TRAVELING DEEP vs TRAVELING WIDE

‘Sometimes you get there in spite of the route.” (Mary Chapin Carpenter)
The advantage to returning to places that you have visited before is the opportunity to travel deep rather than to travel wide. On our first trips to the Atlantic Provinces we hurried from place to place anxious not to miss any of the “must see” attractions. On returning, we are more selective. We ask ourselves what we enjoy most. What do we really want to do? The result is that in our 22 days (so far) in Nova Scotia we have moved in a slow circle of less than 200 miles.
We wandered down the Bay of Fundy, cove-by-cove from Halls’ Harbor to Brier Island. Then we crossed to the Atlantic side and explored from Liverpool to Peggy’s Cove. We crossed back over to the Fundy side and picked up near Hall’s Harbor to the north to Cape Split and the Minas Basin. Yesterday we retraced our route to Truro and are headed toward Chignecyo Bay. We will complete the circle at Amherst and return to the US via the Fundy Coast of New Brunswick.
To help us achieve “depth”, we spend a lot of time talking to the locals and visiting little community visitor’s centers. We also have a wonderful book, Nova Scotia Backroad Mapbook and Outdoor Recreation Guide. It is the best $25 we have spent. Not only does it have detailed topographic/road maps, but it also has extensive lists of recreational opportunities. I take the book with me everywhere so that folks can actually show us where to find places and can give us advice on whether roads are usable.
Some highlights of the past week include our stay in Lunenburg. We stayed at the municipal campground for five days which gave us a great base camp and we could walk to town. Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage site because of the quantity of gorgeous old homes and buildings. We never got tired of walking or driving around and looking at them. We also went for a sail on the Eastern Star, saw a play, and had wonderful food. We went to Peggy’s Cove from there and up and down the coast to lovely villages. I found lots of sea glass at the ferry landing in LaHave, including the piece of crockery that may be from the Titanic.
We spent Friday and Saturday nights near Kentville, back on the Fundy side of NS and went to see a highly recommended :rock hound” at his home. He showed us piles of rocks from various beaches and gave us advice on where to go. On his advice we drove out to Cape Split and Scott’s Cove. It was a super drive and we enjoyed the beach but didn’t feel we found anything much. We had also made contact with a much respected Toller breeder who lives near Canning and made an appointment to see his dogs. It was a wonderful visit. He and his wife are charming people and we loved the dogs. He gave us happy news about Percy too. We explained her origin and said she was probably a mix. His first words were, “She is not a mix”. It doesn’t matter to us what she is but it raises the question of how such an expensive dog wound up wandering around the woods on Apalachia Lake.
We are now parked right on the Bay again, at Five Islands. The view from our window is of the expanse of either water or mud flats stretching out to five rock islands, one of which has an arch in it. We walked on the beach last night for hours. That is what we really, really like to do!

Gifts from the Sea

The sea does not reward those who are
too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient” (Anne Morrow Lindburg)

We have been
in Canada for a month, beach combing almost every day... We have “combed” the
west and east shores of the Gaspe’, the Gulf of St Lawrence, the Northumberland
Strait, and the Bay of Fundy. Now we are on the Atlantic side of Nova Scotia. Since
we are neither geologist nor jewelers, it doesn’t really matter if we find
anything of value but our collection of priceless mementos grows. At some point
hard decisions will have to be made about what must be left behind.

We completed
our exploration of the Fundy Shore along the base of North Mountain and moved
our base camp to Jagger’s Point Campground on Smith Cove near Digby. It is on
the other side of the Annapolis Basin, making it nearer for us to access Digby
Neck and the little islands that mark the end of North Mountain. We loved
Annapolis Royal and had a great time admiring the wonderful old house and
buildings in the second oldest town in North America, and we liked Digby too.
It is a hardworking town with a big harbor and the  terminal for the Digby to St. Johns Ferry.

Our campsite
was only 100 yards from the beach and despite four days of variable weather, we
had plenty to do.  We drove out to the islands
in the mist. We took two ferries to get to Brier Island and finally found a
great spot for sea glass, right under the lighthouse. The island is said to be
named for the wild “brier”roses that grow there. The bushes are big as
Volkswagens and smell wonderful! The Nature Conservancy owns much of the island
and it is  wild and beautiful.

When we left
Digby we spent a night at Kejimkujik National Park. The mid-section of southern
Nova Scotia, between the Bay of Fundy and the Atlantic, is a maze of lakes and
rivers. Many of these connect to make hundreds of canoe trails but involve
portages and paddling on windy lakes. Keji NP is famous for its canoe trails
and every vehicle has a canoe or kayak on top. I had hoped to paddle on the
Mersey River in the Park but it didn’t work out. We did go on a Ranger led hike
to a petroglyph site.

A young man
at Delaps Cove had advised us not to miss seeing The Ovens, and told us where
they were. They are a cliff filled with sea caves on Lunenburg Bay. In 1861
gold was discovered in the cove there, resulting in the usual “rush”. Miners
build ladders to access the caves and later a local family improved on them to
create a tourist attraction. They have a campground, canteen, petting zoo, etc.
but it is still pretty rustic. The trail over the cliffs and the access to the
caves is phenomenal. There is no way a place like that could be opened to the
public in the US, somebody would get hurt and sue. Since we were camped there,
I was able to get an early start and check one more thing off my bucket list. I
did my morning meditation deep within a sea cave with the surf crashing
in.  It wasn’t Staffa, but it was good.

We are now
at the Board of Trade (municipal) Campground at Lunenburg. We are high on a
hill overlooking Mahone Bay. The entire city of Lunenburg is a UNESCO historic
site because of the outstanding number of historic buildings here. It is not
like Williamsburg, it is a real honest-to-goodness town, but the architecture
is marvelous. We went out on a sailboat yesterday and got a great view of the
town from the water. This is a
good base for lots of sightseeing and hopefully some more beachcombing. We were
tipped yesterday about a great spot behind a bakery at the cable ferry at
LaHave. Sounds like our kind of place. 

 

 

 

"All vessels in distress are welcome in this harbor"

The tiny harbor, four lobster boats, had the usual blue and white Marine Nova Scotia sign with its long list of rules and regulations, fees and fines. At the bottom was a handwritten sign that read, "All vessels in distress are welcome in this harbor".
 

After entering Nova Scotia on Monday, we headed for the Northumberland Strait and settled for the night near the village of Pugwash. Our campground, on a high cliff overlooking the strait, had lots of wind and beautiful views. We used it as a base to explore the coast road as far as Pictou, stopping to walk the beaches and look for sea glass. In 2008 we caught the ferry from Prince Edward Island to Pictou on our way to Newfoundland so we had already been along that coast to Cape Breton Island. We especially enjoyed the Chatterbox Cafe in Pugwash. It is a combination deli, used bookstore, and hangout for the locals. When they made fun of us being from Sopchoppy, we told them they had no room to laugh.

On Wednesday we towed west to Truro and southwest  to Annapolis Royal using the limited access highways. They are not always four-laned but they do allow a faster speed and are usually in better repair than the secondary roads. We chose to stay at Fundy Trails Campground in Delaps Cove because we wanted to have good access to the coves and villages along the Shore Road on North Mountain.

North Mountain is the 100 mile long ridge that forms the north wall between the Bay of Fundy and the Annapolis Valley. It is a huge basalt ridge with palisades, coves, beaches, sea caves, and little villages grouped around small harbors. The Shore Road sort of runs along the crest but is narrow, often unpaved, and sometimes ends abruptly, forcing you to drive around looking for another road to continue. The coves may have a little harbor for four to six lobster boats and access to the Fundy shore.  Not only is this area stunning beautiful and surprisingly remote, but the rock hunting is wonderful.

Butch and I started here at Delaps Cove and worked our way north to Keatings Beach today. We met a young fisherman at Port Lorne who gave us directions to a beach we would never have dreamed of finding on our own. It had everything; a long cove with acres of deeply pebbled beach, a palisade of basalt columns, and sea caves with waterfalls. It was absolutely magical! We collected some great rocks, a little bit of sea glass, and took dozens of photos.

Delaps Cove, where we are staying is lovely too. It's little harbor has six lobster boats and we have enjoyed watching them come and go and visiting with the lobstermen. Last night we bought fresh lobsters and cooked them at our campsite. ($6 a pound). We plan to continue our exploration of the coves on the shore road tomorrow.

 

 

Hurricane Season - You can run but you can't hide

After leaving Perce’ we continued our drive down the eastern coast of the Gaspe’ to Bonaventure. We camped in the municipal CG, a huge place right on the beach. I had hoped to canoe on the Bonaventure River but it was just not possible. Imagine, if you can, a corporation like the Nantahala Outdoor Center having complete control of the access and use of the Nantahala River. If you paddle it, you do so with their equipment and with their groups at their price. That is the case with the Cime Corporation on the Bonaventure. Like Maine, most of the interior of the Gaspe' is owned by huge private companies and the roads are private. We did get some information from locals about places that we could see the river and we drove on some interesting logging roads to do so.

We spent one day at the Miguasha Fossil site and it was pretty amazing. From this one cliff on the Strait, one of only two like it in the world, they have mined thousands of incredible fossils from the Devonian Period. Most are prehistoric fish forms some are huge and in three dimension. They are still actively digging there every summer. Their visitor center is very impressive and we enjoyed the walk to the site as well.

Despite the impending storm, we had a pleasant drive around the Quebec side of Chaleur Bay . Is just one village after another so is slow going. We crossed into New Brunswick at a place with the prosaic name of Tide Head. Not Ste. du Tide Head or Mont-sur-Tide Head, just plain Tide Head. I liked it. The road signs were in English too.

Looking for a place to shelter, we decided on Kouvhibouguac  (Koochie-boo-quack) National Park, south of Miramichi in NB. It is on the northeastern side of  North America and Hurricane Arthur was coming from the southwest, right up the Bay of Fundy. This part of NB lost power on Friday evening but us campers were ok. Butch filled up the fresh water tanks and we used the generator to make coffee. The winds were a little scary at times but the rain was the worst. It was constant and relentless, hour after hour after hour. Both Fredrickson and St. John NB had record rainfall and lots of flooding.

Sunday dawned bright and beautiful. We walked on the beach and dried our stuff out. Still no power at the Park though. We left this morning and are now on the Northumberland Strait in Nova Scotia at Pugwash NS. We are in one of those little Mom & Pop campgrounds that used to be somebody's hay field overlooking the Strait and right on the beach.  I found five or six nice pieces of sea glass in about an hour this afternoon. Now that we have internet again we can take a look at where we want to go next.

Camping Culture

Our campsite at Perce’ was terrific. We were jammed in side to side, but everybody had a “back yard” that overlooked the ocean and the famous Rocher-Perce. This pierced rock is one of the primary landmarks on the Gaspe’. It is a sheer rock formation sitting in the Gulf of St. Lawrence just off the village of Perce’ (Pierce) and is one of the world’s largest natural arches located in water. A little further off-shore is Bonaventure Island with the second largest gannett rockery in the world.
We took the boat to Bonaventure and spent the day hiking the trails and looking at the hundreds of thousands of birds. Gannets are really beautiful birds but the smell and the noise were a little much. Fortunately the Chemin-du-Roy trail returns to the boat dock via the edge of the cliffs on the other side. It descends to a lovely little beach with a spectacular sea cave. These rocks are formed of reddish-gold limestone and shale and the colors are stunning. I love the driftwood that collects in these indentions in the shoreline and of course the pebbles and rocks are wonderful. This being a Parc National, we couldn’t collect anything.
It’s funny how campgrounds can have a personality. We didn’t care for Camping Gaspe’ and left two days early, forfeiting our prepaid reservation. It was over crowded and the parking and traffic issues seems to be an irritant to everyone. Camping Le Havre de la Nuit, at Perce’, was also crowded, but there was plenty of parking space and everyone was super friendly. There was a holiday mood with lots of visiting, campfires, walking on the beach, and drinking wine. We were included in the general good will even though we don’t speak French.
On Canada Day there.t no flags are flying and no parades or “fetes”. Very different from our past experiences. I feel badly for the Quebecer. Their separatism has isolated them from their own country and is an economic burden for their young people. I do understand wanting to preserve your culture and your language, but it’s hard to participate in a global economy when you can’t even communicate with your own countrymen.
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