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Published: September 11th 2006
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Sept. 5/6/7/8/9/10 (we overstayed by a couple of days according to our preliminary plan)
Prince Edward Island - WOW This has to be one of the most beautiful places we've seen on this planet! Farming, fishing harbors, red sand beaches, golf courses, Celtic misuc, fantastic scenery and great people! And everything is so close we keep overestimating how far it is to the next place we want to see - can't get used to the .6km type distances on the signs. You can drive around the coastal area of the whole Island in 15 hours. We don't know where to start to describe this province, but this one is on our come again list.
We started with great views of Confederation Bridge. We spent our first night in Summerside - a small city with all the amenities. Next day, we drove up the North Cape Costal Drive all the way to North Cape at the northern tip of the Island. We stopped at Cedar Dunes Provincial Park to see the West Point Lighthouse and museum. It's first keeper started in 1875 and retired in 1925 without missing one night of lighting the lamp. (Larry says there must not have
been EDO's or sick days or holiday pay). The second keeper was there until it closed in 1963 - 38 years. It was quite a sight to see farm houses and barns on the edge of the Atlantic. We stopped for lunch at Tim Hortons (it's a Canadian institution for sure) at the town of O'Leary, in the heart of one of the Island's most productive potato farming regions. The Irish must have thought they'd died and gone to potato heaven when they fled the famine in Ireland and landed on PEI - well after they cleared the forest and paid rent to the landlord. Eventually they were able to buy their own land. At Miminegash we saw how they gather Irish Moss. Various methods included riding a horse which it's up to it's chest in the rolling waves of the ocean, pulling a type of rake. Better than the original method when a man pulled a rake called a widow maker through chest deep water. Now they use boats with rakes. Everything else comes to a standstill and everyone goes to the beach to work when the nor'westers blow the moss in. They then lay the moss out on
their driveways to dry it. The Maritimes produce at least one-half of the Irish moss in the world which is used as a thickner called carragean in many of our food products (check your ice cream container). As we drove on we could see the huge white blades of the windmills at the North Cape creating electricity for the Islanders.
On the 7th, we drove through Anne's Land (Anne of Green Gables), the east-central part of the province. A big part of their economy is coming from the man made Anne of Green Gables village, museums, and amusement parks. Definately a great place for kids. We, however, spent the day in the more natural elements - looking at the beaches and harbors, farms and a golf course. We did tour Lucy Maud Montgomery's (author of Anne of Green Gables) grandfather's house. Her second cousin still owns it and his grandmother lived in it until 12 years ago. It was built in the late 1700's and is full of original plank floors and furnishings. It is really starting to fall apart and he is thinking of closing it up. We couldn't understand why it hasn't been designated a heritage site
Cute!
We have a tractor in the yard - here they have a boat! but he says the gov't isn't interested in giving any grants. The scenery in this part of the province really is amazing. We had a fantastic lobster supper at New Glasgow.
The morning of the 8th we headed for the west central coast and somehow ended up at another golf course (CountryView Golf Club) - just 9 today so we have time to sightsee. After Larry's great game (mine not so great, but if he's happy - I'm happy) we drove along the coast to Fort Amherst National Historic Site and on to Victoria. Then up to Charlottetown where we went to Province House - the provincial legislature and the place where the Father's of Confederation had their first meeting to discuss the founding of this great country. We did a self-guided walking tour (map supplied by the Visitor's Centre) and ended up in "Ye Old Irish Pub". That was fun but that night was even more fun when we went to a Ceilidh (concert) at the Irish Hall. Excellent music featuring PEI's traditional performers.
The next day, the 9th, we again went into downtown Charlottetown. It is a lot less stressful driving in this size of city
(40,000) as compared to Montreal. The Visitor's Centre at Founder's Hall, the old reconverted Rail Station, has a kind of corny multi-media show about the history of Canada. We did learn a few facts. From there we took a guided walking tour around the historical centre of Charlottetown. We learned a lot more from the guide. Did a bit of shopping for something for our little Jenna. Plan to shop for one of the grandsons in Nova Scotia and for the other one in Newfoundland.
We drove east on the East Points Shore Drive to Murray River where we spent the night at a barely adequate campground with dirty showers and laundry. Sometimes you luck out and sometimes you don''t. We woke to a foggy drizzle but headed for the Dunderave Golf Course. Our Irish luck was with us as it cleared up by the 2nd hole and we had a great day golfing on a beautiful course with ONLY 126 sand bunkers. Pat did a little raking of the nice red sand.
Some interesting facts about the Island:
- the population is only about 140,000 with approx. 40,000 in Charlottetown. The Fathers of Confederation met in
1864 to discuss forming the new nation of Canada. In the 1700's French and Irish emigrated to PEI, then other Brits and Scots. Today about 70% of the population have Irish or Scottish roots.
- it is relatively flat and farming is widespread throughout the Island. For our farmer friends - land sells here for about $2,400 per acre and like at home a lot of them want to sell but can't find a buyer. Potatoes are a major crop however, the Government has decreed that they can only plant potatoes every 3rd year on a field to prevent soil erosion. Some rotate the second year with wheat underseeded with rye grass and the third year they make hay from the grass. They said the price of potatoes hasn't changed in 20 years - sound familiar?
- lobster is not much cheaper here than at home. We paid $30 for a meal of a 1lb lobster, seafood soup, all the mussels we could eat, salad and dessert. But when you find out the lobster fishermen pay from $600,000 to $700,000 for a lisence to fish lobster (with a $20 yearly renewal fee), about $50,000 for their boat and $100,000 for
for Patsy
รค frame in a frame? although a bit crooked. their fishing equipment, you can understand why lobster is so expensive.
- Anne of Green Gables has brought a lot of notoriety and $ to this province. Their economy comes from firstly farming, secondly tourism and thirdly lobster fishing with tourism making a strong bid for first place.
- the Island has over 25 golf courses and in many places it takes only minutes to get from one to the next.
- the dirt and sand are a beautiful red color due to iron oxide and with the green grass and trees and the blue ocean it is one very scenic place.
On Monday, Sept 11th we took the ferry from Wood Islands, PEI to Caribou, Nova Scotia. We have booked the ferry to Newfoundland for Wed. Sept. 13th from Sydney NS to Port aux Basques, NFL - a 6 - 7 hour night trip and we return from Argentia, NFL on Monday, Sept 18th - a 15 hour ferry ride. Both are night trips and we have booked berths so hope gravol and sleep will help my stomach to weather the trip.
Stay tuned for our update on NFLD.
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Darlene
non-member comment
PEI
I smiled when you said you couldn't get used to the short distances to drive on the island. We found it the same way. We thought it would take a certain amount of time and all of a sudden there the destination was right in front of us. We're in total agreement about the beauty of the island. Love your blog, great job! Looking forward to NFLD reports. Dar.