south shore

escape from the unusual

Gramp's Camp

Not a single scouse accent to be heard in Liverpool.  No Beatles reference points.  No football stadiums.  There is the Mersey River (not the River Mersey). When we reach our Warm Showers hosts they're not in.  We look around the back and see the cabin "Gramp's Camp" in the garden.  There's a note from Peter and Debbie welcoming us.  There's also a notice about house rules, including "No peeing from the doorway".  When Peter arrives he explains.  They have lots of grandchildren - 15 at last count - but they all live in the States.  He thought that if he built the cabin they'd be more likely to come and visit.  He and Debbie welcome us and show us around their large kitchen garden out back.  "Watch out for the electric fence" Peter jokes, pointing out the wire that runs around the back of the house. "It's to keep the raccoons out."  Over the back door grows a large grapevine.  One morning Peter got up and found two raccoons hanging off the vine and plucking the grapes one at at time, like idle Romans after dinner.  He tried to shoo them away but they were obstinate little buggers.  The electric wire keeps them away.

We have a pleasant and interesting evening chatting and a comfy night in the cabin.  Over breakfast Peter and Debbie warn us about an incoming storm.  They invite us to stay another night.  We are very happy to do so but feel a little awkward on two

Peter and Debbie had built their own home

counts: the first is that they put on their profile that they prefer to be a stopping point along the way rather than a destination and second, we know that Garry and Corinna are coming to stay because Peter told us.  But then we're quite good at dealing with awkwardness.  We stay.  Garry and Corinna arrive.  It rains.  We feel bad because we've got the cabin.  But not too bad.  Thankfully, after dinner, Peter and Debbie offer them their spare room.  They also invite some friends around to meet us.  One asks us "So tell us what it's like to have sharia law in the UK".  We laugh in his face.  He clearly spends too much time on the internet and not enough in the real world.  The next day the rain continues and we stay another night.  Peter works in his garage where all his woodworking equipment is.  He shows us the canoe he built with his own hands.  It is the wonderful work of a skilled craftsman.  Corinna looks worn out - when we met them on the ferry they were talking about taking it easy but in fact they still seem to be going at it hammer and tong.  We wonder how often they take a break off the bikes.

Onwards we go along the coast to the pretty town of Shelburne where we have more lovely Warm Showers hosts.  Peter confesses, when Lorelei, his wife, is out of earshot, that he signed up to Warm Showers by mistake.  He plans to do a cycle trip and wanted to find out more about this hosting site he'd heard about.  Then he received a request from someone to stay.  We camp in their garden but they invite us to join their family dinner, which gives us an opportunity to talk more into the evening.  

The weather has now returned to the benevolent sunshine we have come to expect.  Happily there are few mosquitoes now that it's getting cooler at night so we are happy to camp.  Sticking to the main highway has meant that we can cycle quicker in order to crack on towards Yarborough.  We make a minor detour over to Cape Sable Island - a large sandspit of a place covered in houses but with some rather lovely sandy beaches too.  And at this time of year there are only a few dog-walkers about.  Near to some woods we come across a pile of carrots.  These have been dumped by someone for the deer to feed on.  It's a cynical trick.  The wild deer get used to being fed, and then when the hunting season opens they appear like sitting ducks.

We are hoping to catch a ferry to Maine from Yarborough but have miscalculated our distances.  So when we hit the highway and see the signs we get a bit of a shock.  Needless to say, there's a headwind on this day, of all days.  We hit the pedals hard and, unusually for us, ride in tandem.  We eat up the kilometres.  The truth is that we have been riding relatively short distances lately - around 50 to 60 kilometres a day - choosing to have good breaks and long lunches.  Gayle has even been tempted into the sea.  We want to make the most of the good weather and as we have decided to save some time by cutting directly across to the US from here, we feel quite relaxed.


Down at the waterside, late afternoon, we find the ticket office for the ferry to Portland and get tickets for the next morning.  The ferry is run by an American company and is heavily subsidised by the Canadian government.  This annoys a lot of Canadians.  We cycle back into the town and take our time looking for a good camping spot - not too far away because we need to get there early - but not too close in an area where we might be found by locals.  We have already cooked our tea down by the tourist information office and as its beginning to get darker earlier so when we spot a little patch of grass alongside a fence between two commercial properties we dive straight in.  There's already a heavy dew.  We cover our headtorches to dim the light and have a cosy read before sleep.  Just another day on the road.  Our last day in Canada.