NOVA SCOTIA, A MARITIME PLAYGROUND

Initially we were drawn to Nova Scotia (New Scotland) for a much anticipated maritime experience nestled along its 4500 mile coastline. Yes, Nova Scotia is a wonderland of crashing waves, craggy cliffs, beaches, foggy mists, lighthouses and lobster. We experienced all of that plus a bonus package including intriguingly rich history and some of the friendliest people anywhere. A 75 minute ferry crossing the Northumberland Strait from Prince Edward Island deposited us on the Northumberland Shore of Nova Scotia to begin our five week counter-clockwise circumnavigation of the peninsula. Our scenic driving tour would include more bays, estuaries, islands, cliffs and fjords along the stunning coastline than many locals have seen.  Almost an island, the 342 mile long by 81 mile wide province of Nova Scotia is connected to New Brunswick by a narrow 20 mile isthmus and nearly completely surrounded by sea. No point in the province is more than 37 miles from the sea and everywhere you turn there’s water, water everywhere. Of Canada’s 13 provinces and territories it is the second smallest province after Prince Edward Island. Thick forests dotted with lakes cover 80% of the land but there are also orchards, wild blueberry fields and rolling farmland. Under one million people call Nova Scotia home with almost 80% of the population able to trace their ancestry to Scotland, England or Ireland with France and Germany next on the list. We would soon learn about the historically tumultuous tug of war between the English and the French and how those ancient battles have influenced the identities, customs and language today.

We began the circumnavigation with a coastal drive along the districts known as the Northumberland Shore, which boasts the warmest water north of the Carolinas, the Annapolis Valley & Bay of Fundy, world renowned for the highest tides on the planet, and Yarmouth & Acadian Shores with a string of French coastal communities.

Getting our camping game on.
The lavender farm
Walking the sea floor at low tide
Home in Amherst
Look what else I found in Amherst
Cape d’ Or on the Bay of Fundy
That’s a major rip-tide
Low tide at Five Islands
Clams dug from the tidal flats…
…and served fresh in local restaurants.
Waiting for the tide to return
Amelia under “full sail”
The breakfast spread
The gardens at Annapolis Royal
Reproduction Acadian home of the early 18th century in the Annapolis Royal gardens
The Cynipidd wasp lays its larvae in this Rosebush which stimulates plant tissue to create these spherical growths. The wasps benefit by being covered and the rosebush doesn’t mind.

A garden sculpture and in the background early 18th century Acadian dikes built to hold back tides and create more farm land.

 

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s