Day 15 – Cabot Trail, Halifax, Logistics

My day started early as usual, packing up the motorcycle, having two grain bars and a coffee to get me rolling. The roads were surprisingly busy (I think Sydney is a major port) with trucks already as I wound my way east into the Cabot Trail area. I didn’t have time to do the whole circle since my GPS estimated that would take 8 hours and I needed to be in Halifax to get a few things done well before 4pm.

Early into the ride on the trail I ended up with a great bakery where I had a breakfast sandwich, some yogourt and granola and picked up some ginger cookies. Further along the trail area I encountered fog, and panoramic views at various high points in the route. Soon, I turned my way towards Halifax and ended up on some very exposed, 110km/h limit highways with high winds. After about an hour of that, I pulled off for gas, and stopped and had a scoop of Moon Mist (ice cream) while re-plotting my course to avoid highways and chatting with a local grandmother about her 3 grand kids all of whom have motorcycles that they ride a lot. I also took off the peak on my helmet which greatly adds to the wind buffeting at high speeds (but has useful functions off-road, at lower speeds).

On-wards I went, a more southerly route on a road that was surprisingly twisty, had very few turn offs and speed limits around 80-90. I did see one way I might end up dead, someone took a turn way too fast, ended up fully in the wrong lane with me about a second away from occupying the same space. It’ll be in my video recap!

Once into Halifax the usual crazy traffic started. Halifax has all kinds of complicated intersections (“Turn Left” may mean follow the road away at a 30 degree angle and don’t go down the smaller road that continues straight) so it took a bit longer to get to Rallye. I dropped the bike off, grabbed my gear and took an Uber to the hotel. Once checked in, I changed, went out to grab the rental car officially marking the end of the Motorcycle portion of the trip.