I hope you’re ready for more Lobsters and Lighthouses!

We were excited to cross the border into Canada as we love the people and the scenery.  Our first stop was the Seaside Tent and Trailer Park in St Martins, New Brunswick on the Bay of Fundy.  Here they have one of the biggest tidal fluctuations in the world, up to 55 ft.  As the tide recedes you can walk the ocean floor and go right into the sea caves.

Here’s a picture of low tide and high tide.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

We got a spot smack on this bay where I met a new friend, Honey and her wonderful humans.  We traded camping stories and enjoyed the view.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

The village of St. Martins, with it’s scenic covered bridges, is at the beginning of the famous Fundy Trail. This area is one of the last coastal wilderness areas between Florida and Labrador.  It has towering cliffs, waterfalls, and panoramic vistas of  unspoiled beauty.

We pushed on to Prince Edward Island.  PEI, as it’s called, is Canada’s smallest province and has 1100 miles of coastline and 63 lighthouses.  That’s one lighthouse for every 34 square miles.  Oy vey!

From past experiences we knew there was no way we would find availability in a Provincial Park, the Canadian equivalent of our State Parks.  Why?  Because if it’s camping weather the Canadians are “oot and aboot”.   We found a wonderful private campground, Twin Shores near Darnley, and settled in to explore the island.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

We drove the North Cape shoreline, with its red sandstone cliffs.  The iron concentration in the soil is very high here and oxidises when exposed to air.  Do you think it actually turns the water rusty?  Looks that way to me.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

Next we visited the tallest Lighthouse on the Island (see, I am being discriminating).

© 2012 Richard Broadwell – West Point Lighthouse, PEI

And this next Lighthouse is on the “seldom seen” list.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell – Old Cascumpec Lighthouse

But moving on… The Central Coast Drive near Cavendish was beautiful.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

We drove the PEI National Park Drive, stopping to see the Covehead Harbor Lighthouse.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

Boy, they sure are serious about their “Anne of Green Gables” here.  For those of you that don’t know, this was a book written in 1908 by Canadian author Lucy Maud Montgomery. It’s been translated into 20 languages, sold over 50 million copies, spawned numerous sequels and turned into countless TV shows, movies and plays.  I haven’t read the book but it looks like everybody else has, especially in Japan where Anne is an icon.  Japanese tourists dream of getting married on Anne’s farm in Cavendish, and actually do.  Some even arrive at the airport wearing red pigtails.  Now that’s dedication.

When my humans first tried to convince me to put on the Anne pigtails and hat I refused but their bribe of turkey treats convinced me and I must say I look pretty cute.  When in Rome…

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

Unfortunately our schedule didn’t allow us to do the Points East Coastal Drive cause it was time to move on to Cape Breton Island.

Cape Breton is known for it’s traditional fiddle music and it’s spectacular coastline. First stop was MacLeod’s Beach and Campsite. We loved this place immediately even though we arrived during a big blow.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

© 2012 Richard Broadwell – MacLeod’s Campsite

And one more picture because I loved this place so much.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

From there we hit the Cabot Trail which is 185 miles long and loops around the northern tip of the island through Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

The highlight for us was Meat Cove.  It felt like the end of the earth even though Newfoundland lies just 500 miles to the north.  This spot was worth the 8 miles of well graded dirt road as it’s rated one of the 10 most scenic campgrounds in Canada and deserves the distinction.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

The dirt road dead ends right at the family owned Meat Cove Campground.  The McLellan family have lived and fished in Meat Cove for 6 generations.  And what a beautiful spot!  Grassy cliffs right on the ocean.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell – Meat Cove Campground

But you do have to be careful, duh!  A couple of days before we arrived a lone tent camper who had pitched his tent on this rock protruding from the cliff fell to his death.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

The local news was full of demands to erect a fence… but it would be a shame to mar such a beautiful spot.  You just have to use common sense; don’t wander around in the dark, and tie up us crazy dogs fosho.

On our second night a full moon rose right in front of us.  We would have stayed longer but the weather turned.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

So we headed back to the Cabot Trail and continued along the east side of Cape Breton in the rain.  Luckily we found a great campground to wait out the weather, Joyful Journeys, right before the ferry to Englishtown.  I hung out with some new buddies; Simon, Broadway, Faith and Shiloh the cat while I waited for the sun to come out.

Nearby was Sydney where the ferries to Newfoundland come and go.  I had heard stories from my buddy Honey about the size of the moose there, and I really really wanted to see an eight foot moose.  But a hurricane was barreling up the coast so we headed south to Halifax instead.

We arrived at the very nice Halifax West KOA in the pouring rain, just as the outer bands of Hurricane Leslie were now hitting Nova Scotia.  We hunkered down and waited.  Finally it stopped raining and we headed to the famous fishing village, Peggy’s Cove on St. Margaret’s Bay, just southwest of Halifax.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

© 2012 Richard Broadwell

This is a beautiful shoreline steeped in lore about the brave fisherman who’ve had more than their share of maritime disaster rescues from the Titanic to Swissair Flight 111, which crashed into the Bay in 1998.

We camped at the beautiful family-owned and operated King Neptune Campground on Indian Harbor just minutes from Peggy’s Cove.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell – King Neptune Campground

It was a lovely spot, and right next to a lobster pound too.  Yummy!  And though we did go into Halifax for lunch, by this time we felt allergic to big cities after being in the wilderness for so long .

We explored further down the coast to the scenic port of Lunenburg but decided it was time to head back to the USA to await the fall leaves.

Just in case you haven’t seen enough of Lobsters and Lighthouses I will leave you with two more pictures.

© 2012 Richard Broadwell – Peggy’s Point Lighthouse

© 2012 Richard Broadwell – Yours Truly!

Coming up Next:  The Long Winding Road Home