Day 91: Onslow to Musquodoboit Harbour (The Triumph of Pedal Power)

We were up with the morning traffic, breakfast and into Truro for a shop. Ughh, we found a new fancy Sobeys with no vegetables or fruit from the Maritimes despite all the wonderful produce grown around here. They did have blueberries which were a 'product of Canada' although they were distributed by a company in New Jersey. Apples were available from Chile, Argentina, New Zealand, South Africa and the US, but not from the Annapolis Valley, the apple growing centre of Canada (in fact there was nothing from Canada at all). They there was only one check out open with a big line while they had another clerk twiddling her thumbs hoping to teach people who did not want to wait to do the self check out (you can guess their corporate agenda). Let's see if we can avoid Sobey's for the rest of the trip (I know that Superstore is not exactly a benevolent corporation but at least they do better at some things. Enough of the grocery store rant, off we went to play the 'up/down game'...

... Uphill... Downhill... Uphill... Downhill... Up... Down... Up... Down... Up... Down... Up... Down... (if you are tire of reading the up/down game, imagine playing. We set the one day record for number of gears used while traversing the province on small beautiful roads that we had never been on, and we have been on most roads in Nova Scotia. It was scenic steep and short hills through forests and farms. Wittenburg was at the centre of the area and if my memory serve me right, the original Wittenburg is a town in the hills or mountains of Germany or Austria.




Past Wittenburg
we expected smoother going as we headed down the Musquodoboit River Valley.




No such luck... There's nothing like a hilly river valley. In fact, we are in shape and hills are not a big deal at this point, especially when the country side is pretty.
We arrived in Musquodoboit Harbour where we were going to camp on the grass outside a friends' house on a beautiful island in the Harbour. In another one of those fortuitous circumstances, Don and Monica Fraser just finished a beautiful cozy cabin below the house that sleeps 5! And rain was setting in...Twist our arms... we quickly said "uncle" on the phone and took the cabin. So we wanted to bring some wine as an appreciate gift. Alas the liquor store was 5 km uphill into a ferocious storm wind. Shane and Alan answered the call for volunteers while the rest just happened to stumble into the local bakery to wait. This was a time when a bit of riding into adversity was fun, because once there, with wine and beer in our baskets, we got to ride back downhill with a big wind behind us. The highlight was when we left a perplexed man on an electric scooter in the dust. Hurrah for pedal power!

We returned and rejoined the bakery clan, headed for the Frasers, found our cool cabin,




and then it was time for great conversation (stories of Don and Monica's skunk trapping exploits which did not end well), wine, beer, tasty snacks, and a hearty dinner (it's a tough life- but there were a lot of hills today!). Thank you Don and Monica.








Distance: 93.21 km
Time on bike: 5:26:13
Average speed: 17.1 km/h
Distance from
Vancouver: 7327 km
Start: 8:15 am
End: 5:30 pm
Wind: east (medium-head)
Condition: cloudy


Cheers
- The Warpotay Team

Location:Musquodoboit Harbour, Nova Scotia