Canadian Maritime’s Part 2 - Prince Edward Island, Hopewell Rocks and Cape Breton. Aug 6 - Aug 11 2016

On Saturday August 6th we got up early ready for the big transit day ahead of us. We were driving from Digby on the south side of The Bay of Fundy, across the province of Nova Scotia and all the way to Prince Edward Island.  Approximately a 540km drive.

We knocked over the first 4 hours fairly quickly and comfortably and it was very pleasant driving through the green birch and pine Canadian forests. The whole way we continued to scour the sides of the roads for wildlife (particularly moose) as we had been doing the whole trip to date without much success. However, a moose sighting remained high on our bucket list and we were going to make it happen!

We also started to keep a lookout for potential places for a lunch stop and spotted a sign for the intriguingly named ‘Mastodon Ridge’. After some searching and backtracking we found our desired location and found a life sized mastodon sculpture at the top of the small hill as promised. This place was marking the exact halfway point between the Equator and the North Pole as each place was exactly 4985km away from this small town of Stewiacke. What better place to have the ultimate symbol of Canada – a Tim Hortons! We visited the mastodon statue and found that mastodon remains had been found in a nearby tar pit and that this monument had been erected as a tribute.

We got back in to our car and continued North. It wasn’t long before we crossed the border in to New Brunswick and arrived at a small town called Aulac. Here we stopped and weighed up a travel decision. We had seen many great photos of a site called Hopewell rocks on the northern, New Brunswick side of The Bay of Fundy. These rocks are famous for being the point of the highest tides in the world, allowing visitors the chance to walk the ocean floors. To visit these rocks would add an extra 3 hours on to our drive time but we decided to make the trip and enjoy the promised great experience.

High tide at Hopewell Rocks

We arrived at the Hopewell Rocks site at approximately 3.30pm where we found that we had arrived at high tide on a cloudy and blustery day. After paying our admission and making the short hike down to the famous ‘flowerpot rocks’ I have to say we were a little underwhelmed. The rocks were essentially… rocks, that were partially covered by the waters of the bay. We took a few photos and decided that we needed to see these rocks at low tide in all their promised glory. The low tides were arriving around midmorning for the next few days and we decided after two nights in PEI we would detour over again and make the most of the experience.

Continuing on with our drive, we reached the huge Confederation Bridge, the only land crossing to the island. This bridge is immense and is 13km from shoreline to shoreline. We drove across and arrived to our location in the province capitol of Charlottetown. We stayed at the HI hostel in the ‘loft’ apartment which turned out to be the best room in the whole hostel!

The next day we decided to spend the morning wandering the streets of the city. Charlottetown is a pretty harbourside city of 35,000 and named after the Queen Consort of England in the late 1700s. Also, Charlottetown is most famous for being the location of the conference between mainland Canadian delegates and members from each of the three maritime British colonies (Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia) in 1864. It was this meeting that laid the groundwork for these powers to join together and 3 years later become the country of Canada as we know it today.

Commemorating the conference of the Confederation

At the harbour we stopped for a Cows ice cream in the store near the moored boats. Cows ice cream is a brand famous through the Maritimes, but it originated from PEI. The flavours of both the ice creams  we had, as well as the chocolate waffle cones were delicious, but to me it seemed that the brand had spun out of control. The ice cream store was filled to the brim with Cows merchandise (shirts, hats, pajamas etc) and the tourists were going to town!

After lunch we decided to drive out around the greater area of the island to experience some more varied sights. The majority of PEI is fertile farmland with flat green farms covering most of the space. Famously, because of this the novels (and movies) the Anne Shirley series (most notably Anne of Green Gables) were set on this island amidst the beautiful English style farmhouses and gardens.

The Basilica of Charlottetown

The southern shore of the island showcased several red cliffs where the land met the ocean. PEI, along with Australia is one of the few places on Earth to feature the bright red rocks and soil which contrast nicely with the blues of the ocean. A pretty sight to see.

We finished our day back in Charlottetown by sampling some of the local beers and soaking up the atmosphere in the  local Irish pub with a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game on TV. We also met some lovely English people, who now call Australia home. They sure kept us entertained. In all Charlottetown was an interesting ‘city’ to explore.

Sunset views from Victoria Park, Charlottetown

The next morning we again got up early and set out for our return visit to the Hopewell Rocks. Again this would add an extra few hours to our travel for the day. However, we were hoping that The low tide experience would justify the rave reviews we had heard.

Before we could head to the rocks we had to leave the island. We again headed for the confederation bridge, but found that to leave PEI a toll is required. We drove up expecting to pay the regular 4-7 dollar toll, but were shocked when we found the charge was $46 for a standard car! I guess it takes a few dollars to construct a 13km bridge!

Once we had completed the crossing we once again travelled through New Brunswick and arrived at the Hopewell Rocks for the second time and right at the scheduled 11am low tide. As we arrived we immediately found a huge difference to our first visit, starting with the hoards and hoards of fellow tourists! On our first visit we had been surprised at the vast size of the carpark and how empty it was -our second we had to park in the carpark overflow!

The rocks were an entirely different sight at low tide. I mentioned earlier that this was the exact location of the highest tide in the world and to be more specific, I mean a difference of over 14 metres from high to low tide. This meant that not only were the flowerpot rocks now fully exposed but also that a huge area of the ocean floor was now open for exploring.

The flowerpot rocks themselves were amazing, each now towering above us as we stood and watched from the newly exposed land. The base of each had been eroded away by millions of years of contact with the ocean currents creating the effect that each rock was top heavy and could potentially topple under its own weight. There was even an arch that could be walked through right under the rocks that is completely submerged at high tide.

After spending an hour or so climbing over rocks and mounds of seaweed it was time to get back on the road and head to Cape Breton Island, the final stop on our loop of the Maritimes. This was another lengthy drive which meant that we would not arrive at our accommodation until after 7.30pm. Right at the time dusk was starting to set in.

Thanks to some issues with our Tom Tom, we overshot our intended destination and were led along the Cabot Trail for another 20km or so. As frustrating as this was it led to the moment we had been waiting for. The first moose sighting of our trip!

We had just wound our way up a steep hill and rounded a bend to a flat section of the road with a marshy clearing on our right hand side. Perfect moose territory. Then sure enough, we both saw out the corner of our eyes a huge cow moose standing in the swamp. We pulled over quickly and excitedly jumped out of the car, but the creature had been spooked and run away.

This was an exciting development though and bode well for the next 2 days that we were spending in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We turned around and made our way back to our lodging – a fantastic luxury cabin on the  beach next to the Dancing Moose Café. The café was run by a Dutch man named Ton who provided us with excellent breakfasts (pannekoeks) and lunches for the next 2 days of exploring.
The next morning we got up and had an early start as we drove from the eastern side of cape Breton around to the skyline trail on the western shoreline. The drive across was fantastic as we followed the beautiful Cabot Trail which wound it’s way around the park perimeter.

The Skyline Trail is the most popular hike in the park. A 10km round trip along the summit of French Mountain (455 metres). It is famous for amazing views out over the ocean as well as being the location of a bizarre coyote attack that resulted in a human fatality in 2009. As a result warning signs were up everywhere at the trailhead detailing how to handle a pack of coyotes.

We started down the path and were no more than 5 minutes in before a lady on the path ahead of us started pointing in to the trees off to the side of the path. We hurried up and saw that she had spotted a huge bull moose grazing about 20 metres away! We stayed and watched as he slowly made his way through a grove of trees and off in to the distance.

After this exciting start we continued our way around the trail. This led us to the boardwalk out over the mountain ridge and the panoramic views it offered over the ocean. There were also views over a section of the windy Cabot Trail as it snaked its way between two mountains. What a great place to stop for lunch!

As we made our way back through the second half of the trail we saw several sections of the park fenced off. We found out that this has been done in order to rehabilitate the park due to overgrazing by the local moose population. A lot different to when the moose in Cape Breton had been hunted to extinction in the 1800s.

However, the national parks reintroduced 18 animals in to the park in the 1930s. Due to a beech tree growth explosion in the last couple of decades there are now 4 to 5 thousand moose back in the park!

    

We completed the skyline trail with no further sightings. Also there was also nothing on the 2 smaller trails we hiked on the way back to our cabin. The next morning we decided to tackle the toughest trail in the park – Franey Mountain. The trail was not as tough as advertised and after about an hour of climbing we reached the summit and an amazing view out over the town of Ingonish and surrounding coastline.

After Franey we continued on the Cabot trail and stopped at several of the lookout points over the rugged and rocky coastline. At one of these stops we watched out over the gannets as they fished out in the open ocean. The gannet is a seabird a little larger than a seagull with a unique fishing technique. Each gannet would circle up on the air currents until they spotted some morsel of food down in the ocean. Then, suddenly, the gannet would plunge from the heights right down through the surface of the water with a splash, audible even from where we stood on the shore.

Following on from these lookouts we grabbed a late lunch and undertook the drive back to the Dancing Moose. Luckily for us our wildlife viewing was not yet at an end, as we rounded the bend right where we had sighted our first moose, we saw a lady with her car pulled to the side of the road madly snapping pictures. We peered over and saw a large cow moose and her calf feeding amongst the swampy waters. Sadly for the second time these moose did not hang around long enough for us to take photos but we were certainly feeling pretty lucky!

The next morning we woke early, had our final pannekoek, and set out on the long journey back to Halifax. All in all we bad driven nearly 3000km around the Maritimes and it was time for us to move on to the next destination – Toronto.

Adrian.

The Canadian Maritime’s, Part 1 – July 31 to August 6, 2016

Our stay in St Johns came to an end on Sunday 31 July and it was time to head to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Once we arrived we made our way downtown to our first ever Airbnb accommodation. We were very pleasantly surprised. It was extremely central and felt quite luxurious. It was great.

After a good night’s sleep, we set off for the harbour front. First order of business was to book the Harbour Hopper tour. A fun little tour that takes in both the highlights of the city and the harbour. Then it was off to explore the city and find a place for brunch. We ended up at the Foggy Goggle on Argyle street. It was such a cool bar and I began to have flashbacks of drinking there when I lived in Halifax many years ago.

Aftear brunch we explored a little more. Had a look around at the City Hall and the War Memorial, Citadel Hill and clock tour and we checked out the cool street art. It was then time for the Harbour Hopper tour.

The Harbour Hopper tour took us all around the city. Some of the most notable things we saw and learnt on the tour were the following:

• Citadel Hill was built as a defense base when Halifax was first established in 1749 and the current stone version was completed 1856 . It was designed to trap enemies and make it easy to kill them. It is a giant star shape and has never actually been used.
• The majority of Halifax was blown up from a ship explosion in 1917. As it happened, during the war, Halifax used to put up anti submarine netting at a certain time everyday in the harbour to prevent surprise attacks at night. The French supply ship, carrying thousands of tonnes of explosives got caught outside the harbour. A Norwegian ship got caught inside the harbour. Meanwhile, the French ship pulled down it’s flag signaling it was an explosives ship so as to avoid sabotage, and had forgotten to put it up in the morning. In both of their haste to enter and exit the harbour, the two ships collided. The crew aboard the French ship realised the disaster that was about to ensue and saved themselves by escaping to opposite shore line of Dartmouth in life rafts. The French ship continued on toward Halifax shore line, burning for 25 minutes. All the locals came out to view the spectacle. Little did they know, that the explosion about to occur was to be the biggest man made explosion until Hiroshima. The explosion killed approximately 2000 bystanders and injured and maimed 9000 more. It was devastation on a massive scale.
• Alexander Keith’s Brewery is an important tourist attraction and a beer the local Nova Scotian’s are very proud of.
• One cemetery, although only displaying 100 grave stones, actually holds 10x more bodies.
• The people of Halifax were some of the first to respond to the Titanic disaster and there is even a grave stone from one of the victims that reads J. Dawson. (See the movie Titanic)
• There are a large number of Volvos dumped on the bottom of the harbour, due to a transport mishap which deemed them unsuitable for use. Thus the captain decided the nest place for them was the bottom of the harbour.

After the tour,  we visited an Irish pub and had a couple of pints, the free public gardens, where we enjoyed the beautiful gardens and an ice cream, and visited Bearly’s House of Blues and Ribs. A bar that I used to frequent with my friends when I lived in Halifax. Nothing had changed and it felt odd to be back there without the gang.

The following day, Adrian and I went for a walk through Point Pleasant Park. It was stunning. Harbour views, memorials to their fallen war heroes, cute dogs running about and enjoying the sunshine. It was lovely. The park also took us back to the harbour where we enjoyed some lunch.

That afternoon we did what all good tourists to Halifax do. We did the Alexander Keith’s Brewery tour. We learnt the history of the brewery, as well as getting to sample the delicious ales and stouts and listened to some live traditional music of the time. Keith’s, even though it was on the harbour front, was one of the few buildings to withstand the explosion and to this day is quite an important part of Halifax history.

Overall Halifax was a fun place to visit. For me it was nice to be back and to do things I hadn't done when I lived there in 2008, and revisit some that I had. It’s a really beautiful little city, with a rich history and a cool, alternative vibe.

After our three days in Halifax, it was then time to pick up our hire car and head to Digby. On our way, we stopped at the picturesque town of Lunenburg. Lunenburg is a coastal fishing village about 2 hours west of Halifax. It too has colourful buildings as a means of informing the fishermen of which house is theirs on dark nights returning from sea. Also it makes the town exceptionally pretty. It was a great place to stop, not only for the views, but the amazing seafood lunch we had there. Adrian had an awesome seafood chowder and I had possibly the best seafood pasta I have ever had. It truly was the most delicious thing I’d tasted in a long time. We also made a brief visit to the neighbouring town of Blue Rocks. No, there were not blue rocks, but a very quaint little village which appeared similar to the little fishing villages one would see in England and Wales. It was stunning.

From Lunenburg, we made our way to the next sleepy fishing village, Digby, which happened to be on the banks of the Bay of Fundy. The Bay of Fundy is famous for having the most extreme tides in the world, stirring up the food for whales, thus attracting many to the area. Not only did Digby provide the perfect launching point for this experience, but it happened to be world famous for its scallops. So that was an added bonus.

On our first day in Digby, we decided to explore Digby neck, Long Island and Brier Island. In order to get to the two Islands, we were required to catch ferries. A pretty cool experience, especially when you see how fast the tide is moving in The Bay of Fundy. The ferry drivers are very skilled men and the engines on the ferries, very strong.

We first made our way to the farthest Island, Brier Island. Here were drove out to a pretty little light house right on what felt like the edge of the world. We had been told you might see whales and seals from there and we were not disappointed! Seals were a plenty and were very playful and fun to watch. Then off in the distance, we saw the splashing of whales. This bode well for the whale tour we were planning on booking.

After a while gazing in awe at the sights, we set off on a hike through a bird sanctuary and around the coastline of Brier Island. The birds just happened to be squawking seagulls. They were delightful and the near misses of poop landing on us from overhead made it all that more adventuresome. In all seriousness though, it was a pretty walk, with views of rugged coastline, seals which seemed the whole time to be keeping an eye on us, and a very cool sharp shinned hawk darting about.

Afterwards we made our way back by ferry to Long Island (not the one the ice tea was named after). Here we trekked along the banks of the Bay of Fundy. As we trekked, we also chatted to a local lobster fisherman. He was going for a walk for something to do as he had very little to do while he waited for the season to begin again in September. It is a long season which runs for six months, including the winter months.  Two things he said which I found interesting. One was, he had never learnt to swim. Worked out in a big cold ocean all of his adult life (he was a man of 60ish) and he could not swim. Two, lobsters really bring in the big dollars. Which stands to reason as to why they are quite pricey. He informed us that on the first trip of the year last year, he and his two crew members raked in $180,000 between them. Apparently this wasn’t one of their biggest hauls either.

Anyway, the hike was stunning. We had hoped to maybe see some whales here as well, but to no avail. It was a great place to eat our lunch though and take in some more gorgeous scenery. We then made our way to Ocean Expeditions, where we booked our Zodiac whale watching tour for the next day.

Once we crossed back to Digby neck, we went and checked out it’s second most famous attraction after the Bay of Fundy, Hanging Rock. This is a 20ft high basalt rock, that stands like a giant pole, balancing precariously on the edge of another rock. To look at it you would swear it was being held in place by screws or something. But, it is actually balancing there. Or so we are assured. It has been worn away, ever so slowly over time by tides and wind and is a cool sight to be seen.

For our final day in Digby, we had a chilled morning of mini hikes while we waited in anticipation for our 5:30pm departure out into the Bay of Fundy to see the magnificent whales. Although on our previous tour in St John’s Newfoundland, we had not sighted one, we were assuredly optimistic about this tour. Rightly so.

When we arrived we were suited up in giant orange jump suits. Although they looked ridiculous, they were warm and should we have plunged overboard, we would float. We then met Captain Tom, a gruff little man with a degree in marine biology. Also a man who could drive a twin 250 horse powered Zodiac and who had 30 years experience in the industry.

After an exceptionally bumpy and fun ride out, we arrived at our first whale sighting. Three rather large frolicking humpback whales. I mean, after a nil sighting on our last trip, we were quite overjoyed by these three. However, Tom assured us that there would be more out further and off we zipped to the next location.

Tom was 100% correct! We saw many sprays from many, many blowholes. Then out of the corner of his eye, Adrian saw a giant creature breach from the deep. The rest of us caught the tail end of the breach and all thought how cool and not really expecting to see more. The next thing he jumped again and then again. This big humpback was ready to put on a show! For about an hour, this magnificent creature tale slapped, rolled onto his back and flapped his flippers like he was doing backstroke, waved his fins like he was waving right at us and he also breached some more. It was truly breathtaking. You could not wipe the smiles off any of our faces. Even Tom said it was one of the best displays he had seen.

Sadly we had to leave him. The sun was looking lower and we had to get back before dark. It was truly the best whale viewing either of us had experienced.

That evening, still on a massive high from the whale watching adventure, we decided to treat ourselves to Digby’s specialty, market price scallops. Coincidentally it also happened to be the Digby scallop festival. Well, they were very, very delicious and thankfully so. They were $28 a plate. Stupidly we didn’t ask what market price was, so when we got the bill, we nearly spat out our beers. But, they were scrumptious!

Overall our time in Digby and its surrounds was truly wonderful. The town itself is quaint, the people friendly and the scenery and whale tours exceptional. We would certainly recommend Digby to anyone wanting a great time in nature and wanting to eat some great seafood.

Holly.