July 13th

G - Reporting

So not sure if it was an early start today or a very late one, as I woke at 3:45am and they had us boarding at 4:10am!

The ferry was huge and much as I wanted to crawl into the back of the car and go back to sleep we had to go upstairs so clutching bags and cameras we head up to deck 8 and found a couple of recliners and settled in for the trip, failing to go back to sleep I logged into the free wifi and wasted some time on the web for the next couple of hours, then spent the next 4 hours alternatively drinking coffee and going outside for bracing weather.

B enjoyed the outside way more than me and managed to see whales and dolphins while all I saw was water!

Docking just after lunch in Port aux Basques a pretty but treeless port we hit the road as we wanted to be in St johns 908km away by the next day to make our accommodation booking, deciding to check out the rest of the island on the way back, so by 6 totally exhausted we pulled into a private campground and after a brief panic that they had no spaces they found us one and we ate dinner showered and crashed.

Sunrise on board

North Sydney

One of the Huge Car Decks

Port aux Basques

Port aux Basques

July 12th

B - reporting

Woke up early in our B&B, consumed an enormous and delicious breakfast then had to wait, hoping the truck would be fixed today, otherwise we'd have to change all our ferry and camping reservations and generally spend a bunch of cash we don't have. The Toyota dealership were great, though, sending a driver to pick us up and we got the OK to Go by about noon.

Yay! We have a home again!!

So after buying more food we headed to North Sydney, the ferry terminal. We are still a bit overexcited in Canadian supermarkets, what with the huge range of fresh veg and meat that we can actually identify. Beer, however, is very expensive compared to Russia, Germany and well everywhere else we've been.

Cape Breton is lovely, with lots of beautiful coast.

We found North Sydney and after only a few laps round the town we found the ferry terminal.

We planned to sleep in the line up to the ferry tonight, as we are cheap. Turns out lots of other people had the same idea. The ferry was to depart at 6am, and boarding started about 4am. We had a pretty good sleep, though, albeit brief.

Not ferry but ours looked exactly the same.

Camping in the exclusive "Lane 4"

July 11th

G - Reporting

So after the 1st night camping in some time and still itching from the mossie bites we broke camp and started Swiss or rather didn't it wouldn't turn over so after trying for a while with no luck a man appeared with a a battery and some jump leads (see its those nice Nova Scotians again), with the 2nd battery it eventually started but did not sound well, so garage trip was in our immediate future.

We managed to limp to the nearest big town with a Toyota dealer and waited for the verdict, a few hours later it came in we would need a new fuel pump and it would be ready tomorrow, not so bad so we booked a cheap B&B and the dealer drove us down there.

So we now had a night to spend in Port Hawksbury in Cape Breton, its the not biggest or most exciting town but again the people are nice and we found a small restaurant for dinner and a beer followed by a stroll along the water front where we watched the sunset so not the best day but far from the worst, still imagining if this had happened in the middle of Mongolia!

Port Hawksbury - Sunset.

July 10th

B - reporting

It is good to be back in Canada, after such a long time. We almost kissed the ground in our first Tim's.

Right, well...hmmmm. I'm very out of pracitse re blogging, sorry. So on July 10 we were finally ready to leave Halifax and start out trip home to the far west of Canada - by first heading east.

We packed up pretty early, and were checked out by the crack of 10. We had a few boxes of winter clothes etc we didn't need to keep in the truck, so we Greyhounded them home. Then picked up some supplies (beer! a BBQ!! sausages!!!) and headed east along the coastal road, aiming to hit the Newfoundland ferry port tomorrow night.

It was a lovely sunny day, and the ocean, when we could see it, was twinkly and blue, as oceans should be. There were not too many views, though. We passed the town of Sherbrooke, where almost the entire village is now a museum, depicting a typical Nova Scotia village of the 1860s. People in period costume were wondering round, chatting to tourists. It seemed very well done.

We were eager to start camping, and set up our stuff properly after such a long time in sleeping in beds. So we found the lovely Salsman Provincial Park. We set up by the lake and were promptly attacked by mozzies, however it was still very pretty! G set up the new BBQ (from Canadian Tire, we were tempted to kiss the ground there too) and I got the chairs assembled and we were soon having a delicious beer and periodically slapping ourselves.

The park staff and other campers were v friendly, several of whom came over to chat and ask about our trip (we have stickers from all manner of foreign places on the car). Then after some lovely BBQ sausages we got our stuff arranged and our first sleep in the car since Kazakhstan.

Ferry on the coast road near Sherbrooke!

Nova Scotia looking good in the sun.

July 3rd-9th

G - Reporting

So just thought I'd take a little time to expand on the last post, so we actually arrived in Canada on the 3rd July  after a long flight Via Toronto as it was $350 cheaper to fly past Halifax then fly back go figure! We jumped in a cab to the motel only to be regaled with tales of woe of the cab drivers attempts at online dating just what you need after a long flight, i didn't tip.

The next morning we were up early and down to the customs office to clear the truck, 1st hiccup  the truck was being held for inspection, we have to wait so next morning we called the docks and yay the truck was good to go back down the customs office, clearance was all done in less than 10 Min's and the staff where super nice and helpful not often you say that about a government department!
So with the freshly stamped paper work it was off to the shipping agent so they could pick up the container.

Then it was two days of waiting got some sightseeing in while we waited but as Friday afternoon approached I feared for the worst as the shipping office was closed for the weekend and at 4:45 Friday we got a text saying sorry the truck would not be ready till Monday damn now we have to waste 2 more days in Halifax, so spent the weekend lazing around and doing some more sightseeing.

On Monday I called the agent and yes the truck was ready so jumping on the bus we headed over paid the fee and we were on the road, one thing i wanted to do for this leg of the trip was get our blog address on the back window so i had already called a vinyl sign place and they said it was a while you wait service so we headed straight there.

With help from the staff we got the lettering design done and they told us 15mins so we headed next door for a coffee, on my return the owner refused to take payment the 1st of many pleasant experiences with the friendly People of Nova Scotia, after that it was just shopping and truck packing to make ready for the next day - hitting the road.

PS Thanks Vinyl-FX the web address looks great :-)

Swiss with the new Vinyl - looking good!

Halifax harbour view (from the economy Cruise - ie Harbour ferry)

Kids show but real life!!!!!!!

Very Famous - just cant remember why!

Entrance to the Halifax Citadel

The noon gun and yes it was LOUD!

Halifax's fantastic Farmers Market.

July 9th 2012

G - Posting

So after a long lay over in London, tomorrow we strike out on the road again, currently we are in Halifax NS and we collected Swiss from the docks today and got him all sorted and loaded up and tomorrow we strike out east for Newfoundland before heading for the west coast.