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.