The hurricane blew in/over Saturday afternoon and night. Halifax experienced plenty of wind but not as much ocean surge as feared. I ventured out a few times but it was hella windy and I didn’t want to be the stupid tourist someone would have to rescue so I mostly stayed put. I had hoped for clear skies Sunday morning, but it was still windy and rainy so instead of walking the ~ mile (with rolling suitcase and backpack) to our tour meeting point, I navigated the city bus which worked out fine.
The plan for Day 1 of this Backroads tour was to drive all of us from Halifax to Gold River where we would get situated with bikes. We’d ride from there to Mahone Bay for a lunch break and then on to Lunenberg where we would stay for two nights. Most of this didn't happen; the weather improved but the coastal roads we were to ride had been trashed with downed trees and power lines – unsafe for us and an aggravation to the workers trying to clean up.
So instead, our guides drove us to our hotel in Lunenberg where there was no power in either hotel or town. They tried to get us excited about playing board games but nobody was having that, so we ended up walking the closed town, then driving to Peggy’s Bay and Mahone Bay for a sightseeing excursion. It wasn’t what anyone wanted to do but better than Scrabble, and better than sitting in a dark hotel room with no internet or tv.
Our guides salvaged the evening hours by switching our dinner plans to an establishment that got back power by mid-day. It was a pretty fantastic meal, after which we walked back to our dark hotel and spent the night hoping for hot showers in the morning but NOPE.
On the plus side, the weather and roads today (Monday) were such that we could do our day’s activities and rides as planned. Everyone was relieved, most of all our guides who have heroically and frantically altered plans and logistics to mitigate the fiasco. When we returned from today’s ride, the hotel and town power was restored so things are back on track.
No comments:
Post a Comment