Week 2 -The Minas Basin
After a week on the road, we had acclimatized to the humming sounds of the trailers in tow. Our legs anticipated their gravitational force, shifting early to keep spinning despite the grade. This familiarity did not, however, stop us from welcoming the chance to unhitch for a couple of days. Faced with a stretch of over 120 km with no shows we leaned into our family and friends and found a ride - for the trailers. In Pugwash we waved goodbye to our cargo only to find it wrapped in a tarp like a present welcoming us to Advocate Harbour. Our legs, minds and spirits remain grateful.
We rounded the sleeve that shapes the northwest coast of the Minas Basin and, for the first time since we left home, our path was set to the east. The left side of our bodies appreciated some reprieve from the late summer sun giving the right side a chance to sizzle.
The first stop on our eastern trajectory was at the Wild Caraway, a gastronomical lovers’ dream come true, tucked away in the small town of Advocate Harbour. It was an evening of wood fired pizzas and water playing on an extended ocean floor overseen by the setting sun. What a privilege to perform in such a glorious place!
Up and down and up and down and up and down. We called on our mother to deliver the set over the hills with views that surpassed their names. At the Age of Sail museum patrons braved a humid sun to watch our afternoon spectacle, which was said to be “unlike anything I’ve ever seen before” in the town of Port Greville.
Parrsboro was a beacon of friends, old and new, catching up by the light of a bonfire. We were even able to catch Gale Force Theatre’s A Tale on Two Wheels, before biking back across the bridge to perform our show overlooking an incoming tide. We are extremely grateful to the Ship’s Company Theatre for their generous hospitality and for inviting us to be part of their summer season.
At the Five Island Lighthouse Park we contemplated the wind, shifting and fretting to the roar of an amplified rock concert in the neighboring RV park. Fortunately both the wind and the rock took a break and we performed by the light of the setting sun. We celebrated with an impromptu picnic offered to us by new, delightful friends that we had met along the shore.
Week two found its’ telos in a day of rest overlooking the Bay of Fundy. We dismounted to hike to a waterfall and indulge on fried clams before being lured by the whiff of a fall breeze into an afternoon nap. We find ourselves again overwhelmed by the pleasure of family and friends, old and new, who have come to be with us along our way.
