ATLANTIC CANADA, Part 2: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND AND LES ILES-DE-LA-MADELEINE

PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND:  Cavendish Coast (Sept. 14)

We're staying in North Rustico, a small fishing village near Cavendish, settled by Acadian fishermen in the 1790s. Today was a beach day.  Actually it was Prince Edward Island National Park day, free after Aug. 31.  Red sandstone cliffs, red sand, dunes, marshes and forests run along a slim 40-km coastal section that would be packed with tourists in summer.  Lucy Maud Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables lure tourists into:  Green Gables Heritage Place, Green Gables Golf Course, you get the idea.  The beach was wonderful for walking, beachcombing, dipping feet into the water.   You can walk for kilometres.  We also walked the boardwalk to North Rustico Harbour.



 
                    Cavendish beach                              

lobster buoys as house decoration, North Rustico

 

 

Tonight we attended the Ross Family Ceilidh performance in Stanley Bridge.  Ceilidh means meeting.  In the Maritimes, most of the music is from the Scottish highlands, but the Ross family has Acadian ties through their mother.  The place was packed.  Johnny on keyboards, Stephanie on guitar and Daniele on fiddle put on a lively show, with their mother joining them for step-dancing.  www.rossfamily.ca

 

 

 

 

Sept. 15 (Tues.):  The weather is still iffy so we passed on touring the windy North Cape in Prince county; instead we headed west to French River, Darnley, the Cabot Beach Provincial Park and Malpeque (oyster capital) through Stanley Bridge.  The back roads wound through small fishing villages and farms, some Acadian settlements.  After lunch we covered the Brackley-Dalvay section of the National Park where we fought wind and rain on our beach walk.  At the eastern end, Dalvay by the Sea is a rustic mansion built in 1895 by American oil industrialist Alexander MacDonald.  Today it’s run as an upscale restaurant and hotel by the National Park.

Malpeque

 

French River

Dalvay-by-the-Sea

North Rustico - Magdalen Islands:  Sept. 16 (Wed.)  Today started cloudy but as we travelled east along Hwy 6 and 2 (Trans Canada), the sun came out.  By the time we arrived at the Greenwich unit of the National Park on St. Peter’s Bay it was summer-like.   We trekked the 5 km round trip on the trail and boardwalk, past the site of an old farm, through a coastal forest and across marshy wetlands, arriving at the sand dunes.  The wind is slowly pushing the dunes back, burying trees that eventually become skeletons.  There was a chair waiting for us!

Greenwich unit of PEI Nat'l Park

Onwards to Souris (Sur-ree) where we had time to eat our picnic lunch before the 2:00 CTMA ferry to Cap-aux-Meules, Iles-de-la-Madeleine in PQ, five hours.  It was smooth sailing; we just relaxed, though there were things to do aboard.  We docked just as the sun was setting and got to La Maison du Cap-Vert B & B in Fatima as darkness set in.  We have a wonderfully spacious room, with an alcove and en suite bathroom.  Dinner was at the pub in town, Les Pas Perdus, where we’ve booked a room for our last night as it’s across from the ferry terminal.

Les Îles-de-la-Madeleine a brief history:  Long before the Europeans discovered the Islands they were used by Micmac Indians for fishing and hunting.  Early explorers were Jacques Cartier in 1534 and Samuel de Champlain in 1629.  The name “Madeleine” was given in honour of the wife of an early concessionaire in 1633.  In 1755, after the “Grand Dérangement” (exile) of the Acadians from present-day Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island, many came to populate the Islands.  Briefly they were annexed to Newfoundland and under British rule.  Following the French Revolution in 1789 families also came from St.-Pierre and Miquelon.  A couple of the Islands, Île d’Entrée and Île-de-Grosse-Île, are populated by Anglophones, mostly of Scottish descent who left their homeland after "The Clearings."  Many Irish settlers came to the islands following the potato famine.

Sept. 17 (Thurs.):  Our hosts, Irene (limited English) and Jean-Marc (fluent) were waiting to show us to the dining room this morning where our choices for breakfast were printed on a card.  There was cereal, fruit, juice, coffee, choice of eggs and breads.  We had omelette fromage along with a croissant.  The other guests, Helene and Denis, from near Quebec City, and Rosaire, from Laval, all spoke excellent English. 

 

We were able to tour all of the Islands in the archipelago in one day.  There are six main islands linked by long, thin sand dunes.  They take the shape of a half-moon fishhook covering 88 kms.  Red sandstone cliffs and white sandy beaches, green hilltops make up the landscape, surrounded by bright blue seas.  Temperatures are mild this time of year and we enjoyed a swim in the Gulf of St. Lawrence! 

La Grave, historic region on Ile-Havres-Aubert

 

Itinerary:  Fatima (Cap-aux-Meules) – Havre aux Maisons – Pointe aux Loups – Grosse Ile (populated by Anglophones, mainly of Scottish descent) where fishing, farming and salt mining are the main industries – Grande-Entrée (last of the islands to be colonized in the 1870s; lobster fishing brings in more than half of the Islands’ total catch) – back to Havre aux Maisons where we had our swim in the ocean (Gulf of St. Lawrence) and explored caves in the red rock at Plage de la Dune du sud – Cap-aux-Meules – Havre Aubert (the first Acadians to arrive settled here) and our Gite le Marie Michel in Bassin.

Marie and Michel welcomed us warmly along with their yellow/golden “Mieka.”  Our room upstairs with shared bathroom, is small, especially when compared with last’s night’s room.  This couple in their 70s moved here from Montreal 15 years ago and operate the B & B four months a year.  They’ve been trying to sell it for six years, since their first grandson was born, but there are a lot of houses on the market all over the Islands.  Michel says people come in the summer, are enchanted, buy but become disillusioned in winter when ice surrounds the islands until late May.  This couple seem to have a real enthusiasm for meeting people, which is something you can’t fake.  We drove around most of the Island before going to le Café de La Grave.  The season is pretty much over so there was no Acadian music but a piano player entertained. 

Sept. 18 (Fri.):  We ate about 8:00 and enjoyed lots of laughs and discussion; we seem to share the same views on many issues.  Marie’s breakfast was every bit as delicious as Irene’s and even more artistically presented.  There was a fruit plate on a bed of yogurt, sprinkled with sugar-flour-butter crumbs and a sprig of mint, followed by a country omelette. 

 

Itinerary:  back to La Grave (means “pebbly beach”) for another look at the fishing harbour and shops – Cap-aux-Meules (L’Etang-du-Nord and its lighthouse; Fatima (Belle Anse and Plage de l’Hopital) – Havre-aux-Maisons (Pointe Basse, Butte Ronde, back to Dune-du-Sud for another walk on the beach over to Butte Chez Mounette with its La Petite Baie. 

typical houses on top of hills with no trees nor obvious property lines

 



Butte Chez Mounette, Ile-Havre-aux-Maisons



La Petite Baie
 

Cape Alright, Ile-Havre-aux-Maisons, Ile-d'Entree in background



We checked into Les Pas Perdus and strolled le sentier around the harbour, up some stairs looking around the harbour and town.  The hotel room is surprisingly large and modern and well-kept.  Dinner was at La Maisonee des Iles on Ile-Havre-aux-Maisons.  We had a 45-minute wait so went back to Alright Cape lighthouse and watched the ferry approach as the sun was about to set.  Good dinner but the servers were a bit frazzled, dropping things and confused.   There was a large party of about 20 and their capacity is 44, so maybe that explains it, but everyone was jolly.

                       
                     Sailing away from Cap-aux-Meules Harbour, back to Souris.




ATLANTIC CANADA (Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and the Magdalen Islands, PQ)

NOVA SCOTIA: Halifax and the South Shore (Sept 6-8)
After a long day's travel Sunday we woke to beautiful sunshine.  From Dartmouth we drove to Peggy’s Cove over the A. Murray MacKay toll bridge and Route 102 and 333.  This was not the most scenic route but we took the Lighthouse route past small bays on the return to Halifax.  Although it’s a popular tourist destination where we competed with tourists for parking and a place to photograph the lighthouse without people, it doesn’t seem spoiled.  The dull flat light gave way somewhat to blue skies and puffy white clouds.


 

Peggy's Cove

          

Once back in Halifax it was a pleasant surprise to find street parking without a meter.  As it turned out nobody was plugging meters anyway probably as it was Labour Day!  We walked the whole waterfront promenade along Lower and Upper Water Street.  Dinner was at an Irish pub, The Old Triangle, just back from the harbour, where I had cod cakes and Jim lobster triangles.  Our first lobster tasting!  We ended with a stroll through the Public Gardens across from the Citadel. On seven hectares, this formal Victorian garden was started in 1873 as a private garden and is an oasis of trees, flowers, ponds and fountains.   

bandstand dating from Queen Victoria's Golden Jubilee

 

Sept. 8: South Shore. We travelled south along the old scenic route 3 which winds past Head of St. Margaret’s Bay to Chester, Mahone Bay and finally UNESCO World Heritage Site Lunenburg.  It was not a lot of driving; Chester was a sleepy hamlet and the town of Mahone Bay was livelier with many colourful buildings and shops to lure tourists.  The light was not right to do justice to the trio of photogenic churches reflecting in the water.  And the Settlers’ Museum was not open though it was supposed to be.  However, we had an enjoyable lunch of local seafood chowder at Rebecca’s restaurant along Main Street.  

Lunenburg Old Town

 

Blue Rocks

 

We pulled into Lunenburg around 2:00, parked in the Historic Old Town where virtually every old building has been carefully restored to Victorian facade and painted a bright colour.  We wonder how much original material remains in these wooden buildings built in the 1700s and 1800s.  It was surprisingly hot and humid.  We drove the 8 kms to Blue Rocks which is a tiny fishing village less discovered than Peggy’s Cove  with small houses, fishing sheds and lobster traps plopped on top of the striated blue-grey slate and sandstone.  There were no tourist facilities in sight save a couple of tiny shops selling ice cream and souvenirs.

At 4:30 we checked into The Lennox Inn on Fox at Cornwallis.  The house, which stands across from the Lutheran church, was built by one of the German settlers in 1791.  It was bought by John Lennox in 1804 who ran it as a tavern and inn, and is the oldest operating inn in Canada now. Robert Cram bought it as a derelict former apartment in 1991 and spent seven years in meticulously renovating it close to its original state.  Details of how he went about this can be found at the website:  www.lennoxinn.com.  There are four large bedrooms furnished in antique period pieces.  The former taproom is the present dining room.  We’re the only guests tonight. 

The Lennox Inn, built 1791

 

 

Robert recommended a couple of restaurants and we chose The Old Fish Factory where we had our first (but not our last) lobster dinner on the waterfront as the light was fading.  Unfortunately we didn't see the Bluenose II  as she was sailing between Yarmouth and Digby.

St. John’s Anglican Church down Cornwallis, built 250 years ago, was the 2^nd oldest church in Canada before being almost totally destroyed by fire in 2001.  It has since been restored in the original “Carpenter Gothic” style. 

St. John's Anglican Church

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lunenburg - Cape George - Cape Breton:  Sept. 9  As we left at 8:30 there was a light drizzle.  We headed for Bridgewater and the 103 north, skirting Halifax and following 102 to Truro, then Trans Canada Hwy (104) east, stopping in New Glasgow for lunch (lobster rolls at Subway)  We got off the beaten track on Cape George Scenic Drive (Hwys 245 and 337) with a stop at the beach of Arisaig.  Four hundred million years ago this area was a shallow sea; layers of sediment have built up which are now eroding exposing the fossils buried over the millennia. 

Another short stop was the lighthouse, now automated, at Cape George, a very windy promontory. 

 

 

 

 

Passing through Antigonish, we hit the Canso Causeway about 4:00, and headed up the Ceilidh Trail, Hwy 19, 30 kms to our B & B, Rachel By the Sea, in Judique (JOOD-ick).  Rachel took me by surprise.  She’s a very elderly widow who’s been running this business for almost 20 years.  She has four immaculate bedrooms upstairs all sharing a bathroom.  We sat on her deck sipping wine (ours) and exchanging stories.  She grew up on Cape Breton and wanted to join the Canadian Air Force in WWII so she would get a paid education later, but her daddy said “No” because she was a woman.  Instead she worked in the U.S. before marrying an American from Staten Island, NY, and that is where they moved and raised their four children.  After he died suddenly at age 60 she moved back to Breton to be close to her many siblings.  She and her husband had bought the property years before, coming back often for family vacations and had planned to build this house even before he passed away.  Again we were the only guests.  An advantage of staying in a guest house or country home is you don't pay tax, a considerable saving.  The side benefit is getting to know the locals a bit.

The Ceilidh Trail, Cape Breton

There being no restaurants in Judique, we were advised to head for Port Hood.  Not finding either of the two places Rachel suggested we asked directions of a local who said a better place to go was the “Clovitch”.  He said “Tell ‘em Wullfurd sent ya.”  When we found the restaurant called “Clove Hitch” we told them Wilfred sent us. 

The Cabot Trail and Cape Breton Highlands National Park - Sept. 10 (Thu.): This was not the best weather for travelling the Cabot Trail; we entered the C. B. Highlands National Park in the fog, going clockwise, stopping for a couple of short hikes, one at Lone Shieling in the Highlands where we saw a replica of a Scottish crofter's hut.  Another was on the Atlantic coast at Ingonish Beach.  I’d planned for us to take two days on the Trail but there wasn’t much to see other than trees, fog and headlands, so we carried on to Baddeck, arriving at 5:30.  All the B & Bs in town seemed to be booked so we got the last room at the Telegraph House hotel, a large Victorian structure where we paid more than any other place so far for less.  So I booked us a B & B for tomorrow night in Amherst, near the border with N.B. 

 

Crofters shelter, Cabot Trail

I noticed a sign for a ceilidh at St. Michael’s Hall at 7:30, so we had something to do.  The performers were a husband (guitarist) and wife (fiddler) and an accompanying pianist.  They gave lots of background on the music and Melody, the fiddler, performed step dancing.

Neil's Harbour, Atlantic Coast



 



Baddeck to Amherst:  Sept. 11 It rained last night, our first real rain of the trip.  We got coffee from the lobby and ate our muffins and fruit before checking out, walking a km. or so to the Alexander Graham Bell Museum where we spent an interesting couple of hours.  The drive across to Mabou and down to Judique was laced with sun, cloud and drizzle.  We crossed the Canso Causeway travelling the Northumberland Shore (Sunrise Coast) to Amherst.  Mid afternoon break was at the Jost Winery on Tatamagouche Bay.  After this, the rain started in earnest.  We arrived in pouring rain at Brown’s Guest Home where Nancy showed us to our queen room in a lovely Victorian house that’s been run by her family for 55 years; first by her mother, and now her.  Dinner was a five-block walk through puddles to Duncan’s Pub, where we had more food than we could eat (Greek salad and jambalaya) while being entertained by a guitarist who sang songs from the 70s, 80s and 90s.  

 

sampling and buying wine on the Sunrise coast

Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick:  Sept. 12 (Sat.):  Today was not a long driving day.  In no time we were in New Brunswick and skirted Moncton with great maps from the VIC, then travelled along the Fundy coast to Hopewell Rocks.  We stopped in at the Chocolate River Motel at Edgett’s Landing to pay, arriving at the Rocks at high tide.

 

high tide

 

We couldn’t go to down to the beach until 3 hours past this, so we took the side road 915 to Mary’s Point and Cape Enrage with its 150-year-old lighthouse.  All day we were in changeable but not bad weather:  drizzle, cloud, even a bit of sun.  Fundy Bay is known for extreme tidal change, caused by the funnel shape of the bay, deep at one end and shallow at the other, and the pull/alignment of the sun and moon.  We came back at 4:00 to walk the beach and watch the rock doves flit among the flowerpot rock formations.

Tide going out, 4 hours later

nesting rock doves, Hopewell Rocks

 

Cape Enrage, Fundy coast

 

 

We went for another lobster dinner at the motel.  Probably we should take a break from lobster for awhile now!

Prince Edward Island, Cavendish Coast - Sept. 13 (Sun.):  We had our complimentary egg, bacon, toast and coffee breakfast at the motel restaurant before wending our way back to Moncton, which we didn’t by-pass as it was Sunday, and Hwys 15, 2 and 16 to the Confederation Bridge.  The bridge is 12.9 kms and is free en route to PEI but you pay $45 to leave.  Similarly, the Wood Islands ferry to Caribou, NS costs $69 on leaving PEI. 

We found street parking in downtown Charlottetown and wandered around in drizzle, past Confederation Landing Park and a seaside boardwalk before having lunch at a street market on Queen Street (Indian food).  Province House, where the historic 1864 Charlottetown conference that was the birthplace of confederation took place, was closed for extensive renovations, but we caught up with the history at Founders’ Hall.  Their presentation is state-of-art audio-visuals, holo-visuals and interactive displays. 



Confederation Landing

Grafton Street church 

We stocked up on food at Sobey’s on our way up Hwy 2 to stock up for our cottage at North Rustico (www.nrmci.com) which took about an hour.  Dwight was very helpful with local info and maps, and in no time we settled in.  We’ve been spending about $100/day on eating so we’re going to enjoy preparing our own food for awhile.  There’s a BBQ on the deck and a microwave, mini-fridge and coffee maker in the spacious cabin.  It feels great to spread out and call one place home for 3 days.