The Road Goes On…

Category: Canada

  • Linwood, NS to Ben Eoin, NS

    After breakfast the temperature was already rising and it would be a hot day. We crossed the Strait of Canso and arrived on Cape Breton island. Our first stop was at the information center where we collected a long list of things to do and see on the island thanks to a wonderful agent.

    Because of the heat we decided to head to the east side of the island as it was cooler there and we stopped in beautiful Battery Park in St. Peter’s for a picnic lunch followed by a magnificent swim. There is a campground in this park, but it was too early for us to stop.

    We followed highway 4 along Bras D’or Lake and we thinking of where we might want to stay for the night. The perfect solution presented itself shortly after and Ruth slammed on the brakes and turned left into the Ben Eoin Beach Campground on a narrow peninsula. We were really lucky and got the last waterfront site, right in the middle of an extended Mi’kmaq family from around the area. They turned out to be super friendly and we had great conversions with some of them.

    The campground is mostly seasonal sites and on our walk we met and talked to several people who spent their summer vacations there for many, many years. The highlight however was a beautiful swim in the salt water lake caused by its connection to the ocean.

    The sunset was lovely and even Pepsi got into enjoying it.

  • Merigomish, NS to Linwood, NS

    We started the day with some gin and vodka. At a distillery, of course. After a tour. We visited the Steinhart Distillery and learned how they make their award winning vodka and gin and got to sample some afterwards. They have also started to brew beer according to the German Reinheitsgebot. The distillery is owned by Thomas Steinhart and he comes from a long heritage of distillers in Germany.

    One cannot live on booze alone, so we headed over to the Lobster Interpretive Center which turned out to be information boards on a cafe wall. Did you know that lobsters can be left or right handed, breathe through gills beneath their shell, listen with their legs and smell with their feet and chew their food in their stomach between three grinding surfaces?

    After the lobsters, the tuna also wanted a say and we learned about the blue tin tuna which is caught in this region and exported to Japan for sushi. The interpretive centre had a video that showed how these huge fish are caught by line and hook and then need to be tired out for several hours by playing them. After the chase, the fish’s body temperature is too high to yield quality flesh, so it is dragged alongside the boat to cool it down. It then further cooled once on shore before it is auctioned off and shipped to market, often to Japan for high quality sushi. The whole process takes about 10 days.

    After so much seafood and fish, we decided to have an early steak dinner at Mother Webb’s.

    It was hot and humid today so we stopped earlier at the Linwood Campground where we have a great spot overlooking a small bay, and most importantly, power to run the air conditioning. Unfortunately the beach is 4km away.

  • Tatamagouche, NS to Merigomish, NS

    We had a really peaceful sleep in the small picnic park near Tatamagouche and before we left, we had to take some pictures of this fairy tale like location.

    Martin had researched the next few locations that might be of interest and first up was a sheep farm nearby. A visitor’s barn held a number of ewes with their lambs that were so tame you could pet them.

    Of course there was also a store. Wool and yarn stores attract Ruth like moths to a light. After half an hour of agony about what wool color to choose, she settled on a kit for traditional mittens lined with wool.

    Just down the road was Pictou, a pretty quaint town with a harbour and a number of captivating stores. First up was the Grohmann’s knife factory. Free tours are available for groups of 4 to 12 and Ruth quickly went into recruiting mode with the customers in the shop and soon we had our group of 5 for the 1pm tour. We ended up with 12 in the tour. It was fascinating to learn the steps that knifes go through during fabrication.

    Lunch was sparse but delicious, comprised of two squares from Mrs. MacGregor’s shortbread bakery. We did of course also buy some of the shortbread as well. It is squirrelled away in the van, waiting for its turn.

    It was time to find a campground and we found exactly what we needed. Cranberry Campground is right near the water, has laundry facilities and free hot showers. We did four loads of laundry, cleaned the van, and were definitely ready for a shower after all of this.

  • Amherst, NS to Tatamagouche, NS

    After a quick breakfast and some shopping we started our journey to discover Nova Scotia. Roger, our tourist information agent had recommended a scenic drive on Hwy 366 which follows the coast and was definitely worthwhile. Anne Murray has a house along this stretch as did Ron Joyce. There is a Tim Horton children’s camp here as well.

    Our first stop was Heather Beach where we had lunch at a picnic table overlooking the Northumberland Strait at low tide. The red sandy beach has some sections of rock and red clay. Needless to say, after lunch we went for a swim. This isn’t an easy task at low tide as the water is only knee deep for quite a distance. We walked on a sandy bottom, then a rocky bottom and then sand again and rocks again until we could swim very carefully on our backs. We had a great time!

    After our swim, Pepsi also got a chance to explore the beach and she did with great excitement.

    The park even had a water wheelchair!

    On route again, our next stop was the The Seagull Company, a pewter manufacturer and shop. The factory was closed because it was Sunday, but they do offer tours during the week. The shop has really beautiful items with different patterns.

    Tatamagouche is a quaint small town along the route with lovely shops, including a brewery, chocolate shop and museum. The museum staff was just taking the Open flag in when we arrived, so not much to report here.

    Frustrated, we had to visit the Appleton Chocolate shop where we each had one Maple Lavender truffle, especially designed for a festival. It was interesting, but the St. Sauveur chocolate shop is still our favourite so far.

    Nearby was the Tatamagouche micro-brewery which also had a small bar and patio. We decided to buy two cans of beer for our sausage dinner later on. The young woman at the bar suggested a small park just out of town for our BBQ.

    The park has a number of picnic tables along a small loop, is very well maintained and clean and became our stop for the night.

  • Fundy National Park, NB to Amherst, NS

    Today was an early rise, a quick muffin and no coffee (a dangerous situation) or tea. We drove back to Moncton to visit the Farmer’s Market before leaving for Nova Scotia. Martin found a great parking spot right next to the market and the first thing we bought at the market was a 20oz dark roast coffee with milk for Ruth. The world was safe and sane again.

    The market had a lot of food stands, crafts and produce and we had a great time strolling through the aisles.

    Our eyes caught a berry stand that sold Haskap berries and the stall owner told us all about this super fruit and let us try some. The berries are tart and refreshing and have an almost bean shape and blueberry color. We bought a jar of the jam and are looking forward to trying it with some yoghurt.

    We bought some sausages and eggs from a small local farmer who has his animals running free on his farm.

    In a corner stand we met Serge Martin, a potter who also does amazing photography with a special focus on street people. His images attracted us and we must have talked to him for at least half and hour. He told us the stories of the street people he had photographed and how he shares 20% of the proceeds of sales of their images with them.

    Next stop was Sackville where we visited the Boultenhouse Heritage Centre, home of the most prolific shipbuilder in the area in the mid-19th century. The house overlooked his shipyard on the river. The effects of erosion, however, has changed the course of the river and there is no longer any water or shipyard.

    Adjacent to his house is an octagonal house, originally belonging to George Anderson, a mariner, and learned of sea-faring families.

    From there we drove to the George Campbell Carriage and Wagon builders historic site and learned about how wagon wheels and carriages where built. Many of the old tools and some old carriages are on display.

    Now it was on to Nova Scotia with a stop at the Welcome Centre to stock up on information materials, get suggestions for routing and fill our water bottles. It was a very positive experience!

    Amherst is right at the border and we had a quick stop at the Deanne Fitzpatrick Studio where we had a demonstration on rug hooking, got to try it ourselves and bought a small beginner’s project to try our newly acquired skills out on.

  • Fundy National Park, NB

    We had time today to have an elaborate apple pancake breakfast, yoghurt with fresh blueberries and lots of great conversation. Low tide wasn’t until 1:44PM and we made our way down to the beach to experience and photograph it.

    Now we had time until today’s high tide at 7:57PM. We used this time to visit Bennett Lake, about 10kms from our campground where we had an extensive and fun kayak paddle across this beautiful lake, making it back against the wind.

    Slightly exhausted and heated we went for a very refreshing swim.

    Dinner was in Alma, the fishing town at the entrance of the park. We walked through the various shops and, no, ice cream was not the highlight of the visit. Rather, it was the lobster fishing boats getting ready to leave the harbour. They loaded crates of frozen herring and fish heads as bait for their lobster traps.

    At the end of the day we went back to the beach we’d been at 6 hours prior to experience and photograph high tide.

  • Moncton, NB to Fundy National Park, NB

    We had to be out of the campground by 11AM as there was a big sign that they were very strict about this and charged for late departures. A pickup truck patrolled constantly and it felt a bit unwelcoming. We left on time and happily made our way to Hopewell Rocks where during low tide one can walk on the ocean floor to explore 2 km of shoreline. At high tide (36-46ft over the low tide level), the water rises to fill the caves and turns the flowerpots into rocky islands.

    We hiked and photographed for about 2 hours, totally fascinated by these beautiful and huge rocks that made the people look like ants.

    We went on to the Fundy National Park where we will be spending the next two nights.

  • Shediac, NB to Moncton, NB

    Martin was driving from Shediac to Moncton while Ruth was busy looking through the tourist guide for ideas of what to see. We were excited about all the options we had. First things first, where would we sleep? We checked into the Camper’s City Camping and Seasonal Resort but were told that they wouldn’t let us go to the camping site until after 1PM although we had paid. We had lots of things to see so that wasn’t a big deal. First up, the University of Moncton Acadian Museum where we met Deborah Robichaud, a true Acadian and former director of the Museum. She was the featured artist and showed some of her jewelry. Our conversation soon turned to the history of the Acadian people and her immense knowledge of the subject fascinated us.

    The museum is well worth seeing and clearly presents the history and more recent accomplishments of the Acadian people.

    Next door in the library of the university is the Esther and Isadore Fine Collection of Inuit Art comprised of 242 pieces from the 1930s to 1975.

    Some fresh but warm air would do us some good and the tidal bore was scheduled to happen at 3:54PM. The tidal bore occurs twice daily and reverses the flow of the Petitcodiac River when the higher water in the Bay of Fundy sends a wave upstream during high tide.

    A few steps away is the RESURGO Museum which houses exhibits on the subjects of transportation, business development and the history of the Moncton area. We liked the experimental exhibits for children and the iPad equipped walkers that read barcodes embedded on a map of Moncton printed on the floor to give you information on those locations.

    The historical section featured a Lutheran Bible printed in Nuremberg in 1747.

    A special exhibition on rug hooking was also there, although we didn’t get much of a chance to practice as closing time was fast approaching.

    Right next door was a very old cemetery and the Free Meeting House, restored in its original 1821 style. This was a non-denominational place of worship and bore witness to the religious tolerance in the Maritimes in the 19th century.

    This was enough culture for the day and we were really hungry so off to Skipper Jack’s Seafood and Grill House we went for fish and chips dinner. Ruth’s plate also had scallops and clams.

    Costco was next for gas and some groceries and to sniff out what Moncton’s Costco had to offer. It looked very much the same as ours.

  • Miramichi, NB to Shediac, NB

    After a great sleep and quick shopping trip at Walmart, we began our journey to Shediac, home of Parlee beach, supposedly Canada’s warmest salt water sand beach. Driving through Shediac, we experienced our first tourist town in New Brunswick with lots of people, cars and cute little stores. Our focus was finding the Adorable Chocolate shop and we were very lucky that it offered ice cream as well. Of course we treated ourselves to ice cream before we chose six chocolates to go.

    The Parlee Beach Provincial Park campground was only a few kilometres away and we were lucky to still get an electric site on this huge campground. A 15 minute walk to the beach warmed us up for the not quite so warm water. We don’t think it was the 20 degrees that the gatehouse said it was. Nevertheless, our first salt water swim was glorious.

  • Bertrand, NB to Miramichi, NB

    After the stress of preparing the mackerel, we slept like babies don’t. We decided to postpone breakfast and left the campground relatively early because there were many people leaving and we didn’t want to be in the queue at the dumping station.

    We didn’t have to drive far before the brakes were squeaking to make it into the Fromagerie Les Blancs d’Arcadie parking lot. Fresh cheese curds, still warm, were irresistible! We didn’t devour them right away but looked for a perfect breakfast place in Caraquet.

    Ruth decided on the right place for breakfast and ignored Martin’s critique. A perfect place it was. We walked a path towards the water and sat with the wind blowing not so gently through our hair.

    We skipped the Miscou lighthouse and headed straight to Shippagan, home of the New Brunswick Aquarium and Marine Centre where we learned about the various fish and sea life in the area as well as saw videos on the development and advances in fisheries industry over the years.

    New to us was that lobsters can have various colours. Very rare are albinos, which represent only 1 in 100,000,000 lobsters. The blue ones are 1 in 2,000,000. Regardless of their colour, all except for the albinos, will turn red when they are cooked as that base pigment is the only one that can withstand heat.

    The harbour seals were cute but not cooperative for picture taking as their feeding was still some time away.

    To speed things up, we took highway 11 to go to Miramichi, hoping to join the Headless Nun tour, but alas, this was not offered this year. We would have loved to be scared in a dark, mosquito infested forest. We had to settle for a simple walk in the mosquito infested forest on our own.