Rob-n-Hild, Eastward Ho!
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[From - To] 24.5 km, 2:13 hours, 448m climbed - cycling. 10.4 km, 2:12 hours, 151 metres climbed - walking 
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| We got our Halifax bike ride in today - and we are not sure why we picked Halifax for that because Halifax is not flat! The 448 m we went up felt like a lot more and it was good we had nice bikes with lots of low gears to make it up some of the slopes. Add to this the walk to and from the ferry, plus a walk up to and around the Citadel after lunch and this was a pretty energetic day: We deserved our ice-cream... | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| So, cycling. We had found a nice rental place close to the ferry terminal in Halifax when we were here on Saturday so we went straight there (after the 3.6 km walk to the ferry on the Dartmouth side!). Renting the bikes was pretty straightforward with all of the forms completed on our 'phones, although we did look a bit like the "older" generation when we had to get our reading glasses to read the stuff! We were off by 9.45 with Hild navigating via a phone app with a suggested route - all very high-tec. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We started off cycling down the harbour-side to Point Pleasant Park which covers the bottom of the Halifax penninsula. There are many historic sites here as this was a strategic military point from the mid 1700's with a number of gun batteries protecting the sea approaches and this tower protecting the batteries from a land attack! Needless to say, this tower is on the top of a hill that was tough to peddle up, but we figured that it was about time we had some more exercise than walking. Fun for us was to see a real local - a Nova Scotia Duck Toller (also known to us a caramel collie). These are a rather rare breed, but every one we have met has been very nice and snuggly and this puppy was no exception! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| From the park we cycled north through the city along pretty good cycle lanes, for the most part. We were making for Fairview Lawn Cemetary where there are a lot of graves with victims of the Titanic disaster. Halifax was the nearest big port to the ship when it sank and there were ships sent out from Halifax to both rescue survivors and recover the bodies. Some were claimed by family, but 150 are buried ni Halifax. The shipping company paid for simple stones for all the bodies, but others have larger stones paid for by family and friends. Particularly sad is that many of the bodies are still unidentified, although there are still efforts underway to make positive identification as meticulous details of the bodies and their clothing were kept. In 2007, the body of this unknown two-year old was identified by DNA profiling of surviving relatives. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Halifax has certainly seen its share of disasters. The largest man-made explosion prior to the atomic bomb ocurred in the harbour in 1917 when an ammunition ship caught fire after a collision. It is estimated that 20% of the population was injured, 10% were made homeless and 4% of the population was killed. Pieces of the ship were blown miles inland: This piece of the anchor landed 2.35 miles way and has been preserved where it fell. We cycled from there to the memoral site where an interestingly shaped bell tower has been erected. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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After this, we cycled back to the harbour and delivered our rental bikes back in
good time (we were a bit tired and quite hungry by now!). We had a lovely bowl of
chowder at a place on the harbour where they even brought Hild a blanky because it
wasn't really warm yet. After lunch we walked up the hill in the middle of the city
to the Halifax Citadel. This is the last in a series of four forts that were built
here as Halifax was one of the principal naval stations of the British Empire.
By this stage, our legs were getting tired and as we still had to walk home from the ferry we figured this plenty for one day. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Coming up: Yarmouth - via Liverpool? | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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May/June 2023
May/June 2023