Hello Nova Scotia! It’s finally time to tell you what’s been going on with us since we left Holyrood. We decided the weather conditions made cycling quite hellish, so we rode to Whitbourne in order to get on a coach the next day.

After our first kilometers on the TCH (Trans-Canada Highway), we went to the visitor’s centre in Whitbourne, so we could get some information on where to get on the coach with all our stuff and the bikes.

The ladies there were very kind and helpful and they even called the company (DRL). They gave us the indications as mentioned on the phone -as well as some Newfoundland pins!

As we’d seen on DRL website, you are allowed 2 pieces of baggage and you need to “strip” your bicycle before getting on the coach. For us that meant spending the evening packing our stuff and slightly disassembling (pedals and front wheel) and wrapping up (chain and derailleurs).
The morning after we hopped on the coach with no problem and 12 hours later (that was about 9:20 pm) we hopped off in Port aux Basques, just at the entrance of the Marine Atlantic terminal.

We then took the 11:45 pm ferry to North Sydney and by 7:45 am on Sunday we were -AGAIN- assembling bike parts and unpacking our stuff so we could start cycling! But, hey, we had just crossed a whole island and we were in Nova Scotia!
After setting bikes and panniers up, and thanks to the nice(r) weather in North Sydney, we took off towards the Grand Narrows. That day we managed to ride more than 50km and stopped at Christmas Island. Initially, we were not sure about where we’d pitch the tent, as there weren’t any options from the road. However, we could hear some music down the shore, so Pak went down to have a look and discovered some RVs camped near the lake. A very nice couple allowed us to camp on their lot and that was the cherry on top of a fantastic day!

The day after was a short ride. About 10km after we started, we discovered Iona Heights: a wonderful place on top of a hill where to have some breakfast thanks to Jill’s. We took advantage of their coffee sizes and their wifi connection and stayed more than an hour in the sun (at 10ºC).

After that, we were quite unsure on where to stop for the day, since options were quite limited after Iona or Estmere. Since we stumbled upon a new campground we couldn’t find in our maps, we decided to stay and do some laundry and bike check-up.

And so we’re now getting to the end of this post! Yesterday… was tough. We woke up at 6am as usual. As soon as we did, it started raining -first- and then pouring. Thanks to a couple of “windows of truce”, we managed to pack up and by 10am we were already cycling towards Port Hastings. We rode on poorly paved roads -first- and then on completely unpaved ones. We even took a turn that was supposed to be a shortcut but we ended up blocked by trees on the path, so we had to go back to the road we’d left -but luckily that diversion meant for us about 3km overall.

However, the worst combination ever happened afterwards, when we were riding along an unpaved-but-not-rocky road and it started pouring again. To that you need to add the fact there weren’t any communities -as they call small villages in here- nearby, just scattered houses here and there. And on top of that, the road became more uphill more regularly. Since we were well equipped for the rain, we continued ahead, then the rain stopped and we finally found another paved road. We finally reached Port Hastings around 7 pm and we stayed at the first lodge we found by the TCH.

Since there were several accommodation options, this morning we decided to move to Port Hawkesbury and stay at a lovely Bed & Breakfast for a resting day. Tere’s been coughing for a week and we contacted our insurance so a doctor could get in touch with us. With some confusions and time somehow wasted, we finally took the initiative and went to a pharmacy, so the Canadian correspondent of our insurance company could get in touch with them and allow us to collect the drugs the doctor had ordered. Thanks to the lovely and understanding staff at The Medicine Shoppe we could go back to the B&B with them.

Thanks a lot in advance for checking on us! If not done already, please keep in mind you can also follow us on the social media.

(By the way, Tere publishes fragments of her diary in Spanish in her personal blog. You can read about the first week of our trip here.)
’til next time! Big hugs from Tere and Pak.