Dalvay By the Sea

Today was two delightful ends separated by an unpleasant middle.

We woke up fairly late (for us), so we didn’t get on the road till about 9:30, but it was supposed to be a fairly short day, so we knew we could take our time. The first stretch of the ride was along the paved bike path alongside the parkway that runs through the western end of PEI National Park from Cavendish Beach to the town of North Rustico (“Rustico,” we learned, being a bastardization of the name Rassicot). We were greeted with really lovely views of the North Coast.

Lovely rock formations along the North Coast

North Rustico Harbour

After picking up some lunch provisions in North Rustico, we embarked on the unpleasant middle section of the ride, a very hilly, noisy, and stressful ordeal along Route 6 (and for this stretch, there were no shoulders). If there’s one thing this trip has proved to us, it’s that we definitely do not enjoy sharing our cycle tours with cars. Even if most of the drivers are quite courteous, there were one or two who passed quite close to us, seemingly on purpose. In Europe (trying… and failing… to not compare), there are lots of lonely (paved) country roads to ride on; here, however, the equivalent roads tend to be unpaved and in very poor shape. A quandary to be sure.

Eventually, we came to the second lovely part of the trip – the middle section of PEI National Park. After picnicking near the park entrance, we continued on our way, with just 10 km left to our destination – the historic old hotel Dalvay By the Sea. Again, we were cycling alongside the parkway with the wind at our back, so we were making good time.  We arrived at about 2 o’clock and our room was ready – sweet! A mere 41 km, but the middle section had taken its toll, and we were ready to stop.

Rolling up to Dalvay By the Sea

Our stay at this grand old hotel is a treat. We don’t normally stay in such fancy places, but it’s fun to play at “topping the nob” from time to time. After settling in and resting, we headed to the beach for a swim. But though Sonia loves the water more than almost anything, neither of us are really “beach people” and, it being very hot, we only stayed an hour.

Clearly, we're doing it wrong...

Then it was off to dinner in the hotel’s dining room: a very fine meal indeed! Finally, we wandered the grounds, found some chairs with a view of Dalvay Lake and I read a couple more chapters of Anne of Green Gables aloud to Sonia. Now it’s off to bed early so we can get an early start tomorrow. The first part of our ride is on the roads again before we hop back on the Confederation Trail for the rest of the day.

The Dalvay take on lemon meringue "pie" – fantastic and perfect for sharing.