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What to do at 5 a.m. if you have to wait for a bike store to open? We spent almost 4 hours in a Tim Horton’s coffee shop.

Greg bought and installed a new chain. He did this so fast that the owner of the shop offered him a job.

In full rain gear we headed towards the Cabot Trail, which circumnavigates the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We took a detour from the trail towards Meat Cove. The Interceptor proved to be able to handle a piste road! 

In one of the lookouts, a (most likely) French crew was shooting a commercial. Despite their efforts to hide the car from us, I took a picture. Maybe I would make money out of it if I knew how. By the way, the car they were filming was a van, Pegeut 807. Or 806. Who really cares.

The roads were in a great shape but many slow moving tourists prevented us (especially Greg) from fully enjoying the ride. At one moment we were following a couple on a sport motorbike. The Driver was speeding up to 180 km/h. Being light our bikes managed to keep up with the guy. It was pretty exciting. 

We spent the night in a clean and pleasant hostel in Mabou. We met tourists from Scotland, Quebec (sisters!) and Germany.

More driving...

The advantage of a motorcycle over a car was clearly visible on a ferry from Caribou to Prince Edward Island. Our bikes took the last two spots much too small for any car. 

I found PEI not too interesting. The island is very small and flat. There are some beaches and Cavendish - Green Gables place. Boring...

Wed, Aug 15, 01. From Summerside, PEI to Alma, New Brunswick. 406 km  

Charlottetown - a nice small town. 

The Confederation Bridge which connects PEI and New Brunswick is 12.9 km long and very impressive. 

Getting through Moncton was an awful experience - huge traffic.

It seems that there are not too many attractions in this province, so Ministry of Tourist is trying to make money on anything. A Magnetic Hill in Moncton is a 100 m stretch of a road where your car is supposed to go up the hill by itself - what a dumb place! It is a mere optical impression.

At the end of the day we stopped at the Fundy Rocks to see the highest tides in the world: up to 14 metres between the low and the high tide. 

We got to Fundy National Park Camping for the night.

This is the place I will come back to one day. The Fundy National Park. We experienced high/low tides again 

and even did some hiking. There was also an interesting covered bridge. 

Fredericton: 

In Hartland we went to see the World's longest covered bridge. 

It was difficult to find a place for a free night so we opted to a private camping near the highway. Uneventful - except rain near dawn and constant noise from the nearby road.

We left around 10 a.m. Weather was unstable. Our rain gear worked well. 

The plan was to stop for the night either in Quebec City or Montreal. Well, instead we just kept on driving - 1300 km altogether. The last stretch from Montreal to Oakville was the most painful: my back and butt hurt. In addition it got dark and rain intensified. We reached Oakville around 2 a.m.

Final thoughts

The trip was a success - 8850 km in 18 days. Nothing will come close to what we experienced in '98 though. Travelling in North America may be interesting and challenging but everything is so civilized: restaurants, gas stations, people, road signs etc. The only thing that changes is the landscape. That's why I feel some kind of incompleteness after our trip to the East Coast.

G: It was a good summer get away, an item on the “to do list” kind of a trip.  Honestly, for Canadians Eastern Canada may be an inspiring place to go to, but for us “adventure hungry bikers”, it was just a trip…….sorry all you Canadians but a road trip in Canada is very far from being an adventure. Maybe an off road tour in the Northern Territories would do.  We will see.

J: Greg keeps talking about Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Siberia. Past few weeks (it is October 2001) changed his plans. Now there are different tourists going to Uzbekistan. They also bring different type of equipment with them.

My hope is that rain in Central America would not prevent a motorcyclist from enjoying the ride. Well.... We will see.

To continue the story, click Statistic or go back to '01 Atlantic Canada.