Sept. 16th, 2024, Day 20 East Coast - Parc National du Bic to Ottawa

This was our last day of the trip. Again the weather was nice. We packed up our gear, had breakfast and then started the drive from Rimouski home. We mostly used the various highways. Our first stop was a coffee stop for Margaret at the next Tim Hortens adjacent to the road.

Our next stop was at Fromagerie des Basques in Trois Pistoles. This is a very large fromagerie in a relatively new building. They also sell bread, sausages and dairy products. We bought some cheese from them.

We also visited Poissonnerie Verseau 11 in Trois Pistoles and bought more smoke fish items.

Then we continued our drive to the Costco in Quebec City. On the way we ended up in a 20 minute traffic jam close to Quebec City. At the Costco we filled up gas, bought more cheese and some bottles of wine that are not available in Ottawa.

We had a lunch stop a Parc des Berges near the town of Donnacona. This was a very nice stop. There were benches and a washroom in a nice setting with trees. Having nice baguettes with smoked fish items and cheese also helped lifting our spirits. Afterwards we continued our drive to Les Fromageries de la Table Ronde. The fromagerie is located north of Montreal and Google Maps guided us even earlier north than we expected to avoid rush hour traffic jams in the Montreal area. We made it in time to the fromagerie and bought a decent amount of cheese (Fleuron, Menestrel, and Fou du Roi (a new cheese of theirs)).

Now we embarked on our last leg towards Ottawa. Google Maps guided us on very rural roads to avoid further traffic jams close to the St. Jerome/Mirabel area and then we finally were on the right highway without much traffic towards Gatineau. The remainder of the trip was uneventful. Only the low sun in the evening sky was a bit of a nuisance while approaching Gatineau. Anyway, we made it safely home. 

Sept. 15th, 2024, Day 19 East Coast - Rimouski and Parc National du Bic

 We started breakfast at Brûlery d'Ici in Rimouski. Margaret was in need for a coffee to get started and this was the right breakfast place. Afterwards we walked through the whole downtown of Rimouski and before we ran out of ideas we got more pointers in the local tourist office. The water front and the downtown of Rimouski are worthwhile a visit. We had lunch at Le Crepe Chignon. This place can be recommended as well. It is still as good as 7 or so years ago when I visited Rimouski with Gongyu and Daniella. Other places we visited were Poissonnerie Ste-Odile, Poissonnerie Gagnon (this was the best poissonerie we have visited on this trip), and Fromage en Tete right in the downtown in the market hall. It was difficult to scale down the quantities of the various smoked fish items :-). Actually resistance was futile. We bought a decent amount.

In the afternoon we returned to Ferme Rioux. Margaret wanted to complete the whole trail from Cap a l'Orignal towards Fourche-a-Louison and return via LeScoggan (basically completing the Le-Grand-Tour). I happily declined this opportunity and had a seat in the Ferme Rioux visitor center and started to work on a handful of blog posts. I also had a good look at the artist pictures on offer in the Visitor center and ended up buying one. Margaret happily completed Le-Grand-Tour just before sundown (again using the low tide window) and I managed to post a few blogs. After Margaret came back from the trail we visited Bay-du-Haha! and watched the remainder of the sundown. Then it was time for us to return to the campsite.

Sometime in the night we both woke up because a train nearby blew its horn every minute or so. Also, plenty of truck braking was happening relatively close to our campsite. But the train horn was distinctive enough to wake us up.

Sept. 14th, 2024, Day 18 East Coast - Kouchibouguac NP, Bathhurst, Dalhousie, Campbellton, Parc National du Bic, Rimouski

Today we had nice weather again. We fold up the tent and headed for a Tim Hortens in Miramichi via the highway to have breakfast. We also crossed a good portion of the Acadian peninsula using the highway. About 15km before Bathhurst we left the highway and followed route 134 into Bathhurst downtown (from then on we followed the scenic route along the coast until we reached Campbellton).

We tried to park in Bathhurst downtown but did not find immediately a suitable parking lot. After seeing a portion of downtown from the car while looking for a parking lot we decided to continue driving. We stopped at the Poissonnerie Arseneau to buy some smoked fish. Then we continued along the shore of Chaleur Bay following the Acadian Shores Road Trip signs towards Dalhousie and Campbellton. We had a nice dinner at Charlo Beach near Dalhousie. There was a parking lot right at the beach with a few benches and a washroom. We had a baguette style lunch while enjoying nice view across the water to Gaspe Peninsula. Then we continued towards Campbellton. All along from getting into Bathhurst and driving along the shore towards Dalhousie we encountered again plenty of house with Acadian stars over the entrance areas and telephone posts painted with Acadian flags like the day before. I am surprised how much national identity symbols are on display everywhere in this area.

In Campbellton downtown we had a short stop and walked a portion of the town and the shoreline.

Then we continued our drive towards Quebec. We crossed over into Quebec at Matapedia. The drive from Matapedia towards Mont-Joli at the St. Lawrence shore is very scenic despite driving a highway. Amqui is a town that lingers in my head (it has a very nice ski hill). We had another baguette stop at Lac Matapedia. Then we continued our drive and finally saw the St. Lawrence river. From there it was only a short highway drive to Parc National du Bic. It was a Saturday and we wanted to make sure we had a campsite there. The campground was very full, but we still got a site. Actually it was the "worst" camping site we had on the whole trip ;-). After setting up the tent we went back to Rimouski for dinner at Parfum de Coree. We enjoyed a good Korean dinner there. We also managed to buy some baguettes at Boulangerie Le Farinographe.

Afterwards we drove back to Parc National du Bic and even managed to hike the trail from Ferme Rioux (Visitor Center) to Cap a l'Orignal along the St. Lawrence shore. We just made it to Cap a l'Orignal at around sundown (we needed low tide) and returned to Ferme Rioux via the Le-ContraBandier trail. The walk late in the evening was every bit as scenic as the one I had done 6 or 7 years earlier with Daniella. The trail can only be walked at low tide. Back then, we also walked into the sundown. Very crawled very satisfied into our tent this night. 

Sept. 13th, 2024, Day 17 East Coast - Kouchibouguac NP and Bouctouche

 The night in the campground was interesting: Suddenly at about 1 or 2am in the morning there was a tremendous low frequency noise. I woke up and as I listened to the noise it sounded as if we slept right beside a busy Trans-Canada-Highway with lots and lots of trucks. Then I thought maybe there is an army exercise with propeller air-planes and trucks or boats going on right adjacent to the national park. Anyway, it took quite a while until this tremendous noise died down (at least an hour and likely more). Later in the day, when I asked somebody from the national park, I was told that on the other side of the river, there was an active commercial fishing harbor located in the middle of the national park. What we heart was the fishing boat fleet coming back or leaving the harbor. Judging from the duration and the level of the noise lots of fishing boats must have been involved. And likely some were racing each other or they were in a rush to come back or get to their fishing grounds ...

We had another day with nice weather. We started the day with breakfast at the campsite. Then we headed for our first trail on Kelly's Beach. There is a decent sized very long boardwalk that runs from the shore to a very large sand dune about 500m off-shore. The boardwalk ends at Kelly's Beach, which is basically a very nice sand beach where people stay for a swim (when the weather is warmer or walk like we did). We walked south-east on the beach for about 3 to 4km, maybe even 5km one way. And then we turned around. Mostly on nice firm wet sand. At some points along the beach one could watch birds or seals. We walked way further then all the other people and greatly enjoyed the scenery.  The way back to the boardwalk felt a bit long however ... Very, very nice. From the boardwalk we counted about 20 herons that were chasing fish in the shallow water between the dune and the shore.

Once we made it back, we hiked the Salt-Marsh-Trail. This is a relatively short 1km trail, mostly boardwalk with nice views at the marshland between the short and the Kelly's beach dune that we had walked before.

Afterwards we decided to head back to Bouctouche to shop for grocery and more importantly to have another dinner at La Sagouine restaurant. On the way from Kouchibouguac to Bouctouche we took the slow scenic route. We came through a number of towns and small villages on the way. A good chunk of the small road runs along the shore and was very scenic. There were lots of houses with Acadian stars over their entrances. We also come across lots of telephone poles that sported an Acadian flag painting on the first 1.5m from the ground. One village stuck particularly out with an oversized Acadian flag being hoisted at the begin of the village. I have seen lots of Canadian or Quebecois flags, but the size of this Acadian flag topped everything I have seen in Canada. A certain Acadian spirit was surprisingly visible in the area. It was right in your face. We made it in about 1 hour to Bouctouche. In time for an early dinner at La Sagouine. Margaret ordered a Chicken Frigot (an Acadian dish) and a lobster roll. I ordered a haddock platter. Again, everything tasted very good and was affordable. The restaurant filled up again, as we ate our food. We also ordered desserts again. I think this was the best restaurant on our trip.

Afterwards we went to a grocery store (mostly to buy a few baguettes) and drove back to the Kouchibouguac NP campground. At the visitor center I also found a T-shirt for Anna.

At sundown we drove over again to Kelly's Beach. There we attended the "Moon and Dune" event. At different stations on the boardwalk and the beach one could listen to native stories told by local folks, sit at a fire, and watch the moon through a telescope. It was very nicely organized and informative. The moon was partially out and sometimes a bit clouded, but experiencing the marshlands and the beach at night was worth the while. We went to sleep at about 10pm or so.

Kouchibouguac National Park is definitely worth a visit again. No wonder the campground was nearly full despite it being post Labor Day. Lots of people had bicycle hookups on their cars.

Sept. 12th, 2024, Day 16 East Coast - Grand Pré, Burntcoat Head Park, Bouctouche, and Kouchibouguac NP

We had another day with nice weather. We packed up the tent, left the campground, and headed for breakfast at the Wolfsville downtown Tim Hortens. The place was crowded, but good. After breakfast we continued to Grand Pré. Grand Pré is another nice village similar to Wolfsville: Neat and old houses. Once there, we visited the Grand Pre National Historic Site. We walked through the Visitor Center and an adjacent church. Both host small museums documenting the landscape and its history (mostly 1720 to 1760 history in a sense similar to what was on display in Fort St. Anne in Annapolis Royal about the French Acadian farmers and their struggles with the British Navy and British governance). The whole landscape there is  also a UNESCO World Heritage site (Landscape of Grand Pré). The visitor center and the church are surrounded by nice gardens and we walked from there up to View Park and back. View Park offers a gorgeous view over the farmland with its dykes, across the Minas Basin and across the land to Blomidon Provincial Park (the hill where we camped on top).

We also visited 2 beaches (Minas Basin Viewpoint and Evangeline Beach) by driving across the dyked farmland and enjoyed the views.

Then it was time to head for Burntcoat Head Park. This was a drive through rural Nova Scotia. It took a while and then we arrived pretty much at low tide (as planned). Burntcoat is a superb municipal park (no access fee). One enters the park via a set of stairs cut into the rock to enter the shore at low tide. From there a significant portion of the coast line is accessible while some sensitive parts are closed for visitors. The Minas Basin tide is one of the largest in the world. It has carved a number of "flower pot" rocks away from the cliff that comprise the shore. At low tide, the beach is a few hundred meters wide and several km long. The flower pot rocks and the shore cliffs are made of red sand that looks spectacular. In same sense it is similar to Hopewell Rocks in the Bay of Fundy that we visited 1.5 weeks earlier, but longer, wider and less crowded. While there were a lot of people too, they dispersed easily. We probably spent between 1 and 2 hours there and walked a decent amount along the beach that was open for visitors.

Then it was time to drive to New Brunswick. Initially the road from Burntcoat to Truro went again through very rural (and scenic) places to Truro. But we had no time to visit the various "Tidal Viewing Points" mentioned via various traffic signs. From Truro we mostly used highways to cover some distance. We did a minor detour in Moncton to fill up the gas at the local Costco and then headed north towards Shediac, Bouctouche and Kouchibouguac. At some point it became clear that we had to make a choice between visiting Shediac or Bouctouche and we made a decision for Bouctouche and passed Shediac by staying on the highway (for a while we considered driving through the downtown, but then decided that that was not an option). We arrived in Bouctouche in time for dinner. Margaret had picked La Sagouine restaurant. It was very good and affordable. So good, that we decided to have another dinner the next night (coming all the way back to Bouctouche from Kochubouguac). Margaret ordered a lobster roll and I ordered seafood pasta with a salad. We also had dessert. All very good and affordable. The place was well visited.

Afterwards we headed for the last stretch on the highway to Kouchibouguac National Park. We arrived there very late. But the reception was still open and we were able to get a campground for 2 nights. We found the tent site and built the tent during darkness using our head lights. Finding the washroom was a bit of an adventure. The map given at check in showed a path way that did not exist where penciled in. Margaret found it. However I ended up with a bit of bush-whacking and ultimately also found the trail to the washroom.

Sept. 11th, 2024, Day 15 East Coast - Cape Split PP and Wolfsville

It was again a nice day. We had breakfast at the campground. Then we drove to the Cape Split Provincial Park (maybe 15 to 20 minute drive). From the trailhead we hiked a 12 to 13km round trail to Cape Split and back. The trail runs mostly in forest areas along Minas Basin to Cape Split and from there back along Scott's Bay to the trailhead. There are a handful lookouts on the way. And Cape Split itself is a gorgeous cape that offers views into Minas Basin, across the Bay of Fundy and into Scott's Bay. It is basically a hundred to two-hundred meters of open meadow bordered by steep cliffs into the Bay of Fundy and Minas Basin. There was a decent wind that was completely absent within the forest. Very nice. We did not see whales despite looking with the binocular for a longer time. 

After making it back to the trailhead we decided to do a bit of sightseeing of the northern end of the Annapolis Valley with the car. We made it to Wolfsville first. There we ended up shopping at 2 local farm-owned shops for vegetables and fruits. Afterwards we parked in downtown Wolfsville and walked various streets in downtown. Wolfsville is a university town (Acadia University) and was very lively. Lots of people walked in the streets (a good chunk were likely students). The downtown houses were old and neat. We visited a local cheese shop and bought an "Annapolis Valley Gold" alpine-style cheese. It was very good when I opened and tasted it a few days later. We also visited a Nova Scotia Liquor Store and perused the local wines. It turned out that the north end of Annapolis valley had their own appellation and we bought 2 different bottles as future gifts (as of writing this the bottles are still closed, so I can't comment further on the wine). We also had an ice-cream on the way.

Afterwards we returned to the campground and had dinner. We had another gorgeous starry night.

Sept. 10th, 2024, Day 14 East Coast - Thomas Raddall PP to Digby, Annapolis Royal, and Blomidon Provincial Park

We were not really sure were to head next from here. But over the past 2 days we figured our next destination would be the Annapolis valley (before we also considered heading south to Yarmouth or north to Risser). The main reason was that we wanted to have a more relaxed way back to Ottawa and not ending up having to drive very large distances on the way back. So the Annapolis valley it was.

It was another nice day. We packed up the tent and decided to have breakfast in a Tim Horton's in Liverpool. The cream cheese bagels tasted good. We also filled up the gas there and shopped at a Sobey's for the next few days. I also went to the local post office to get stamps for Daniella's postcards. Liverpool downtown from the little we saw looked like an interesting town.

Our next destination was Digby. We arrived there around noon. While not being directly on our route, Margaret figured she wanted to try scallops there and had located 2 possible places. The first one was closed, so we had our scallops at Carla's Takeout. The place offered all sorts of seafood morsels, but we we both ended up ordering the scallops for which Digby was well-known. They were good and not pricy. The place was well frequented while we ate there. Adjacent to the takeout was Carla's Seafood Market. We also went into that shop and bought various smoked fish pieces for the next days. We also drove through Digby downtown, but did not park the car and have a longer walk. Digby has a large harbor with an active fishing boat fleet. Next time I would definitely spent a bit more time there walking the town.

Our next destination was Bunchberry Nurseries located between Digby and Annapolis Royal. Steve had mentioned that the Annapolis Valley had possibly interesting nurseries and I mentioned this to Margaret. Now that we were here, we took the time to visit one that was on the way and looked interesting. We spent about 1 hour there and had a good look at all the plants and facilities. The staff had time and was happily answering any question we had. The nursery has a very large selection on water/bog-plants, shrubs and trees. I was very close to buy a pitcher plant as a present for Zandra and Steve but opted out when we heard that it needed to be watered with rain water. That was not an option for us: we were still over a week away from Ottawa and we only had access to normal water at the various campgrounds. So we bought 2 other plants similar to ones we had seen in Kejimkujik NP for them. I was considering buying a hazelnut tree but it was too large and did not fit into the car. I finally selected a grape plant for our garden. We also bought some smaller plants for Margaret. Last but not least, I considered buying a rock with some Chinese/Japanese characters painted on it but opted out after hearing the price. I will definitely visit the nursery again if I make it into the area. I was an interesting place with lots of unusual plants.

10 minutes later we arrived at Annapolis Royal. Our first destination was the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens. We walked the whole garden: Very enjoyable. I liked their Innovative Garden section: It featured a small hot house, raised beds, a smaller pollinator section and a few interesting smaller trees in a confined setting to show visitors what a home garden could look like. They also had an interesting section of ponds, sections with large trees and a sections with native plants. I will definitely visit the garden again if I make it into the area. One of the better gardens I have seen in Canada. Clearly the climate in the Annapolis Valley is relatively moderate and plants grow well there. We spent probably 1 to 2 hours in the garden.

We also visited Fort Anne National Historic Site in Annapolis Royal. The entrance was free for us since we had the one-year Parks Canada pass. The site features a small museum that is worth a visit. It mostly focuses on the 1720 to 1760 time and the events related to Annapolis Royal. Back then Annapolis Royal was the main French town beside Louisbourg in Nova Scotia. The Annapolis valley was mostly settled by French farmers. Over time the British Navy/military subjugated the area and ultimately the settlements of the Acadian farmers were burned down and the people had to migrate elsewhere. The British governors did not trust the local Acadian population despite their intent to stay out of the European British/French quarrels/fights. We also walked the walls of the Fort. It is built in a star pattern that was invented by the French architect Vauban. All in all, we stayed about 1 hour in the fort.

Before leaving Annapolis Royal we walked the down area. The town has a set of old interesting houses. This was definitely a worthwhile walk. We visited the local German Bakery (located in one of the old downtown houses) during the walk and had cakes there. We also bought apple strudel and 2 large pretzels as a snack for the following days. Later, both the pretzels and the strudel turned out to be very good.

We then drove to Blomidon Provincial Park to camp there for the next 2 nights. The drive took us from the south of Annapolis Valley to the north-east corner of the valley. We drove through a number of smaller towns, then a section of a local highway and then again through a chain of small towns. These towns look neat and are surrounded by orchards (apple), lots of vegetable fields and even vineyards. Clearly the area is fertile and the climate moderate. In some sense it reminded me at South-East Ontario and Niagara. We arrived at the campground late and had to check-in via a phone call. The campground is located on top of Blomidon and offers superb views into the Minas Basin and the Bay of Fundy. We managed to watch sun down during a nice evening walk as well. Watching the night sky from the campground was also super duper. Both nights were clear.

Sept. 9th, 2024, Day 13 East Coast - Kejimkujik NP Seaside, Carter's Beach PP, Summerville Beach PP

I stood up early this morning and walked over to Scotch Point. I managed to see a nice sunrise. Everything was quiet and again low tide. I walked the whole beach forward backward. Enjoyable.

Kejimkujik Seaside National Park

After breakfast at the campground we drove to Kejimkujik National Park Seaside. Somehow in August when looking at possible destinations I had totally overlooked this portion of Kejimkujik. We noticed the existence of that national park adjunct when investigating in Halifax if we should visit Risser Beach (halfway between Halifax and Thomas Raddall) or Thomas Raddall next. After noticing this we opted to go to Thomas Raddall first. And now we were visiting Kejimkujik. The parking lot was only a few km away. Roughly across the water when looking from Scotch Point.

We arrived at the entrance area parking lot by about 10am or so. The weather was very good, sunny but not hot (we had a nice breeze). From there we hiked first the Harbor Rocks Trail to Harbor Rocks Beach. This is an easy trail (2.6km one way) through a shrubby area that allows a relatively wide view. Towards the end of the trail one arrives at Harbor Rock Beach. This is a rocky beach with a few islands and small peninsulas. There were also seals. This trail also featured a pair of the red Adirondack chairs that Parks Canada places at particular nice spots.

From Harbor Rocks Beach we continued to St. Catherine's River Beach. We walked about halfway or more along that beach. This is a gorgeous beach with white sand. We only met a handful people there. We walked about half or maybe 2/3 thirds along the beach (maybe 1.5 to 2km) before returning. The beach is closed from April to August to protect the piping clover bird, but was open when we walked it. The walk along the beach was simply gorgeous and enjoyable.

We enjoyed the park so far very much and decided to extent our stay there by also walking the Port Joli Head Trail from Harbor Rocks Beach and it was rejoining Harbor Rocks Trails and back to the parking lot. This trail was very different from Harbor Rocks Trail. It winds at times along a few small rocky coves and then crosses the shrubby inland and also a few boggy meadows. We saw a few pitcher plants (a plant that catches insects) and enjoyed the wide view across the water to Thomas Raddall when crossing the shrubby section and the boggy meadows.

All in all we walked about 13km in Kejimkujik Seaside and enjoyed an unexpected variety of landscapes, views and plants. St. Catherine's beach is a gem all of its own. I can only recommend a visit of Kejimkujik Seaside when in the area.

Carter's Beach Provincial Park

Our next destination was Carter's Beach. Again this destination was only a handful kilometers away. The beach has 2 access areas and the street signs guided us to a brand new parking lot that was about 500m away from the beach (the other access point (and older one) was much closer and while smaller was used by pretty much everyone else given it was off season now). Anyway, after a short walk we arrived at the beach. Again, it is a good one. Definitely more developed compared to Kejimkujik. Carter's Beach is divided into 1 beach and 2 additional beaches by a 10m wide river (up to 1m deep). Margaret and I walked the first beach and arrived at the river. I had my toe-hook sandals with me and it was no problem for me to cross the river. Margaret decided to wait for me and not cross the river. I walked all along the remaining 2 beach coves. They all have white sand. All 3 beaches offer views to small islands located in the wider bay. The water is clear. Very enjoyable. There were a lot less people crossing the river. On the first beach a few people even swum. We all walked at times knee-deep in the water. All in all I walked about 3 to 4 km or so on Carter's Beach and we spent about 60 to 90 minutes there in the late afternoon.

Crossing the river was interesting: The river drains a boggy inland etang. The flowing water contains a lot of reddish and brownish plant material that generated very interesting color effects against the white sand when I waded through it.

Summerville Beach Provincial Park

Our last destination of the day was Summerville Beach. Again, it was only a handful kilometers away from Carter's Beach. It is again one of the white sand beaches. Unlike the other beaches it is bordered by Summerville village at one end. The beach is about 1 to 1.5km long and we walked the whole beach forward and backward. It was early evening and low tide was approaching. Maybe 15 people aside from us were walking the beach as well (some with their dogs). Idling in the evening sun on this sandy beach was also very relaxing and the conclusion of a very enjoyable day.

Afterwards we returned to the campground for dinner.

Sept. 8th, 2024, Day 12 East Coast - Halifax to Thomas Radall Provincial Park

We took our time the next morning. The rain was now much less. We had a baguette breakfast in the hotel and Margaret made her own coffee. The hotel had a laundry machine room on our floor and we washed and dried all our clothes.

Afterwards we drove to Thomas Raddall Provincial Park campground. We arrived there around noon and nobody was there. So we drove to the day-use parking ground. We walked the Sandy Bay Road and the Sandy Bay Trail. The trail goes along Sandy Cove and then meanders along the beach and the nearby forest. Then we returned to the campground and checked in. It was high tide when we visited Sandy Cove.

The campsites at Thomas Raddall are cut into forest. The sites are a bit bug infested, but we managed (the mosquito's weren't the most aggressive bunch).

After dinner we walked from our campsite to Scotch Point via the Scotch Point Trail and back. We visited Scotch Point at low tide and it has a nice sandy beach about 500 to 1km width. It was nice there and not too buggy (there was a bit of wind).

Sept. 7th, 2024, Day 11 East Coast - Bridgetown to Lunenburg and Halifax

It rained all night and most of this day. We managed to move our luggage into the car relatively dry during a 15 minute lull. We left the motel relatively late at around 10:30am or so after having our breakfast in the motel (nothing remarkable, but they did have cream cheese). Given the rain, we weren't really sure how what we wanted to do in Halifax.

We did start the day with a visit in Lunenburg. We walked the harbor front there and had a good look at the Bluenose II. It is a beautiful ship, no doubt. While we walked it started to rain harder again. We completed our harbor front walk by returning to the parked car one street further towards land parallel to the harbor front. Lunenburg has a very nice old downtown core. Clearly it is visited by a lot of tourists. The rain dampened our visit there a bit and we returned earlier then originally intended to Halifax.

We had lunch at the Halifax Seaport Farmer's Market. It opens Saturday's and Sundays in a big hall in the Halifax harbor. There is parking and the whole affair is protected from the weather. It is a good market. Probably it is a bit more geared towards tourists (especially the cruise folks) and less towards produce buyers. A decent chunks of the vendors offered prepared foods and non-food items that make decent presents or trip mementos. I ended up buying 2 decent pretzels from a German speaking bakery lady. While still expensive (by German standards), the pretzels were considerably cheaper compared to the going rate in Ottawa and better. We bought our main lunch meals at a Korean stall and an Indian food stall. 

Afterwards the question arose, what to do next. Margaret and I decided to get the check-in done for the Courtyard Marriott in Dartmouth. We had decided the night before that given the rain, camping was tonight not an option. Afterwards Margaret needed to be dropped somewhere to meet up with a friend from Ottawa who currently worked in Halifax. After dropping Margaret I met up with Gongyu and Daniella at the Halifax Maritime Museum. The two went in the meantime shopping a few presents for friends in a harbor front mall.

In the mean time it started to rain harder combined with a decent wind action: In short it was ugly to be outside. Gongyu, Daniella and I met up at the museum at around 3:30pm. It turned out that the museum entry was free from 4pm onwards. We decided to wait for the free entry (there were plenty of people doing the same thing). We entered the museum at 4pm. I found it interesting. A good chunk of the exhibition on the first floor is devoted to the explosion of gun powder that happened in the harbor sometime during WWI. It was interesting to read through the various descriptions and look at the pictures. The other thing I found interesting in the first floor were the various lighthouse lamps displayed. I did not make it to the 2nd floor.

After the museum's visited the question arose what to do next. We ended up in the MicMac shopping mall in Dartmouth. It is just a large Canadian shopping mall. We needed to stay dry (the rain outside was still ugly). and potentially have access to a food court. We killed a few hours there before I drove Gongyu and Daniella to the Halifax airport. Afterwards I returned to the Courtyard Hotel. I munched a half baguette and some cheese for dinner. Later Margaret also arrived there.

Gongyu and Daniella also arrived well in Toronto.

Sept. 6th, 2024, Day 10 East Coast - Graves Island to Peggy's Cove, Halifax, and Bridgetown

Today the weather was still reasonable. However substantial rain was forecasted starting sometime in the evening. We left at around 9:30am after having breakfast at the campground. Our first destination was Peggy's Cove. The town and the lighthouse still look like 30 years ago. However there were a lot more people compared to back then. I counted 13 tour buses or so (I guess, these folks were from the large cruise ship that anchored in Halifax Harbor). What else to say about Peggy's Cove: The house look quaint and neat. The granite stones surrounding the lighthouse are cool to step on. We spent about one hour in Peggy's Cove.

In Halifax we parked our car in the Park Lane Mall. Then we walked everything else we did that day in Halifax. We started with lunch at Beyond Pho. We all were served a good meal (3 soups and one vermicelli meal). Afterwards we walked into the Halifax Public Garden. This is a very nice garden. It is reasonably sized and offers a variety of plants and flowers. Definitely one of the nicer city gardens I have seen/visited (and more interesting compared to the King's or Queen's gardens in St. John).

Afterwards we walked up to the Citadel. Entry was free for us since we had bought the Parks Canada 1-year pass. We spent about an hour in the Citadel. I very much liked the walk on top of the walls with great views across town. We also visited a few of the rooms build into the Citadel walls. They had a low ceiling and I had to make sure I wasn't banging my head when entering them.

From the Citadel we proceeded down to the harbor front. We walked about one half of the entire harbor front. It reminded me a bit of the Toronto Harbor Front: A decent amount of modern buildings bordering it. Cow's Creamery from PEI had a shop there. We all had an ice cream!

We finished the day in Halifax with dinner at aFrite. This is a good fusion food restaurant. We had a common Fattoush Salad. Our main courses were a chicken katsu, fish & chips, fish taco trio, and a Donair meatloaf (I believe). My fish and chips was up there with the one from Saint John and Rusty Anchor, but also a bit more expensive and its coleslaw, while small, tweaked in an interesting way.

The drive from Halifax to the motel in Bridgewater was uneventful. We made it to the motel (Travelodge just before the rain started.

Sept. 5th, 2024, Day 9 East Coast - Ingonish-Beach to Graves Island

Today we had nice weather again. We packed up our tent at Ingonish-Beach Campground and left after making breakfast. We stopped on a lookout when coming down on the other side of Cape Smokey. Again we looked with binoculars for whales, but without luck. But we did see a bald eagle flying about 50m above us. Very nice. The view from this street lookout was equal to the view from the Skyline trail.

Our next stop was the Bell-Museum in Baddeck. We spent about 1 hour there. The museum is totally worthwhile. Interestingly I did not properly remember the building there. We visited the same museum 30 years ago and the museum site back then was the same as is now. My memory leaks a bit. I did enjoy the same black and white video clips with the hydro-foil boat being tested (and I watched the same clips 30 years ago and still remembered and liked them back then).

The route then continued along the Bras d'Or Lake and is scenic. But in the much better condition compared to 30 years ago. We stopped for a late lunch at the Irving Big Truck Stop and the Canso Causeway. Our meals there we good and affordable. I had again Fish and Chips. The others were also happy with their meals.

Afterwards it was a long and uneventful drive to Halifax. The roads from the Canso Causeway to Truro is relatively new. The landscape it runs through is the quintessential uneventful TCH territory. From Truro to Halifax the highway is in less good condition but has lots of traffic. Again we made it at about 5 or 6pm to the Halifax Costco. We stocked up on various items there for the next days. Then we continued to Graves Island.

Graves Island Provincial Park is a an Island with a very nice campground. We ended up with a good site there, put up our tent, made and had dinner. Some of use had a shower there in the evening, some of us had a shower the next morning.

Daniella and I had an evening walk around one quarter of the Island. The campground is relatively open and we had again a beautiful starry night. That was it for the day.

Sept. 4th, 2024, Day 8 East Coast - Cabot Trail

Today we had again very nice weather. We drove from the Ingonish-Beach campground to the parking lot of the Skyline trail on the other side of Cape Breton Highlands. The trail there is the most popular trail of the national park and well advertised, meaning a lot of people park there and do the 8km or so long trail. Compared to 30 years ago people are ask to stay on the trail (and in some sections on the board walks). We had binoculars with us, but we could not detect any whales from the main lookout. But it is a wonderful and easy trail, aside from the amount of people that hiked around the same time as us. There is also a significant effort made to reforest the area by using fences to exclude the local moose population from eating small trees. At the end of the trail, significant amounts of board-walks have been put in place with benches to avoid people walking around the meadows. All of this is fine, but does indicate that the trail is heavily visited. The view from above towards the ocean is regardless very nice. It took us around 2 to 3 hours to complete the trail.

Afterwards we drove backwards (we did not drive all the way to Cheticamp). We stopped ad-hoc at various lookouts and has a late lunch at the Rusty Anchor, a restaurant located in Pleasant Bay. The meal there was very good and affordable. Margaret and Gongyu had a lobster roll, (todo: ask Daniella what she had), and I had a grilled haddock with fries and a coleslaw. This was the best restaurant so far together with the Saint John fish restaurant in the market hall. Everyone was happy. We sat outside in the garden and the view from there towards the sea was also super nice. The Rusty Anchor can be recommended.

Afterwards we continued driving back towards the Ingonish-Beach campground. We stopped at the Beulach Ban Waterfall. This turned out to be a 100 to 200m long easy trail ending at a 50 to 100m high rock wall with a small water fall, lots of moss. We spend about 20 minutes for this trail and the time to admire the waterfall and rocks.

We gained a bit of time because the visited to the waterfall was shorter than expected. That time was invested in a visit to the lighthouse in Neil's Harbor. The ground level of the lighthouse is now an ice-cream shop. I skipped the ice-cream, but from what I licked from Gongyu's portion and from the comments of everyone else this was the best and most affordable ice-cream we had so far on the trip. Definitely Gongyu's walnut ice-cream tasted super duper. And the scoops were big and affordable. The ice-cream shop in the Neil's Harbor lighthouse was a winner again and was worth the few km of detour. Also the views from the lighthouse and Neil's Harbor itself was worth a visit.

Our last hike of the day was from Black Rock Cove Beach. We walked a portion of the Jack Pine Trail. It was getting late, but the area turned out to be nice, so we tried to do at least a few lookouts of this trail. Gongyu stayed back at the car and Daniella, Margaret and I embarked on the walk. The first lookout had even 2 of the red Adirondack chairs from Parks Canada. We enjoyed the views from there towards the Black Rock Cove Beach. Afterwards we hiked a few km more to 2 additional lookouts. Everything was rocks, blue water and blueberry to small pines type country. Very nice. But we had to return. It was getting late and we did not want to let Gongyu wait too long for us. So we returned maybe at 30% of the trail in. The whole Jack Pine Trail all the way to Neil's Harbor has to wait for another time. Not many people were on this trail. But it is a very nice one. Definitely on the list for next time :-)

We concluded the day with making the usual tortellini tomato sauce dinner. It was a very nice day. Totally enjoyable.

Sept. 3rd, 2024, Day 7 East Coast - Ingonish Beach

We experienced 2 quick showers in the morning, interrupted by blue sky and sunshine. And then we had a nice day weatherwise. After breakfast we hiked straight from the Ingonish-Beach campground to the start of the Middle-Head trail. Middle-Head is a long stretched peninsula. The first portion of the walk from the campground to the begin of the trail runs along a golf course (with luxury lodge and all the usual facilities). Once we walked through all of this we reached the parking lot that is the actual start of the trail. The trail goes through forestry areas with some cliffs being passed as well in a figure-eight fashion. Some of this has some similarities to the West-Coast Trail: deep blue sky, crystal clear water with waves crashing against some cliffs, trees (deciduous and pines) with lots of lichen. and in the figure-eight a meadow were one can see the sea on both sides and finally a very nice tip with a meadow again and the iconic red Adirondack chair. We looked out for whales on both sides/coves of the peninsula, but without luck. The whole trail  from the campground all the way to the tip of the peninsula and back was about 9km or so.

Please note that the map above is not accurate in terms of the hiking path. I added the map more for reference where the Ingonish-Beach campground is related to the Middle-Head peninsula.

After we returned to the campground, we organised a campsite move. The existing site turned out to be very uneven making sleeping a bit difficult. Also it was judged to far away from the hut with the electricity. Ingonish-Beach campground was probably max 50% occupied. So organizing a move was easy.

Once that was accomplished we headed for the "Main Street Restaurant". The place was very popular. However after all was eaten we concluded that it was a bit overpriced or in other words the food was not as good as we hoped for. My special of the day halibut with fries and vegetables was not bad, but totally overpriced with 40$. Margarets and Gongyu's fish and chips had a too thick batter and the slaw was ordinary. And Daniella was also not entirely happy. However the place  was crowded and had a long waiting queue. There is a German saying: You have to earn your money from the living ...

After coming back from dinner we walked from the campground down to the beach of Ingonish-Beach. The beach is a nice sand beach and about 1.5km long. Gongyu meditated at the beach entrance. Margaret, Daniella and I walked the whole beach from the entrance to the far end and back. At low tide and into a nice late evening this was very nice. After we were back at the campground it was getting dark. The night sky in Ingonish-Beach is very nice. I went out of the tent very late for a washroom visit. I have to say the night-sky looked as good as in the dark cove at the Fundy astronomy event. Looks of stars. Super duper.

The Ingonish-Beach campground has a very good ratio of facilities to campsites. Everything is clean and feels very good.

Our new tent also turned out to be so far, so good. It offers more depth and width compared to our existing tent. Enough space for 4 people to sleep. However its height is more limited compared to our old tent. This makes changing clothes and getting in and out a bit more difficult. The new tent feels a lot more airy and is probably not as heat-preserving efficient compared to our old tent. We have yet to test it during a cold night. Also there appears to be condensed water accumulation on the inside of the outer  tent. Initially we also missed pockets inside the tent. But after a few nights we discovered that the pockets were placed in the top part of the tent and not in the bottom part like in our existing tent. All in all we are adjusting to the new tent.

Sept. 2nd, 2024, Day 6 East Coast - Alma to Ingonish Beach

In the early morning a shower went through, but not a lot. We broke up the tent and packed the car. Our bench was still wet. So we decided to have our breakfast at the Alma parking lot at the entrance of the park. I had noticed that there were a few benches earlier. The parking lot was fully exposed to the sun and the benches were dry. Having breakfast while looking at the beach and river delta was nice.

Afterwards a decision was made to visit Hopewell Rocks again. Our entrance ticket from the evening before was still valid (24h ticket). A chunk of us wanted to see the scenery again (at high tide) from the lookouts on top. What was planned to be a 20 minute stop was probably more of a 1-hour stop: We visited multiple lookouts.

Afterwards we continued driving to Moncton. The area closer to Moncton has now much more housing along the river there. 30 years ago this was marshland with huge swarms of migrating birds. This time we did not see lots of birds. Maybe they moved already south or the main migration has yet to happen.

At Moncton we rejoined the TCH and the driving was uneventful again. We had a stop at Masstown. The intent was to stock up on produce and have a lunch. It turned out that the various shops there were super popular (lots of lengthy line-ups), a good number of items relatively expensive. Maybe this was because they were open at Labour-Day and the people had to stock up on food before returning home from their vacation. I could not really figure out why the grocery shop was so popular. There was also a butchery that was selling steaks and ground beef galore with a lineup of people. The steaks looked good, but their pricing felt more or less the same as in Ottawa. We stocked up on some bacon strips and a cabanossi. We also bought a tomato sauce that was probably double the price of an equally good one at Costco. The Masstown Dairy was interesting to visit. They are a cheddar shop, which is not so much my thing. We bought a smaller chunk at the usual "artisan cheese" prices. No wonder the line-ups in the dairy was less. I could never figure out why the grocery/produce store was so popular (it was the most popular shop). The produce on offer was ok, but nothing I would rave about in Ottawa and not cheap either. There was also a seafood shop which we ultimately skipped, because the line-up for a meal in that shop was 30 minutes. Supposedly people order their food via phone and have it when they arrive 30 minutes later. We ended up going for some sandwiches in the butchery/dairy complex: The waiting line there was something we could stomach.

The drive via Antigonish to Cape Bretton was uneventful. The usual TCH 4-lane stuff. All these multi-lane highways look recently build. From Cape Bretton onwards the road changed to 3 lanes. The scenery along Lake D'Or was nice. We did not make it to the Bell Museum in Baddeck (it was about 5:30pm at that time). The scenery improved even further when we took the turn towards Ingonish (smaller road and more ocean views). We arrived at about 7:30pm or so at the Ingonish-Beach campground. By the time we had put up the tent and had made dinner it was dark.

As we progressed north-east, the weather became more cloudy but it did not rain.

Sept. 1st, 2024, Day 5 East Coast - Hopewell Rocks and Fundy National Park

TODO: Add all the pictures 

It started to rain early in the morning. And it rained consistently until about 5pm. Sometimes a misty rain, sometimes something more substantial.

We started the day with breakfast in the hut of the campground. Afterwards we headed for the visitor center. We did end up buying a few items (I got a new T-shirt). Then we headed for Alma to visit the various shops there (general store, bakery, another souvenir store) and we also had lunch. At the Kelly's Bakeshop we bought 6 muffins (good) and a blue-berry pie (super duper  good. Probably the best blueberry pie I had in Canada). New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are definitely  blueberry country. The lunch was reasonable. The fish portion of my fish and chips was good, the fries portion and the slaw was not so impressive. The seafood chowder ordered by Gongyu and Margaret was good. It was still raining.

After some procrastination we decided to brave the weather and went for the Caribou-Loop. It was a nice 1.5km or so loop leading through board walks crossing bogs and marsh land, through pine and moss areas and some leafy sections that had their own charm. We were in good spirits despite the rain.

Afterwards we decided to do the 40 minute drive to Hopewell Rocks and see them at low tide. It still rained when we arrived. But as luck had it, the rain little by little stopped as we walked among the rocks. The area has very much changed compared to 30 years ago. There is now a huge visitor center with integrated restaurant. Huge parking lots and a shuttle operation to and from the rocks. We bought non-shuttle cheaper tickets and walked all of this. There were several lookouts high above. But finally we reached a stair construction that led down to the beach. At low tide the rocks were much accessible compared to 30 years ago. We basically walked the whole way back on the beach and had a good look at the various "Flower Pot" rocks. Very nice. And then it was back all the way to the stair. In the meantime even the sun made a short appearance. The whole walk is about 4km (1km to get to the stair, 1km on the beach one way, 1km back to the stair, and the final 1km back to the parking lot).

The most impressive thing for me at Hopewell Rocks was visiting the 2 lookouts that had very good visibility of "Daniel's Flats". This was a huge tidal area (maybe 2km wide and 10 to 15km long). that was sand during low tide. Super interesting to see this amount of sand and the water streams  draining it. This area is not accessible. But from the lookout it is super interesting.

We made dinner at the campground when we returned. As usual, tortellini with tomato sauce :-)

Aug. 31st, 2024, Day 4 East Coast - Fundy National Park

TODO: Add all the pictures.

The breakfast at the Pinecone motel in Sussex was good. It had a personal note, while serving the usual items (the lady served us fresh fried eggs and the scones and similar were good). The motel, while a bit aged, is well maintained by a couple. The lawn is spotless. It is a reasonable place to stay.

The weather was again very good today.

We continued via a short drive to Fundy National Park. We bought a 1-year Parks Canada pass. Post buying the pass, I was told by my daughter that if I bought the pass a day later, it would have been valid for all of Sept. 2025 (which might have been interesting for me/us). Anyway, this is water under the bridge. We checked in at the Headquarter campground near Alma and set up the tents.

Afterwards we did the Dickson Falls loop. This loop did not exist 30 years ago and it is very very beautiful. Some sort of natural Japanese garden. The walk is mostly a boardwalk that runs along a brook in a deep ravine. The sides of the ravine are covered by moss, stones, and a few young trees. The higher up canopy is formed by pine trees. The water of the brook and the waterfalls were crystal clear. The walk is a little gem and about 1 to 1.5km long.

Afterwards we drove to Herring's cove and had our breakfast/lunch there. We walked down to the beach and from there quite a bit up and down to the Matthew's Head lookout. I believe Gongyu and I did the same walk with Gongyu 30 plus years ago. This time the walk remainded me at the forest portion of the West Coast Trail. Steep sections up and then down. Lots of tree roots in the way (but everything was dry here). I managed to hook my shoes twice into tree roots and have a slow-motion fall to my hands and knees (nothing serious, I did not have a 20kg plus backpack pushing me down). The views from the 2 lookout were nice. We returned the same way to the parking lot.

Our last trip of the day was at the Alma beach. The tide was approaching its low at about 6pm.We (my daughters and me) walked about 400m out on wet sand and enjoyed the scenery. There is plenty of beach and despite lots of people doing the same thing, the beach did not feel overcrowded at all.

We had dinner back at the campground (tortellini with tomato sauce).

And then we headed out for a star-gazing event at Herring's Cove organized by a local astronomy club. The event started at about 8:30pm with a slide presentation explaining what we were about to see. And then it was time to visit the various telescope observation stations. It was a gorgeous dark night. Even with plain eye-sight ton's of stars were visible. I saw the ring of Saturn through one telescope. And a few star clusters through some others. The astronomy folks also had a few strong "light sabers" to point out various and star constellations and give a general idea of which area of the sky we were looking too via the instruments. It was a cool ending to the nice day.

Aug. 30th, 2024, Day 3 East Coast - Saint John

Our breakfast served in the Econo Motel in Saint John was simple and did offer cream cheese. My toasts and bagels tasted much better! The weather today was gorgeous. Blue sky and sun!

Our Room at the Econo Lodge St. John

 We drove again into uptown Saint John and parked again in the Peel parking lot. Today we walked all in all about 13km plus (several repetitive forward-backward walks are not in the Google maps).

We started again with the market hall.

St. John Market Hall

This morning the hall was full of people from the huge Princess Emerald cruise ship that docked in town sometime during the night. We bought 2 loaves of bread (which tasted very good when we ate the loaves a few days later) and Margaret ran back to store them in the car. In the meantime I waited in the local King's Square garden close to an iron contraption that was likely a music shell with the band playing in The upper floor.

King's Square Garden

The thing was dedicated to Edward VII, "King-Emperor". I did not know, that the British monarchs carried the title "King-Emperor" in Canada. I am learning. This park was also full of visitors from the cruise ship.

Afterwards we headed to the nearby Catapult Coffee place. My esteemed daughter was not revved up sufficiently by the coffee served in the Econo motel ... The barista lady produced nice leaves in both of our beverages.

One of our Coffee Cups

Then we walked down to the 506 area, a container village which happened to be conveniently placed right beside the berth of the cruise ship. 

Walking towards the Harbor

Downtown St. John: Walking toward the Harbor

St. John: Cruise-Ship Harbor

 

St. John: Container Village

Container villages were a new thing for me, but according to Margaret they are a "thing" in Toronto and NYC. We did not buy anything. We continued to walk along the harbor-front all the way to tin can beach (close to I think a garrison). From there we took in the vista of the harbor.

St. John: Close to Tin Can Beach

 Tin can beach is not a must see, but once there, it is not a bad view. Then we walked all the way back to City Hall via Queens Square and Prince Williams Street (which  parallels the harbor front one or two streets up). We also took a quick detour to the 3-Sisters harbor lamp.

St. John: 3-Sisters Navigation Lamp

Looking across the Harbor from 3-Sisters

The city hall had as part of its front-building design the real piece from the artist (Claude Roussel, who I liked in the Beaverbrook gallery, where the model for the city hall design was shown.

St. John City Hall with the Claude Roussel Art

Afterwards we walked across the street to local city library which is located in a new fashionable building. 

St. John: Public Library. A nice Library indeed.

 

Looking towards Downtown from the Library Window

It turned out that the Thai restaurant that Margaret had in mind for lunch was also located in the same building in the ground floor. Our meals in the Lemongrass Restaurant were very good. 

My Meal

We sat outside on a roofed terrace and enjoyed our meals. For Zandra: The lunch prices did not cause us a sticker shock, but their dinner prices were a decent amount higher compared to what I am used to from Toronto or Ottawa.

Margaret's Meal

Afterwards we walked along the harbor front in the direction of Reverse Falls. The harbor basin was approaching low tide in the next 2 hours or so. The walk along this harbor front is partially nice, partially neighboring huge empty storing spaces (or parking lots?), a newly build "French" style fort which we did not walking into (there was an entrance fee), and a few steel related companies.

Walking towards Reverse Fall Bridge: Looking towards Downtown

Finally we made it to the Reverse Fall bridge. We did not get close to the falls. Just had a look at the fall from about 300m away (from the bridge). The fall is located beside the Irvine paper and tissue mill. At this time, at low tide, it had a huge, long and smooth V-flow. Maybe some brave souls could run a canoe down :-) Afterward, it was a the same long way back to the city hall.

On the Way back from Reverse Falls: It is a Trans Canada Trail

Back at the St. John City Hall

From there we walked a few more streets (Garman street). 

Downtown St. John

 And then we headed back to the market hall to pick up dinner. We bought take-out meals from the Kim's Korean located in the market hall. Afterwards we returned back to the car.

On our way out of town towards Sussex, we stopped at the local Costco, Canadian Tire, and Walmart to stock up on a few more food items for the next few days. The big-box shops were all bunched up in the same area (there is obviously no space in uptown Saint John for them). The Costco looked like a "fort" when approached. It is located about 30 to 50m above a valley on a flat table-top. On the approach from below one only sees the "grey walls" with a Costco writing on the wall and it looks very ominous.

Costco looks surreal

 On our way back from the shopping malls to the highway someone nearly crashed me at a T-junction. My traffic light switched to green, and I thought, hmmh, I am a bit slow to get moving. But I did look to my left, and immediately switched back into brake mode. A lady simply crashed at full red-light  through the T-junction. The person behind me must have also been alert, because nobody bunched into us from behind. Margaret said that the lady that drove through at red light had a cell phone on her ear ... All I did, was moving my foot back on the brake again after just releasing it.

The 40 minute drive to the Pinecone motel in Sussex was uneventful. These new 4 lane highways are all relatively boring. Closer to midnight we drove back 40 minutes to Saint John airport to pick up Gongyu and Daniella. The "International" Saint John airport appears to be relatively small. 2 flights per day to Toronto and 1 flight to Montreal. The remainder are local flights with small machines.

Picking up Daniella and Gongyu

All in all I like Saint John. We only saw a fraction of the old uptown. While some places/houses are ramshackle, others look super trendy and upscale. It is an interesting mix. And the same applies to the businesses there.