Thursday, February 15^th 2001

Around 2:30pm Sabine and I pick up three people at the student life centre, University of Waterloo. Mary and Sean come along to Ottawa, Nick is about to visit his brother in Halifax. The drive up to Ottawa is very good and so we can pick up Rob, his sister Carolyn and Vroni at the central bus station in time. Here we also drop off Mary and Sean. For the further drive we put the baggage on top of the van and leave Ottawa 9pm.

Friday, February 16^th 2001

After another 17 hours, several driver changes and gas stations we reach Halifax where we drop off Nick.

Then we get some groceries and stop at the apartment of Susanne and Rob, friends of Rob. After a short snack we take both along to Kingston, about 2 hours westwards, to the house of Rob's family.

Here we spent the first evening and have a blast:

Saturday, February 17^th 2001

We loaf around most of the day and drive to Jason's parents house in the evening.

Sue, Jason's mom, has prepared a delicious feast and Chuck, Jason's Dad, offers some very good moonshine to us.....

The pictures of the evening turn out to be adequately blurred;-))

Sunday, February 18^th 2001

After a good breakfast we drive to Morden where Robs grandparents own a wonderful cottage.

After we heated up the stove we go for a walk along the shore.

We spent the evening in the cosy living room, tell stories and read a bit.

Monday, February 19^th 2001

After we had a big breakfast nobody is in a rush.

Finally Rob and I go for a hike along the shore, this time to the west.

After about three hours we come back and see Bine and Vroni down on the beach going for a walk as well.

Back in Kingston we grab our camping equipment and get started. The plan is to stay in the woods near Crystal Falls. We don't bother to set up tent but instead build lean-to's.

In the evening we sit around the fire, have grilled sausages and yams, for desert we prepare smors (with chocolate chips larded marshmallows, grilled and squeezed between two crackers).

Tuesday, February 20^th 2001

We have breakfast and go for a snowshoe hike to Crystals Falls which - unfortunately - is completely frozen over.

Back in the camp we pack our stuff and head back to Kingston. In the afternoon Sabine, Vroni and I leave for Digby giving Rob a day on his own with his family. Our trip leads us onto the peninsula that extends in the very north-western part of Nova Scotia. Shortly after we passed Digby we stop to hike to the "Balanced Rock", a 7 meter high but very narrow rock that stands upright on another.

Two ferries bring us over to Briars Island.

In Westport we have a amazing sunset.

Here we have booked for a hostel which turns out to be extremely nice, the same applies for the owner. We are the only guests and so we have lots of space. The kitchen invites to cook a good meal and shortly later we have pasta with a very good tomato-vegetable-tuna-sauce and a delicious salad, for desert we have some cake and hot apple wine.

Wednesday, February 21^st 2001

We get up with sunrise, unfortunately we don't have much time, cause we want to meet Rob in the afternoon and drive to his grandparents.

We drive a bit further to the west, then we stop for a walk which brings us to the most western point of Nova Scotia.

We walk for one hour along the shore and plan to cross-cut back to the road. A maze of trails - mainly used by quads - extends in the interior of the island.

Finally we find our way back to the road an suddenly there is an outhouse in the middle of nowhere. This time it's for women only....;-))

It's a shame that we have to leave that early, but this trip was absolutely worth the drive. We pick up Rob and Carolyn in Kingston and head east towards Windsor where we get to know their grandparents. After a coffee we leave for Kentville where Sabine, Vroni and I want to spent the night in Jason's apartment. We chat for while, sitting in front of the TV, eating bagels, sausages and yams which originally were planned for this night at a camp fire. The predicted temperatures made us change our minds. However, we want to get up early and so we get into our sleeping bags around 11pm.

Thursday, February 22^nd 2001

At 5am we get up and sneak out of the apartment after a quick breakfast.

We head northwards, the plan is to hike out to Cape Split. The roads are icy and after a 360° turn everybody is awake.

We are glad that we stayed in the apartment. It's -20 °C plus another -20 °C wind chill (the next day we hear that with -47 °C a new low temperature record was recorded on Price Edward Island).

The first two kilometer we make headway only very slow, somehow we must have missed the beginning of the trail and so we have to find our own way through the woods. After three hours we finally reach the rocky tip of Cape Split, but here it is in fact extremely cold. We shoot a couple of pictures and get back into the wind shielded woods.

After 6 hours in total we are back at the car and in my jacket and my rain pants the sweat is frozen and forms a layer of ice. we are glad to be back in the warm car and rush down to Windsor again. We pick up Rob and Carolyn and spent another marvellous evening at Jason's parent's house. This time we brought along the necessary stuff for a Feuerzangenbowle and so we return the favour of a very good fondue at least a bit.

Friday, February 23^rd 2001

Today we loaf around the whole day, get some food and beer and have a comfy evening watching a video a Rob's family's place.

Saturday, February 24^th 2001

This is already the last day, we say goodbye and thanks for the warm welcome, then we head southwards. We drive to Lunenburg which is supposed to be very scenic. The weather is lousy, a snow storm brings a lot of new snow. On our way we hit a town which name makes us smile....

In Lunenburg we stop only shortly, then head drive on to Halifax.

here we visit two aunts of Rob and are invited to a real feast again. Our planned flight over Nova Scotia we have to cancel because of the high wind velocities, but at least we can have a look at the plane that Gordon is building in garage. After a very nice sunset we pick up Nick and head for Ottawa.

Sunday, February 25^th 2001

After we had o drive on snow-covered highways for the last 100 km we get to the central bus station quite in time in order to enable Vroni and Rob to get their bus to Sudbury. We say goodbye and pick up Sean again, then we head for Waterloo. Until we reach the 401 the highway is snow-covered, then everything is fine. finally in Toronto we have sunshine and traffic jam. But even that goes by and in the early evening and after 5600 km we are back in the CLTs.