Halifax, Nova Scotia - I may have had bad timing rolling into Bar Harbor, but I couldn't have picked a better time to get into the capital of Nova Scotia. That's because it's in the middle of the Halifax Busking (street performing) festival, during which performers of every stripe roll into town and spend all week giving free shows along the waterfront. It's awesome. I haven't found Halifax itself to be anything special - it actually feels just like Boston, except with a French flavor replacing the Irish - but the buskers have made this a visit to remember. In just a few hours today, I saw a robotic Elvis impersonator; Japanese acrobats; another Japanese guy who could pretty much balance anything on anything; a wild-haired fellow from Montreal who can do things with his bike I would never consider; and a breakdancing bagpiper. After some more city touring tomorrow, I plan on spending most of the afternoon watching more of this inspired madness.
As for the biking around here, I have found parts of Nova Scotia to be impossibly gorgeous and others to be merely dull. After arriving in Digby two days ago, I biked 50 miles, mostly through the rain, to the middle-of-nowhere town of Middleton. (This was, believe it or not, the first sustained bit of rain I had to ride through this entire trip, which is kind of incredible. It was also my first chance to find out that some of my supposedly waterproof stuff, in fact, wasn't.)
Middleton turned out to be a sage choice, as for $5CN I stayed in about the nicest campground of this entire trip. Instead of cramming all of the tent sites together, the owner of Smith's Campground (who I guess would be, um, Smith) plowed out a giant lea, dotted with trees and with a tranquil river running through the middle of it. Then he stuck campsites at random spots through the meadow, each one in a peaceful glen beneath a small grove of trees, most with a river view. Cows mooed in the distance and the river gurgled nearby as I incredulously set up my tent. I felt like I was camping inside a Gainsborough painting.
In fact, a lot of the landscape of Nova Scotia reminded me of England: a gently rolling countryside of verdant fields interspersed with groves of trees stretching off to a ridged horizon. Parts of it were about as beautiful as anything I've seen on this trip.
Unfortunately, the biking book I've gotten up here doesn't seem to be as good as the maps I used before, and after some wonderful back roads I ended up on a fairly busy route into Halifax that only got worse as I neared the city. Perhaps this was inevitable, but I find it hard to believe there wasn't a less crowded (and hence safer) way into what really isn't that huge a metropolis. Ah well, I'm here now. I'm also ensconced in a fun hostel that has free internet access and a USB port, so here come some more pics:
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia - The "Octopuses' Garden" (which was, in fact, under a tree, in the shade) was created by a local sculptor who took seaworn tree stumps and roots and glued burls to the top of them. Interesting, but frankly kinda creepy.
Windsor, Nova Scotia - It's good to know that I can find primo pieces of 'Roadside America' despite the fact that I'm actually in Canada. This, for example, graces a public park in Windsor, which is not only the birthplace of hockey, but also the home of a four-time world champion pumpkin farmer. This is him. And his pumpkin.
Halifax, Nova Scotia - Yes, that's an 8-foot-long Titanic model floating in the lake in the Halifax Public Gardens. This is where they brought the Titanic survivors, so there's a pretty strong local connection to the wreck. In fact, tomorrow I'm headed out to see the cemetery where they buried a lot of the victims.
Halifax - One half of "Sublimit," a Japanese couple performing at the busking festival. Note the startling amount of stuff he's balancing on.
Halifax - "Silver Elvis." Basically, he did the whole human robot routine, using Elvis moves, to Elvis music. Pretty novel. Very silly.
Halifax - "Dubike," a guy from Montreal with a ridiculous accent, even more ridiculous hair, and an impressive array of bike stunts. For obvious reasons, his performance struck near to my heart.
As for the biking around here, I have found parts of Nova Scotia to be impossibly gorgeous and others to be merely dull. After arriving in Digby two days ago, I biked 50 miles, mostly through the rain, to the middle-of-nowhere town of Middleton. (This was, believe it or not, the first sustained bit of rain I had to ride through this entire trip, which is kind of incredible. It was also my first chance to find out that some of my supposedly waterproof stuff, in fact, wasn't.)
Middleton turned out to be a sage choice, as for $5CN I stayed in about the nicest campground of this entire trip. Instead of cramming all of the tent sites together, the owner of Smith's Campground (who I guess would be, um, Smith) plowed out a giant lea, dotted with trees and with a tranquil river running through the middle of it. Then he stuck campsites at random spots through the meadow, each one in a peaceful glen beneath a small grove of trees, most with a river view. Cows mooed in the distance and the river gurgled nearby as I incredulously set up my tent. I felt like I was camping inside a Gainsborough painting.
In fact, a lot of the landscape of Nova Scotia reminded me of England: a gently rolling countryside of verdant fields interspersed with groves of trees stretching off to a ridged horizon. Parts of it were about as beautiful as anything I've seen on this trip.
Unfortunately, the biking book I've gotten up here doesn't seem to be as good as the maps I used before, and after some wonderful back roads I ended up on a fairly busy route into Halifax that only got worse as I neared the city. Perhaps this was inevitable, but I find it hard to believe there wasn't a less crowded (and hence safer) way into what really isn't that huge a metropolis. Ah well, I'm here now. I'm also ensconced in a fun hostel that has free internet access and a USB port, so here come some more pics:
Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia - The "Octopuses' Garden" (which was, in fact, under a tree, in the shade) was created by a local sculptor who took seaworn tree stumps and roots and glued burls to the top of them. Interesting, but frankly kinda creepy.
Windsor, Nova Scotia - It's good to know that I can find primo pieces of 'Roadside America' despite the fact that I'm actually in Canada. This, for example, graces a public park in Windsor, which is not only the birthplace of hockey, but also the home of a four-time world champion pumpkin farmer. This is him. And his pumpkin.
Halifax, Nova Scotia - Yes, that's an 8-foot-long Titanic model floating in the lake in the Halifax Public Gardens. This is where they brought the Titanic survivors, so there's a pretty strong local connection to the wreck. In fact, tomorrow I'm headed out to see the cemetery where they buried a lot of the victims.
Halifax - One half of "Sublimit," a Japanese couple performing at the busking festival. Note the startling amount of stuff he's balancing on.
Halifax - "Silver Elvis." Basically, he did the whole human robot routine, using Elvis moves, to Elvis music. Pretty novel. Very silly.
Halifax - "Dubike," a guy from Montreal with a ridiculous accent, even more ridiculous hair, and an impressive array of bike stunts. For obvious reasons, his performance struck near to my heart.
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About me
I'm Tom Moran, a bicyclist from Fairbanks, Alaska. I'm spending the summer of 2006 riding from Anacortes, Wash., to Bar Harbor, Maine.
Please smack any mimes you may encounter on my behalf.