Approaching a new town, city, country or indeed continent by sailboat has a uniquely different feel to arriving by other modes of transport. In other modes of transport you’re usually warm, dry and well slept.

As cruisers, one of the challenges we face is that when we make such landfalls, our experience is generally restricted to either the nearest hostelry or whatever radius from the boat our wee legs can manage. If we’re really lucky and meet some friendly locals or partake in a rally, our radius can be enlarged, maybe by a trip out to a remote campsite like when we made it out to the Cederberg Oasis in South Africa, a traditional restaurant in Recife, a woodland walk in Tasmania, a Grenadian waterfall or, heaven forbid, a museum. Amazingly, to us, in many places, someone we’ve only just met will toss us their car keys.

However, when we’re on our own, we seldom get the opportunity to experience what the location has to offer beyond our limited radius. We used to have push bikes on board and for a while, these greatly increased our radius until these rusted to a halt. Uber helps, but the radius is increased only in line with how much cash you want to throw at the day or days out.

A car would solve the problem in terms of opening up the country but we both agree we’d just end up half asleep with a lap full of drool.

That’s why I like getting my hands on a motorcycle and why Anne tolerates it. Tooled up with the ability to cover large distances with ease, with the wind in our faces we can really get to see, smell and feel the country and our radius is limited only by time available….. and the pain in our bums.

Nova Scotia is the latest of our two wheeled adventures, this time with the added attraction of re-discovering the freedom and joys of living under canvas.

It has much in common with cruising in small boats!

Hope you enjoy it.