Day 11 - a day out with Gwyn

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For those who haven’t been reading the blogs properly, Gwyn is our car for this part of our adventure. She had a rest yesterday, but today we put my swimming stuff in the boot (trunk) and headed off to Peggy’s Cove, a small rural fishing community on the eastern shore of St Margaret’s Bay, set in a beautiful spot with a lighthouse. The population is around 30 people, but there’s a tourist centre with a massive car park, and plenty of room for the tourist coaches that started arriving shortly after we did.

It was a misty and chilly day, with sea fog covering what would have been a beautiful view. I wore a coat for the first time this holiday.

Detailed risk assessments have obviously been carried out, and there are notices warning people to stay off the black rocks. Apparently, every year people die from being washed off these rocks by freak waves, and there’s even a security person who will yell, ‘GET OFF THE BLACK ROCKS!!’ if you dare to set foot on them. We weren’t the guilty parties, but we heard this yelled repeatedly at people who seemed not to have read or understood the signs. Thankfully most of the rocks were grey coloured, so we were able to explore with a smaller risk of death (I guess it’s never zero!) and without any risk of being yelled at. Sadly, there wasn’t a suitable place to swim here.

By the time we left the mist had lifted and the view across the bay was visible and delightful.

Gwyn then took us to the memorial for Swissair flight 111 which crashed into the Atlantic Ocean in 1998, approximately 8km from shore and equidistant from Peggy’s Cove and Bayswater, the other side of St Margaret’s Bay. People from both communities were involved in the initial search and rescue attempt. There is a cache here too!

We then drove to Mahone Bay. The roads in Nova Scotia are wide and wind through the pine tree forests and between the numerous lakes. Canada is the largest country in the world and hosts almost 880000 lakes, covering about 9% of Canada’s surface. Incredibly, this is around 62% of the total world’s ‘lakeage’! It was a beautiful drive.

We met Elizabeth in Mahone Bay for lunch. Liz is on the same tour of Vietnam as us in November, and I’d contacted her through the Facebook page suggesting we meet up while we’re in the area. We had lunch at Jo-Ann’s Deli Market, and had yummy chowder with tea biscuits (scones). It was lovely to meet her and hear about her doggies J

After lunch we explored the town a little, completing an Adventure Lab cache. There are three churches side by side as you drive into this little town with a population of just over 1000, a United Church of Canada church, a Lutheran church and an Anglican church. They’re all beautiful buildings, but we didn’t enter any of them. While Susan popped into some of the local shops, I grabbed a couple of physical caches.

I was very brave, and crossed two roads all by myself. Crossing roads in Canada has been a challenge for me with 4 way stops, lines showing crosswalks and me not being sure whether cars or pedestrians have priority, cars approaching from the ‘wrong’ direction in my mind...Susan has so far managed to keep me safe! Luckily there were only a few cars in this quiet town and I looked both ways several times before heading across the roads.

It was quite sunny now, although not toasty warm, and we headed off to Lunenburg about 15 minutes away. Lunenburg is a port town and has a large fish processing plant. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. One of the most important tourist attractions in the town is Bluenose II, an exact replica of the famous schooner, Bluenose, which became a national icon when she raced undefeated in the International Fisherman’s Cup. Luckily Bluenose II was in harbour so we were able to see the beautiful vessel.

The homes and shops are attractive wooden clad buildings situated on a steep south-facing hillside. There are several museums and churches, and one building which really stands out is the Academy, a large three-storey wooden Victorian building on the top of Gallows Hill, painted in red, black and white; we visited it as part of the local Adventure Lab cache.

There was a big blue fishing trawler in harbour called Fundy Leader - one for a spoonerism, perchance?

We had an ice cream and sat in some Adirondack chairs on the harbour before heading off home.

When we arrived back in Bedford, a white-tailed deer led us up the drive to our parking spot. Marg and David had returned from their cruise and it was lovely to meet them and be able to thank them for letting us stay in their beautiful home. They’ve been visiting the UK and Ireland, so we swapped stories about our adventures. David has some family connections to Peggy’s Cove, Mahone Bay and Lunenburg, as well as Bridgewater and a small town near Street in Somerset, UK. It’s a small world!

We learned that the ubiquitous Adirondack chairs are actually called Muskoka chairs in Canada – Adirondack is the USA name for them. It’s taken me several days to learn ‘Adirondack’, let’s see how I get on with yet another new word!

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