We made it...and nobody died!

Well this was the much anticipated day 7. We were told that it was 67Km of rolling hills with a handful of steep hills. When pressed to explain what a handful was, Gary, out tour leader said 10. 

Needless to say, Kelli and I tossed and turned all night in our beautiful campsite overlooking the Northumberland Straight and the ferry to Nova Scotia. 

We woke up bright and early to swarms of blackfies. Everyone was so bitten that we cleared out of our camp by 7AM. 

Kelli and I rode through the worst of the hills prior to it getting sunny and hot. We were really happy as we had thought we had finished steepest part of the trip. As we continued on and it got warmer and sunnier we realize that there were some very gradual but very challenging Hills to conquer along the highways at that point headwinds became really the biggest problem. With 20k to go, my front tire went flat. We camped out in the shade on a lovely lady's front lawn and availed ourselves of the home-baked goods at the little stand next door. Fortunately one of our colleagues on the trip who used to work for a bike store stopped off and helped me change my tire and even adjusted my brakes so within about an hour we are off again the last leg of our trip. We rode into Charlottetown through the tony neighborhood of Stratford along the edge of the water. Got back to our car at approximately 1 o'clock guzzled some fruit flavored water at the car and headed to our hotel where we have been hunkered down ever since happily showering and hanging out watching TV and playing with our electronic devices, eating fried clams and nursing our aches and pains and bug bites.

Kelli after she completed 473kms.

Me at the car wearing not one, but two pairs of cycling shorts...my butt was pretty sore! lol 

The view from our wonderful hotel room! 

We made it back just in time....

What an amazing day!

We started off early after a breakfast of a banana and cereal and headed to Murray  River. We cycled on what I would legitimately call rolling hills and stopped at Murray Rover for blueberry iced tea and a visit to a local general store.

 We continued on to Murray Harbour where we orders a Lobster roll to go from a restaurant reccomended by Megan and 

 We then continued up one of the many steep hills required to exit the harbour towns of PEI and collected food for our pot luck dinner back at camp. We then peddled to the Cape Bear Lighthouse and Marconi station where the first distress call of the Totanic was heard. 

We met up with Megan and Spencer there and heard stories about the shifting tides of the Northumberland Straight. We cycled on past farms and bee keepers and the distant view of Nova Scotia across the straight. We finally stopped at a delightful winery, sampled some wines and headed into our exceptional campsite for our potluck dinner and final evening together. 

With a view of the Ferry to Nova Scotia going back and forth!

Our pot luck!

Tomorrow is a 64 km day... With a "Handful" of steep hills... That means 10. Think of us as we toil  towards Charlottetown...our warm hotel room waiting for us! 

Mutiny on the bounty...

Apparently while we were recovering in our hotel, the other 14 members of our group asked for a revised plan for today due to their extreme exhaustion and the lack of sentry on the day we all "almost died".

So today was a mesely 38 k day complete with a visit to the Confedeation Trail ( our favourite) Montague and the  beachside Panmure Island.

We ate lunch at a fisher and wharf 

We visited two beaches

This one is for Brittany.,,

We had a delicious dinner at our camp which Kelli prepared. Now we are hanging out in our tent avoiding mosquito s.

Tomorrow is a beautiful ride to the Wood Islands and more beaches! Stay Tuned!

Our most challenging ride so far!

Today Kelli and I set out for our longest ride so far 73KM from Just outside of Souris and ended up in Brudenell  at Rodd's Resort.

It was beautiful and sunny and about 26 degrees. Our route was quite hilly and Kelli and I started to lose steam after 3 hours of up and down at our picnic spot in Bridgetown. We shared half a peanut butter sandwhich and an apple each and after chatting with one of our fellow cyclists, decided to soldier on. Ed, the gentleman who drives the support vehicle had been keeping all of us supplied with fresh water in the blazing heat. We headed out onto the second half of the trek, both of us feeling nauseous Nd worried that we wouldn't make it, when out of nowhere apeared Gary our tour leader an experienced cyclist and a man of few words. We began to follow him and we notice how much he glided, both going up and how the hills. He didn't attack the hills, running at them aggressively at top speed as we type As tend to do, but rather glided into and sometimes even up them for short strides. He built in breaks for his muscles during these periods of gliding. He said that he gets what's owing to him on the downhills. So we followed and copied him. Before we knew it we were gliding into the hills and slowly but surely (in low gear) making it to the top of each hill.  Before we knew it we were done and hanging out at our only non camping accommodation in Beudenell. We learned that cycling can be a great metaphor for life and that we need to tKe the time to glide and enjoy the scenery!

The little town of Cardigan...at 68kT

Kelli at a restaurant enjoying a well deserved cranberry and soda and basket of fries. Both tasted amazing after out long ride. Tonight wenare meeting Megan, my daughter and her boyfriend Spencer for dinner at our hotel...then an early bedtime...in a real bed! 3 more rides to go and more lessons to be learned!

We made it! Sort of....

Today was our first rainy day...and rain it did! Kelli and I started off bright and early as it was drizzling and we wanted to pack up our stuff while it wasn't too wet. We disassembled our camp, had breakfast and left in the rain by 7:30. As the ride got longer and rainier and the crazy hills and headwinds began on our 73km trek we settled in to riding as quickly as possible to get it done. After passing through a quaint fishing village which wS cold and rain soaked we continued on up and down s battling headwinds barely speaking just trying to get re done (and not cry due to our butt, foot and other pains of our 50+ years. Finally after 15 k we did a map check and we were lost. 15k off route. so we called our leader who told us to "just double back" and rejoin the group. We were having none of that. We sourced out another route and carried
on. lucky we did because we found Tim's and settled in for an hour to hide from the rain and charge our phones.

The high point of our trip:

So we ended up getting back on our  route and made it to our new campground at 1:45. It is now beautiful and warm. Stir fry tonight!

Days 1&2 From "Rolling Hills" to Beautiful Salt Bogs!

Day 1 had us travelling 57 K from Charlottetown to the PEI national park. The term rolling hills meant one thing to Kelli and I and something else to our tour group. The hills roles on and on sometimes extending over a KM and a half in ascent. We had a lovely lunch at a cafe at Oyster Bay. The seafood chose was delicious! In the evening we set up camp just meters away from the ocean and cooked a steak dinner on our camp stove. 

Before we began....

The pastures along the way

Almost there

The ocean! 

Day 2

We woke up, put away our camping stuff and got in the trail for a short ride along the confederation trail for 53k. The trail was beautiful and the wildflowers looked like the most beautiful of English gardens. Again the scenery with the mussel beds in the various bays were spectacular. We arrived at our new campsite and are now relaxing prior to dinner out in St Peters Bay! 

An Elementary school

An Eagle's nest

Home sweet home!

We are in PEI

After a six hour drive, and our first taste of lobster in a Subway wrap, we arrived safely in Charlottetown PEI. What a beautiful city. We headed down to the peer and saw brightly coloured old homes, larger than life cruise ships and many tempting shops and restaurants! 

Province House ( the PEI legislature)

Tomorrow we will be starting our cycle tour at 8am....excited to see the lush and green countryside as well as the bright orange sand of PEI!