The Maritimes in Nine Days



In August 2004, my wife, Jeanne, and I took three weeks and did a major tour of the east of Canada. One of the major segments of that holiday, was a tour of the Maritimes, focusing on Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. This is my pictorial journal of that tour.

Each day is treated as a separate post.

The arrival:

We flew into Halifax at 10:40pm on 23 August 2004, to be met at the airport by SACanadians Liz and Dana Nell, who went out of their way to make us feel welcome in their neck of the woods. Liz is, of course, the SACanada host in Nova Scotia. More about these superb folks later.

After coffee at Tim Horton’s we set off to get the car at Alamo. This proved to be a bit of a torture, but eventually we had a car in the form of a forced upgrade to a huge Chrysler Pacifica. With this finally under control, we set off down the highway, following the very patient Nells, who were leading us to our motel in Halifax.

Day 1 : Halifax to Sheet Harbour

This first morning was spent recovering from a hectic previous day and also swopping the car in town for an Olds Alero, which is an actual sedan with infinitely greater visibility to the rear. Armed with this vehicle, we set off up the east coast of Nova Scotia, doing our best to make use of the beautiful weather. We had been told such weather is rare. At first we managed to misplace the entire highway, but got that sorted out with the help of the proverbial “guy at the gas station”.

At first the road led through semi-suburban scenery. This led me to a stop at an Information Centre, where four lovely ladies [picture..one is hiding in the building] of Musquodoboit County expounded a bit more for us on the area, pointed us in the right direction and plied us with great maps. We were instantly impressed with the open friendliness of the folks around there. I warned the young ladies that I would post their picture. They wanted to know how they should pose, and I suggested that the memorable song with the words "...and then along came Jones.." came to mind, containing the memorable line about the lady tied to the railroad tracks.

I thought the Nova Scotia folks were just simply great.



We proceeded up the coast, the next picture was taken in the Musquodoboit Harbour area (pronounced “Miskwadibit”).



A little distance further we did a detour to Clam Harbour Provincial Park, which turns out to be a very nice stretch of beach scenery, shown in the following picture.



We started getting worried that we were not going to find a place to eat or stay for the night. The enduring image of this first day, was that the east coast of Nova Scotia is retirement country. This was vividly evident from the fact that all the houses were well kept, the very clean cars were in the driveways, and the people were nowhere to be seen. When we stopped for a sandwich in the Ship Harbour area, the lady that served us the meal simply said that there were no young people in that county and that most folks are retired and indoors most of the time. She seemed overtly frustrated by this fact. Having met the ladies in the top picture earlier in the day, I knew there were some younger people around.

We eventually reached Sheet Harbour, which had a really nice motel. We elected to stay there. My signature photo of the entire tour, was taken that evening at Sheet Harbour and is in the introduction to this journal. We ended the day with some really good fish. I watched numerous airliners make beautiful simultaneous contrails through a deep blue clear sky.

Day 2 : Sheet Harbour to Chéticamp

This day we decided to put some serious miles on the trip, to make up for the half-a-day lost the previous day. We went further up the east coast and then cut across the peninsula to Antigonish (pronounced “Annie-gi-nesh”). On the way we passed over the Liscomb River at a chalet-based resort which was very discreetly situated. I might go back there one day.



Somewhere near Glen Alpine my cell phone suddenly went off and I got a message that our company had won in a legal situation that had been dragging on for four years. I celebrated this event with Jeanne by having a celebratory lunch at Ma Webb’s restaurant in Antigonish.

At this point the weather turned blustery, but we were on a big highway and pushed on to get to the Cape Breton area. Crossing the Canso Causeway, we decided to go clockwise around the Cape Breton Peninsula/Island. This meant that we would go up the westcoast. The first view is that of the coastline near Belle Côte.



That night we stayed at Chéticamp, the gateway to the Cape Breton Park. I spoke quite a while to the lady that runs the motel where we stayed. I talked to her about how impressed I was with the area and how well people kept their property and the neatness of the lands. She spoke to me about Acadian Pride. I have a great interest in the history of the Acadians because of parallels that I see with our own. The picture below shows the harbour at the town.



The last two pictures capture the feel of the area. The first shows the characteristically unassuming but very neat houses of the folks around there. I felt the gathering clouds provided just the right feel to the area. This image is the lasting one for me of that day.



The area produces truly moody sunsets.

Day 3 : Chéticamp to Pictou

The Cape Breton Highlands National Park starts right on the northern outskirts of Chéticamp and was planned as one of our two major destinations for the whole holiday. Arriving at the gate, the attendant at the box in the middle of the road explained that they were on strike and that, as a result, we could enter for free. The logic of this eludes me to this day. If they were on strike, he should get out of the box and off the property, surely!? I found this very disconcerting.

The next picture shows the view south at La Bloc on the west coast of the Park.



The next picture shows a view southwards from the veterans memorial in the Cap Rouge area on the same piece of coast.



From here on the road goes inland, returning to the coast at Pleasant Bay. The first part of this section is uphill and affords a good view back at the coastline left behind. When we stopped at one view back down the road, a German-Canadian couple that we had spoken to earlier said that they had seen whales. They were equipped with binoculars....one thing we had not brought. After this point the road goes through countryside that looks like northern BC. Just before going down this highland stretch, there is a good lookout to the northern section of the west coast of the park.



At Pleasant Bay one little diner was open when we got there. Most other places were closed. Seems we were visiting in the wrong season. After Pleasant Bay, the road crosses the peninsula along the Aspy river, which shows itself now and then. It seems in hindsight that we should have gone off north to Bay St Lawrence. At the time we did not know that. One reaches the sea again briefly at Aspy Bay and then the road sets off again southeastwards to reach the east coast at Neils Harbour and Black Brook Cove, where the water falls to the sea via a small 20-30 foot waterfall that seems to be ignored by everyone on the beach next door.



The road follows the coastline south past rocks that were reminiscent of the south coast of Port Elizabeth. Eventually it reaches the southern border of the National Park at Ingonish. After leaving the Park, we found this rather nice scene:



Next stop was Baddeck, which is a very important place for me in my professional capacity. [I would not like to say much more right now, but will fix this piece of text later]. The next scene, showing Bras d'Or lake, is typical of that area.




After this point, we realised that we were going to drive through to Pictou, in order to take the ferry to PEI the next morning. So, we put on some speed. However, I DID stop for this scene along the road south of Baddeck.



We stopped at the (by now familiar) Ma Webb's in Antigonish for dinner. There I had the nicest steak I have yet had in Canada ( but not in the USA, where Texas takes the honours). Maybe the Alberta folks will have to do something about this statement. We went into the bookshop to buy some books for reading. I got a copy of the controversial Da Vinci Code, because a number of folks had asked me my opinion of it, and I had not read it yet. In the end it kept me just two evenings. We set off down the almost deserted highway on a very nice sunset drive and arrived in Pictou at 8pm, where we found a motel.

Day 4 : Pictou to Victoria

The day started out with the 5 minute drive from Pictou to Caribou, where one boards the ferry. It turns out this is a free ferry! The last free one in BC was subjected to a fare in last year. We had a nice hot breakfeast on the ferry and I took up position on the deck for the whole trip in very nice weather. My first picture is the view back to Nova Scotia from the ferry past the liferafts, showing the smaller ferry going the opposite direction. Somehow that captures the "feel" of that crossing to the Wood Islands ferry terminal in PEI.



The first thing that struck us about PEI was the characteristically red soil...right at the terminal it was obvious. Its contrast with the green fields is striking. The next thing that struck us was how picturesque the houses were.



After driving along Highway 1 for a while, we turned off just to drive through the fields of the farms. I really enjoyed this. The farmers' fields went right to the edge of the sea. The green fields with bales of hay, red soil and blue sea in the backgound was just beautiful. This is a picture postcard province, but it was very tough to get a picture of this, somehow, because of distance and perspective. Pretty soon we arrived in Charlottetown. We parked in the centre of town and started walking back to the Confederation Building (now the Provincial Government Assembly Building), which I had recognised as we had passed in the car.



While looking around there, some folks dressed up in 19th century period clothing arrived. At that point it was announced that they would do a re-enactment of the 1867 Confederation Conference that created the country of Canada (or at least the beginnings of it). We were then treated to this lively debate.



At the end of this process the various dressed up couples mingled with the crowd and imitated a 19th century conversation. Jeanne was up to this, and when they asked where we were from, we said we were from the area of British Columbia which was as yet not part of the Confederation, unless they were prepared to build a railroad out west. They asked how we got there and Jeanne said : "by flying machine". Of course this cracked up our young actors.

After this we went off to the pier to go and get lunch. It was so hot that everyone begged for umbrellas. The good weather was still following us.

Next step was the drive up to the north coast where we took a good look at the very nice beach at the Prince Edward Island National Park. We took off our shoes and tried the water...and it was warmer than what I had ever felt on any coast of South Africa.....uncanny!!



We then drove west to Cavendish, where we visited the Anne of Green Gables site. This was so overrun with Chinese tourists that I had to wait ages to get a picture that did not have an eastern beauty draped over it. They had come by tour bus. So I asked the ladies at the little Shoppe there which they thought would be the next stop of the bus. The thought it would be the jam factory. I asked which way that was and they pointed. Then I said: "Hmm! Thank you! So I shall be going the opposite direction...thataway!" This seemed to be extremely hilarious to them.



My next two pictures were taken on the way from Cavendish to Victoria on the south coast. The first was taken on route 231 near Inkerman and Rose Valley. It shall be my personal special PEI shot. This picture, along with the following one ( taken just outside Victoria), captures the essence of PEI for me infinitely better than the Green Gables place could ever do.



We then went on to Victoria, which is a little tourist town on the south coast. There we ended up eating dinner at a restaurant on the docks. We drove a circle through the Victoria Provincial Park and, at one of the farms there I took the next picture.



That evening we found a motel just west of the little town with the unfortunate name of Crapaud.

My last picture is of a disused lighthouse at Victoria, with the typical PEI farms in the background.

So ended our day on Prince Edward Island..I never did get a convincing quality picture of green fields, red soil, round bales of hay and seawater. Maybe we should go back someday.

Day 5 : Victoria to Grand Pré

This day started out with a grey foggy morning at our motel just outside Victoria, near Crapaud. We set off down the highway and pretty soon we were at the Confederation Bridge. As we approached it, I asked Jeanne to get some cash out. She asked how much and I suggested maybe a five dollar note would be good. Just then a sign loomed through the fog saying $39!!! THIRTY NINE DOLLARS!!!??? Are you nuts!!

What can I say!? Die Wet van Transvaal kicked in and I sheepsihly handed over my much maligned credit card with my tail between my legs. Then we set off driving the 16-odd kilometres over the bridge. It went very quickly, but unlike any of the other significant Canadian bridges, it afforded no views of the world whatsoever. On that scale it scores a big fat zero. I guess folks in a SUV might see this differently.

Arriving on the other side, we pulled off at the New Brunswick information centre, where I took this moody shot of the bridge disappearing into the (now lifting) fog on its way north to Prince Edward Island. It certainly is an impressive piece of engineering. For me it was a must-see after having watched some TV programmes on its design and construction. Quite a feat. Impressive.



We studied the map a bit at this point and we agreed that there was no point in going to Cape Chignecto (which I immediately renamed to Cape Incognito) if all we were going to see was more fog. We had seen that already....lots of it. We therefore decided that we'd cut across this piece of land on highway 2 as soon as we hit the Nova Scotia border again...and that was what we did. We passed through Springhill, the birthplace of Anne Murray ( ) where I must have been so enraptured by the thought, that I misplaced Highway 1. However, stopping at the nearest friendly Nova Scotian lady on the sidewalk remedied that problem. She explained that I had come thissaway when I should have gone thattaway...."thattaway" meaning that highway 2 had inexplicably turned sharply left where I had gone straightly straight.

We set off further across the neck of Nova Scotia. We saw fog and fog and fog and fog. My impression was that it must be a beautiful part of the world...if only I could see it. I seemed as if the actual coast was nearby, but just just out of view. Finally, as we got to Economy ( of Raai-Raai infamy) the fog cleared significantly. We now found ourselves in an area with peculiar names like Great Village and Lower Economy. We stopped at Bass River to have a bread roll lunch on the picnic table outside the museum. Jeanne went off to look at the famous Dominion Chair Company.

I was nursing eyestrain from a half-a-day's worth of driving in the fog. I seriously lamented the fact that we had not stayed on highway 104, a fact that I was hell-bent on correcting. The truth was that we had seen pretty much nothing other than the Confederation Bridge all day. I wanted distance between myself and the fog, which I concluded came from the trapped waters of the Minas Basin.

When Jeanne returned I sold to her the thought of stopping at Truro to look at their tidal wash viewing area, and to then push on towards the Gran Pré area, by actually going right through to Halifax on highway 104 and then back up the 101 highway. This plan was accepted by said lady, as she had seen fog and squiggling roads for some hours, and squiggling roads are not fun in the fog. No more country roads for this family on this day. Enough is enough. I now knew what fog looked like...basically grey to white and formless, hovering some feet off the ground. In fact, I had become an expert on the subject.

Rather than launch into a diatribe about the "Truro viewing platform", I prefer to just say that I decided to follow Liz's advice, and go look at Hall's Harbour.

We went through Windsor, where big signs announced that the town was the birthplace of ice hockey. Then we got to Hantsport, where I turned off to go look at the docks, after stopping at the local information centre. The nice young lady there confirmed that Liz had been very right...Hall's Harbour is the place. Nevertheless, Hantsport hinted at what was to come...I found a huge tugboat lying high and dry on a mudbank....!

Arriving in Grand Pré, we set ourselves up at the Evangeline Motel, which was full! However, they DID have a room upstairs in the old governor's mansion. We accepted that. That was when I remembered that fog usually presages a hot day.....was it ever hot! With the fog gone in this area, the sun was quite something...and it was very humid. Neverthelss, it was quite something to have this grand old room.

Having chilled out and calmed down etc etc...we decided to set off to Hall's harbour, leaving Grand Pré for the next day. This was a very nice and scenic drive. However, nothing prepared me for Hall's Harbour. I had managed to work it all out so that we arrived there at low tide...and was it ever low!! WOW!



In the picture above you only but just see the sea in the background. The water in the picture comes from a little freshwater stream that drops into the harbour. The actual sea level is WAY lower than the keel of the last boat. To help you visualise this fact, I include the next picture, which was taken from above the furthest boat in the first picture, looking to the right in the first picture. In this second shot you can see that the sea is ...WAY DOWN THE-E-E-R-E in the distance. Note the couple walking on the pebbles in the picture!



I also liked the way the three relevant flags were flying over the harbour...Acadia, Canada, Nova Scotia.



We decided there and then to make the trip back to Hall's Harbour the following day, to see the same place at high tide. The trip back to Grand Pré was really very nice. The countryside is beautiful and well-kept. On the way we were delayed by a farmer transporting his hay...and it was nice. I just loved it there. I think the Acadians deserve a lot of praise for what they achieved in Nova Scotia. They really impress me.

We stopped in Kentville at a pub and had a brilliant dinner...my second nicest steak in Canada ever. Where is Alberta? Getting back to the "mansion", we realised there was no TV.....hmmmmmm!

Day 6 : Grand Pré to Annapolis Royal

This day started with a nice breakfast at the Evangeline motel restaurant, after which we set off to the Grand Pré site, a few yards away. This was to be a day of history, tides and more history..in fact the history was made, to some degree, by the tides. The first picture shows the Evangeline statue and the Memorial Church in the backgound.



We obviously saw the short movie at the visitor centre/museum and looked carefully at the dyke arrangements, which fascinated me. It seems to me the key to the reclamation of all the land they created from the sea/marsh was the valve-arrangement they employed back then. Basically the seawater could flow back to the sea through the valve at low tide, but could not enter again at high tide. This caused the land to systematically drain. They then planted a specific type of grass to draw out the salt. The rain obviously also helped. Of course the really big job was the building of the dykes. This subject features again in reverse-form later in a new guise (see below). I found it fascinating that the local indigenous Mik'maw ( Mic-Mac) people were happy with the Acadians living there, because they saw the Acadians as having created their own land and as not having dishonoured their ancestral lands.

As I have stated elsewhere before, one of the reasons for my interest in the plight of the Acadians, is my sense that they are likely the only Western people that may have some notion of the current plight of my own people. I got to talk to the one gentleman manning the centre and he and I compared French Afrikaans and Acadian surnames. He was thrilled to bits. He explained though, that Acadians were supposed to be all Roman Catholic, and that, after some research, he found out that his ancestors were actually Protestant Hugenots. This apparently was a huge embarrassment to his father. Quite a few very Afrikaans surnames could be found on the plaques in the centre. The picture shows the inside of the memorial church (time exposure).



After spending much of the morning at Grand Pré, fascinated by the Acadian history, and wondering about the outrageously callous behaviour of the British back then, we set off back down the road to Hall's Harbour. We timed the visit to coincide with high tide. We were not disappointed, as you can see in the next picture. Compare this with the shot in the previous day's joournal. Staggering!!!



By now it was after lunch. We made our way back in the direction of Kentville, but then elected to take route 221 through the farms to the west, rather than highway 101. This was rather nice. I like that kind of scenery..must be my farmer dad's blood acting up in me. He would have loved that part of the world and would have admired the Acadians.

Eventually we stopped in the Kingston area at a Tim Horton's and Jeanne introduced me to their custom sandwiches. Pretty good!..our first really affordable lunch on the trip (other than the bread-roll picnic the previous day).

When we returned to highway 101, I had a highway traffic cop all the way on my tail...so we went carefully at 110km/h until I got fed up, and elected to cross over to highway (old) 1. This road followed the north bank of the Annapolis River. Soon we started seeing groups of cars parked along the river, which was quite wide. I then realised the thing must be dammed....but what were all the folks looking at with their binoculars?. As we continued the cars got more and more until there was finally a traffic jam.

At this point we reached the dam wall and it became clear that it was a hydro-electric scheme, except that it worked with the tides. With the tides being so high in this area, it is possible to make a valve that allows the high tide into the dam, but it shuts when the water wants to get out. The water is then allowed to escape through a turbine to generate electricity.

I walked up to a lady sitting in a deck chair with binoculars in her hands and asked her: "Excuse me ma'am, but do I happen to find myself at the place where the whale got into the dam at high tide." The response was "Yeah! You've arrived! I've been out here every day and .........(!!!)". In true Maritime style she related everything to me in detail. There is no way in a million years you are going to get that spontaneity or approachability in Vancouver...NEVER!!! So we chatted quite a while and I got the whole story of the whale. It has only one way out...through the valve, which has to be kept open for it. Meanwhile the 3,000 homes that rely on this power, are having to be switched to other power on the grid. The only other way is through the turbine, in which case it will get chopped. She pointed meaningfully at all the gulls waiting on the outside of the turbine where they usually collect chopped lunch.

It occurred to me that this baby whale is like a teenage kid hat got locked into MacDonalds with endless Big Macs and fries. Why should it leave? The place is full of fish! It can feed all day and every evening it does some frolics for the audience...seems like a good deal to me!?

We booked into a motel on the outside of Annapolis Royal and then went off to look at Port Royal. It was really sunset now and I was fascinated by the platinum-like colours of the water in the estuary.



We looked at the fort they had put up at Port Royal, but it was clearly a new arrangement. The fact, though, is that this spot was the first settlement by Europeans in North America (other than the Spanish settlement in Florida). The North America we all know really started here, for practical purposes.

We then drove back to Annapolis Royal to look at Fort Anne. This is a truly impressive place..it absolutely exudes an air of history. This is where the French and the British clashed in the process of setting the early history of "European" North America. My first picture shows the view over the water approaches to Annapolis Royal. Again one sees the red soil.



The last picture of this day shows one of the guns at Fort Anne, guarding the same approaches.



This day left me with a deep impression of real history. At last I had found it somewhere in North America. Now I felt more at ease. Living in BC calibrates people to believe history is something that happened in 1867 and had something to do with a train! Up to this day I had lived with the impression that North Americans could never ever understand the world because they have no real history of their own. This day corrected that view and gave me a glimmer of hope...I just wonder how many folks even take note, though. Fort Anne was deserted...everyone was watching the whale.

We had dinner at a diner/restaurant. I was desperate for some tomato in my burger and they promised it would arrive. Eventually the chef came out apologised, but they did not have a tomato....

Day 7 : Annapolis Royal to Lunenburg

This morning we got up and took a look out the door. It was not a great-looking day. However, we decided to go take a look at Digby, because we had heard good things about it. Our one thought was to drive out along the peninsula a bit. We had a "continental breakfast" at the motel and set off to the town of Digby, arriving there in short order. We stopped at the information centre to find out how things worked around the place. There they suggested we go take a look at the working dock.

Arriving there, we were stopped by a security guy at the gates to the dock. They had about eight 18-wheeler tankers collecting herring from a trawler that had docked. They therefore did not want to have tourists underfoot. I thought I'd oblige them by leaving their town altogether right there and then, which is what we did. With the clouds/fog down to window height, I did not see te merit in lingering on the Bay of Fundy any longer.

I figured the southcoast might be a bit more windy and clear. If you have concluded by now that I'd had enough of fog, you would be right. It is near-impossible to take photos in fog...the colours are gone and the objects are silhouetted. We therefore set off along highway 1 to the Kejimkujik National Park. My reasoning was that I wanted the spine of the peninsula between myself and the fog. Developent rapidly disappeared and I started getting just a little worried, but and after a while we arrived at a little restaurant diner just outside the park. We stopped there for coffee.

I got to talk with the lady that ran the show and asked her the same question I had asked on the coast north of Halifax..."Where are the people and what do folks do around here for a living?". Her response was: "Well, the folks 'round here are mostly retired. Basically folks here don't do squat! The woman who left a moment ago lives over in the village and this guy here ( pointing at a man having breakfast, and who grunted an acknowledgement) is not from around here...he's a woodsman!". So , there you have it..the dead straight Maritimes response. I just love these folks. How can one not!

So we went into the Park for a quick look and I captured this serene little scene near the reception building. Yuo'll notice that the fog was clearing...I felt quite vindicated.



At south Brookfield we turned onto route 208 , planning to take this route to Bridgewater and La Have. Somewhere along this route I took the following picture. It basically captures the feel of the area.



Soon after, we arrived in Bridgewater/La Have. One of the more fascinating things for me was to see a for sale sign next to two warships! I'm not sure it was intended that way, but that's what I have on camera!

Shortly after we got to Lunenburg, where we drove around a bit and then went off looking for quilts. The very friendly lady at the quilt shop laughed her head of when she saw my face...I had just seen the price on one of the quilts and told her that the choice was very simple for me....the mortgage or the quilt!

We looked around the town just a little and then wentto the information centre, where we got our bearings as regards a place to stay. We arranged a place across the water from the old town, so we'd have a view of it. This is in the picture you see here.



Having rested a while, we decided to set off to Mahone Bay, because Liz had threatened to do terrible things to me if I did not get a picture of the "three churches". We reckoned we could come back to Lunenburg afterwards and explore it more on foot.

Mahone bay is quite something. I did not have quite the clear blue sky that I needed, and the sun was in a bad spot, and (as usual) there were zillions of power cables in the way, but I did get FIVE CHURCHES in one spot. So, I thought I'd post this picture of the five churches for everyone. The tide was out, so you are mostly seeing a mud puddle in the bay itself.



After this we returned to Lunenburg, where I took the following selection of pictures. The first is a shot of a rock in the bay of Lunenburg. I feel it represents what one sees down at the "beach".



We then made the decision to try the horse & carriage thing again, having had a very bad experience in Montreal, earlier in the holiday. Here it cost vastly less and the young lady did a superb job. She told us the horse always stopped at the house of lady that had fed it a carrot everytime it came past. Liz sunsequently told me the "carrot lady" is a South African!! The name of the horse is Michael.

The tour itself was good, but few of the shots are really good enough to post. Way Way Way too many powercables in the way of any picture one takes. I may yet make a separate mini-journal out of Lunenburg, but I feel other folks have already posted some pictures on the subject.



I would like to include this single shot inside Lunenburg's old city. It was actually taken the following morning in the fog, but it gives some idea. I hope I'll be forgiven for disturbing the sequence just a little.



My last picture was taken that evening at the museum on the dock, just as we got off the horse carriage. It somehow captures the feel of the place for me. That night we ate in the old city and then made our way back to the motel...we had Peggy's Cove on the brain.

Day 8 : Lunenburg to Halifax

This was to be the great Peggy's Cove day. However, when I opened the window for our fantastic view of Lunenburg....IT WAS GONE!? In its place was fog down to the ground. Therefore I suggested to Jeanne that it was just a few miles to Halifax. We could afford to wait. We could go to Lunenburg again and take a bit more of a look around and have breakfast...and THEN go to Peggy's Cove. After all we were supposedly awaiting the arrival of tropical storm Hermine! The fog had to leave somehow.

So we went and had that breakfast and we took more of a look around Lunenburg. This time I aimed very, very carefully, because I did not have to worry about the shaking of the horse carriage and the other guests on the carriage...we now had our own horseless carriage. Also, while the sunset had been nice the previous night, it had been tough to get pictures.

The first thing that drew my attention was the house with the Union Jack.



...and the second simply had to be St John's Anglican Church:



After this, and getting some cash at Royal Bank, we made our way out of town in the direction of Peggy's Cove, following route 329 along the coast. The fog had now cleared, but low clouds were rushing through the sky. We stopped at Mahone Bay again for some moody shots of churches with rushing clouds, but I have simply too many pictures to post here ( 2100, remember). At St Margarets Bay we got out and walked a bit, taking pictures of seabirds and of the beach itself.

Eventually we got to the route 333 turnoff to Peggy's Cove. Along this route I was fascinated by the collapsed pier on the side of the road.



Soon we could see we were approaching open sea. The trees disappeared and the rocks started to show and it was much more windy. This is when I saw the memorial to the victims of the Swissair flight that had tragically crashed into the sea a few years before. We stopped to take a closer look....



The next stop was Peggy's Cove itself. This is an amazing spot where you can just close your eyes and click your camera. I found a Brit stumbling along with his camera muttering "incredible! incredible...innit!?". So I think I'll shut up and just post the following two representative pictures.





After this we drove to the lighthouse. Now, I have to tell you that I really do not think the lighthouse is the central issue that defines Peggy's Cove for me. So, while I have a number of pictures of it, none of them really are in a category where I'd feel them significant enough to post. Instead, I post here two pictures taken on the rocks near and around the lighthouse. As far as I am concerned, the last picture is the one that is burnt into my mind as representative of Peggy's Cove. I hope I have done the little village justice here.





While trying to buy a postcard at the lighthouse, we got drenched by a rainshower that came up quite suddenly. Just as we got into the car, my cellphone rang. It was Liz! They wanted us to join them that evening for pannekoek! Wow! Pannekoek in Nova Scotia! And the Timms were going to be there as well! Hey, this was great! Nothing had prepared me for this kind of hospitality.

So we drove into town and booked in at the Econolodge, which we had reserved while on the road. Liz had explained the way to their house from there. After cleaning up a bit ( mostly drying), we drove out to their place. There we were introduced to their charming daughter Clarissa. The Timms also arrived, bearing in mind that they were busy moving into their new house and the kids were back at home. We were most charmed at the idea that we were being made to feel so welcome. We all dug into the pannekoek that Clarissa had made. Oh boy!...she's going to make some guy very happy one day.

A very nice evening was had by all...at least by Jeanne and myself...I cannot testify to the effect that my spookstories had on Bev and Clarissa.

Later that evening it was arranged with Liz that she was actually going to play tour guide for Jeanne and myself on a tour through Halifax the next day, our last. Amazing. What absolutely superb people! I had forgotten how open, sharing and helpful South Africans were.

Pannekoek in Nieu Skotland...kan jy nou wragtig meer!?

Day 9 : Halifax!



This was our last day in Nova Scotia. We were to fly out from the airport, which is quite far out of town, by about 5pm that day. We went off to breakfast and then we went over to Liz's place. We were going to have the two Nell ladies to show us around town for the day! The photos may not be in time sequence in this post.

We crossed the new MacKay suspension bridge and then made our way back on foot halfway across the old McDonald bridge. This afforded great views of the downtown area of Halifax. This was great. In the picture above one can see a sternwheeler approaching the bridge. Off to the right , the East Coast Navy has its presence...who can spot the submarine!?

The first port of call that day, was in fact the cemetery with the graves of the people that had died in the Titanic disaster. I show here an area shot of the graves. One of the most poignant is that erected in the memory of one of the officers of the Titanic by J Bruce Ismay, the viciously discredited chairman of International Mercantile an Marine ( Owners of the Titanic). Folks may recall that Ismay jumped into a lifeboat flled with women and children as it was being launched. He lived while many others died who had worked for him and who had trusted his ship. The whole civilised world branded him a coward. He was a haunted man to his death.




After finishing the viewing of the city from the bridge, we went down to the harbourfront area of the City. The next photo shows the striking buildings at the harbourfront, with the monument to Joao Alvares Fagundes in the foreground. He purportedly was the first European to land in Nova Scotia in 1521. Whether or not he actually started a little colony, seems to be the subject of some speculation.



After looking around in the shops at the harbourfront a bit, we made our way up the hill to The Citadel. When one approaches it from downtown , one is met by the following sight:



A bit more walking brings one to the actual fortifications. We arrived in time for the noon gun, which was duly fired. Dgital cameras are not good for action shots, but at least I got some of the smoke swirling from the shot about half a second before.



This being a formal military setup, one had the men march past as in the following picture. However, it did not have any of the formality of the process in Quebec, which I'll share at a later date. I must say that the uniform was a very unique tartan. I had never seen it before.



I also found my much-promised bagpipes here.....hmmmmm!



Actually, the Citadel has a superb museum inside and I really found it fascinating going through there. However, it took some serious time, and it was becoming clear that we were not going to see Pier 21 on this trip.We made our way back down to the town and that was where I took the following street scene.



After this we went to have lunch back at the harbourfront. From here we could see Theodore do his thing...This one was Theodore Too!!



After lunch, we went off to get a good view of the new suspension bridge. This was our last stop on the tour of Halifax. True to form, the security guy actually called me over and suggested a better place I could go to get a good shot...can you believe it? I just love these folks.



After this we went back to Liz and Dana's place, collected our car, said goodbye to these good folks, and made our way to the airport. We were to board a flight to Toronto, to get the three day and three night train to Vancouver from there the next morning!.......but that is another story altogether!

Dana, Liz and Clarissa...thank you very, very much!! I also hope that Bev and Brad will enjoy their new home.

My Overall Impressions

When we arrived in Halifax on our first night, Liz asked me to "put Nova Scotia on the map" with pictures. The truth is, I never needed to do that. Mostly I just needed to hold the camera...the place sort of presented itself all the time. Nova Scotia is clearly a major tourist destination anyway.

The truth is that Nova Scotia is beautiful and its people are really open, friendly, helpful folks. I have told a number of people that, in Halifax, I felt as though I was back in my birthtown of Port Elizabeth in South Africa. It was the same simple straight neighbourly openness that I knew growing up in the East Cape, and which so eluded me in Pretoria.

It also strikes me that it has become a major retirement destination. However, I do not know whether it has become that simply because younger folks leave, or whether folks come from elsewhere in Canada to retire there. I should like to know. Jeanne has put it on our list of retirement options.

I think it should be compulsory for all immigrants to go take a look at the Acadian part of Nova Scotia and to absorb that history. Come to think of it, locally born Canadians would do well to do it as well. Somehow the Acadians and their beloved Acadie have crept into my heart. Maybe now only do I understand the dual language heritage of Canada well enough to truly respect it...and I feel suitably inept at not being able to speak French as my third language. Somehow this struck me more in Nova Scotia than in Quebéc.

Prince Edward Island is frankly one continuous pastoral picture postcard. I guess a lot of British folks will recognise it as looking a bit like the more pastoral parts of England, but with characteristically North American barns and houses. At times I had to actively remind myself that I was, in fact, in North America. What an absolutely beautiful place. I could just ride through it all day.

I would reccommend this holiday to anyone, but they might want to allow a bit more time. We did not do Halifax complete justice, nor the Minas Basin area. Someday I need to go see New Brunswick proper.

I do trust this near-treatise on our Maritimes holday will lead the folks who read this to go there, see the place, and meet the superb people of that part of this great country.

I have laid out the full structure of the Journal above, so that we can open up the topic without getting posts in between the journal entries. I guess I should have thought of this trick earlier. Apologies to those of you that have contacted me by PM and e-mail. Thanks for your comments so far.

Please feel free to now post your comments or climb into me for missing a tourist spot or getting something wrong altogether. For example, folks living along the Minas Basin may not be entirely happy with my journal.

I may also have to do something to make the journal easier for SA folks to handle. I estimate its eventual size to be 2.5 Megs. Nine separate SACanada pages might have been better...I'm scratching my head at how to do that at this time.

I'm also living in abject fear that Karen is going to see all my typos and spelling errors...I'll get to them ma'am, I promise.

Harry, jou foto's is ongelooflik! Dankie dat ons almal saam met julle kon reis. Ons besef nou eers hoeveel van hierdie GROOT land is daar nog om te verken.

Cathy K.

One of the problems going this route Harry is that when you edit a thread it does not show up in the My Assistant part, so it is not easy to be alerted once you add something new. Perhaps you could post a reminder from time to time at the bottom when a huge chunk is completed...

Fantastic! Thanks Harry, it certainly has given me a clearer picture of what the Maritimes are all about! There's so much of Canada I want to explore - somehow I don't think that a trip like yours would work with our two year old son though....

Ai ou Harry hoe laat jy my nou see toe verlang met daai laaste twee fotos op dag 8! Ons het male sonder tal vakansies by die see in Franskraal, Uilkraalsmond, Kleinbaai, Gansbaai, en Hermanus spandeer, en daai rotse herinner my so aan die kus in Valsbaai!

Terloops, vreeslik dankie vir dié kleinood in kiekies. Ek en Lyné moet regtig sit en ons vakansie in Saskatchewan ook so opskryf!

Day 9 now completed..I may need some help from Liz with place names and bridge names.

Hendie....I could always post a nice big sea picture just for you

Clarissa said you can come for more pannekoek anytime! As I said before, it was a real pleasure for us to meet you and to show you around a bit. We are only too happy when people DO come and visit Nova Scotia and surrounds.

Harry, as for the bridge names......the one we walked across is known as the 'old' bridge or MacDonald bridge. The one you have the photo of, is the MacKay bridge.....or the 'new' bridge.

Your photos are really great.......I'm sure it'll put us Maritimers on the map!

All ten entries of the Journal have now been completed, barring small edits. Please return to page 1 to read it.

I could still use some intelligence from Hendie on how to make it one day per SACanada page, short of adding a bunch of blank entries between each day just to fill a page. This journal has to be a nightmare to view over a dial-up modem. this means our South African members probably switch off in disgust before the page has downloaded the 2.5 megs of photos.

Maybe one of the SA folks could tell me whether the first page of this thread is at all practically viewable.

Harry thanks for the superb Journal, when r u going on holiday again ?

You have just proven that the folks in the Maritimes don't have to stand back for the folks in the more 'popular' destinations.

As for the download times - it took around 7 minutes to download on my ISDN line (but I was also downloading other stuff at the same time so the transfer rate was about the same as a 56K connection). We are used to the wait so don't worry about it.

Thanks for the feedback, Gautenger...I'll chill out on download time. I cleared all the caches and files and tried to load the page over here, and it took 8 seconds to get all the pics again. That's wideband for you.

Jokes aside (regarding when we go again)....this was actually less than half of our holiday in August. I thought I'd do a separate [much shorter] thing on Quebéc a little later. I'm cross-eyed from this 10-post treatise. And then there is the Cross-Canada train trip, where very few shots are any good, but probably at least worth a single post with a few pics.

A while ago I transferred all the images on this thread to the SACanada server. I messed two of them up and only realised that tonight. I have now fixed those...just in case folks are interested in seeing more of Nova Scotia...a place we hugely enjoyed!