We went to sleep to the sound of the surf and woke up to sunny skies and little wind. After a quick breakfast, we packed up camp and said goodbye to PEI National Park. Mom, Dad and Peter dropped Sarah and I off where we finished yesterday; they headed off to find groceries and we set out toward Charlottetown. We spent the first 15 k or so in the hills that we were struggling with yesterday - steep and close together, every uphill portion ate away any momentum we'd gathered going downhill. Not fun, but much easier to manage at the start of a ride than at the end.
As we got closer to Charlottetown, though, everything flattened out, and we cruised through town, stopping only at Walmart for some batteries and chapstick.
I had been really looking forward to PEI because I haven't been here since we lived here for a summer when I was 1 (Dad was doing a summer placement at a chuch on the eastern side of the island). I had no idea it was so hilly (for some reason I imagined it was almost as flat as Holland). I also had no idea how beautiful Charlottetown is - the old buildings downtown are lovely.
After Charlottetown, we headed south toward the ferry to Nova Scotia, following the TransCanada most of the way.
We actually beat the van to the town we had picked for lunch, and it was quickly apparent that Cherry Valley is little more than a gas station, so we poked our head into the attached garage to see if anyone knew of a place nearby for a picnic. The mechanic sent us down the next laneway and we parked the van in the middle of the lane and had lunch in the between two fields, but with a view of the ocean. Very random, but significantly better than eating in the gas staion parking lot or by the side of the road.
We set out from lunch at 1, and it quickly dawned on us that we were cutting things veeery tight for a 2:45 ferry.
We decided to do our best to try to catch the ferry. We were making pretty good time, and our short cut was working out wonderfully - until the pavement turned to gravel, and we found ourselves bumping along a red dirt road. The only thing that passed us was a dirt bike (which was much more suitable for the terrian than a couple of road bikes), but we made it safely out the other side, and headed back to the TransCanada.
We had to call Dad at 2:25 to let him know whether he should stay in line for the 2:45 ferry. Google maps said 5.6 k with 20 mins left before we had to be boarded, so we told Dad "We're going to make it, but it's going to be tight".
I barely had time to hang up before Sarah took off at 38 km/hour, saying, "Stay with me, Sister". I tucked in behind her to start, and we swapped the lead a few times before we rounded a corner and there was the ferry, with cars still lined up to board. We quickly put our bikes in the van and slumped inside, red-faced but satisfied - we'd made the ferry with maybe 4 mins to spare.
We were stretching in one of the seating areas, and a guy came up to us to ask if we were the bikers. Apparently he saw us in Walmart in the morning, and was impressed we made it to the ferry so quicky. Honestly, so was I :)
Liz
PS. We could have opted to take the 4:30 ferry instead (and had a leisurely ride), but Sarah decided that whether we made it or not, this would make a more exciting blog post. So it is apparently for all of you that we rode like the blazes for our last hour today.
PPS. Tonight's photo is from around the fire. We're at Caribou Provincial Park right by the ferry on a site that overlooks the ocean. I don't think I've ever had a campsite with a berrer view. I'll try to get a photo in the morning to share.
