CAN/MAR Week #6

 8/11/25

We left Valleyview Provincal Park and headed north to our next campground Wild Nature Campground; a private park. The drive through the "Valley" was interesting and mostly farmland. We stopped at Barreling Tide Distillary and stocked up on whiskey and gin. Then it was onto a winery (Lightfoot &Wolfville) where we had a tasting and a snack of almonds, olives, and oysters. Then we went on a quest for our Ann Arbor area hockey friends. We went to Long Pond in Windsor (Nova Scotia not Ontario). This site claims to be the birth place of Ice Hockey. The pond is located next to a college. The Town of Windsor asserts that students at King's College invented ice hockey c. 1800 on Long Pond which was adjacent to the campus.  Interestly the pond's oval shape resembles that of a common hockey rink. Since the the drought conditions the pond was low and had a lot of ducks. Then it was more country road traveling to the campground. Once at the campground we discovered the heat wave had caught up to us; 90+ degrees.

Lightfoot &Wolfville with a view of the cliffs over look this inlet of Fundy Bay

Long Pond 

Interesting signs in the grocery store

Pond at the campground

8/12/25

Today we were Tidal Bore chasing. A tidal bore is a wave created by the incoming tide against the out flowing river. We started at Dawson Dowell Park which is at the mouth of the Shubenacadie River. To say the least the bore was not very impressive here. We then moved up stream to the Fundy Tidal Interpretive Center where the river is now much more narrow. Here the bore was more interesting, but only a foot or so high. Moving further upstream to Caddell Rapids Look off Provcincial Park (really just a small picnic roadside park), we set up a little cheese and crackers lunch to watch the incoming bore. This was by far the most impressive viewing of the bore. For the hour+ we stayed here the bore came in and the following tide filled the river valley with several feet of water.

Dawson Dowell Park view

Caddell Rapids

Link to watch the Caddell Rapids bore:  https://photos.app.goo.gl/YVfQ8ubgH7LS9qms8

L and Z back at camp

8/13/25

Today we moved on to our next distination Parelle Beach Provincial Park.  On the way we stopped at Jost Winery for a tasting  and lunch. Then moving on we came to another winery/distillary; Winegarden Estates. A interesting place found by German immigrates that found no grapes in the area so they started making fruit wine until they could get they vineyard started.  Then we made it to our campground for the night. This campground has ~200 sites pack together like sardines. Apparently the beach is the big attraction here as it has the warmest saltwater in Canada.

8/14/25

On to Kouchibouguac National Park (Say that three times as fast as you can). This was a short ~1 hour drive along the coast road. First we drove to Shediac to see the gaint lobster; a vary tourist thing to do. We made a lunch stop at a funky roadside ( La Vue du cap Canteen) chowder house where I had clam strips poutine and Lynn had the best lobster roll of the trip. And then onto Kouchibouguac National Park. We had planned to rent bikes here to ride, but with the provincial wide fire ban trail closure they did not have bike rental. 

  

The gaint Lobster

Only in Canada can you find a shop for Ice Cream, Lobster Rolls and Beer

 La Vue du cap Canteen 

My favorite Acadian Flag so far

Interesting sculpture at the Kouchibouguac visitors center

8/16/25

Since most everything is closed due to the fire ban we took a drive up the coast almost to Miramichi (just north of here is where there are active wildfires). Then we went a part of the park that has a boardwalk to the sand dune barrier island which has the park's' beach. 

Within the park is an active fishery operation. I took this picture because Brossard is a common name from my mother's home town of Abbeville, LA

Got to love Ketchup patoto chips

Sand dune barrier island

The tiny specks are Piping Plovers 

8/16/25

This was a rest day for us as the fire ban has closed most of the activities we wanted to do. We took a 3.5 mile hike in the park along the shore. This was on a gravel road between access points in the park that was still open for walking/biking. (sorry no pictures today.

CAR/MAR Week #5

 8/4/25

We drove into Halifax and went to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic which had an interesting display about the Halifax Explosion of 1917. Then we walked the Halifax boardwalk (mostly kid's stuff). At the end we found a brewery where Zac could lay in the shade and watch us have a beer and cider. Then it was off to the The Halifax Explosion Memorial Bell Tower which over looks the pier of the explosion. Then was back to the campground to watch Zac hunt squirrels .

Zac on the hunt

8/5/25

A do nothing day. We found a liquor store to resupply and then fill our empty propane tank (the camper has two 11# tanks) 

A note about liquor: all Canadian liquor stores we have been to have NO USA spirts or wine. (I did find one shelf of Southern Comfort, the canadians must not think New Orleans is park of the USA; of course it is French)

Note the USA/Irish whiskey selection at today's store---the USA selection is to the lower left. The Guiness is on the US side.

8/6/25

We continued our drive down the east coast; our destination is Lunenburg. First, we went to Peggy's Cove an interesting tourist trap with a lighthouse and spectacular shoreline views. This spot is one of the three points use to triangulate the wreck of Swiss Air Flight 111. Continuing down the road you come to the Swiss Air Memorial. As you drive down the coast there are numerous bays and coves to weave around,  which made us wish we had our Miata and not the Tundra. Finally we arrived at Lunenburg. This town had a wonderful water front and in port was the Bluesnose II to Lynn's delight. The campground was a city owned site, pleasant but mostly a RV park.

Peggy's Cove

Swiss Air Memorial

St. Margaret's Bay (Taken in honor of our friend Margaret P.)

Lunenburg 

and the Bluenose II

Our campsite

Velvet buck near our campsite

View from the campground

8/7/25

Next we went to Kejimkujik National Park (try to pronounced that). We wanted to drive the coast again. However, we took another cable ferry to cross one of the many coastal lnlets. Canadian National parks are so different than US National Park; pleasant and generally not over crowded with great washroom facitlies. This park could be compared with the Bourdary Waters, but on a smaller scale. 

Two days ago the province declared an open fire band and which also closed almost all hiking trails in the province. This really limited what we could do in the park. Apparently New Brunswick did the same.

Cable ferry

Some interest things seen on the drive: PWHL Barbies at Tim Hortons

Canadian McDonalds Semi

Zac on Squirel patrol

Beach in the Park

Campsite in the Park

One reason forr the delay in this blog -- Starlink did not work and cell service sucked (First World problem)

A bear craved  in the woods

Very Canadian campsite

8/8/25

Lay over day in Kejimkujik National Park. We took in what we could via truck and did a short B'day hike on the two trails that were open (one was campground to campground, the other parking lot to parking lot)

wigwam in the park

8/9/25

We took the coatal route around the southern end of NS. to our next campground at Valleyview Provincal Park which is on the Fundy side of NS..

Campsite at Valleyview.

8/10/25

A campsite layover day at Valleyview Provincial Park. This day we were tourists. We are in the "valley". There is a "mountain ridge along the coast and then another ridge 4-5+ miles inland. The locals call this the Valley.  Both run parallel to the coast.Towards the south end of the valley is Port Royal the original French establishment of 1605. To the north a mile or two is Ft Anne a more permanent settlement. After being tourists there we crossed the coastal " mountain "  and found a funky spot where I had Lobster Poutine.

View of the valley 

Red chairs at Ft Anne

Powder house 

Officers quarters

Another valley view 

Roadhouse where we had lunch (Mine was lobster poutine)