Day 22 - Digby to Waterloo Lake

Well, turns out the rest was a good thing!  And - today was a good day, I got a long way and saw lots...but, started to realize that our calculations on the map/GPS might've been a little short of actual distance - I've got three LONG days to Halifax!

Started off with an early morning - Bas wanted to know why I hadn't been so eager to get started when we were riding together....but, enjoyed some of our gourmet instant coffee (gooooo dollar store!) before leaving.  After that, took a detour through town - nice calm morning again...love it!  Then, off onto the highway.  Here, the secondary and primary highways merge - so, only option for about 10 km is the major highway - the 101.  Which also happens to have construction on one of the major bridges.  GREAT!  So, cars going 100 km/h plus as I ride along make me feel very comfortable.  Luckily, some guys at the front of the line waiting for the light to change suggested walking through the work area with the bike - the lines were super long, people waited for a big chunk of time, and would not've been keen on waiting for me to bike ahead of them.  So, saved some time, and some angry drivers by walking through.

Sign reads "Norm's World Cuisine - Pizza, Wraps, Donairs, Subs and Seafood"...Norm, I know you know world cuisine better then that!

After more rides through many small villages along the mouth of the Annapolis River, and some fantastic Martin Sexton playing on the IPod, I made it to Annapolis Royal for my break...who knew, it was paint the town weekend?!!?  The town, which looks pretty awesome even without the extra excitement, had a big market with wineries, food and fresh fruits from the area, and artists were all over the area painting scenes and parts of the town - all to be sold at auction that night!  I enjoyed some local plums, an awesome local pork farmer's pulled pork, and some selections of wines from the wineries - great fruit wines, and whites - reds - meh, not so much.

The two scenes are painted here!

The Market Square!

After the market, went to the village's fort to look around - kind of a smaller scale citadel - they're starting to get quite repetitive! But, some neat buildings - especially this one built into the hill - from the early 1800's and used by both French and English forces.

After Annapolis Royal, the ride wasn't as exciting - and it was time to motor!  I saw what claimed to be the world's only tidal power station (although I saw a few more of these later on...)  The knee hurt today again, but frequent breaks are my only choice - gotta make Halifax in three days!  In Middleton, stopped at info to ask about likelyhood of finding spots to camp along 10 - they were very unhelpful...and inaccurate - I decided to ignore their warnings of "Nothing out there...and lots of bears" and take my chances.  Ended up cycling a lot tonight, and mostly uphill.  Why do the hills always come LATE in the day?  Found a little spot to stop just off the side of the road.  Got here late, so rushed to beat sundown with making dinner, setting up camp and slinging my food bag in case of bears.  Made it to a place called Waterloo Lake - recommendation of some wierd guy on the side of this rural road who sold Dragon statues out of a little hut.  But, it'll work - other then the Beaver couple who is swimming/walking about 5 feet from my tent - they're making lots of noise, I don't think they like me much.  Also some loons and an owl - I like this nature!

Picture from a river just before my camping spot.  Finally in REAL nature!