Lunenburg and southern Nova Scotia

May 8: To Lunenburg then Yarmouth

Quite a lovely drive south to Lunenburg, home of the famous Bluenose. We discovered once again, how nice it is to cruise the backroads with this van, but how noisy and boring it is on motorways. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon at Lunenburg, hoping to find free camping at the Info centre, but like most of Nova Scotia it was closed until later in May. We eventually found this lovely little bay side park not far from town and settled in for the night, all by ourselves.

Next morning into town and found it to be a delightful place with block upon block of 19th C wood fronted shops and warehouses. We had coffee and scone in the #9 cafe, then wandered the streets and waterfront for a couple of hours. Attached are a few views of the Bluenose 2... very pretty but only half masted as she was undergoing repairs.

From Lunenburg we continued southward, mostly on very boring motorway toward the town of Barrington on the south tip of Nova Scotia. We had heard that it was the "Lobster Capital of Nova Scotia", but when we got there we were terribly disappointed. To quote myself, it is "the armpit of Nova Scotia", or perhaps worse considering it is at the bottom end. Not much more than a crossroads to Sable Island, with strip malls and fast food joints. We never did find a restaurant. To make matters worse, we tried finding the free campsite described in our app. At first it appeared to be not much more than the parking lot at the closed info centre.

However, after a few passes up and down the highway, we spotted a little oasis of a park alongside a pretty lake and river. It was hard to notice, as it was a tiny little track down alongside some condos, but what a delight!. And well deserved after the frustrations of the afternoon. We were pretty much on our own, but for a photography session that came along with a family that appeared to be celebrating a son's graduation.

After our picnic supper, we noticed some activity over at the bridge where the little lake drained in a swit=ft little river to the bay. As we approached, we discovered that it was a bunch of guys netting fish, grabbing a dozen or so of these 10" silvery fish with each scoop. It was quite festive, with a family of young kids doing very well too. We asked and were told it was the annual run of "Gaspereau"or "Kiack".

May 9:

We set off westward along the south point of Nova Scotia, careful to stick with side roads, to Yarmouth. It was another pretty little harbour town, rich with history, picturesque mainstream, and well marked historical waterfront. Yarmouth was one of the busiest seaports in all of the east coast through the 19th century, with shipbuilding, fishing and international trade.

A few kilometres on the other side of the harbour was the beautiful lighthouse and park at Cape Forchu, complete with signposts of shipwrecks and battles over the past three centuries.

 From Cape Forchu we began the northward drive up the west side of the peninsula, though some beautiful countryside to Digby. Many of the communities along the way were clearly French Acadian, with signage in French, as well as French being spoken in shops and gas stations.

We are holed up this evening at an official campground at Digby, though discounted ($25) because they don't officially open until next weekend. Pat finally got her steamed lobster dinner tonight, despite the competition from a seagull!

May 10:

From Digby we headed a few kilometres to Annapolis Royal, a bit further up the Bay of Fundy. This is one of the oldest established towns in Canada, having been settled by Samuel de Champlain in 1605. Though his settlement didn't last, it was still settled by the Acadians in the 18th century, and then disputed for the next century amongst the French, Americans and Brits. It was another blustery day, but we did have a nice morning coffee in a quaint little coffee shop, and then a stroll through the town to see the many 19th C buildings.

We wanted to see the Bay of Fundy tidal bore, and we had read of Dawson Dowell Park near the head of the bay which was a good viewing site, but some 2.5 hour drive north. And we only had 3 hours to the tide flow... so we had a long drive mid day, some of which on boring motorway, but some on rather pretty secondary roads. Still a hard non-stop slog.

It turned out to be rather a disappointment at that park... after a 30 minute wait watching the sandbars, eventually a rather slow wash of incoming tide covered the sand. A bit of a disappointment.

We headed off further north towards our campground destination, and soon spotted the Bay of Fundy interpretive centre. It was closed, just like everything else touristic in Nova Scotia, but we walked over to the viewing platform where there were two other couples. They pointed out the incoming tide, and sure enough, a much more dramatic inflow, with whirlpools and and eddies, almost worthy of the Skookumchuck!

As we chatted a bit, we discovered that one of the couples was from Roberts Creek! Indeed, Dave Smith remembered me as the school counsellor at Elphinstone. He was in the year one younger than Jeremy, and one older than Simon. What were the chances!

We have settled in a campground near Maitland, and near the border to New Brunswick. Also our first laundry of the trip! Westward ho!

May 11: Bay of Fundy

Our main goal for the day was Hopewell Rocks provincial park, just east of Moncton, New Brunswick, to see the eroded rock formations. We took an initial scenic route along the shore of the Minas Basin, still in Nova Scotia, with a little coffee break on the beach at Parrsboro.

 

The tides here can vary as much as 40 feet! Most of the basin you see in the photo will be full about 5 pm.

We had to do another 2.5 hour slog in order to get to Hopewell Rocks at lowest tide It was about a 20 minute walk in and down to the rocks, but through lovely beech forest.

We moved on from Hopewell, just about 40 kms to Fundy National Park for the night. A quiet little campground... we arrived mid afternoon, and decided to do nothing the rest of the day. Just relax!

We'll be heading toward St. John tomorrow.