Day 79: Kentville to Halifax 123km WE HAVE MADE IT, 19th August 2007!!

We woke to a beautiful bright day for our final stretch of this amazing journey. We were so pumped about getting to the end for so many reasons that we hit 90km before stopping for lunch. It felt great eating our lunch just knowing that we were only 30km from the end. It was hard cycling as everything is just hurting now but we will have plenty of time to relax in Halifax while waiting for our flights homeward. We made it to Halifax in the early evening and found out that all the hostels downtown were full so we had to settle for a university residence a little way out of the city centre. We have decided that tomorrow we will go to the ocean and take photos etc. We have showers, food and beer on our minds for now and not in any particular order.

Cycling across Canada has been the most amazing experience of my life and one that I will remember and treasure forever. It hasn't really sunk in yet just how great of an achievement it is but I'm sure it will. I would like to thank all the great people we have met along the way for their kind hospitality and for making our trip so special. I would also like to thank people for reading my blog as it has been a lot of fun to do and a great reminder to keep for years after the trip.
Well anyway I will stop waffling on and just go and relax for 10 days before I fly back home.

Day 78: Upper Granville to Kentville 76km

Rain, rain, rain, rain is about all I can say for today. I think that we needed another hard day in the cold and wet just to make sure we weren't going soft and turning into fair weather cyclists. We started off slowly and ducked into a coffee shop and a library to wait the lightening out. We eventually got going and we didn't stop for 60km apart from for a flat tire for Agnes (number 9). I feel that will be the last of the trip so it had to be in the pouring rain not tomorrow when it is forecast to be bright sunshine. It is all a test of our determination now that we are so close from reaching our end destination but we shall not be defeated.
We stopped in a classic Chinese and Canadian cuisine restaurant for the evening and ate some crappy food and drank a lot of tea. We then set off up the road for our last night of camping and we found a great spot in a clearing in a forest at the side of the road. The grass was so long that it made the most perfect mattress.
Just one more day to go, dun, dun, dun.

Day 77: St John to Upper Granville 57km (not including ferry crossing)

After my first bad nights sleep of the trip I was very pleased that all we had to do was walk onto a ferry and sit down for 3 hours. The crossing was smooth and time flew by. when we arrived in Digby Nova Scotia, province number 8 we chilled out in the town centre and made lunch. By the time we were ready to cycle it was around 4pm so we did well to hit the 50km mark for the day. When cycle touring the morning is definitely the key time in which to do the bulk of the days ride. It is so hard to get the same energy levels the later you start.
The sun was shining all evening so we cut the day short when we came across a rest area with access to the river at the side of the road. We jumped straight in and had a much needed wash. a few boats passed by and gave us a wave while we were scrubbing the muck off us at the edge of the water.
We were planning to get to Halifax tomorrow, August 18th but Naomi wants to take an extra day getting there so we have agreed that Sunday August 19th will be our end date.

Day 76: Fredericton to St John 107km

Today we headed to St John to be ready to catch the ferry the next morning. I really enjoyed the ride as we were flying and made around 80km before lunch. We had to take the main highway so there was a lot of traffic but the road surface was so smooth I think sometimes it is worth it just to make up some ground. When we were around 30km from St John we were able to take a more scenic route. After a hard days cycling we relaxed at a lookout point over the city of St John and then finally made our way down to the ferry terminal in the hope of finding somewhere to camp. The staff at the terminal were very relaxed and let us camp at the front of the terminal for the night. The terminal was open til midnight so we relaxed and did a spot of reading and watching TV as the weather was turning. We have officially hit the Atlantic now but we will wait to get to Halifax our final destination before the celebrations begin.

Day 75: Kings Landing to Fredericton 36km

Today was a very grey miserable day and we just didn't have the motivation for much cycling. We made it to Fredericton the capital city of New Brunswick and the day ended there. We had an amazing breakfast part 2 in a restaurant called the Diplomat. The breakfast was huge and so very tasty. I think it tasted all the better because we hadn't eaten breakfast part 2 for a while.
Agnes and myself decided we fancied staying inside tonight and getting showers etc. so we managed to persuade Naomi. We stayed at the University residence for 40 dollars for all three of us, bargain. It felt so good to get a shower as I hadn't washed for a while, haha.

Day 74: Perth-Andover to Kings Landing 153km

After yesterday we thought we should hit the road a Little harder today. We managed to achieve 80 km before lunch, which was excellent going. We stopped in the town of Woodstock and hit Tim Hortons for a sandwich and a donut. Agnes went off to find a phone to change her flight and ended up having a nightmare and being on hold for over an hour. Luckily the weather held up and we were able to hit the magical 150km for the day. We camped in the picnic area of a visitor information centre at Kings Landing and had Macaroni cheese for dinner, ummmm.
We now have around 400km to go to reach Halifax so the trip is almost over. We are going to cycle to Fredericton and go south to St John then take the ferry across to Nova Scotia and head on to Halifax from there.

Day 73: Limestone Siding to Perth-Andover/Day off 25km

Brenda cooked us a great breakfast this morning and we were all in great spirits and on the road by 9ish. The terrain was very hard as there were very steep climbs but we still made it 25km in an hour so it wasn't hard enough to stop the cycling beasts. All of us wanted to use the internet and do various other things in the town of Perth-Andover so we ended up just taking the rest of the day off.
We found a great camping spot in the waterfront park in the middle of town. We cooked up some food and drank some wine and waited til dark to put up the tents. I sat and watched Agnes and Naomi destroy about 4litres of ice cream, which amused me a lot.