Musqoudoboit Harbour to Sydney

“A mighty wind is blowin’ cross the land and cross the sea, it’s blowin’ peace and freedom, it’s blowin’ equality.”

September 26 – October 2

By Nick Townley

The delicious breakfast that Jess and Mireille prepared at Camp Kanada, the Girl Guide’s camp near Musquodoboit Harbour, fuelled the early start for the team and a quick pack up. We left the camp to bike a few kilometres to Eastern Shore District High School, in Musquodoboit Harbour. Two back to back skits were performed in the library, where we shared all the books, so we don’t have to cut down the woods. Thanks to the help from some audience beat-boxers, the skits went off without a hitch. Real books were even used in the skit. Pretty resourceful, huh?

After the skits, some of the team did some chilling (and a little bit of illing) in the school cafeteria. After wooing a teacher with the coffee rap: “there’s more back here than just a cup of jo, lots of history we aren’t supposed to know…”, we were told that we could have free lunch from the cafeteria. Delicious fries, grilled cheese, cookies and muffins were devoured by the team. We also met a very energetic student named Chrissy in the cafeteria, who we got the pleasure of hanging out with several more times in Ship Harbour.

When the cafeteria closed at the end of lunch, we got our bikes ready for the short trip to our next destination in Ship Harbour, only 26 km. Mireille and Sara, being the good Samaritans they are, decided to stay behind at the school to donate blood at the clinic being held in the gym.

Coffee, tea, muffins, lemon squares and the wonderfully generous Kim, Caigeann, and Maggie, greeted the team at the amazing straw bale house that would be our home for the next two days. We got a tour around the straw bale house, which is the first load bearing straw bale house in the world to be code approved. Kim built this house in the summer of 1993, with the help of about eighty people. Using recycled material and volunteer labour, she managed to build it in just a few months and for a very low price.

After relaxing in the house for a couple of hours, we brought some of our stuff to the ladder house, where Kim and Caigeann lived before building the straw bale house. The ladder house is about a ten minute walk into the woods from the main house. It is nestled among the trees beside a lake, and is electricity free, running water free and totally stress free.

Mireille and Sara took a bit longer to get to Ship Harbour, due to the long wait to donate blood and the extra time to bike, due to the lack of blood. They met us at the community centre, where we had a wonderful dinner and presentation with the Ship Harbour Youth Action Team (SHYAT).

The next morning, the annoyingly loud beeping of the smoke detector woke up most of the team in the ladder house. Although we have set off many smoke detectors all across the country, we haven’t made any major fires, yet (knock on wood). After a wonderful breakfast of toast nibblies and oatmeal, we had a few meetings and evaluations. In the afternoon, we got to explore the wonders of straw bale and cob construction. Kim answered all our questions about natural construction, shared her vast library and even gave a demonstration of how to build a cob wall. Then we started slapping mud on the wall and making designs. We had a great time.

In the evening, some of the youth from the SHYAT came to the house for a wonderful pizza dinner, made by Kim, Maggie and Caigeann, with a little help from the cob oven. Doug, Anne, Kat, Matt and Pat brought some delicious desert, toffee and fruit lumpy (one of the many highlights of the visit to Ship Harbour). When word of Rick’s amazing poi spinning abilities got out, Doug made a special visit to the hardware store for some fuel. Rick entertained us when it got dark with a very professional show, which turned out to be only the opening act for the main attraction of Triane spinning poi.

In Moser River, we met Jurgen, Gail and their neighbour Chris at Bay of Islands Centre for Sustainable Development. We shared stories with Gail, Jurgen and Chris about all the wonderful things they do and what we have been up to. They had a lot of great things to say about the wonderful Stone Soup Enviro Festival that they hold annually at the end of July.

We biked 120 km from Moser River to Antigonish, where we were treated to the most spacious accommodations yet. Fresh Air, an environmental advocacy group in Antigonish, set us up with a wonderful place to stay, the Fatima Retreat Centre, about ten kilometres from town. There were enough bedrooms for all of us, a huge kitchen and two big living rooms to relax in. Most of the team also got sucked into the satellite TV. No one could remember the last time we had all watched TV.

In the evening we had a presentation to the Fresh Air Group at The Bethany Centre. Many thanks to Sister Donna Brady, who helped set up the presentation. At the end of the presentation Alex from Antigonish Regional High School, gave us money from a bake sale that he helped raise with his group called SAGE (Students for an Active, Greener Earth). Frank and Michael (Foxtail) were also very generous with food and all the help they gave us in Antigonish.

On Saturday, we biked over the Canso Causeway, leaving the mainland of Canada for the rest of the tour, as we entered Cape Breton. We biked 110 km, up and down rolling hills, to the St. Peter’s Marina.

We got to experience more of the wonderful landscape of Cape Breton on Sunday, while we biked to Sydney. At lunchtime, some of the team met a couple from Holland who were biking around Nova Scotia for a few weeks. They amazed us with their custom made bikes and many gadgets. But our bikes are proof that you don’t need fancy, expensive bikes.

In the evening, we were welcomed into Chris and Julie’s home, in Sydney, with chili, chips, salsa, three playful cats and a friendly dog named Hudson.