Tuesday 9/22

We spent last night in the Evangeline Beach Campground. It is named after the fictional character upon which Longfellow based his poem Evangeline. The poem tells of the deportation of the Acadians from Nova Scotia. We visited the Grand Pre National Historic Site which is dedicated to archiving the history of the deportation.The grounds we beautiful.
We finally stopped at a vineyard!! I think this might be the best vineyard tour I have ever taken. We were “forced” to taste a least 6 wines, while walking through the vineyard. Tough day.
We are reaching the end of our days in Canada. We plan on crossing the border tomorrow mid-day. Canada has been fun, friendly, educational, and above all beautiful!

Monday 9/21

It is time to leave Keji. We are off to Annapolis Royale for a quick tour of another French fort taken over by the British on several occasions!! This is a very pretty town. We easily walked it and caught a nice picture of the opposite bank of the Annapolis River. The locals told us that we could not leave the area without going to Digby and having the BEST scallops anywhere. We went and we agree! Digby also has a very busy harbour. We watched a fishing boat crew working on the nets while we ate our scallops. Another beautiful sunset and it is time to call it a day!

Friday, September 18 – Sunday September 20

We arrived late Friday afternoon at Kejimkujik National Park. We set up camp and called it a day!

Saturday was alternately rainy, windy and cold! We decided to backtrack to a small town fair in Caledonia. The weather cooperated and we were able to watch horse pulls, a contest with men AND women cutting wood with every saw known to man, and of course we ate fair food. In this area that would be fish and chips and church-lady pie! It was delish!

Sunday gave us sun, at last! The temperature got to about 64 degrees, so we hit the trails. We started at Peter’s Point. Mills Falls was next. It was a combination of falls and rapids. The Beech Grove Trail gave us a pretty peek at some fall color. The last picture I call “Run, Forrest, Run!”, because that is what that deer is doing!

Wednesday September 17

We are seeing some early signs of fall as we cross the Sydney bridge.
We are now making our way toward Kejimkujik (Keji) National Park in the southwest part of Nova Scotia.
We stopped in route to Keji at Peggy’s Cove and visited the historic lighthouse. During the summer months the lighthouse acts as post office for the village of Peggy’s Cove. They also have a quaint harbor to serve their 43 full year round citizens. I have included an evening view from our campsite at Peggy’s Cove.

Tuesday 9/13 and Wednesday 9/15

We are now going down the South Coast of Nova Scotia. We stayed in the town of Louisbourg and visited the Louisbourg Fortress. This is a fortress that the British defeated twice (1745 and 1758). The second time they destroyed the fort. Lucky for us, the French had a complete copy of the plans in France! They were able to rebuild to original specifications.

Sunday 9/13

Time to break camp and move up the road to Cape North. While we were packing we discovered that the campers in the site behind us were from Orange Park, Florida!! Go figure….2400miles from home and someone from the same general area!
We stopped at MacIntosh Brook..yep..another waterfall!!
We set up camp and headed for Neil’s Harbor for what is supposed to be the best chowder around. The chowder was great and the view wasn’t too bad either. Mark spotted another eagle! Oh…see the man to Mark’s left?? From Atlanta. Is there anyone at home in the south?
We then drove to what is referred to as the “Top of the Island”. The terminus of our drive was Meatcove. I promise, I didn’t make that up! This is as far north as you can drive in Nova Scotia and the last 5 miles are not paved. The views were well worth the dirve.

Saturday 9/12

Todays hike is in the Corney Brook area of the park. Have you picked up on the fact that I like waterfalls??
We were curious about Cheticamp Island, so we rode out there. Seeing the village of Cheticamp from across the water gave you a much better idea of it size and charm. The cows are free range out here, so we had to share the road. Mark had spotted a few eagles in flight, but I finally spotted one in a tree that I could actually take a picture of.
We stopped for a quick dinner and then walked one last trail of the day.
We chose the Le Chemin du Buttereau. It was originally a cart path built in the late 1700’s. It linked Cheticamp with the isolated fishing camps on the coast.
We saw the foundations of houses, abandoned field now full of rosehips and even an old well. There was a little wildlife out… a cute little rabbit. We also witnessed another beautiful sunset on the Gulf

Friday 9/11

Cheticamp is a thriving shore community and is protected from the storms coming in off of the Gulf of St. Lawrence by Cheticamp Island. Farming,rug making,fishing for lobsters, and crab are the basis for the areas economy.

We started out day with a ride down the coastline, The views were spectacular.
Next, we hiked the Skyline Trail. The trail takes you through a spruce forest, across savannahs and right to the cliffs edge for beautiful views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
You can look down and see the road you arrived on, or pivot and watch for whales.(None spotted!). There was also a hint that moose might be in the area, but no luck!

Farther down the Cabot Trail we stopped for a look at the village of Pleasant Bay. On the way back to camp, we made one more stop. Hoping to spot a moose, we stopped at the Bog Trail. After a long, cold windy wait we gave up and started for the car. And yes, there was the moose….at the roadside. We were also blessed with a terrific evening sky.

Thursday 9/10

We had to add an extra blanket last night. It was 34 degrees! Today we hook up with the Cabot Trail, a 186 mile circle tour of the eastern and western shores of Cape Breton Island. Our first stop is Baddeck , a quaint village and the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell. We toured the Bell historic site and learned a lot about Bell. He was much more that the telephone!

Wednesday 9/9

We leave Fundy today. We crossed over into Nova Scotia around noon time. Our overnight stop is Whycocomagh Provincal Park. We had a gorgeous evening sky!

Tuesday 9/8

We woke today to a cloudy, but not rainy day. Good weather to explore in! We headed toward Alma, NB, which is right outside the park. It was still low tide, so we took a walk on the beach for a close up look at the Bay of Fundy.
Next up was a short walk through a short town. As we crossed the bridge into town I took a picture of the local fleet at low tide. An hour later,after lunch, I took the high tide version.
We drove back into Fundy Park and hiked the Dickson Falls Trail. We were treated to beautiful cascades and a waterfall at the top of the trail..
We finished the day with a hike to Wolfe Point. The hike took us to a deserted beach with lots of driftwood and debris from ocean storms.