Cape Breton, Halifax & Digby - The Adventure & Eating Continues

We continued on Cape Breton Island through Cheticamp, an Acadian (French) area, which has an unusual weather phenomenon called Les Suetes. It only occurs on the northern coast of Cape Breton and it causes winds of up to 200 km/h. The weather event can happen weekly in the fall, winter & spring and less frequently in summer. So many electrical polls are quadrupled,homes have hip roofs so the wind can’t catch and damage the roofs, barns are situated on the south east side of the house to protect it and the barns were often attached to the house so they didn’t have to go outdoors to feed the animals. Few houses have fences or carports as they wouldn’t survive the winds. 

We stopped at Inverness Beach as we were told it was a good place for Seaglass, a lovely sandy beach with a boardwalk to get over the dunes and we found quite a lot of Seaglass, petrified wood and some pretty rocks. 

Another wild camping area south of Port Hood at Maryville wharf at the end of a gravel road by a small harbor - we parked beside it looking at the ocean. The rocky beach here had a lot of plant fossils and large layers of sandstone -quite interesting.

Next stop was Judique and the Celtic Music interpretive centre. We checked out the museum where they have fiddles that you can try & videos to teach you the jig. We had lunch and listened to musicians playing fiddle and keyboard. 

We left Cape Breton Island and continued on in Nova Scotia - along the south-eastern coast, not a great road and to our surprise we needed a ferry to continue on. 

We actually called ahead and booked a campground in Dartmouth across from Halifax at the Shubie RV park and we drove through crazy thunder, lightning and a lot of rain. We proceeded to get stuck in the campground in a low area and had to be pulled out by a lawn tractor. Surprisingly that worked.

We spent a couple of days touring Halifax, walked along the boardwalk, saw the Queen Mary cruise ship in dock, a huge sailing yacht from Germany, three fishing trawlers with huge seine nets and smaller boats suspended off the back - the smaller boat is used to pull the net into a circle around a school of fish, and then the big boats pull it aboard. We stopped for donairs (a Halifax specialty), passed some huge churches and continued up the hill to the Citadel National Historic Site. The site is a re-creation of a fort that protected the Halifax Harbour from 1825 to 1856. We lucked into a tour including the noon day gun, fired daily since 1856. we watch the hourly changing of the guard in the rain and got a better look at the town clock. 

We took the city transit ferry across the harbour to Dartmouth basically a cheap harbour tour in the rain, and later again when we could see more. 

We had Donair eggrolls, and then Beaver tails - amazing fried bread with all sorts of gooey toppings. 

The next day we spent some time at the Pier 21 museum Canada‘s immigration museum. Most people who came to Canada entered through Halifax and their records are at this museum up until the mid 1930s Robin’s mother Nancy came over on April 2, 1926 at the age of four on the ship Ascania. We were able to see the actual documents from her arrival with where they were going, and who arrived with them. 

We visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic talking about shipwrecks lost in Nova Scotia, displays on the Titanic, the Halifax Harbour disaster & fire where two ships collided and levelled a large part of Halifax in 1917. We got to tour the last Corvette ship the HMCS Sackville. 

We popped into the Farmers market on Pier 23, and then left Halifax aiming for Peggy’s Cove  It is situated in a picturesque small fishing village with huge outcroppings of white granite rock everywhere. We walked to the lighthouse and out on the rocks, watching the waves, and looking for whales. We mailed some postcards to our grandkids from Peggy’s Cove.

On to visit some old friends, Norman& Linda at Mahone Bay,  spent a couple days, reminiscing and catching up on many years since we have seen them. They took  us to tour Lunenberg the home of the Bluenose II, (unfortunately it was not in dock today) & many old homes from the 1800s - colourful and ornate.

Next stop Digby, Nova Scotia, which turned out to be a highlight of our trip. We found out that the Lobster Bash was coming up on the weekend and we decided we might stick around to check it out. We walked along the harbor, looking at the huge scallop boats (some 38 ft wide)and asked a question of a fellow sitting in a truck - turns out he was the captain of one of those scallop boats, and he was very happy to give us the grand tour of a scallop boat. He explained the netting process, shucking, selling and life aboard the boat. We learned that he can catch 50 to 65,000 pounds a year and he has got his quota.  Digby is the home of the worlds largest scallop fleet, best scallops due to the Bay of Fundy tidal surges bringing in nutrients.

pheasants along the road

scallop boat

our "tour"

theboat we got to tour

filling the hold with ice

We left Digby and drove to Sandy Cove Beach another IOverlander camping spot, lovely deserted beach, where we got to watch the tide on the Bay of Fundy come and go (over an 8 m tidal difference). We were told by a local about a fish plant at Little River where we stopped to buy haddock pieces for six dollars a pound. We could see into the processing room where they were gutting, filleting and cleaning the fish.

Sandy Cove Beach

sitting on the old concrete pier

high tide by the pier

high tide

low tide

low tide

fish plant

We continued on up the Digby Neck (a long string of land & islands on the northwest coast) to a small ferry, free, holding about 18 vehicles. We did a hike at Balancing Rock, stopped at Boars Head lighthouse and continued on to the town of Freeport at the end of that island.  Another ferry onto Brier Island & a small town. There we stopped at the end across from Peter’s Island in the fog and spent the night there. The water was rushing out of St. Mary’s Bay and the Bay of Fundy, causing rapids, whirlpools, swells and big waves. On our way back to Digby we stopped again at Robichaux fisheries where they had fresh scallops, huge ones - 2 pounds for $32.

Boar's Head

a crazy boater thru the tidal surge

Balancing Rock

We spent another night at Digby campground and spent the day at the Lobster Bash.We walked to the fisherman‘s wharf, now at  low tide and were amazed at how low the boats were compared to the pier - at least 30 feet down the ramps, getting to the boats were now very steep. 

We watched different activities for the lobster bash. They had rope splicing, jet ski &  canoe races, lobster trap hauling, lobster claw banding & scallop shucking, which, of course Robin tried. The food was amazing - you got a whole lobster for $15 - cooked with only a set of crackers and your hands to eat it with (we had 2 over the weekend). We also indulged in several lobster rolls. 

pigging out on lobster

scallops

Robin learning how to shuck scallops

yummy lobster roll

lobster trap baiting

lobster claw banding

The weekend was topped off by live professional wrestling (too funny), a show& shine and later a big rig light parade. 

We left Digby and popped into a repurposed church - now filled with Nova Scotia Seaglass art. 

We were told Halls Harbour on the Bay of Fundy was a great place to watch the tidal changes so we headed there & spent the night on the beach overlooking the ocean. We felt the tide was not as impressive as it Digby. On to the  Fundy Tidal interpretive centre where we walked out to an observation platform over a river waiting for the tidal bore (a wave as the tide reverses) Many people got into Kodiak rafts, which drove up the river towards the ocean and then rode the bore back up the Shubenacadie River. 

Hall's Harbor, high tide

Hall's harbor low tide

Shubenachie River, tide going out

tide coming in, tidal bore

We stopped in Pictou, founded in 1773, admiring the historic buildings, including a post office with a window in the chimney.

post office with a window in the chimney

We decided to take the ferry to Prince Edward Island, it’s free to go to PEI but you pay a toll to leave, either on the bridge or the ferry. We were lucky to get on without a reservation. On to another adventure!