Halifax, Nova Scotia

We’re back at it and excited to ride the trail again tomorrow after work interfered in 2024.

A red-eye cross-country flight from Vancouver brought us 6 hours later to Halifax, Nova Scotia, early today and we relaxed among the cruise ship passengers on the quaint waterfront for the first half of the day before unpacking and assembling the bikes. Which led to the now-customary stop at a local bike shop while mechanics scratched their heads over the quirks of Bron’s bike. This time it was Dwayne at Halifax Cycle & Guitar (seriously) who McGyvered a new solution for the troublesome pannier rack.

They take their food and wine seriously in these parts, and it would be rude not to join in. Dinner was fabulous fish at Salt & Ash on the water, accompanied by a local Benjamin Bridge wine. Then back to our luxury (ahem) motel to catch up on sorely needed sleep.

The planning for this leg has been tricky. Wildfires have shut many parts of the trail and we have also cut back on our mileage ambition to enable us to relax and sightsee a bit more than usual. We even got to the Maritime museum today with its relics from the sinking Titanic and the equally fatal, but more widespread Halifax harbour explosion of 1917. It destroyed the whole town and pieces of exploded ship were found 5km away.

Tomorrow we head out early for Wolfville about 90km away, and from there we’ll see what the fires bring, but the plan is to head down the Bay of Fundy to Digby and then back over the peninsula to the seaside villages of Lunenberg, Peggy’s Cove and Mahone Bay.

We’re hoping for a chilled 500km on this leg to take us over the total 5,000km mark.