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.