Destination reached!

PEI Oysters - fantastic

The Maritimes, comprising New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island (PEI) and Nova Scotia were some of the highlights of the trip and I wish we could have had more time to explore. That said after nearly eighty days on the road a bit of trip fatigue was starting to set in. We start our return journey on August 26th and expect to be back on the Coast sometime in the 3rd week of September.

Campground at Green Park

PEI is the Oyster and Mussel capital of Canada. It produces nearly 3,000 metric tons of oysters and 20,000 metric tons of mussels (80% of all Canadian production), together contributing over $70m to the economy. They also harvest around 20,000 metric tons of lobster. Needless to say seafood has been a staple of our time in the Maritimes, though I feel we didn't put a dent in their statistics despite our best endeavours. Inshore, PEI is nicknamed 'Spudland'... you guessed it, Canada's potato producing capital.

After crossing the 12.8km Confederation Bridge to get onto PEI, an interesting experience in it's own right, we had 60km of winding country roads to get to our campsite at Green Park Provincial Park. Home of the locally famous Victorian Yeo House and a Historic Shipbuilding Museum and lots of mosquitoes.

Tidal Bideford River view at Green Park camp

We backed on to the tidal Bideford River which operates a huge Oyster hatchery, the beds plainly visible from the trailer. A beautiful location (apart from the mozzies) and a reasonable base for exploring the rest of PEI.

We had three days to explore and planned to split the island into thirds, exploring top part first and then moving on down.

North Cape at the very top of the Island is home to a lighthouse, windfarm and a curious rock beach that extends out where the tidal currents have formed N America's biggest rock reef, favoured by seais

bobbing about in the warm shallow water.

We'd planned to have lunch, but the restaurant was shut for the season and the seafood truck only took cash. We never carry much cash!

North Cape - a working Lighthouse

Lunch abandoned we drove down to Northport, Alberton, and the Northport Pier Inn Restaurant, sat on the deck in the sun and enjoyed lobster rolls. Not busy, great food, service and views.

Luncheon spot - Northport

The following day we ventured down to the middle section of the island visiting Summerside on the south side. Drawn to the dockside we found another fish market and dockside cafe that served, you guessed it, lobster rolls, though Fred broke with tradition and had shrimp which were sweet and fresh by all accounts.

Fish Market lunchspot - Summerside

Aside from the dockside and restaurant it wasn't a town we'd rush back to.

Afternoon, we drove across the island to the north shore and the popular beach area of Cavendish PP. With dogs not allowed on the beach we followed a walk along the Dunelands, to a viewpoint - and back. So no chance of a swim for Jack until we got back to the campsite. We consoled ourselves with an ice cream. A bit of a wasted drive, perhaps we didn't see the best of this part of the Island.

Our final day was the most interesting, starting with the visit to the capital of PEI, Charlottetown. An older city, with a beautiful park, which houses the residence of the Governor General of PEI and some lovely Victorian architecture. We were spoilt for choice for lunch, settling on a roadside seafood and oyster bar, called Sea Rocket Oyster House, I had my first taste of PEI oysters (and they were excellent), plus we scoffed some local mussels and crab dip, which was not as tasty as our daughter-in-law's. We kept to lunchtime quantities, rather than a blow-out, but all extremely enjoyable sitting out in the sunshine.

After lunch we drove across to the North of the island and the beautiful hamlet and marina of North Rustico. The old wooden buildings on stilts which characterize this village might have benefited from some TLC, but it added an authenticity to the working fishing port, with a dockside restaurant which was busy, but not crowded with summer visitors.

North Rustico

Enjoyable though the exploration and visits are, we are both a getting a bit weary of the amount of driving we are having to do, but not the scenery which is lovely; the necessity of clocking up the miles to get the most out of the trip.

Monday August 18th we packed up and headed to Nova Scotia. A two and a half hour drive to our next campsite in the Five Islands PP. The journey was relatively straightforward until roadworks routed us off the trunk road which took us round three sides of a rectangle, onto a so-called road, called Lynn Rd. Big mistake.

After 5km the metalled road gave way to an unsurfaced dirt track, wide enough for several vehicles to pass if you didn't mind the corrugated surface that ran across the road. It was evil and trying to find tracks to avoid the corrugations was difficult and on occasions we were driving on the wrong side. Nineteen kilometres of uneven track surface on the longest side of the rectangle was pretty wearing, trying to find a speed and position to minimise the discomfort almost impossible.

Arriving at the campground, and opening up the trailer, we discovered the fridge, that has a latched door,
had disgorged itself all over the floor, liberally coating everything in the chowder we'd made the night before in readiness for that night's supper after a long drive. It was a mess! The slide-out (the trailer's expanding side that's closed up when travelling, where the chairs are in this pic) had at least contained the detritus in a relatively small area. It took Fred two hours to clean it all up and chuck loads of it out. Supper was reworked.

The Five Islands Park was beautiful and in fact part of an extensive GeoPark region along the Bay of Fundy. Our site was spacious and gave us great views over the valley and the East River inlet. We had planned to stay 3 nights, but with all the trails closed and only the beach to walk, we decided to just do 1 night here and move over and find a new campsite for the 2 days.

We did however, manage to explore the UNESCO Geo site with red cliffs that are millions of years old at the far end of the long empty beach, and the Five Islands that you can walk to at low tide; these rock formations are why this area is world famous. The only downside was more of the red mud that is everywhere when the tide is out, ensuring Jack returns, pink rather than a white Spaniel. By contrast the following morning's walk was with tide in and not much of the sandy beach existed, other than a shingle spit with gin clear water either side, and Jack happily swam it's complete length.

Five Islands beach rock formations

Tuesday 19th, we drove down to our next camp at Pictou (pron. Picto), Harbour Light Campground. A family owned and managed commercial campground, so a bit more packed in, but in an unspoilt coastal setting with lovely views across the water, named the Pictou Road inlet. I have no idea why it's called Pictou Road!? Pictou is the birthplace of New Scotland (Nova Scotia) and there are many Scottish features to the town - tartan road signs, blue and white painted heritage buildings, the replica of the Hector, the ship which brought over many Scots settlers in 1773, place signs in English and Gaelic (Scottish) and people with Scots accents!

Lowden Beach at Pictou campground

On the edge of the camp a short path takes you down to a long private beach for campers, probably just over 1km long, which forms a spit, with marshes behind. It is the most peaceful setting. Marsh grasses behind the spit give way to a lagoon which is a magnet for wading birds, which I had wanted to get down to do some photography. But...

The tidal lagoon between the campsite and the beach

The Tuesday of our arrival we had done a lot of walking at Five Islands and then In Pictou, some 14km. By that evening my right lower leg and foot, which I had injured three weeks prior, came up like a balloon. An argument with the trailer hitch anti-roll bars. At the time, as I could still walk, I assumed nothing was broken.

Wednesday morning, it was no better, and the local pharmacist, would do no more than refer me to the local ER, in nearby New Glasgow, as there were no walk-ins in Pictou. Twelve hours later, after x-rays, an ultra-sound and blood tests, I got back to the trailer with a prescription for antibiotics. No bone damage, but cut to the bone, inflammation and difficult to walk on.

Thursday, as the swelling remained we extended our stay at Harbour Light and we didn't head off to Cap Breton as planned (one of our preferred destinations). I wanted my leg to be back to normal before spending hours in the truck, mindful also that we have a lot of driving to do in the next few weeks back to BC! The camp owner Cameron (3rd generation) has been so amazingly helpful and a great host, checking in on us and allowing us to stay another night or few days if necessary and we may have to skip the Cap Breton tour.

While I was at the hospital, Fred got invited to play the campground game of bucket golf with some neighbouring campers. Thursday afternoon they invited us over to their waterside saisonnier trailer. They enjoy stunning views over the lagoon. As we swapped contact details, turns out they are great friends with some Cronks. Small world. We expect to learn more in the days to come.

Looking ahead to next week, while the trailer is in the workshop, we plan to head down to Chester, Lunenburg and Stonehurst South. It's where the Jesse Stone film series was filmed starring Tom Selleck. The scenery has always looked beautiful in the series, so as we're in the area...

Friday morning, we decided to abandon the trip to Cape Breton. The Cabot trail is closed (one of the reasons for going to Cape Breton) and hurricane Erin is forecast to brush the coastline. We're disappointed not to get there, but even if the trails had been open I would not have been doing much/any walking. As it stands we plan to head down to Halifax NS on Sunday, trailer repair on Monday, and back into NB for the start of our return on Tuesday 26th via Ottawa to catch up with Sunshine Coast friends. Should be fun. Watch this space.

More pics of the last week.