Rob-n-Hild, Eastward Ho!

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Canadian Potato Museum! 190 km. 3 hours. Elevation maximum 62 metres

Today didn't pan out as planned as once Rob had finished his meeting, the weather was looking threatening so we changed from a walk to Avonlea to a drive to the Canadian Potato Museum in O'Leary. A good decision as the weather didn't just threaten on this side of the Island - it followed through with some heavy rain! The Potato Museum was great (according to Rob - who is a bit or a bore when it comes to spuds, you have to remember), but more of that later.

As Rob's meeting wasn't until 10.30 and the weather was lovely in morning, we had a walk after breakfast - 8 k around what was called the Homestead Trail. We didn't see any sign of a homestead, but we did see a lot of different landscape as there is mostly farmland once you get in from the coastal marshes. We also saw a Great Blue Heron - at first just flying, but later in the water stalking her breakfast so we could count her as a new species. We had another walk in the evening (where we had also walked last night because we thought we had seen a pair of Ospreys, but didn't have the binoculars with us). Well we did have the binoculars tonight and the Ospreys were there again! Two major bird species in one day!

It was nice to see real agriculture again - and PEI certainly has a lot of cultivated land. The soil is very red here and is clearly very productive. We had seen a lot of potato fields as we drove around, but just here where we were walking it was cereals or fallow, perhaps for hay. Evidence of a homestead could be assumed in the patch of rhubarb and there were apple trees and fruit bushes in some of the hedgerows. There were also some impressive fields of dandelions, but we figured that wasn't deliberate.

Hild had set herself up nicely to work last night (and this morning, before breakfast) and Rob took advantage of this for his meeting. This may be the only picture of Rob working this trip, so it deserves to be included! We also wondered if you could really get a feel for the size of our Bunkie from yesterday's pictures, so here is one with Mary Jane for scale. And then we were off to the Canadian Potato Museum, via a stop for provisions and to make/eat a butty for lunch. That had to be done in the car as the rain was really coming down now and we were glad to not be doing something outside.

However, when we got to the Museum any suggestion that this was just a way to fill a wet afternoon disapeared as we had a lot of fun. Hild has told Rob he is only allowed one image on the web page (or he would have filled the internet!), but there was too much to try and cover it all here anyway. Rob was in his element going through some historical facts on how potatoes were brought back to Europe (the Spanish had started it, but it was Sir Francis Drake, not Sir Walter Raleigh, who introduced them to England!) and how various rulers had to order people to eat them at first. There was also quite a bit about the International Potato Centre (CIP) who funded Rob's PhD, with a note about Dick Sawyer (the founder of CIP) protecting the germaplasm collection with firearms. Rob can testify that he has personally seen Dick Sawyer with a 9mm Browning: He pulled it out of his waist-band, slapped it on the desk, and then asked Rob "What do you think you can do to change the face of my organization?" Go to the bathroom, thought Rob, but he was thankfully not required to answer as it was a rhetorical question.

As well as potatoes, there was a lot of antique farm machinery (some of which Hild claims to have used herself to plant potatoes in Norway!) and a whole section of the museum with history from the town of O'Leary and before long it was time to eat dinner. How lucky that there was a Country Potato Kitchen attached to the museum.... Potato soup, toasted cheese on potato bread and - of course - fries. OK, there was blueberry bread pudding for dessert that didn't have any potato in it, but the blueberries were from PEI so we figured that was OK. Then it was back home to the Bunkie and our evening walk where we saw the Ospreys (again). There are pictures, but not really successful with our phone cameras - even when Hild used the binoculars as a telephoto lens again. I am sure you will take our word for it...

Coming up: Avonlea - second chance...

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