Monday 9 October 2017

Day 87 - Port Elgen to Brackley Beach Hostel

Continuing on my journey through the night I woke up a couple of hours later at around 5 a.m. and continued down the road until I found a gas station. I bought some breakfast and then made my way through to the end of the road. I eventually made it to the PEI Confederation bridge where I had to wait for shuttle to carry me a cross. I was pretty tired at the time from cycling all night,  so I waited for it lying down and just relaxed until the shuttle arrived half an hour later. The trip on the shuttle itself wasn't as special as seeing the bridge from afar. On top of the bridge, I just felt like I was in a cozy seat looking down on the ocean. I fell asleep and woke up on the other side, finally making it to Prince Edward Island. PEI is a really nice place because of the beautiful trails and nicely groomed fields. I made my way long the trails to Brackley Beach and the countryside was some of the most beautiful countryside that I had seen in the entire trip. It was really nice.  After being on the trail most of the way, I do have to say that the roads were just as bad as northern Ontario from a cyclist's point of view. The shoulders were narrow and the traffic was usually single lane with trucks passing by. I suppose this is the price we have to pay for the immense beauty of this place. While I was there I met a group of people and one of my new friends had a rental car. Two of the friends were from Japan and one from Korea. It was nice to visit with them for a few days while I was there and share some stories with new friends.
The Esso near Port Elgen

I'm rolling and the weather is clearing up...

Hello Sun!

Confederation Bridge to PEI

On the shuttle (before I dozed off)

Welcome!

The Trail


Beautiful, clear day

Fields of PEI

Like a tour through paradise 

Wispy clouds

Fennel in the grass

Fields of green and yellow

Moving forward

Purple green and blue

Lovely red earth

shade

I just have to make pictures of all these fields... They're amazing

A little wheel of PEI history

Groomed fields

Wild fields

Every kind of field

I took a nap here for 2 hours...

This was my view

Dynamic clouds and fields of yellow and green

Another angle...

Moving on

Another field, another story...

and I get to see it all...

peekaboo

brown grass and trees

Resting my bike for a few minutes

lunch time

Brackley Beach

Typical PEI road... but not the worst. Some of the roads are pretty worn.

A lighthouse in the middle of Brackley Beach.... 

Day 86 - Hopewell Rocks to Shediac, Port Elgen and beyond

Oh, what a bright morning, better put on my shades!

Like Bacchus waking up from a cozy slumber, I rejoiced in the nice change in weather and decided to stay a little bit at the campsite this morning. It like could be an easier day so I just had to enjoy it with sandals in the sun. The road wasn't that bad at all. Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy is a major tourist destination and the roads are very easy to navigate. There's even a lot of icecream shops on the side of the road which helps...

The first thing that I did which I couldn't miss was go to see the Hopewell Rocks. I from around 11-1 and the highlight of my trip was finding wild raspberries. Somehow I felt like I didn't really resonate with the place because of the cost to get in and the crowds. There was a lineup just to see the rocks, and I had trouble getting out of the viewing area because there were so many people just going to snap a picture. It was okay, but personally I thought the caves at St. Martin's looked much more beautiful.

I continued my leisurely bike ride out towards Moncton and found my to a Tim's for a late lunch / dinner (linner?) at around 5pm. It was at this point that that little thought entered my mind again...

"What if I just cycled through the night and got to PEI tomorrow instead of the day after?"

Moments later, I had already booked my 2 night stay at the Brackley Beach Hostel on PEI. I knew I had to put my pedal to the ... uh well... let's just say I knew I had to pedal a lot in order to reach my destination in time. One last swig of the java and I was on the road again towards Shediac, lobster capital of the world!!!

I passed through Shediac and stopped at a certain place to work on this blog for a little while and rest up for the night ahead. There was a really nice group of elderly folk from Shediac who I had the pleasure to begin talking with. In an act of kindness, they all felt it right to donate to Victoria Hospice, and so I took a collection for them to put on the website.

The people working had also heard about what I was doing and where I was going (cycling through the night) and one of the employees offered to make me a special drink. I think it had 5 shots of espresso in it (o_o) !

As my brain floated in a cloud of caffeinated dreams, I jumped on my bike put on my helmet, turned on my lights, said "Giddyup!" I was on my way.

So that's the fun part of the story. I rode through the night with hardly any cars down the quiet road until I reached Port Elgin where I hoped to (can you guess?) find some food. Unfortunately its such a a small place, and there wasn't anything open at 4am, so I found whatever I could eat in the little cooler that I keep with me, and then decided to take a short rest in the park.

It was interesting setting up my tent in the windy spot I was in, but with everything ready and the mosquitoes satiated for the moment, I slipped into my tent and promptly lost consciousness for an hour and a half...

... to be continued. 

Either Road through the day I gradually made my way to Monkton and through two words shed yak the place where the largest Lobster ever fished was ever was found. In a spur the moment in a spur of the moment, I decided to cycle through the night and dad around us I decided to move from Chevy a can continue along the road to work the PEI Confederation bridge. In the middle of the night at around 2 or 3 am I finally made it to a place called portal gun or Allegan point and I was hoping that there would be a McDonalds or something like that there but there was nothing so I ended up eating some of my own food and setting up my time just for 2 hours so that I could rest up. This was just a rest it wasn't asleep.
Morning on the Bay of Fundy

The narrow strip of blue is Nova Scotia 

Fields of Fundy

Shadow Selfie

Friends who I met at the campsite :)

The famous Hopewell Rocks

Beautiful sights from the tourist trap

No walking on the ocean floor today

A few hours later, I'd be able to walk down there...

But I was up here...

A different part of the tourist trap

Finding wild raspberries was one of the highlights of paying to enter this place...

I wanted to participate in the bottom photo...

Moncton in the distance

Downtown Moncton

On the road to Shediac

Made it

Sunset Approaching

Getting my picture taken in front of the lobster

Port Elgen by moonlight