Avonlea

Today was a study in contrasts.

After a very good (though rich) breakfast at Warn House B&B, we were on the road by 9:30. Today’s destination: Cavendish – Anne of Green Gables country. The first half of the route took us back on the Confederation trail. It was a lovely, bright morning, the humidity had dropped somewhat, and we were feeling cheerful and happy to be back in the saddle. Just outside of Summerside, we saw a fox cross the trail, and the scent of potato blossoms was everywhere.

A lovely little trailside cafe in Kensington

We passed by the cute little town of Kensington, which seems to have preserved some of its rail-town heritage. The PEI countryside is gorgeous. At one point, we came across a riot of wild hop plants climbing over every vertical surface.

Hops galore!

Despite stopping often to take breaks and pictures, we made pretty good time and were at Emerald Junction by 11:30. Then we pointed our wheels off the trail and north, toward Cavendish. This second half of the day was all on roads, which we had mostly avoided since Saturday. For the first 5 or 6 kilometres, there was very little traffic and the going was pretty good (despite a 2-km stretch of washboard dirt road). After we crossed Highway 2 (which serves as the Trans-Canada Highway in these parts), the road got busier. But the main difference from the bike trail was that it was much hillier. I imagine the really serious cyclists would laugh at my idea of hilly, but I was pretty winded at the top of more than one of them. By the time we got to Stanley Bridge, at about 12:45,  we were very much in need of a break and some food.

From there it was just a 7-km ride along Route 6 to our “resort.” Route 6 being a much busier road, there were at least shoulders to ride on, but this is still a fairly hilly part of the island. By the time we climbed up the last one to our destination at about 2:30, we were both pretty wiped. Today’s 52 km was much tougher than yesterday’s similar distance!

But at least we got here relatively early, so after a rest, we walked down to Cavendish beach, where we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves for a couple of hours. It’s a beautiful beach and the water was lovely and refreshing.

Relaxing on the beach

I suspect we’ll both be fast asleep in just over an hour, but I think there should be time to read a couple of chapters of Anne of Green Gables, especially now that we’re in her neck of the woods.