Twisted ankles, hitching, and the friendliest people in the world...

Current location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Current activity: Exploring Halifax
Current favourite thing: Canadian beer

When I accidentally mentioned the words "hitch hiking" in front of my mum, I saw the panic cross her eyes. However, it turned out that there is no public transport in the south of Nova Scotia, and so if I wanted to see it, I'd either have to rent a car (expensive) or ready my thumb. Aware that it's not the safest form of transport, I'd linked up with another English girl called Helen via a couchsurfing message board, who was planning a similar trip and looking for a travel buddy.  From the UK, we'd emailed regularly and found couchsurfing hosts for a 4 night trip around the coast.

All was going well. I arrived in Halifax on Monday night, spent that night couchsurfing, and set off Tuesday morning to meet Helen for a pre-hitch breakfast. And that's when Clumsy Steph nearly ruined everything. Just round the corner from where we were due to meet, I stepped awkwardly for no reason and twisted my ankle. So when Helen arrived for breakfast, my first words were, "Now, don't panic...", indicating my massively swollen and bruised ankle that was currently being elevated and iced. Whoops.

Strangely enough, despite looking quite horrific, my ankle didn't really hurt, and so after much consideration, we decided to push on with the trip. Whoever it was that gave me the travel advice 'Don't freak for a week', I salute you.

Now hitching out of a city is always the hardest bit and it's even worse when you don't really know the city. We had no joy getting a ride for about half an hour (made worse by the rain), and so in the end we flagged down a passing bus to see if the were heading our way. Alas not, reported the driver, as he was just heading back to the depot (with 3 more drivers on board), and off we got. A moment later the doors reopened, and they offered to give us a ride to the road we needed to be on. Legends.

Helen, adopting the hitching pose

Our next ride picked us up from there about 5 minutes later. A middle aged rocker with long hair, a beard and a cap might not be my mum's ideal ride for me, but his friendly shitsu's assured us we'd be fine. And we were more than fine. He only lived 10 minutes down the road, but he ended up driving us all the way to our first stop (about a half hour drive), a small pretty seaside town called Peggy's Cove. The best part was that he said he'd been in a really bad mood that morning, but that we'd really cheered him up and he was really glad he'd stopped.

Peggy's Cove

Upon leaving Peggy's Cove (which the guidebook had assured us would be heaving with people), we hit a minor problem. After waiting for 5 minutes on the road, not a single car had gone past. Not exactly the bustling traffic we were expecting. However, 15 minutes later a local woman stopped. She'd never picked up hitch hikers before, but her maternal instinct kicked in upon seeing two girls waving enthusiastically from the side of the road. She squeezed us into her already full car and drove us the scenic route to our final stop for the day, Mahone Bay.

Lovely couchsurfing hosts

Our amazing couchsurfing host Ashton picked us up from there and drove us 20 minutes to her 44 acre property where she lives with her husband Troy, and 4 week old baby Fern (cutest. baby. ever). They showed us amazing hospitality, cooking us dinner and sharing stories with us. The next day, Ashton dropped us in Lunenburg, armed with a packed lunch (including eggs from their chickens) and a promise to host us again if we were passing.

We ambled round Lunenburg, ate the best seafood chowder in the world (seriously...) and then picked up our bags, armed for a 220km hitch to our next stop, Yarmouth. It was a long afternoon with 8 rides, and a one hour period of frustration outside Liverpool when we got dropped off in a bad hitching spot. But once again, people showed incredible kindness. We had one guy who drove us 10km out of his way to take us to the highway, two manual labourers in their beaten up van who told us all about wood tics and leeches, a couple of mothers who were clearly thinking of their daughters when they stopped, an old man who'd never travelled more than 300km from where he lives, a concrete worker who took us on a diversion to the beach, a man who took us only a few km down the road to a better hitching spot, and a father and his two sons who were on their way to baseball practice, and dropped us right to our door with an invitation to go an see their game the next night.

The beach, enroute to Yarmouth

Our second host of the trip, Carla, welcomed us into her amazing home in Yarmouth for two nights with open arms and a large glass of wine. She took us on some amazing driving tours of the local area, enabling us to see places we  wouldn't otherwise have had the chance to see. Yarmouth is famous for its seafood, especially its lobster, and we were lucky enough to catch a boat coming in for the day on evening. A quick chat with the guy on the harbourside, and we walked away $30 (about £20) lighter, with 5 freshly caught lobsters wriggling around in a bag. Back home, Carla gave us a lobster cooking lesson (only a bit of water in the pan, make sure it's boiling, and take off the elastic bands (minding your fingers) before cooking them) and we had dinner sorted.

Lobster!

The next hitching leg was the longest of the trip, 230km from Yarmouth to Wolfville. Our first ride was two women in their 60's, off out for lunch (an hour up the highway). They'd never picked up hitch hiker before but were absolutely amazing - they took us off the highway onto the scenic coastal road, stopped at the beach, and filled us in on the Arcadian history of the area. Our second ride was a wizened fellow hitch hiker, who regaled us with tales of his adventures, and dropped us at a perfect spot. The third ride was a short one, and left us in a terrible spot, about 1km from the nearest junction, and rather frustrated. And then luck hit. A guy pulled over who'd seen us on his way into Yarmouth this morning (apparently we'd been dancing by the side of the highway), so when he saw us just outside Digby, he pulled over and gave us a ride the whole way to Kentville, where our couchsurfing hosts came and collected us.

Coast near Yarmouth

We spent that afternoon and evening with a lovely couple called Devan and Charlie - Charlie was from Leicestershire and had moved to Wolfville (a university town) when she met Devan whilst studying out there. Unfortunately Devan had to work, but Charlie showed us around Wolfville, played board games with us, cooked us dinner, and took us to the local pub.

The best thing about hitching and couchsurfing was the amazing people we met along the way. People who were so generous and hospitable, even if only for a 10 minute car ride, and so passionate about where they live. I feel like I've got a much better feel for the area, and the people who live here, and fallen more than a little in love with Nova Scotia. Which is probably a good thing as it looks like I'm going to be here for the next two months...