I've made two more pages from the east coast tour today, Citadel Hill is home to the town clock and Fort George in Halifax, and the waterfront is where we dined and walked the boardwalk each evening. Click the clock below to go to the Citadel page and click the ship to go to the waterfront page.
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A place Sarah and I really wanted to see on our east coast trip was Peggys Cove, from what we had seen and heard it was a beautiful little harbour and just 45 minutes from Halifax. Often the popular tourist spots can let you down and leave you disappointed once you actually see them but it is not so with this stunning location, click here to see more of picture perfect Peggys Cove.
On our trip to the east coast last week Sarah and I really wanted to visit Peggys Cove harbour and the lighthouse there. Even knowing it's cult tourist status didn't put us off because it is genuinely beautiful. While researching for the trip I came across the lesser known Pollys Cove, just 2.5km east of Peggys Cove, it looked equally beautiful on the few images I found so we decided to stop here as part of the journey, what a fantastic decision that turned out to be. Click here for the full story and pics.
We awoke this morning to grey skies overhead but it didn't change our plans for the day. We made the short drive north from our hotel in Charlottetown to Prince Edward Island National Park which is a beautiful sand spit protruding into the Gulf of St Lawrence. Even though the wind was howling and the sea spray billowing up in the air we took a walk on the boardwalk, through the dunes and along the beach. We then travelled further into the park and did it all again on a different beach.
After leaving the park we took the Gulf Shore Parkway coastal road east calling in at numerous places along the way. We saw a guy kite surfing in St Peters Bay when we stopped to walk to the lighthouse there. No ice cream from the harbour store though as it (like many others now) is closed for the season. We stopped again at Greenwich just north of St Peters Bay and made a short hike along the shore to see the mussel beds, we had hoped to see the mussel farmers actually working but they were not out when we visited. We moved on to Shipwreck Point close to the town of Naufrage before enjoying a scenic drive all the way to the easternmost point of the island, aptly named East Point. Here the waters of Northumberland Strait meet the Gulf of St Lawrence and the resulting maelstrom throws waves in all directions, the main image below shows the meeting place with Northumberland Strait on the left of the shot and the Gulf of St Lawrence on the right. We had lunch in the cafe at East Point before following the coastline once more to Souris where we called in at the gift shop and ascended the lighthouse there. We then continued along the coast to Georgetown before turning west and returning to the British fish and chip shop in Charlottetown for dinner. It was a fantastic day on this beautiful island, but we will be leaving here tomorrow to make the long drive to Cape Breton Highlands National Park in the far north of Nova Scotia. There is no internet access in our hotel there, so there will be no update on the blog for 3 days, by which time we should have made the journey, explored the park, hiked the skyline trail and returned to the town of Sydney on the north east coast of Nova Scotia where, if time allows, I will update the blog on the wonders of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We left New Brunswick this morning and headed north-east toward Prince Edward Island. After an hour driving and just before crossing Northumberland Strait via Confederation Bridge we stopped off at Cape Jourimain National Wildlife Area and stretched our legs. It provided some areas to view Confederation Bridge and a nice little 3 km hike to an old disused lighthouse.
After crossing the bridge we stopped again at the welcome centre and picked up a few maps, we also found another great place to get more shots of Confederation Bridge. We took a lovely drive across the island stopping for lunch along the way. Then we went to 'Green Gables' to wander the location that inspired L M Montgomery to create the little orphan redhead 'Anne of Green Gables' which Sarah loved when she was younger. From Green Gables we moved on to the Gulf Shore Parkway which hugs the northern coast of PEI and stopped off at viewpoints and beaches along the way, we took a paddle in the Gulf of St Lawrence and visited North Rustico Harbour before heading back to Charlottetown to our hotel where we will stay for 2 nights. The main shot below is of Confederation Bridge snaking across Northumberland Strait from its northern shore (PEI end) click smaller images below for captioned slideshow. We left our hotel in Halifax this morning and made the 3 hour drive inland to 'The Rocks' Provincial Park on the northern shore of the Bay of Fundy in beautiful New Brunswick. We stopped en route to have dinner in Moncton before making the final short leg to the park along a road surrounded by incredible autumnal colour. The Bay of Fundy has National Parks, UNESCO sites, national historical sites, provincial parks, and provincial museums and has the world’s greatest tides (recognised by the Guinness Book of Records) with a tidal range between 47.5 and 53.5 feet.
Known as Hopewell Rocks the park we chose has a number of short trails and a couple of beaches allowing us to paddle in the murky waters of the bay. We met a park ranger from Surrey in England and talked about the location and the difference in lifestyle between the UK and Canada. We did cheat a little on the hiking front by taking a short ride up a steep hill on the back of a golf buggy and sampled a tasty blueberry beer and hotdog to finish the tour of the park. We returned to Moncton for a steak dinner and hotel for one night as we will be moving on to Prince Edward Island tomorrow. The 'Sunburst' image below was taken by Sarah at the base of Hopewell Rocks. Click the small images below for larger captioned versions. Sarah and I headed out east for her birthday this year. After opening her presents a day early we flew out to Halifax, Nova Scotia on Thursday 25th September to begin our whistle stop tour of the area. Our first night was simply a case of settling in to the hotel in downtown Halifax (overlooking the harbour) then walking to a lovely waterside restaurant for supper.
This morning (the official birthday) we first walked up to Fort George which sits at the summit of Citadel Hill just a few hundred metres from the hotel, we looked around the battlements and saw some impressive displays from the guards there before walking back to the town clock which has stood for over 200 years. After that we drove for 30 minutes south for a short hike to Pollys Cove which is an idyllic spot just 3 km north of its famous neighbour, Peggys Cove. Both are equally worthy of a visit. Pollys Cove is undisturbed and entirely natural, huge glacial boulders sit perched where they were deposited by retreating glaciers. We had a wonderful time hiking through and around them, we found a perfect little cove with a white sand beach where we paddled in the freezing North Atlantic waters. While paddling we found shoals of fish, hermit crabs, anemones and sea snails and best of all we had the entire place to ourselves. After spending almost 2 hours wandering without disturbance from others we returned to the car and continued for the short journey to the incredibly picturesque village of Peggys Cove. The small harbour, lighthouse and gift shops were all heavily crowded with tourists who arrived by the bus load but it didn't detract too much from the wonder of this fantastic little village. While eating lunch in a restaurant overlooking the sea we saw a whale repeatedly surfacing and occasionally breaching just out of the window. After lunch we explored the rocks around the lighthouse and found some more stunning photo locations, the image directly below is my favourite of the day but we found many great shots during the day. At 4:30 pm we returned to Halifax and strolled on the boardwalk along the waterfront trying to make sure we didn't miss anything before we head out tomorrow for the next leg of our whistle stop tour. Click the smaller images below for larger pics with captions. |
AuthorWe arrived in Calgary, Canada on 29th December 2011 to continue our journey. This blog is intended to keep our family and friends informed whilst we explore Canada.You can use the RSS feed below to stay updated. Categories
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