Surrounded by fiddlers

August 17: Elmsdale to New Glasgow (120.65km)
Today I was back-tracking over some familiar territory. Since I changed my plans yesterday, I had to go back to Truro in order to veer east toward Cape Breton.

The weather was gray and heavy in the morning, but thankfully, the rain had stopped before I left at 9:00. After I stopped for lunch in Truro, the skie cleared and a heavy wind picked up. Thankfully, the wind was predominantly in my back and I was flying up some hills at about 30km/hr - faster than what I ride on flats on a calm day. According to the Weather Network, I won't be as fortunate tomorrow, but the forecast is still relatively positive.

I'm now in a B&B in New Glasgow and the couple owning the house are very nice. However, the lady of the house is originally from central England and I can hardly understand a word she says. I feel bad making her repeat everything, but I fear saying an inappropriate comment to what I think she says if I don't. Aah, the perils of travel:)

August 28: New Glasgow to Port Hastings (128.03km)
Today's ride was good if a bit frustrating. I switched back and forth all day from the Trans-Canada to the secondary highway. The secondary highway was twisty-turny and constantly had rolling hills which prevented me from getting any momentum or speed, but there was less traffic. The Trans-Canada allowed for greater speed, but it was busy and the shoulder (although good in general) disappeared when there was a passing lane. I won't have a choice in the coming days. Even though there are three main roads that could get me to the ferry, one would be a huge detour and another has no shoulder - in fact the police called the tourism office to ask them to tell cyclists not to take that road. That leaves one road which is unfortunately probably the busiest one and has some really big hills, but I'm told it has good shoulders. Fingers crossed that it is in fact the case.

I may or may not ride tomorrow. Since my ferry reservation is for Friday and it should only take me two days to get to North Sydney, I have a bit of time. And since the forecast is for thunder storms tomorrow, I think I may simply hole up in my motel room and watch the Olympics:) We'll see what the weather will look like in the morning.

August 19: Port Hastings to Baddeck (86.88km)
I woke up to clear skies and the forecast changed to rain only in the evening. So I thought I would try to do some mileage while the weather was favourable. I was a bit concerned with the wind however. It was howling all night and wasn't letting up in the morning. It was a southern wind though - so although not horrible it could be tiresome after a while. For most of the day, the wind was hardly a factor though and when it was it was generally in my back.

I am now in Cape Breton and it is really pretty. Some of the ride was deep in the woods and I couldn't see anything, but other times, I was next to water and the view of the lake and the rolling hills behind it was nice.

Since I was making pretty good time, I thought of making a stab at reaching North Sydney today in order to take the Wednesday ferry and have more time in Newfoundland. I wasn't sure if I could make it on time, but I thought if the ferry was late in the day, I could make it most of the way today and do a short ride to the ferry tomorrow. I stopped in the tourism office in Baddeck to get the ferry schedule and it turns out that the ferry is at 8:00 tomorrow morning. It may have been doable, but I would arrive in Argentia late tomorrow evening which meant I would have to ride at night which wasn't a good idea. So I opted to stay in Baddeck and take the ferry on Friday as originally planned.

Baddeck is a cute touristy town. Since I have a bit of time before my ferry, I may stay here an extra night as there is likely more to do here than in North Sydney. In fact, I met a guy who does kayaking tours around the lake. If the weather isn't too bad tomorrow (they're calling for rain), I may do that. And every night they have a kaylee (is that how you spell it? - anyways essentially a traditional performance of fiddle music and dancing). I'm going to check that out this evening. Maybe I should bring my bike shoes so that I can do some tap-dancing:)

Here are a few pictures of Cape Breton.