The Road Goes On…

  • Kamouraska to Arnprior

    The morning arrived extremely early – 4:30 to be precise. We quickly got dressed and then drove to the wharf we’d been at the night before but found the light lacking. We then drove to the other side of town where we found the sun rising with a farm in the foreground. Another spectacular sight and many images were captured.

    We then returned to the wharf and photographed some more.

     

    After a quick stroll throught town and breakfast we headed to Quebec City and we lucky to get one of the last parking spots in the lower part by the river. We immediately walked into “Les Fetes de la Nouvelle France”, a celebration of early French Canadian history, complete with costumes, crafts, foods and genealogy booths.

       

    Lunch was salmon with bearnaise sauce and a baked potato at Hotel Ste-Anne.

    From there we drove to Breezy Hill Camping for the night and got the last spot which turned out to be a little too steep for our Roadtrek’s minimal ground clearance. We were then directed another site normally occupied by a seasonal camper who was away that night.

  • Forillon National Park to Kamouraska

    The Forillon south campground has a service building that has great shower facilities and washrooms and it was only a short walk from our nicely wooded camping site. After a nice long hot shower we packed up and left with a target destination of Matane.

    We didn’t get all that far before we stopped to photograph another lighthouse at Cap des Rosiers.

    Soon afterwards we found ourselves in a rain and thunderstorm so we decided to drive as far as we could before stopping for the evening.

    For lunch we stopped at Cantine des Pecheurs for fish and chips but were disappointed.

    At the Fromagerie des Basques in Trois Pistoles and stocked up on more than enough cheese, bread and a pie.

    Dinner was at St-Hubert in Riviere-du-Loup or Riviere-du-Lop as our GPS calls it.

    We made it to Kamouraska but not before stopping to watch and photograph a stunning sunset vista.

    We’re staying at the Vistor Center parking lot, along with a number of other RVs and hope to get up before sunrise tomorrow at 5:17AM in order to photograph some more.  This area is very picturesque.

  • New Richmond to Forillon National Park

    After breakfast and cleanup we emptied and filled tanks and then headed out towards Gaspe. Our first stop was at a garage sale that had new pants for $5, new sweaters for $10 and silver plated candle holders for $1 each. $48 dollars later, I had three pairs of pants, three new sweaters and Ruth had three new candle holders.

    A little further up the road was a GM dealer and we dropped in to have the tire pressure monitoring system looked at.  The tool required to reset the monitors turned out to be a pretty expensive looking piece of kit and the spare tire wheel turns out not to have one of these sensors in it so we had to swap out the spare with the now fixed original wheel.  $57 later, the Roadtrek was happy once again too, not to mention freshly washed.  Great service!

    One of the next towns has painted all their fire hydrants as cartoon characters.

     

    By this time we were hungry and stopped at one of the many municipal rest areas along the way.  This one had a swimming pool and ocean view and we had our sandwiches enjoying the sunshine at one of their picnic tables. Ruth got caught in a lobster trap.

    After lunch we drove to Perce which has a nearby island that is home to many, many seabirds and a unique rock formation with an arch in it. There was a helicopter operation nearby and for $300 Ruth and I had a 20 minute aerial tour of the area. Spectacular!

      

    Hwy 132 in this area is very curvy and scenic and goes through many small towns. There are lots of motels and campgrounds and there are a lot of tourists. Definitely a place to return to.

    Our home for the night was Forillon National Park. This park was created in 1970 when land was expropriated. Some of the buildings, such as a general store, have historic significance and have been preserved as they would have been at the time they were in use.

    There is a 4km hiking trail that leads to Cap de Gaspe, the site of a lighthouse. All three of us hiked the trail (and back for a total of 8km) and enjoyed the view at the lighthouse and the two porcupines that were having dinner on the grass there.  They were incredibly tame and we got within about 3 feet of them.

     

  • Saint Peters Bay to New Richmond

    The visitor center opened at 8AM and I enquired where we could get our flat tire plugged. The local repair shop was just down the street and for $10 Johnny plugged the tire.  He didn’t have the tire pressure monitoring system tool either, so we’re still driving with the warning light on.

    After the repair job we headed to the second Prince Edward Island National Park and went for a swim.  A bit cold and Ruth had a crab climb onto her foot.

    After the swim was a trip to Green Gables, the location on which Anne of Green Gables is based. We watched two short movies about the site and L. M. Montgomery’s life and then toured barn, house and gift shop in the rain. Once safely back in our RV we had lunch and then departed on the long drive towards Gaspe.

    We crossed the Confederation Bridge into New Brunswick. The view from the highway is mostly uninteresting and we stopped only to switch drivers, coffee and ice cream and again later for gas. Once into Quebec the scenery is spectacular and we found a nice campground by the river for the night.

  • Halifax to Saint Peters Bay

    The morning started emptying and filling the RV followed by a trip to the grocery store to buy some food for the coming days.

    We decided to visit Prince Edward Island instead of heading straight back as we still had one unallocated day in our schedule. There are two major paths into Prince Edward Island – the Confederation Bridge and the Ferry from Nova Scotia. We decided to take the ferry in and then drive out on the bridge. The ferry runs every 1.5 hours or so and we arrived at the terminal just as the 2:45 ferry was leaving so we ended up taking the 4:30 one.

    Once on the island we drove up to the Prince Edward Island National Park and did a hike to the dunes just as the sun was setting. Just as we were leaving the parking lot for the hike I noticed a hissing sound coming from one of the rear tires.  Upon inspection I found that there was a nail stuck in it. We decided to leave it until we returned from the hike so as not to miss the sunset.

    When we returned from the hike we changed the tire.  Our $29 4-ton hydraulic bottle jack had no problem lifting the RV and we were done with the tire swap in about 30 minutes. The van has tire pressure sensors in each wheel and it now had a new wheel. I read the manual for the procedure to reset the sensors but ended up getting stuck once it said to use the tire pressure tool to walk about the vehicle to identify each wheel to the onboard computer. Unfortunately we didn’t have this tool so we just had to leave it in “SERVICE TIRE PRESSURE SENSOR SYSTEM” mode.

    Since it was already dark we looked for a campground nearby and found one in Saint Peters Bay. When I asked the guy that the office if he had space he fumbled around in his papers mumbling about there being a festival on and that one needed to book well in advance and that he didn’t know if he had space and that you shouldn’t just park anywhere overnight and so on.  It appeared that there was a lot of space in the park but we ended up driving to the visitor’s center and parked there for the night.

  • Halifax Day 2

    The girls and I had different agendas today. I spent the day assisting Brent on a shoot for a hair styling competition and Ruth and Pepsi visited Lunenburg, the Lighthouse Route and Peggy’s Cove.

    The photo shoot was a lot of fun – three models (black, blue and orange hair), one hair dresser and a make-up artist.

    While Martin was assisting in shooting the models, the girls (Pepsi and I) went for a great outing. Beautiful weather, a fast trip on Highway 103 to Lunenburg where I spent a couple of hours to get to know this historic town which was designated a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site in 1995.

    The town was established during Father Le Loutre’s War, four years after Halifax. The town was one of the first British attempts to settle Protestants especially from Germany, Austria and the Netherlands in Nova Scotia and, as a result, the (Catholic) Wabanaki Confederacy raided the community nine times in the early years of the settlement. I visited one of it’s oldest houses from 1753, now a museum which gives a great insight into the history. Fascinting how the news settlers found their new land, promised by the British King: Pick a card, any card from a deck of cards! On its back you find the number of your lot and you can find it on the map.

    Blue Nose II still under repair in Lunenburg and two new Schooners are almost finished by a small boat building shop called The Dory Shop.

     

    Then Pepsi and I took the Lighthouse Route back East, going by beautiful small towns, great beaches –no swimming unfortunately- and ended up in Peggy’s cove for a few shots and a wonderful ice cream since the day was very hot and sunny against all odds.

    Back in Halifax we met Martin at Brent’s Studio.

    At 7:30PM we met Trevor for ribs at the Boneheads BBQ on Barrington street. It was great to catch up again and share experiences of our travels in Atlantic Canada. After dinner we walked to a pub with great live Jazz music and had a round of drinks.

  • Halifax Day 1

    We toured the Marine Museum of the Atlantic and viewed a 3-D movie of the Titanic wreck as well as artifacts from the Titanic and displays on Halifax’s response to the disaster.  Among its many other exhibits, the museum has a display on the Halifax Explosion of December 6, 1917 which destroyed the city and was the largest man-made explosion until the first test atomic bomb was detonated.

    Next we decided to head towards Pier 21 and stopped at the Choco Cafe for Real Belgian hot chocolate, chocolate mocha  and chocolate fondue. This was delicious and gave us the much needed energy to continue our trek of 4 or 5 city blocks as well as getting us out of the rain. By the time we had finished, the rain had stopped.

    We marched on to the farmer’s market where we bought a small wheel of extra old crumbly gouda for $25 and a small piece of blue cheese for around $10.

    The Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 was next.  This museum is the site where 1.5 million immigrants came to Canada during the period between 1928 and 1971. It tells their stories and displays documents related to their journeys.

    An interesting quote from the museum: “A Canadian is an immigrant with seniority.”

    In the evening we met with Brent and his wife Megan for Indian food at Curry Village. Brent is a fashion photographer in Halifax and has been on three of our photography trips and has become a great friend and mentor. After dinner we toured Brent’s fabulous new studio and saw his huge collection of props and wardrobe.

  • Cheticamp to Halifax

    Today started with a house cleaning. Vacuuming, emptying, flushing and filling tanks, cleaning bathroom, etc.

    Our first stop was at the Inverness Mining Museum.  Inverness and the area around it had coal mines until the 1980s when it became uneconomical to continue the mining.  The museum tells the stories of the miners, the continual cutting of wages for the workers, the eventual unionization of the workers and the accidents that occurred at the mines.  One of the boys killed was only 12 years old.

    Our next stop was supposed to be a Whiskey Distillery, but we missed it.  The driver (Ruth) blames the navigator for spending too much time fiddling with the GPS and not paying attention.

    Speaking of fiddling, the next stop was the Celtic Music Interpretive Center in Judique which has exhibits on the different types of music. The more upbeat Reel was our favourite. There is also an 8 minute video fiddling lesson here along with 4 fiddles on the wall you can pick up to play along.  This must have scared all the cats in the neighbourhood as we worked through our E, A, D and G chords (we think). Many howls of laughter.

    The original plan had been to drive along the eastern shore of Nova Scotia which the map shows as a scenic drive.  A bit more searching on the map showed we’d have to take another ferry so we decided to take the Trans-Canada Highway to Halifax.

    We’re staying at the Shubie Campground in Dartmouth, across the harbour from Halifax.

     

  • Ingonish to Cheticamp

    Today we started the day updating the blog and making rough plans for where we’d like to be for the remaining days of the trip.

    The driving today was relatively short with only about 100kms, but several stops at scenic lookouts along the way. Lunch was in Neil’s Harbour at the Chowder House for fish and chips and lobster club sandwich and seafood chowder. While having lunch we watched gannets diving into the water. What a sight!

    We resisted fudge and ice cream at the lighthouse shop and then continued on the Cabot Trail. On the way back to our car we saw a dog driving an RV.

    The road climbs and then descends the mountains (to about 500 meters) with lots of curves.  Amazing sights of mountains and oceans!

     

    There is a valley where a fault line runs and the shifts are clearly visible.

    There are more studios and galleries along this route and we stopped at Arts North which has beautiful unique cutting boards by Larch Wood, colorful silk scarves and hats, pottery, jewelry and other crafts by Cape Breton artists. This is definitely a great place to stop.

    Further down the coast we found another great lookout with a Parks Canada staff member talking about whales.

    We stopped at the Cheticamp campground for the night. This is a fairly large campground and has serviced and unserviced sites.

  • Channel-Port-aux-Basques to Ingonish

    At 5AM the ship’s PA system announced the cafe was open for breakfast and we had one more hour of sailing to go. We spent some time outside watching the sun rise and Nova Scotia shoreline getting closer and closer. Once the ferry docked we were off pretty quickly and headed for the Cabot Trail where we had one more unexpected ferry ride of about 100 meters at Englishtown.

     

    The Cabot Trail has a number of studios and galleries along the way but they weren’t open at 8AM so we stopped for breakfast at Little River Harbour where lobster fishermen had finished their season and were painting their boats and chatting with each other.

     

    After breakfast we backtracked to the studios and galleries – glass, woodworking, pottery and leather. The leather studio was particularly interesting and Martin got a leather bowl for storing coins on the dresser.

    We continued on the extremely scenic Cabot Trail to Cape Smokey where we had lunch and enjoyed the spectacular view of the ocean.

    We continued on to Ingonish Beach where we finally found an automotive propane dealer and filled the tank. We settled into a wonderful campground, walked the beach, had a quick swim and then did a one and a half hour ghost story telling hike with a Parks Canada guide. The stories gave a great insight into the lives of the people, both native and settlers who lived here.