stay as close to the water as was possible. My choices were to head south along the west coast or head south along the east coast. Yes, I know, the real east coast of this island is a long way away, but the east coast of the North Cape is right here. I'm not sure that it really mattered which side I headed down, but I chose the west. The road was beautiful and it was pretty empty too. I had it to myself for much of my ride.
I stopped at Skinner's Pond, where there was a road marked as both a beach access and entry to a harbor. Of course I needed to turn down that road. I started by heading down to the beach. There was a boardwalk leading from the road to a very red sand beach. I met an older man out on the beach, and walked back on the boardwalk with him. He told me that he swept the boardwalk - and it's fairly long - earlier today. Apparently he often does that, says it gives him something to do. That sounds good to me - he's outside, and it's good exercise. And a big plus for me today was that I could walk to the beach without traipsing through sand in my cycling shoes - since of course I forgot to through my sandals in my pannier before I headed out today. Next I headed down to the harbor area. I watched a boater shoveling something out of his boat into a container that was then lifted and dumped in a larger container on the dock. I asked the worker on the dock if that was moss that they were offloading. It was Irish Moss, and it is used for both skin care products and in the food industry. He said something about carragen. That's something else I need to lookup when I get home.
Irish Moss, from boat to shore and later to be incorporated in food and cosmetic products (and who knows where else!)
It was a funny animal day today. Quite a few houses had horses standing in front and happily eating grass. Then there were the dogs. None of them came out in the road after me, but there was barking, and there was chasing. They just chased to the edge of their own yards though. I don't know if these dogs were restrained by one of those "electric shock" perimeters or if they just had enough sense not to run into the road. I was quite happy that they weren't really trying to get me.
And wouldn't you know that the day I'm wandering on my bike without all my gear is a day of relatively light winds? The start and end of my ride had absolutely no wind. I assume that's because of where I started, inland a bit, heading to the west. I think I was protected by the protruding tip of North Cape. Once I hit the shore heading south, the wind was at my back. Nice, but that meant that I would have a headwind when I turned back toward Tignish. I should be pretty used to that by now! The thing I find very interesting is that when the wind is at my back it is very quiet, so quiet that I think there isn't any wind. But as soon as I turned, I could hear (and feel) the wind blowing.
Dinner tonight was at Cousin's Diner, about a mile down the road from my home for the night. Even though I have my car, I continued my normal touring habit and walked to dinner. I had the clam strips special - fried clams, coleslaw, potato, and fresh veggies - for a great price, $7.95! That definitely hit the spot tonight. I have to say this has been the easiest trip for me to find satisfactory food for dinner. My preferred diet, vegetarian-based plus fish, can definitely be a challenge in some areas - but not here. My biggest complaint about the food on this trip is that it has been very difficult to find fruit. Of course it's readily available in larger towns that have some type of grocery store, but it's been hard to even find bananas in the smaller places. Not to worry, I managed.
As I expected, today was a beautiful weather day. The forecast is still calling for heavy rain for the next two days. The thing I find really interesting is that the forecasts mention Nova Scotia & Newfoundland as targets for tropical storm Ophelia, but they never seem to say anything about New Brunswick & PEI. I don't know if that is because these two provinces are sheltered by the other two or if it's a habit to only mention the provinces that are more directly in the path of the storm. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what the morning brings.
I'm assuming that it will be wet, so tomorrow my bike will join me in riding in the car. I'm hoping for a good wandering day in spite of the rain. I plan to head down the west coast, and eventually I will get back to the Confederation Bridge and head to New Brunswick. That is, assuming that the winds are at a reasonable level and that the bridge is open. I understand that the bridge authority doesn't hesitate to close it if there are dangerous weather conditions. It sounds like the usual first step is to lower the speed limit and to restrict access for high (tall) vehicles.
