After my nice experience with the Canadian border guards, I arrived in St Andrews and things just got better. What a gorgeous little town, small, quiet, picturesque and full of friendly people (and deer) just my kind of place. I stayed in the cutest cottage and had booked for 2 nights as the weatherman forecast some awful weather. For this reason, I decided not to go to Nova scotia also because I want to come back and travel around this area with Joern. He has a dream to go to Newfoundland so we can certainly do an easy 3-week trip around the area.

As if often the case the weatherman was not completely correct and I had nice, slightly overcast but still nice weather…that is until I left. But before that I got to thoroughly enjoy this little piece of heaven.

My cute little cottage and the lovely chilled boardwalk at the hotel.

There are deer all over the town and I love the fact that the locals protect their vegetable gardens and prize flowers from them as opposed to just getting rid of the deer. It really is a special place.

I spent the afternoon wondering around the little botanical garden. It’s a beautiful garden full of sculptures and stunning plants along with a few goats, alpacas and ducks. I had lunch on a bench in the garden watching the ducks before tacking the little maze. It could not have been a more relaxing afternoon.

The town itself is small and so quaint with some great restaurants and a fantastic coffee shop. You can also take a whale watching cruise, but as it wasn’t the best time of year to spot whales and I’ve done a couple of these cruises before i decided to to the botanical gardens instead.

The antique lighthouse has been restored and was in use for 100 years from 1833 to 1933.

Leaving St Andrews and riding towards Quebec City was no fun. Absolutely freezing at 7^oC and pouring rain. I just froze, but sometimes one just needs to tolerate bad weather when travelling by bike, it’s one of the penalties we pay for riding. I very briefly stopped at Grand Falls for just 5 minutes before checking into a hotel and having the hottest bath I could manage. The weather really put me in a downer as well as draining my energy, but fortunately although the following day started chilly it was dry and by the time, I rode into Quebec City it was a warm 22^oC. I dropped my bike off for its service and began looking forward to my 2 days in rest in Quebec City.