New Brunswick to Nova Scotia
What a day! For the first time on our trip, we had less than a hundred miles riding planned, but ended up accomplishing more today by the seat of our pants than on a motorcycle. Jay's Tuono's tire was looking pretty bare, which apparently gets only about 2500 miles per tire (about a third of what I'm hoping for, but understandable since his race-mapped Tuono is pushing something like 186hp to the rear wheel) so we rushed over to
Eldridge's, a big Harley dealer/shop on the way to the ferry from St. John, New Brunswick to Digby, Nova Scotia. We had 12pm reservations and would be cutting it quite close, though they promised they could squeeze us in...
I'm not really a cruiser fan, but the guys we met there were almost all on some epic trek. There was a fellow who was going back to Toronto (a 15 hour ride) strait, and a fellow named Don who had gone around the world on a bike in 1971, regaling us with stories of getting caught up in wartime in southeast Asia, paying gypsy thieves to watch his bike in Morocco, and staggering out of a bar in Ireland two hours before the IRA bombed the place.
A Duc amongst the hogs...
Everyone we've met in Canada has been extraordinarily laid back, and guys at the shop assured us that the 11am boarding time to the Digby Ferry was flexible, though we ended up cutting it extremely close, arriving after 11:45 for a 12pm departure.
We were loaded onto the boat nearly last, and an attendant handed us each two tie-downs and disappeared from the almost empty vehicle compartment below deck. Now neither Jay or I had used just tie downs to secure our bikes before, so we spent over a half hour furiously strapping loops through our forks to anchor our motorcycles to the floor, expecting the ship to launch and rock the boat. Finally, an attendant walked by letting us know that we had been at sea for the past forty minutes and that the tie downs were probably unnecessary...
The ferry itself was fantastic, and we grabbed lunch and sat outside for most of the 3 hour voyage.
A group of hopeful whale watchers...
Bluffs arriving in Digby, NS.
I found a Nova Scotia.
Jay is ready to roll.
Outside of Digby
From Digby I had decided to try to get to Yarmouth (and get some riding in today), but rode southwest along the northern coastline back on Route 1 for about an hour until I saw a gravel road advertising some sort of park or historical monument (in French). The dirt road veered off, but there was gravel footpath several feed wide that turned towards the beach for half a mile, and I recklessly plowed offroad knowing full well that there was no way I could turn my bike around should this trail suddenly end...
The scene we found was utterly incredible. 180+ degrees of ocean coastline (called St. Mary's Bay) beneath a stone beach that rose about 50' above the ocean (first picture as well).
We extricated ourselves from our sticky riding gear, ran down the beach covered in snails, barnacles and seaweed, and jumped in the water.
A panorama of the path along the beach we drove.
Solemn little brook.
We checked into the first motel we could find, and went to grab dinner, and met a bunch of spectacular people, laughing and drinking with a few commercial scallop (pronounced "skuhh-lp") fisherman and locals, the best of whom Nadine offered us a tent in her yard and insisted we should come back down on Sunday for a seafood party at her house. Perhaps it's in part due to our high spirits, but we haven't met an unkind, or particularly stressed out person in Canada and a few of the people we have been truly lucky to meet.
Tigh, Nadine and Jay at Dooley's
© 2014 Tigh Loughhead
