This morning Charlotte all but nudged me awake, eager to traverse the last few kilometres to Charlottetown, PEI, the capital and largest city of Prince Edward Island, but which more importantly shares a name with my erstwhile companion.
It is a picturesque, harbourside town, full of historic old buildings, mixed in with the more modern ones. We were due some downtime, and with the Euro final on in a couple of days, we took it slow.
We pottered around the place for a couple of days, sampling the offerings at Upstreet brewing and PEI brewing company, who have the most fantastic setup at a brewery I have seen so far.
We noshed down at various cafes and restaurants.
We found the local farmers market (which was a little disappointing tbh, though I managed to get fresh farm eggs), and I discovered an artisan butcher operating in the town who makes, by hand, some of the best beef jerky I’ve ever had. They even have a fantastic name for their products – Jercules!. I bought up big before we left, but alas went through it all in just over a week.
Having watched the Euro final with a bunch of rowdy locals, it was time to once again ht the road. A decision had to be made – drive back the way we came, towards the bridge and pay the $46 toll fee, or head southeast to the ferry from PEI back to Nova Scotia, which cost $71?
Given the ferry also cut at least 150km of driving out, there seemed an obvious answer.
However, true to form, on the way to the ferry, Charlotte and I detoured a little out of the way to PEI’s eastern most point, the East Point lighthouse, where the view is pure ocean. It also gobbled up all of the driving savings, but on a beautiful sunny day that didnt really matter.
Once at the ferry terminal we hit a little bit of a snag. Precedence is given to commercial trucks and “civilians” are allowed on board on a first come, first served basis but only if there is space. The long long lines of commercial trucks made catching the afternoon ferry impossible and the evening one somewhat unlikely!
All we could do was wait and see, with the worst case scenario being an overnight stay and an early start to catch the first ferry in the morning.
There were a few cars already in the parking lot, including one van similar to Charlotte. I met the owners, Alex and Heidi, a lovely couple from near Vancouver, who were on the road a little like myself, although they were only about 6 weeks in. We got to chatting, comparing vehicles (theirs being named “Vanastasia”), and soon enough the afternoon ferry had left, so we quickly drove around to queue for the evening one.
Somehow I got in line first, which was a bit rude, but I promised to let them on before me if there was only room for one of us. I needn’t have worried, we both easily got on the evening ferry (the lesson here is not to believe ferry staff!), and just as the sun was going down we were on our way.
It’s only a short crossing – around 75 mins which stretches to 90 mins with loading and unloading, and soon enough we were in New Glasgow. I got separated from Alex and Heidi as we left the terminal, but we had agreed to meet up at the nearest Walmart that night/the following morning, so as I settled in for a good night’s sleep I wasn’t too worried about catching up with my new friends.
