Sunset sendoff

Our last day in Prince Edward Island we almost wimped out again; this time we almost decided to drive home rather than do the Point East drive.  It had rained in the night, and it was cloudy, windy and cold.  We checked out of our hotel and packed the car, and by the time we were done it had warmed up and the sun had come out, so we decided to go ahead and ride at least half of the drive.

The first stop on the Point East trail is Greenwich, also part of the Prince Edward Island National Park on the north coast.  There are walking/biking trails in this part of the park, and we chose the trail that had a long boardwalk across Bowley Pond to get to the sand dunes and the beach.

A huge patch of wildflowers on the Greenwich Dunes trail.

Gavin and I in the wildflowers.

Boardwalk.

Panorama of the boardwalk. See that dune in the distance on the left?

Over the pond, now we can see the dunes!

The Greenwich dunes and the others in P.E.I. National Park are different than what I think of as sand dunes.  Rather than being rolling hills of bare sand, these dunes are covered in vegetation with very few bare patches! Walking on the dunes is strictly prohibited to help preserve the vegetation.

Greenwich beach, and life-covered dunes on the right!

Once we got over the small dunes to the beach, I decided that I needed to at least feel the sand and water with my feet on this last day on the beach, even though I knew I had to put my motorcycle boots back on afterward.  I tried to get Gavin to join me, but he wasn’t interested in sandy feet in his boots.  :)

Gavin is amused as I play in the water.  :)

After our walk we went back to St. Peter’s, one of the tiny towns we had passed through on the way to Greenwich, and had some of the best fish and chips ever at Rick’s Fish ‘n Chips, another surprisingly awesome restaurant for being the only one for miles.  I asked the waitress if Point East was worth driving to and how far it was, and she highly recommended it, and she also recommended we visit the Singing Sands beach a little farther down the other side of the island.  We decided to take her advice and continue our ride.

Point East, the easternmost tip of the island, was about 45 minutes from our lunch.  There wasn’t much there, just a lighthouse and restaurant; the shore was fenced off due to danger of waves.  I get the impression that locals go there on the weekend to hang out and picnic in the grass below the lighthouse, but as it was Monday, there were only a few tourists there.

After Point East we headed to the Singing Sands beach at Basin Head.  This was a beautiful white sand beach surrounded by rusty red cliffs.  It is named Singing Sands because the sand makes an interesting noise when you shuffle your feet through it.  It took Gavin and I while to figure it out; we were kicking the sand, dragging our feet through it, stomping in it, thinking about asking the locals how to make the sand sing…  We gave up, and then as we were walking to one end of the beach I made the sand sing on accident as I was walking, and then we had it figured out.  :)  It is less like “singing” and more like the sound your jeans make when they rub together as you walk, but it was still unique for a beach!  :)  Here I finally got Gavin to take off his shoes and walk in the water with me. 

I'm walking around in a circle entertaining myself by making the sands sing.

Gavin sitting safely on a rock while I
play in the sand.

Since we wanted to be on our way home this evening, we drove back on highways rather than doing the southern portion of the drive.   On the way back I got yet ANOTHER bee up in my helmet!  Luckily it was also dead and harmless from hitting the front first.  I had to pull over on the side of the highway to get it out.  Gavin is convinced I need a new helmet; he has not had a single bug go up into his.  I have had several small bugs, but this trip took the cake for the bees... 

Back at the hotel, we broke our record and got the bikes loaded up on the trailer in 35 minutes, then we headed for home.

On our way across the Confederation Bridge a beautiful sunset gave us a wonderful sendoff from P.E.I.  A lovely way to end a wonderful vacation!

Sunset from the Confederation Bridge.