Sarah grew up with L.M.Montgomery's fictional character 'Anne of Green Gables' as a favourite book, so a visit to PEI offered an opportunity to see the location that the book was based on. We spent our first afternoon on PEI wandering 'Lovers Lane' and 'The Haunted Wood'. Click here for more of the Green Gables site.
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Continuing our tour of eastern Canada we made our way from New Brunswick to Prince Edward Island via the Confederation Bridge but stopped off along the way to stretch our legs on Cape Jourimain Island. Click here for more on both the bridge and the island.
We visited the Bay of Fundy (home of the worlds highest tides) as a journey breaker on the trip to Prince Edward Island as part of our east coast adventure. We hiked a few spots and paddled in the murky waters before enjoying a blueberry beer to cap off the visit. Click here for full story.
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.
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.
A hike I have wanted to make for over 20 years is the wonderful Skyline Trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, Nova Scotia. So during our recent east coast holiday Sarah and I set out to tick another item off the 'bucket list' Click here for full hike and pics.
Today was our last on the wonderful east coast of Canada, we made the drive south from Sydney to Halifax stopping off to explore anywhere that took our eye. The journey includes driving beside the huge Bras d'Or Lake for over 60 km, we took a short diversion to cross to Isle Madame just off the east coast mainland and made the circular scenic drive of the island. We then crossed the Canso Causeway which connects Cape Breton island with the Nova Scotia peninsula and made the final run to Halifax airport, we returned the rental car and had a fish and chip supper before going to our hotel for the evening.
It has been a fantastic trip, we have covered 2500 km over 3 provinces in 8 days. We have stayed in 6 hotels and had sunshine every single day. We saw the impossibly picturesque Peggys Cove and the worlds highest tides in the Bay of Fundy, we visited Green Gables and saw the beaches of PEI before driving the Cabot Trail with spectacular autumnal colours bursting through the endless forests, then we hiked the skyline trail on a perfectly clear sunny day, we spooked a moose in the forest and had our fill of seafood every day. It will be hard to leave the ocean again and return to the arid plains of Alberta.....though we do have those incredible mountains on our doorstep. The main image below is from the northern end of Bras d'Or Lake where we made a short stop to stretch the legs, at this point the far shore of the lake is still visible, soon after this the lake resembles an ocean. Click smaller images below for captioned slideshow. This morning saw us saying our goodbyes to Sharon at Lantern Hill and Hollow before making the short drive to the Keltic Lodge restaurant where we tucked into a huge buffet breakfast. After breakfast we headed south along the Cabot Trail and out of Cape Breton National Park, the drive was filled with 'Cabot Trail views' all the way and as the sun broke through the cloud it made wonderful patterns across the ocean and the forest. When we reached highway 105 we turned east to explore a little of the 'non-tourist' part of Nova Scotia.
We first visited New Waterford and the lighthouse there, before following the coast road to Dominion Beach Provincial Park where we wandered the beach in blustery conditions. We continued along the coastal highway to Glace Bay for lunch and then a little further east to 'Glace Bay Bar' which protects a large bird sanctuary. After stretching our legs along the shoreline (and finding a nice piece of seaglass) we huddled in the dunes out of the wind and just sat together for a while with the whole beach to ourselves. We returned to the car and made the last stretch of the journey today to the town of Sydney and the comfort of the Hampton Inn there. The main image is a section of the Cabot Trail taken early this morning, the road can be seen in the midground of the image cutting through the trees, click small images below for larger captioned versions. We achieved our two main goals in visiting Cape Breton National Park today when we drove the Cabot Trail from the east coast to the west exploring short hikes and coastal walks along the way. We had a great time scrambling around on rocks and spooking a moose in the forest close to a beautiful lake (not sure who jumped the most, Sarah or the moose) I managed to grab a shot of it before it disappeared back into the forest. We intentionally took our time so that the predicted sunshine could burn away the low cloud before we reached the wonderful Skyline Trail hike, just 9 km and very little ascent provides some of the most spectacular views in the park.
This incredible hike is on the bucket list of many hikers worldwide including me, after reaching the end of the hike Sarah fully understood why. When we get back to Calgary I will write up the hike in its entirety, for now I'll just include a couple of shots in the gallery below. We found some more of that stunning seasonal colour and took a little look at 'our' beach beside the accommodation. We consumed more fish and crabs today washed down with strange sounding beers. The promised sunshine arrived on cue and we enjoyed perfect conditions in this beautiful remote National Park. Click small images for captioned slideshow. |
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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