[ Day 37 ] Thursday, July 23, Rusticoville to Victoria (37km)

Origin: Pines Motel/Cottages
Destination: Victoria Village Inn

Route description: The 6 to the 258 to New Glasgow
The 13 to Hunter River, Kelly's Cross & Crapaud
Transcanada Highway to Nelson Road to Victoria

Weather: Intermittent light rain with brief breakthroughs of sun. Mid afternoon sun, blue sky with clouds

Despite the mist and dark clouds early, the up-and-down short ride today was exceptionally beautiful as we crossed the island from north to South Shore (about 20 miles). A delicious bowl of granola at The Preserve in New Glasgow fortified us for the ride. We enjoyed long vistas across green valleys dotted with houses and farms, passed fields of corn and potatoes, were greeted by a couple of horses' neighs, passed the Brookvale Provincial Ski Park, and peaked in the windows of

The Village Store in Kelly's Cross (under renovation per the historic sign).






Highlight: As we were ascending a hill, Caity and Alex were descending with bikes loaded and stopped to talk. 

These remarkable young women had left Victoria, BC on May 4 and had pedaled across Canada. After they see PEI and conquer Cape Breton National Park, they will ferry to Newfoundland to complete their trip in St. John's. What fun to share their excitement about their trip. We exchanged blog sites (cyclistas.tumblr.com) and look forward to reading more about their journey. This 20 minute chat was fortuitous for us; we missed a brief, but very heavy downpour a couple of kilometers ahead and stayed dry.

The sun was out when we rolled into Victoria-by-the Sea, a small, quiet seaside community (about 100 permanent residents) with red sand beaches, many original houses, lovingly restored

and numerous artist galleries. Given its beauty, several large tour buses have it on their itineraries. Marney enjoyed walking the red beach and trying to capture some of the beauty with the camera.