15 October 2006
Hitchhiking
We had our day off today so we went into Baddeck. Nahman (the owner) had assured us that it was easy and safe to hitchhike. We were slightly sceptical about how easy it would be, as this is a very quiet road, but we decided to try it and walk the 10km if we couldn’t get a lift. We set off walking at about nine, hoping to get to town in time to get to a church service. A couple of cars passed us without stopping, but fortunately the chef's wife saw us and gave us a lift so we arrived in Baddeck at half past nine. The service at the Anglican church turned out to be at 3 pm, so we went to the Alexander Graham Bell museum in the morning. It was well presented and gave a good picture of Bell’s life as a benevolent gentleman scientist (or teacher of the deaf as he liked to describe himself), but was a little short on scientific detail about the inventions themselves. After lunch we looked in a gallery of local art near the marina. It had things by some of the artists whose work we’d seen on Tuesday, and some really good pieces by other artists. One we both liked worked in pewter, casting thin coloured shapes. He'd also made a very thin bowl which was silver and pale gold-coloured. There were also some very good etchings.
St Peter and St John Anglican Church was tiny, both in building and congregation. There were about ten rows of pews in the white wooden building, and two people in them. The total congregation was seven including us, the leaders and the organist. They all welcomed us when we came in, and were surprised to find strangers among them. The service was good but consisted almost entirely of liturgy without even a sermon. After the service we chatted with the organist briefly but forgot to ask whether anyone had the number for a taxi, which had been our plan to hint that we could do with a lift.
Thrown back on our own resources, we set off from Baddeck at 4.10 and walked for 40 minutes, as no-one would stop for us. We saw the chef and his wife again but they were going in the wrong direction, dashing our hopes of a second lift. Eventually a pick-up truck did stop and give us a lift here. He turned out to be a neighbour of Crown Jewel Resort. When we said Nahman had told us that hitchhiking was easy, our driver laughed and said, “He said that? No-one hitchhikes round here. When I saw you guys by the side of the road I thought, ‘Are these guys for real?’” We wondered whether all the previous drivers had thought we were just giving them a friendly thumbs-up.
St Peter and St John Anglican Church was tiny, both in building and congregation. There were about ten rows of pews in the white wooden building, and two people in them. The total congregation was seven including us, the leaders and the organist. They all welcomed us when we came in, and were surprised to find strangers among them. The service was good but consisted almost entirely of liturgy without even a sermon. After the service we chatted with the organist briefly but forgot to ask whether anyone had the number for a taxi, which had been our plan to hint that we could do with a lift.
Thrown back on our own resources, we set off from Baddeck at 4.10 and walked for 40 minutes, as no-one would stop for us. We saw the chef and his wife again but they were going in the wrong direction, dashing our hopes of a second lift. Eventually a pick-up truck did stop and give us a lift here. He turned out to be a neighbour of Crown Jewel Resort. When we said Nahman had told us that hitchhiking was easy, our driver laughed and said, “He said that? No-one hitchhikes round here. When I saw you guys by the side of the road I thought, ‘Are these guys for real?’” We wondered whether all the previous drivers had thought we were just giving them a friendly thumbs-up.
