Day 5, July 23rd

I figured if I kept up my fast and furious pace like in the last few days, I would blast through the maritimes and not see anything, so I told myself to slow down, take it more of the sights and enjoy the journey more. I can't really call it a trip as I didn't have a real destination. I now understand what Denis from sudbury told me in Caraquet that some days he only does 200km. It's about the journey and what you see and do along the way.

I looked through the phonebook for an Internet Cafe and they only had 3 for the whole province listed. The phonebook threw me for a loop as both the white and yellow pages were in this tiny little book no thicker than my cell phone. wow.

It was raining when I woke up and they announced rain for the day. I suited up and made sure the luggage was covered up.

I decided to try to take all the coastal routes around PEI, and left summerside going southwest, clockwise around the island. This put me on highway 11. The road conditions were horrible with big potholes, potholes filled with sand and gravel and generally in poor repair. This road is almost dangerous if you are going too fast and catch a sand filled pothole in a corner.
I stopped along the road at one point for a smoke and could see a storm/rain coming my way, and it didn't look too promising

The 11 dumped out onto the 2 and went northwest and got onto the 12. I made my way up the coast to a nice little town of Alberton.

They had a monument on the side of the road so i had to check out what it was about. In 1906, 10 men quickly volunteered to save some mariners from a 60 ton vessel that was being shipwrecked and only the captain of the ship was lost. the monument is to commemorate the bravery of those 10 men.

The more I visited small towns on the coast, the more of these types of monuments I've saw. Many war monuments and mariner monuments. and churches. holy crap there are a lot of churches.
Continuing on the 12, I went north and stopped at a rest stop/beach along the way south of Tignish. This was the First time I went to a beach anywhere and decided to sit and relax and listen to the ocean for a bit. Quite peaceful.

I went to North Cape and took some pictures there. It was worth the ride up to know I went to the most north western part of the island I could. North Cape also has a wind farm and I believe a government windmill test site. neato.
Pictured here is the longest natural rock reef in north america. There's also one of the oldest lighthouses in PEI here (built 1866) and the Black Marsh Trail. You can easily spend a day at this site looking for shells, etc.

I headed south from there and got myself on a dirt road somehow. previous rain and the red PEI soil make for a very very dirty bike. heh. I got on the 14 south and went around and met back up to the 2, but I crossed the 2 and headed towards Lennox island.
I didn't know what was there, but I was curious to see what it was. Once I got there, I realized it was a first nations community. I've never seen so many people wave to me in all my life. The population of the island is about 245, and from what i saw, there is a deep sense of pride in these people. for a small village, it was really something to see. Evidence suggests these people have been here for 10,000 years. wow. I wish I had taken pictures there.

I looped back around PEI then north on the 106 and came upon this sight. the bright white church with a red roof, with this dark onimous cloud over it with nice green grass. breathtaking to see in person.

Wound up in New London Bay, and it was getting late and rode past the New London Bay Motel. Great little place and very motorcycle friendly. The owner is also a rider :) I got myself an apartment for the night. the place was twice the size of my apartment in Ottawa!


Took a little evening ride for food and sights as the roads in PEI are actually very very good (except for the 11) and all the rolling hills makes it very enjoyable. I think i forgot to mention that every road I went down, it seemed that the grass on both sides of the road (not much gravel on the island it seems) was always recently cut, or they were in the middle of cutting it. It's such a neat and tidy island. even the farms are tidy!