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| Day 61 - August 27 - Murray Beach to Brackley Beach 132km |
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| A 9:30 departure suits us well since it's only 12km to Confederation Bridge. Chris and Rob come with us as we fail to see the building for the shuttle bus service. We bike all the way up to the bridge in search of this bus because cyclists are not permitted on the bridge. I'm not sure why. There is a nicely paved shoulder to keep us a good distance from traffic. It's a $60 fine if we go for it. Some would say it's worth it. |
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| It sure is a long wait to cross a 13km bridge. The first load is leaving just as we pull up. We sit there for over an hour waiting for the driver to come back. The trailer rack holds seven bikes at a time. We'll get the next one, whenever that is. |
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| PEI is our eighth province. We're only here for a day so we better soak it up while we can. We follow Highway 1 most of the day into Charlottetown and we go to the Cows store for ice cream and souvenirs. I get a scoop of Cowrispy Crunch on a freshly made waffle cone dipped in chocolate. It's overpriced...but it tastes great. |
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| It's getting late in the day so we start heading toward camp. The signs to Brackley Beach are a little ambiguous. We're looking for PEI National Park as we follow Brackley Point Road for what seems like ages. Then it starts raining. There's nothing worse than being lost on a dark, rainy night on a bicycle. We're cold, wet, hungry, tired and needless to say, a little annoyed. There is no one at the park gate to tell us where to go and there are no signs at all. Nothing that says camping, no clues whatsoever. We bike around the park for an hour looking for a sign to help us out. Eventually we get to a store where they tell us to keep going down the road because "that's the only campsite around here". A few kilometres later we're told that our Tour isn't at that campsite. The guy in the booth tells us to go back to the front gate and it's the first gravel road we come to. I remember that gravel road. We didn't take it because there is nothing to indicate that it leads to a camping area. |
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| The rain comes down hard as we struggle to make it back in the dark. My shoes are full of water and my eyes are stinging as the rain hits them. My sunglasses get stuffed in my pocket when it's this wet because I can't see a thing with them on. |
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| We finally get there and sit in the truck for an hour waiting for the rain to stop. I'm not pitching my tent in this weather - no way. I'll sleep in the cook house tonight. There's a picnic table there to keep me off the cement floor. Chris, Rob, Craig and Glenn do the same. |
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