We’ve started! At last! Welcome to this bike ride travelling down the entire length of the Eastern Seaboard, starting in Canada.

I must admit that there was a secret reason why I chose to start this whole crazy adventure from near West Sydney this morning, rather than starting Day 1 at the hotel in Halifax on Friday, which was the obvious choice. Does anyone remember Ucluelet on Vancouver Island??

• Today’s Distance (miles/km): 73/118
• Time in saddle: 6h 05
• Max/min temp – in sun (°c): 18°/38°
• Climb/descend (feet) : 2,463 / 2,143
• Calories used: 4,245
• Cafe time: 3h 15

I started Crossing Canada there rather than the more popular departure location of Tofino because it was still right on the Pacific coast, but was also so nearly an anagram of Ukulele. I even stopped for a photo-op by the Ucluelet town sign.

So this time I was definitely on the lookout for somewhere with at the very least a ukulele connection. I could hardly believe my eyes when a few months ago I spotted this place on google maps:

Welcome to the small hamlet of Mount Uniacke, a mile or two northwest of the campground. Not only was Uniacke a perfect anagram of I CAN UKE, but if you add in the word ‘Mount’ it becomes ‘I CAN UKE ON TUM’. Decision made.

I honoured tradition and strummed a few chords by the side of the deserted highway at about 7am today. (I may do a bit at some point on how I use the ukulele to keep my violin-playing fingers in shape during a trip like this. You may have to remind me tho, or deliberately don’t. your decision.)

This is a special day, because not only is it Day 1 of this trip, it’s also Day 1 of July, which means two things: it’s Canada Day (yay!) which is a national holiday long weekend here (hence the ‘Happy Birthday’ in the sign above), and it’s also the first day of the Tour De France!! I can hardly contain my bike-related excitement. I hope you’ll all be following my trip as assiduously as I’ll be trying to follow le tour!

Going back to this morning, I was up before 5am to pack things up properly and make some breakfast. It was still fairly dark, a very muggy 20° plus 100% humidity, and the mozzies were out. For just a few seconds I left my bear-proof food bag out on the picnic table to get something from the tent, and in that brief moment a raccoon, who must have been watching me from the wood, snuck silently up on the bench and stole the bag. He dropped it when I started after him but got the few hot dogs left over from last night, which fell out when he dropped it.

Sorry Stewart Buchannon, I feel I’m failing you here. You provide the most fantastic Kevlar food bag, and I leave it open on the table with hot dogs in it, without checking for raccoons hiding in the woods first. I promise to try and properly get the hang of this outdoorsy stuff, honest.

The road was superb for the most part today, newly laid for much of the distance and ultra smooth. Just one fly in the ointment in the morning, but only a mild one. I turned off at this ominously-named T-junction, already thinking I might have to make a u-turn at some point:

Within a short way I was doing the Canadian-backroad-boogie again. At least it was fun this time, not insane.

Here’s a thought that struck me today along this very pretty stretch of road, Highway 1. Houses, villages, lakes and forests are much prettier when you’re rolling downhill.

After 32 miles a coffee stop was long overdue, and this backroad led me straight to….a Tim Horton’s.

My order was predictable: ice cold chocolate milk, a large strong coffee, and something to eat. I ordered a new menu item since I was last here, a ‘Fully Loaded Scrambled Egg Breakfast Combo’. ‘Sorry , no eggs today’ was the not-very-sorry response from the person serving me. A passing supervisor behind the counter looked at her and said “C’mon, make some more eggs!’. So the order was reinstated. Thanks pal. I’d make you President of Tim Horton’s tomorrow.

In the afternoon I picked up a superb trail called the Harvest Moon Trail, that runs east to west across the whole of the top of this peninsular. There are mountains above and mountains below, and a long valley in the middle. Try thinking of it as a mountain-baguette top and bottom, with a filling of delicious valley.

Then, as is often the way with cycling when you’re enjoying yourself, the weather turned and I got a proper soaking for a few miles just before arriving at this evening’s campground in Aylesford. It stopped long enough for me to set up the tent and shower, thank goodness, but then the lightening began and I threw everything into the tent so I could sit it out with some food, at least. No cooking tonight. I think I need a proper supper one day soon.

Pudding was a big cup of ice cream over at the office in the aircon, chatting to the campground owner about fishing for cod, his home of Newfoundland, being an accountant now but running a campground too (!) and the band ‘Sidecar’ who are about start playing in the big field here. It’s a fair way off but from the sound check just now the signs aren’t good for my planned early night.

A couple of Things That Struck Me As Funny today: