On Thursday August 8 we had a buffet breakfast on the ferry,
which got into North Sydney on Cape Breton Island about 11:00 A.M. At that point we had to decide whether to go
to Cape Breton Highlands National Park and drive the Cabot Trail or go to the
Fortress at Louisbourg, as it was apparent that we couldn’t do both. We felt that we needed more information so we
decided to look for a tourist information centre but couldn’t find one, and
ended up getting closer and closer to Louisbourg, so that’s where we went. It turned out that 2013 is the 300th
anniversary of the founding of the fortress in 1713 and there was lots to see
and do – we could have easily spent more time there than the 3 ½ hours that we
had, but we were also tired after a poor sleep the night before. We camped at an RV park right in the town of
Louisbourg that was adjacent to a laundromat, which was important after a few
nights without that capability. After
dinner the girls put on a movie and Rhonda and I walked into town in for a
little “away from kids” time. We
couldn’t find an open pub or restaurant, but there was a show featuring
traditional Cape Breton music and comedy on at the local playhouse, and we
caught the second half of that show and then walked back to our campground with
some people from the Montreal area that had also been at the show.
300th Anniversary of the Fortress of Louisbourg
Live Show in Louisbourg
Friday August 9 turned out to be just a driving day, with minimal sightseeing. It started raining as we were packing up, so we drove down to the locks at St. Peters (where there is a short canal from the ocean up to Lake Bras d’Or in the middle of Cape Breton Island) for lunch. We then continued south across the Canso causeway onto the Nova Scotia mainland, and on to Antigonish and down past Sherbrooke to our campsite right by the river in Sheet Harbour. By then the rain had stopped, but things were still very wet and the sky was still dark and threatening. We had a late dinner and may have watched part of a movie before bed - as I write this some 11 days later I can’t quite recall.
There was heavy rain and wind overnight on Friday, but the rain had stopped by the time we got up Saturday morning (neither bright nor early). We left the campsite at noon, bought some smoked fish about 15 minutes down the road, and got about an hour away from Sheet Harbour when Rhonda’s cell phone rang – it was the manager of the campground at Sheet Harbour, indicating that somebody had found her purse up by the washrooms. She’s certain she never took it there, and all we can think of is that it fell out of the vehicle when I was using the dump station beside the washrooms. Anyway, we went back to get it, and got caught in traffic behind a parade that was part of a local festival that was going on. We then headed south again. By then it was quite a nice day, so we made a side trip out to Taylor Head Beach for a late lunch on the beach. It was a nice beach, with only a handful of other people there. Continuing south to Halifax, we arrived at the Citadel just as it was closing at 6:00 PM. We hung out on the grassy hillside there for a while, then drove past the provincial legislature but couldn’t find a place to park in the area. So we headed south to Hubbards, on St. Margaret’s Bay, where we stopped for the night in a nice but rather busy RV park.
Taylor Head Beach
Legislature - Halifax
The Citadel - Halifax
Hubbards Beach, St. Margaret's Bay
Lunenburg
Kejimkujik National Park
Monday August 12 was another warm/hot day. The girls went swimming in pool at the
campground in morning, and then we left and went into Digby to check out the shops
along Water Street as well as the restaurant overlooking the water where we had
enjoyed a scallop dinner 11 years ago. We
then continued to Annapolis Royal, where we toured both Fort Anne and Port
Royal National Historic Parks, and continued north to the Kentville area. In Upper Canard we found a cemetery full of
Eatons (Rhonda’s grandmother was an Eaton) that Rhonda’s cousin Linda had told
us about, and then we continued to Wolfville to see Acadia University as well
as Rhonda’s great-grandparents and her grandmother’s house. After that, we went to Grand Pre National
Historic Site, which was closed, but the grounds were open and we saw the statues
of Evangeline (the fictional Acadian deportee immortalized in Longfellow’s poem)
as well as Longfellow himself. I really
wanted to see this, as it commemorates a part of Canadian history that is not
particularly pretty, when the peaceful Acadians were deported from Nova Scotia
in 1747 for fear they might side with the French in one of many British-French
wars that took place in those years. Finally,
we continued north to a campsite near the head of the Bay of Fundy (in Walton),
not arriving until about 9:00 PM. We had
a late dinner, and then watched some shooting stars.
Digby
Tapestries at Fort Anne illustrating the history of Fort Anne and Port Royal
At Fort Anne
At Port Royal
The house where Rhonda's grandmother was raised, Wolfville
Evangeline statue
On Tuesday morning the sun came up and we realized what a
spectacular location we were at. Our
campsite was on a grassy hillside overlooking the Bay of Fundy, and the tide
was going out. The previous night the
owner had mentioned that the tide range here was 57 feet, but this is a number
that is hard to put into perspective until you see it. Before breakfast we went down to the beach,
and walked out for what seemed like close to 700 m, and still didn’t reach the
edge of the water (later, after eating and packing up and just before we left,
we noted that the water had gone a lot further out).
On the beach at Walton
We didn’t leave camp until close to 1:00 PM (we wished we could have stayed longer), and then drove north to Truro, west to New Brunswick and north again to the Confederation Bridge that leads to Prince Edward Island. Our time in New Brunswick this time around was brief, stopping only for gas and at the south side of the Confederation Bridge to take some pictures, while dodging the voracious mosquitoes.
Confederation Bridge - New Brunswick side
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