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!