Saturday, August 2, 2008

Surf and Turf in Antigonish before the last few days in Cape Breton

We are getting very close.

So are two English men whom we met as we left PEI on the ferry to Pictou. They work in the Alps during the winter, and one night at the bar they talked about the upcoming summer. Neither wanted to work, so the idea came up to bike across Canada. Sound familiar? They will be taking the ferry to Port-aux-Basques in the next few days, while we take the one to Argentia Monday morning, so they've got a bit further to go. Moreover, they are biking back to Halifax once they're done, because that's where their flight leaves from to go back home. We will not be choosing that option...

The wind's been in our face for the last two weeks, and why would anything change on our way to Antigonish? Fortunately it was a relatively short day at 95km, and when we got into town, we were met by my cousin Andrew and his wife Laurell and brother-in-law Shane. They were picking us up to drive us out to Arisaig, where Laurell grew up and is now staying for most of the summer with my two cousins. Her family has a great location near the shores of the Northumberland Strait, but even better was their hospitality.

When they fetched us as we came into town, my cousin Andrew picked up 15 lobsters, steak, and sausage, and that evening we all gorged ourselves up at Laurell's parents Vince and Bobbi's home. Vince is a retired lobster fisherman, and on numerous occasions has cooked 100lbs of lobster at once, in a gigantic homemade cooking pot which he heats with a huge propane torch. The food was incredible, and we got in a bit of horshoes as well - Vince and his family host a horseshoe tournament every Labour Day weekend.

We couldn't eat all the steak, so it became this morning's breakfast before they drove us back out to Antigonish so that we could get on our way. We then had to plough through more headwinds and some rain as we headed onto Cape Breton Island.

Before crossing the causeway onto the Island, we were met by firemen from one of the local volunteer fire departments. Mike's mother Polly had told them a few days earlier that we would be coming through, and gotten them to help us out. Sure enough, Ian and Lou came out to meet us, escorting us across the narrow causeway with no shoulder. They even gave us some bottled water back at their station before we continued on. Thanks guys!

We pushed on for a 105km day to Whycocomagh over the hills and into the wind, leaving us a short day to our motel in North Sydney before we catch the ferry on Monday morning to Argentia. Countdown's getting close...

Four...

Three...
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

good job guys. still biking all that way. getting closer every day :)