08/06/10

Today we had decided, under recommendation of an esteemed colleague, to visit Cape Cod. For those who don't know, Cape Cod is a sandy headland that is Part of Massachusetts sticking out into the Atlantic just south of Boston. The headland is a result of glacial movement at the end of the last ice age and is an ever moving sand bank home to some spectacular wildlife and some of the best beaches in the region. Our exploration first lead us to an NPS centre that described the geology and history of the area, very interesting it is too. It is one of the first regions that settlers reached in New England and one of the most dangerous. The name “Cape Cod” is in reference to the great fishing that the European explorers found off the coast of the cape, but the area originally earned much of its income from whaling. The cape was home to one of the first forms of life guard service in the USA as it was one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the new world.

We were glad to see the beaches of the cape as proper beaches mean showers! Unfortunately the showers here were ice cold, but even so it was still nice to be clean. Further up at the end of the cape is Provincetown, a picturesque town but as with previous picturesque American towns, very touristy. It was nice to spend a few hours wandering around taking the place in. After visiting Provincetown we decided to indulge in another of the region's delicacies; lobster. Instead of paying the outrageous tourist prices in the town we found “Moby Dick's” restaurant down the road. I had seafood gumbo for starter, a lobster for main and quay lime pie for desert accompanied with a couple of fantastic local beers (bought from a nearby liqueur store as they don't have a licence). A great celebration for my 1000th cache and a pretty good summary of the trip. Gumbo is a speciality of New Orleans, lobster is the local speciality and quay lime pie is famed for coming from West Quay in Florida. In hindsight I should have gone for a Californian beer, but I ended up having a Boston lager and Vermont ale. Moby Dick's was a great place, really down to earth, amazingly nice people, great food and damn good prices. My first lobster was a bit of an experience, the waitress gave us a bit of a lesson on how to best eat it before we got stuck into the sucker. There is no graceful way to eat a lobster, you tear limbs off and poke and slurp to get all of the meat out of the exoskeleton.

We are now near Falmouth MA planning our next moves and getting to Amboy NJ to give the ol' car back :(

Cube out