9/14 – While in
Digby we visited Annapolis Royal and Fort Anne. Annapolis Royal is a beautiful
town with many very nice Victorian homes.
Ft. Anne was a key battleground between the French and the
English during the 1600’s, 1700’s, and 1800’s with 13 battles waged at Ft. Anne
and this area changed hands 7 times. Finally in 1854 the British garrison left
the fort and it was turned over to the local government.
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| Across the river is Port Royal |
From Ft. Anne we drove to a local winery called Bear River
Winery that was established in 1611.
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| Imagine this location in 1611 |
9/15 – Today was
one of the highlights of our entire trip. We drove to Brier Island to go whale
watching and it was unbelievable.
One of the interesting things we've seen in Nova Scotia are the windmills. Wind power is fairly popular here and we've seen many windmills.
Seeing boats sitting aground at low tide has become very common to us now but it’s still an interesting picture to compare high tide to low tide.
On our way we had to take two short ferry rides.
Between ferries we stopped at the Balancing Rock Trail. This was a 1.7km trail that included 235 stairs to see a rock!
Our next stop was whale watching. The boat we were on is
a lobster boat for 6 months a year and this tour boat for the rest of the year.
They retrofit it every year to do both tasks.
It did not take us long to see
our first of many whales. It was amazing and some were very close to the boat.
Close enough to get us wet on occasion.
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| Close enough to see the bumps on her nose |
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| So close |
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| A playful tail flip |
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| Heading down to feed |
It was very common to see them in pods
of two or three whales. Just an amazing day that neither of us will forget.
And
just to finish the day on a nice note we met a Bernese Mountain Dog (Skye) who
looked very much like Hannah which brought back so many great memories. The
owner of Skye, who lived right at the end of the dock we were on, saw our Bernese
Mt. Dog sticker on the car and decided to bring Skye out for us to meet. What a
day!!
9/16 – The next
day we drove to Port Royal which was originally settled in 1605. This was
another enjoyable place to visit and the re-enactor we met was very informative.
It was a slow day so he spent about 30 minutes just talking to us about this
settlement and his family’s ties to the area. This settlement was only around
until 1613 when the original settlers abandoned it and returned to France.
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| Canadian government began the rebuild in 1939 |
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| Our presenter was very informative |
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| Regular soldier sleeping quarters |
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| Settlement leader sleeping quarters |
The view from this settlement today is the same view the
original settlers had because you cannot see any power lines, wires, or
buildings as you look out toward the bay.
9/17 – From Digby
we drove to Wolfville which is wine country in Nova Scotia and also close to Hall’s Harbor which is one of those picture
taking opportunities that we were told not to miss.
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| Looks like low tide can't get any lower |
On our ride to Wolfville we detached the car from the RV and
drove to Hall’s Harbor so we could get some pictures at low tide. We planned to
come back around 7:00pm, which was near high tide, so Lalia took a picture of a rock
so we could compare the tides.
Before heading back to Hall’s Harbor we stopped in to the
Grand Pre Historic Site which is dedicated to the Acadians who were
forced by the English, to leave their homes in the 1700’s. Many of these Acadians
were relocated to New England, North Carolina, and Louisiana. The Acadians are
credited with something called dykeland farming to reclaim this land from the
ocean. Quite an operation and still usable land.
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| Example of sluice that drained the marshland |
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| Evangeline was written about the relocation of the Acadians |
While we were at Hall’s Harbor early in the day, we met our friends from
Calgary who had the BIG RV we were parked next to in Baddeck. As it turned out
we parked next to them again in Wolfville. Kind of nice to park next to a rig
that makes ours look small! For those of you who did not see the pictures on
Facebook I've included a picture of their 48’ RV.
At sunset we went back to Hall’s Harbor to compare the
tides. They have installed a tide measuring pole to show people the change in
tides. This pole starts reading the tide level at 24’ and goes up to 42’ which
is the highest recorded tide at Hall’s Harbor.
The tide this night got to 33’ after darkness set in.Sunset provided good picture opportunities on another beautiful day.
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| Tide will rise another 2 feet after we leave |
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| Ray stands next to the measuring pole |
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| Sunset at Hall's Harbor was special |
9/18 – While in
Wolfville we dedicated one day to visiting some wineries. Before heading out to
try some wine we stopped at a scenic "look-off" location to have some lunch. (Look-off is a phrase we learned on this trip.) What a nice
view of Gran Pre.
Our first stop was at the Luckett Winery. We found a wine we
liked, but also found some delicious green olives which we loved and went very
well with the wine.
Our next stop was at Gaspereau where one wine was pleasing to our tastes and worth
buying. At Planter’s Ridge we did not buy any wine but saw another great view
of the Annapolis Valley.
Our last winery stop was at Blomidon Estate Winery which had
some very nice wines. We only purchased two bottles because we have to start
planning our entry into the United States and paying duty. We figure we can
drink these before we get to the border next week.
After the wineries we drove to a “Look Off” to take a few
more pictures of the Annapolis Valley. Then it was back to the RV to start reducing our inventory of
wine.
9/19 – Our last
day in Grand Pre was spent cleaning the RV, washing clothes, etc. Early in the
day we walked to the beach at the RV Park for some pictures of low tide. Later
that evening we went back to the beach for another beautiful sunset.
9/20 – Our last stop in Nova Scotia will be in Truro for
three nights. There was not much to see on the drive along route 215 even
though it took us right along the coast. We did pass through East Hants which
has recorded the world’s highest recorded tide. We did not stop to ask how
high!
Scotia Pines is our last RV Park in Nova Scotia.
9/21 - One of the
stops we were told to see was the Truro Tidal Bore. The small wave in the
picture is the tidal bore. All I can say is don't travel far out of your way
for this event in Truro. From our perspective it is appropriately named “Bore”.
Hopefully other days it is better than what we saw today. Maybe we’ll see it
better from St. John, New Brunswick.
9/22 – Our last
full day in Nova Scotia was spent in Pictou where we got off the PEI ferry just
over two months ago to start our journey through Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. We've completed the circle! What an amazing two months!
Our 1st stop in Pictou was at Grohmann Knife. This company makes some really nice knives and since we were here we figured we'd get one, which we did.
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| World famous knife manufacturer-we got a great bread knife |
Our next stop was at the ship Hector which is a recently built replica of the ship that brought approximately 200 Highland Scots to Nova Scotia in 1773. These were the 1
st Scots to arrive in Nova Scotia.
This replica was launched in 2000 and is maintained by about
40 dedicated volunteers. These volunteers do all the repairs including
replacing masts and all other wood pieces. Today they were cutting pine to be
used to replace rotted pieces of planking.
Sleeping quarters were pretty tight on the Hector with each
FAMILY having one bunk to sleep in. Pretty tight living quarters for the 11
week journey.
9/23 – Today we
leave Nova Scotia for an overnight stop in New Brunswick and then on to Maine
and hopefully better phone service and internet access.
