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.