11 August, 2017, Blog Post No. 9

11 August, 2017, Blog Post No. 9

3 August A day in Halifax. Walked thru the Halifax Public gardens and visited the new public library, which is spectacular. Kirsty discovered the world’s greatest consignment shop called Elsie’s which caused her to completely lose her mind; she told Phil she would be back for him in 5 minutes, then completely abandoned him on a street corner and didn’t make contact for an hour. Divorce nearly ensued! The fly on the wall caught an earful while we sorted that out. Unfortunately that left us insufficient time to visit the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia that afternoon. BBQ chicken and PEI potatoes for dinner that night

4 August Visited the Titanic Graves on a “private” tour led by an old Pal of Catherine’s, Colleen who is actually a professional tour guide – fascinating details about some victims and the process of identification. Dogs were not admitted so Phil had to wait at the gate. See the pix for K2 and Tintin’s position on this highly discriminatory attitude on the part of NS bureaucracy. A quick lunch of Halifax’s very fine haddock, then on to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. A lovely gallery in a modified older building. High points were a lovely Maud Lewis exhibition, including her tiny old house reassembled and restored, plus some fine Joe Norris exhibits and a wonderful exhibition of contemporary Inuit art and crafts. See the selected pix. Caught part of the Buskers Festival at Pier 21, including a wonderfully ribald standup act using “volunteers” from the audience by a woman who is based on Vancouver Island. Should have got her name, but she will probably be traceable back in VanIsle. BBQ bangers for supper.

5 August ..Farewell to Catherine’s cosy Nova Scotian hospitality then an ambling drive from Halifax to a remote campground at Ponhook Lodge. We had planned to stay at the Kijimkujik National Park but got a bit spooked by the heavy bookings at the National Parks so bailed early. On the way we visited Chester and had a very good snack brunch at the Kiwi Café in (highly recommended, actually owned and run by a Kiwi lady from Hamilton, married to a NS native son) Also managed to find a Saturday Globe and Mail for a mere $6.90! With all that cash I would have hoped for better editorial eyes upon an endless article on Joseph Boyden’s indigenous heritage! Drove thru many of the very attractive little seaside villages and saw some beautiful colonial houses. Lunenburg was jammed with tourists and offered no parking so we moved on after a quick driving tour. We were delayed by a serious road accident which closed the road, leaving us with a very long backtrack detour to get to Hwy 8, hence the nervousness about a space at the Kijimkujik National Park.

6 August Ponhook to Valleyview Park, a few km north of Bridgewater. We came off Highway 8 at Annapolis Royal where we visited a magnificent garden parts of which dates from Victorian times. Phil then decided to make a pilgrimage to Digby to pay homage to the wonderful scallops. The only Digby scallops available in Digby were at Scobey’s, it being a public holiday all the fisherman’s markets were closed. The price was right and the freshness was sworn to so we bought for dinner that night. Enjoyed all the sights on the Annapolis Valley, beautiful houses in the many small villages en route. Saw a sow bear and a cub cross the road ahead of us, which was surprising since we were in quite a populated area, farms houses and holiday homes. Visited the tidal power generating facility just out of Annapolis Royal, a most fascinating stop. Huge challenges to get generation to work reliably. Found a camp at Valley View Provincial park, high up on the hills overlooking the Annapolis Valley.

7 August -Valley View to the Kempt Shore Ocean View Campground. Tintin took off like rocket from the door of the camper van just as we were preparing to leave. Someone several hundred yards down the camp access road had grabbed her and called me over when I came looking. Don’t know what had got into her but obviously we may have to watch her carefully in future. Took a detour to visit Halls Harbor to see the tidal action on the Bay of Fundy. However tides were not cooperating, all we saw was a larger area of choppy seas so we consoled ourselves with another Nova Scotia Lobster lunch. Called in to see the Grande Pré National Park, which commemorates the original Acadian settlers in the area who were expelled by the British. Followed the scenic route to stay at Kempt Shore. There we were treated to a great view of the falling tides on the Bay of Fundy, with view of the flood tide in the morning.

8 August Drove from Kempt Shore to a camp (HYClass Ocean Campground) just a few km from the Cape Bretton Island land connection. Managed to change our bookings to Newfoundland so that we depart on the short ferry from Sydney to Port Aux Basques and return on the long ferry from St John. Very complicated arrangements for the dogs, we have to cage them for the duration of the trips, locked in a special dog transportation hold, but worse, we have to muzzle them when we transfer them from our vehicle to the caged area, That may be quite a challenge, since we have never succeeded in keeping either of them in a muzzle for longer than about 12 seconds!! The drive yielded good views of the upper end of the Bay of Fundy including one viewpoint where we could literally see the tide rise a foot or two while we stood and watched. Stopped at the crossing over the Shubenacadie River, (the longest in Nova Scotia) where if your timing is right you can see an impressive bore moving up stream. Our timing was wrong. Never the less the volume and turbulence of the outflow during ebb tide was impressive. Decided not to visit a memorial to the Battle of Culloden, its relevance to the Gaelic speaking local population was no doubt quite important, but having visited the original battle side in Scotland we felt we could miss the NS version. Many place names and signs were in both English and Gaelic. Called into a tiny lobster port (Arisaig) where we learnt that lobsters come in red, blue and albino versions and the world record lobster weighed 44 pounds. Visited a well preserved historic house at Maitland, built by one of the local 19^th century shipping tycoons, and occupied by his granddaughter until 1967, when it was handed over to NS with all contents virtually intact. It never had modern plumbing installed but it did have a touch of real luxury, an enclosed walkway to the pit toilets, so that nature’s call did not turn into an arctic adventure in winter. Maitland in its day had the highest concentration of millionaires in Canada, mostly based on wooden ship building and the shipping. During the peak trading period with sailing ships, something like ¾ billion dollars worth of guano fertilizer was shipped from rich deposits on small islands off the coast of Chile. Passed through Antigonish and were most impressed by the size and beauty of the campus of St Francis Xavier University. Saw a small skunk fossicking at the edge of the road at Malignant Bay (perhaps not a good omen!!), but avoided any incident. That said, this day was the worst rain we have encountered on the entire trip, our first day of continuous heavy rain all day – there is nothing sadder than wet bedraggled flag which are much in evidence in the Annapolis Valley. Nice to hear the rain plunking on the roof of our camper when we were settled in. Unlike the elderly group of motorcyclists who arrived at the camp at the same time as us, and only got to hear it rather than feel it after they had erected their tents. There was a long line up at the laundromat for the dryers! Houdini Tintin made another break as we were setting up the camper and had to be dragged back from several hundred feet away. I think she is trying to send us a message!!

Northwards and eastwards to Cape Breton Island tomorrow

9 August Having trouble getting good wi-fi connections so have just kept appending new posts to the MS Word version I compose prior to posting. Stayed the night at the HYClass campground. So so as a campground but a very nice location on an uncrowded beach. We walked the dogs on the sand, they enjoyed that, then we set off to drive to the Canso Causeway onto CBI. After a quick stop at the excellent CB Information centre where we were thoroughly organized into the complete tour of CBI, including directions to a pet shop where with the help of a very helpful assistant we managed to fit both K2 and Tintin into muzzles, apparently compulsory in the NFL Ferry experience, to transfer dogs from your car to the caging area where they spend their version of the ocean cruise. Set off on the Cabot Trail where we got as far as the Celtic Music Centre at Judique for lunch and music, which featured two young players from CDI music, a young keyboard/violinist with the surname McMaster and a young lady violinist/singer whose name we can’t remember now. Excellent lunch of lobster and haddock tacos and Kirsty bought two onesys for the new twins, modeled as tiny kilted dresses. Also made a mental note to bring our bikes on future excursions, had a very nice walk with the dogs on a former rail track which was very popular with cyclists. Meandered along the trail, stopped at a lovely church, L’Eglise Saint-Pierre at Cheticamp. Churches and graveyards feature prominently thru out the Maritimes. There are also WWI & WWII war memorials in many of the small towns, which made us think of the similar structures in rural NZ. Farm boys and fishermen must have been equally receptive to the recruiter’s call to romantic sacrifice, particularly when work was scarce and living was hard. Drove right around the road towards North Cape, in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park the campgrounds were full, not even overflow bare camping offering so we found a humble space nearby in a humble camp set up to take in the homeless..

10 August Continued along the Cabot trail, eventually pitching camp at Ingonish. Met up with a very nice, elderly US couple who had downsized from a giant motor home towing a Smart Car to a smaller vehicle almost identical to ours. They had found in their 80s !!!!! that their motor home and the towed car just too much to handle. However they still needed to travel regularly from Minnesota to children and grandchildren in the Maritimes, so hence the smaller rig. We admired their beautifully appointed model on the same MB Chassis as ours (theirs was a top of the line small RV actually manufactured in Canada), with a power raise/lower murphy bed; they admired our rig with an automatically extending third exit step, which made entry/exit so much easier for their ailing hips and knees!! Then minor disaster, one of the scissor jacks at the rear of the camper would not extend, either with the motor power or manually with a crank. No serious problem, just the living quarters bounce around a bit more. Thank goodness it jammed up, instead of down, which would have immobilized us. We called the dealer to get a contact in CBI to address the problem, then pressed on around the Cabot trail. A power cut shut all the breakfast restaurants until after mid day. I stopped for gas at the first garage we found open. I said to the owner we had encountered power cuts as we drove north. His response was that they hadn’t reached his place yet, but they may be working their way north (CBI idiosyncrasy???) Had seafood chowder at the renowned diner at Neil’s Harbor, a very plain and humble establishment, but the chowder was great, K took a bowl home for dinner. Passed beautiful bays and beaches and always fabulous views, not unlike driving in the Scottish Highlands.

11 August. From Ingonish to a very well appointed Good Sam Camp at Baddeck, with excellent wi-fi, so will finally get this long drawn out blog posted. We took the tiny Englishtown Ferry, a cable ferry spanning a channel about 200 feet wide, in order to get to the RV dealer in Bras d’Or early in the afternoon. The problem was diagnosed and partially fixed. The right stabilizer jack now works with a hand crank, no great burden. The raise/lower mechanism had jammed, causing the drive motor to burn out. A fuse should have blown before the motor cooked up, but that is something to be argued with the warranty claim. We found a very nice glass craft shop en route and bought some souvenirs and gifts. Heated up a very fine pork and chicken pie for dinner, bought the previous day, (La Boulangerie Aucoin). We plan to visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum and explore the Bras d’Or lake, a large brackish lake which has been declared a Unesco Biosphere Reserve, before boarding the NFL ferry with our muzzled dogs on 15 Aug.