Day 08 (Aug. 9) - Annapolis Royal to Halifax, Nova Scotia

Rob took a few pictures of the house and front garden this morning before breakfast. Can you spot who is peeking from a window?

Here's a close up of the 2nd floor window, second from the left.

Here's a look at the riverside garden in front of the B&B. Guests can sit out here and watch the tide roll in/out. This is where we watched the fireworks with the new friends we met from Edmonton.

This morning just the nice couple from Massachusetts remained, so our host Suzan joined us at the breakfast table. We asked about her travels to Spain and she revealed that she has done the 500 mile Camino de Santiago pilgrimage eight times! She walks the entire route herself and meets people doing the same along the way. She's learned that going in the fall is much better weather-wise, as a portion of the route hikes up and over the Pyrenees! If she is tired, she gets a hotel and stays an extra day or two and eats at very good restaurants. We were all amazed by her bravery and agreed it's not for us. 

We chatted until 10am and had to hit the road since we were behind schedule for the day. Halifax is only 128 miles from Annapolis Royal via the direct route (cutting across the interior of Nova Scotia). We chose to go the long way to Halifax following the coastline which put our mileage for the day around 320 miles. The skies were cloudy and it started to rain 45 minutes after we set off. We had heavy fog at times, then moments of clearing to see rivers and inlets. 

Leaving Annapolis Royal, we headed south towards Digby following the Nova Scotia coastline, then onward around the southeastern portion to Yarmouth. We continued on to Barrington where we turned east and made our way towards Lunenburg. This colorful tourist town was bustling with people, tons of shops and an interesting waterfront. 

It was crowded and hard to find parking. Where we planned to have lunch had a line out the door so we stopped at Subway for a quicker meal, it was already about 2pm at this point. 

Next on the agenda was a stop at Peggy's Cove, a famous lighthouse and lookout point. It was windy and cold so we made quick work of taking pictures.

It was just an hour to get to Halifax from Peggy's Cove. Due to road construction we had to retrace our route taking 333 south back to 103. This added about 20 minutes. We found our hotel and got situated, then walked to dinner at the Brown Hound, an English Pub. After dinner, we walked around Halifax a bit. The art museum had cool architecture.

A big ship in the harbour had gigantic pipelines onboard. We wondered for what purpose might these be used? 

We walked up to the Halifax Citadel, an important naval coastal fortification built in 1749. It was closed but we could walk the perimeter, read the informational signs and look at the city from high above. Here is the Old Clock Tower that sits just below the Citadel.

Tomorrow we head north to North Sydney. 

Day 07 (Aug. 8) - Annapolis Royal Day 4, Kejimkujik National Park

Michele awoke and told Rob that she felt anxious about the kayaking trip today. Could she paddle for several hours? Would she be able to balance in the boat? Would her iPhone get wet? Rob had no such fears and was excited for this new experience for us both. 

We had another amazing breakfast from Suzan. Scones, cakes, and a baked spanish egg dish that she adapted from her travels in Spain. A new couple arrived from Massachusetts and they also travel extensively. Their top trips were Croatia, Slovenia and river cruises. The Halifax couple recommended Bruges in Belgium, especially staying at the Imperial Hotel and eating at the hotel restaurant. They said it's best done in two days as you can see everything in that amount of time. 

After breakfast we made a quick stop at the local grocery store to refresh the ice in our cooler. We then continued on to Kejimkujik National Park and made our way to the kayak rental place with the goal of arriving before 11am to get a rental. We arrived at 10:30am and they had plenty available for us, but wanted us to be sure we were aware of the day's wind conditions before renting. The area consists of the Mersey River that flows right in front of the rental building and into Kejimkujik Lake. We were told that although the winds were delicate at 11am, they were expected to increase a lot during our 4-hour kayak rental period, to the point where it would make paddling on the lake portion difficult and not recommended. We're not sure they wanted us to even go to the lake, but rather stay in the river, which looked to be a tiny portion of the waterproof map loaned to us. 

We signed all the waivers and suited up in our life jackets. Rob jumped in his canoe and pushed himself off into the river. Michele sat in hers and tried to push off but it wasn't moving. A nice man came over to push her in. We decided to head out to see the lake first, before the wind got stronger, and then we would figure out where to paddle next. 

Soon after we left, Rob spotted a loon! He was able to get up close and snap a few pictures.

Michele said she moved much more efficiently once she realized the correct direction of her paddles, as she had been holding them backwards. We paddled about 20-30 minutes in calm waters to the mouth of the river. Ahead we saw Ritchie Island, one of many islands sprinkled about the lake. It is the land mass in the left of this photo, in the distance. This is when the wind started picking up.

Michele wanted to make it to the island. It was definitely a fight against the wind. Rob said a few waves splashed a little in his kayak. Nearby, a family was smoothly canoeing in the same direction. They had a small child and a girl about 6-7 years. Michele heard the older girl say "I want to stay here forever. This is the best day of my life in a boat!" She obviously loved the adventure and her enthusiasm gave Michele motivation to press on against the wind. 

Despite the wind against us, the temps were so pleasant with mostly cloudy skies. Within the first hour we arrived at the island. Ritchie Island is one of the larger ones where you can land on it and camp or have a picnic. That family was having a picnic somewhere on the island once we got there as we could see their canoe on the shore. We then decided to paddle around the entire island. Around the back side the wind was worse, but once we got around the point and started paddling with the wind, our efforts eased. With that accomplishment, we turned back towards the river and into calmer waters. It took us half the time to get back to the river as it did crossing the lake.

At that point it was only 1pm, so we'd already been out for two hours. We were amazed how fast the time went. We decided to explore the river further. We saw lily pads and flowers, four very relaxed ducks and a handsome turtle. Since the river was protected from the wind, paddling was easy and it was incredibly peaceful. We could relax and let the current carry us if we wanted to. Had we known, we could have spent the entire four hours just on the river, as every bend and little inlet had something interesting to see. 

This is one of four American Black Ducks that Rob got very close to. They softly quacked as they poked around in the grassy and boggy banks looking for food.

We think this an Eastern Painted turtle. Rob looked it up and learned it is the most common and colorful turtle in Nova Scotia, as well as the most widespread in eastern North America. It is one of the few specially adapted to freezing temperatures due to an anti-freeze like substance in their blood. Fossils show it existed 15 million years ago!

We came upon a nice couple in a canoe and chatted with them for 30 minutes as we all paddled down the river. They are from England and just moved to Canada. That's them in the canoe ahead of Rob, before we met them.

They recently sold everything, quit their jobs, and bought a truck camper to travel across Canada to decide where they want to live. They just visited Newfoundland and Cape Breton, where we'll go later in our trip, and loved it. They were very kind and offered us recommendations on what to do in those locations. Such as, seeing whales at sunrise and a location that has puffins! We could tell how much they enjoyed their travels and appreciated the beauty of the places they visited. We said goodbye and paddled around a bit more to use up our rental time. Michele overheard a lady telling her friends to not wait up as she didn't know what she was doing, she was "zig-zagging all over." Michele recognized the look on her face and told her that she herself was terrible the first hour, but now it was so much easier. The lady said, "Thank goodness, now I have some hope." 

We also saw a couple of river goers with their dogs onboard. One man was on a paddle board with a black Labrador that was proudly sitting on the bow taking in the sights. Another couple each had a smaller dog on the front of their kayaks. Each dog had little flotation vests. One jumped in the water and was swimming around on his leash for a few minutes before he climbed back on the kayak. Michele told the owners how cute and well behaved their little sailors were. One of the owners replied, "You haven't been properly introduced yet!" 

Back at the rental spot, Rob didn't want to get his shoes wet while getting out of the kayak, so he picked up speed and rammed himself up onto the gravel shore. That worked! He helped Michele and pulled her kayak up and out of the water so she could easily step out.

The place was busy when we returned with many folks coming in and going out.

What a fun adventure! Michele admits that in the beginning, and especially battling the wind getting to the island, she was dubious about this sport. Rob said the island portion wasn't relaxing to him either, but it was good to see the island and experience the difference between the lake and river. Once we got back over to the river and started exploring it at a more leisurely tempo, we had much more fun. 

Initially, we planned to eat lunch either at the island or in our kayaks. Neither happened, we were too busy paddling. We ate a late lunch at the picnic tables at the rental location. The couple from England stopped by and we talked for another 30 minutes. They hope to make it to Banff before winter so they can get temporary jobs to help fund their new life on the road. They also someday want to make it up to the Northern Territories, Yukon, and Alaska. 

With that adventure done, we made the 50km drive (about 45 minutes) back to the hotel, caught dinner in town, and started packing up for our drive around the southern portion of Nova Scotia tomorrow on our way to Halifax. 

Our time in Annapolis Royal was as perfect as it could be. We loved our accommodations and breakfasts with Suzan, we made new friends, saw beautiful gardens, learned about the indigenous Mi'kmaq people and local history, enjoyed fireworks, hiked in a new national park and kayaked for the first time. We lucked out with the weather in the low to mid 70s every day. We highly recommend this itinerary to anyone and would do it again ourselves.

Day 06 (Aug. 7) - Annapolis Royal Day 3, Kejimkujik National Park

A new couple joined us for breakfast this morning. They just moved back to Halifax from Austin, TX where they lived for three years. She was born in this town and they wanted to visit again. The four friends that we met yesterday who are traveling together were leaving today to ultimately end up at Prince Edward Island. Suzan served us homemade breakfast cake, homemade scones and blueberry jam, a first course of blueberries with cherry yogurt, and then a big slice of a spinach feta frittata. Like yesterday we all talked and told stories about our travels. At one point the retired teacher, Deanna, told Rob that she loves his laugh and wants to bottle it up! We exchanged our contact info with them, hopefully our paths will cross again. 

Lucy was chilling out in the hallway as we left.

Today we planned to visit Kejimkujik National Park, about 45 minutes away, to go hiking. We arrived at 11am and stopped at the Visitor's Center to get a trail map. Two trails connected and left from that location, Mill Falls and Beech Grove. They were about 4.4km total round trip. On our way, we soon arrived at the waterfalls. The Mersey River is the color of tea due to it flowing through bogs. The rocks were really cool to look at and walk across.

We picked up the Beech Grove trail and had a nice walk through the woods. The trail also provided additional glimpses of the river. 

This park has a large concentration of old and new growth hemlocks, which is apparently rare. We decided to do the 5km Hemlocks and Hardwoods trail next, which was a short drive away. The park rangers were recommending it to everyone who asked about hiking as a highlight of the park. We had the trail mostly to ourselves the entire time. 

Michele saw this little mushroom and moss scene and thought it looked cute, like a fairy house. Anybody home?

We were able to catch a picture of two creatures we saw along our walk. A female Hairy Woodpecker.

A little ground squirrel we named Chirp because he/she had quite a set of lungs. 

There were educational signs along the way that told about what was in that specific area. Such as, if a large tree falls, it opens up space for new trees and species to grow. Hemlocks drop needles that create a very acidic soil that prevent other plants from taking over beneath them. They also have very shallow roots, so the park built a nice boardwalk through a large grove. 

This hemlock is 400 years old! Many of the others surrounding it are 275 years old. 

This tree was an example of a hemlock starting life on a moss patch on the top of a rock and how the tree adapted to grow around the tree. The nearby information sign indicated that this tree had been badly damaged by people walking around it and compacting its shallow roots. We aren't arborists but this tree looks to have been killed by a chainsaw. What do you think?

This hike was a loop around Big Dam Lake. The path didn't take us right to the lake, but we could catch glimpses through the trees. We could even hear the very distinctive calls of a Loon (the bird) earlier during our hike. 

As we neared the end of the hike, a man and his very fluffy Australian Shepherd approached. The man asked if we could help him get his bug spray out of the pocket of his big backpack as he just started on the hike and had already been bitten three times. He was holding the dog leash and couldn't easily get to it. His dog's name was Sparta, who is a very good hiker, but whether it is a good camper was yet to be determined! 

After that hike, we drove south to check out the canoe and kayak area for tomorrow. It was a popular activity and many families and kids were out floating on the Mersey River. We asked about options for tomorrow morning and planned to go back to rent kayaks for a few hours. 

On the way out, we drove to the end of the paved road and found a little beach and a cafe. We also stopped at a tower overlook and realized why we were the only ones parked there.

The park needs to increase the height of this lookout or perhaps that chainsaw that was used on the previously mentioned hemlock might do the trick. ;-)

We drove back to the Visitor's Center to look at the exhibits then headed back to our B&B. We decided to catch dinner at the Crow's Nest across the river in the town of Granville Ferry. One of the breakfast couples recommended it. Hardly any restaurants were open in town tonight, being a Monday and a holiday. It was a short 15 minute drive and we got to see the mountains that we've been looking at across the river for a few days. The Crow's Nest was busy! Luckily, without a reservation we were able to get a table with a short wait. It had colorful and fun decor and an extensive menu, both for fish lovers and those not. Rob got an orange float before his meal!

Michele struck up a conversation with a local fisherman.

After dinner Rob suggested we find a good view of the Bay of Fundy since we were near it. He drove us a short way to Delaps Cove and found a pier to walk on. We really weren't supposed to be there since it was a pier for fishing boats, but nobody was around. We think we saw an otter floating near the rocks.

The sun was starting to set so we went to the grocery store near our B&B to pick up lunch items to have for our kayak adventure tomorrow.

Day 05 (Aug. 6) - Annapolis Royal Day 2

No need for the car today as we planned to explore the town by foot. The house was quiet all night and morning, so we rested well. Our B&B is the second from the right in the photo, the darker red one. The colorful chairs facing the water are part of the owner's property where we plan to watch the fireworks tonight.

Breakfast was served at 8:30am, and the proprietor, Suzan, invited us into the dining room. There were six other guests, so we filled the 8-person table. Four of the guests were friends traveling together. Everyone was from Edmonton, Canada, and all were friendly and very funny. One lady was a recently retired school teacher for K-6 grades. Another man recently retired who worked on the TransCanadian oil line. He has descendents buried at Fort Anne in town, where we planned to visit today. Breakfast was: nectarines and blueberries, homemade coffee cake (she was baking it when we arrived last night), homemade croissants and jams, baked eggs in cute individual crocks with chickens on the lids, and ham. Suzan uses mostly locally-sourced food.

We headed out around 10:30am and walked along the boardwalk parallel to the main street in town. The weather today was sunny with blue skies, about 72 degrees for the high. It wasn't long before we arrived at Fort Anne. We walked around and read the signage talking about the history. 

It is Canada's first national historic site. Scottish, French and English settlers fought over the land for 400 years, which sits on indigenous Mi'kmaq land. Apparently it was the most hotly contested land in the country. The last time the fort was involved in a skirmish was in 1781. The town prospered in the 1800s in shipping and shipbuilding.

While there we learned that there were re-enactments yesterday, but they were mostly packing up. A few people were practicing in their uniforms while we walked around. A boy of about 10 had a pretend wooden musket and was sitting on top of the old gunpowder storage bunker. One of our breakfast friends told us about him. He had on a Star Wars t-shirt and travels with his Dad doing reenactments. The boy suggested that someone saw a mouse or maybe a rat down there yesterday. Perhaps he was telling stories, there was no evidence of one.

The "magazine" building where they kept the gunpowder and ammunition was a neat design, with walls thicker than the roof in case of an explosion. This was an improved design over the original storage bunker as it allows for plenty of air ventilation to better keep the gunpowder dry.

After that, we walked over to the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens, a 17-acre garden on a tidal setting with 1,800 plant species. They organized the gardens into sections such as the innovative garden that featured organic and economical gardening methods that could be used in anyone's backyard. There were vegetables, herbs and flowers. The garden staff eat the produce from it. We saw zucchini, artichokes, fava beans, kale and tomatoes. The rose collection and rose maze was in bloom, although not at peak, but they had all types of varieties. Some cultivars were from the 1930s. 

Many of the perennials and annuals were the usual ones we can buy at the local big box stores back home, but were displayed in a creative way.

 

We enjoyed walking along the dyke marsh. Rob saw a bird that only tweeted when it was flapping its wings. When it soared on the wind, it was silent. 

An artist made and placed 42 ceramic birds in a little grove. We only found about 15. Another artist created this fun puffin party inspired by the puffins he could see on the island near his home here in Nova Scotia.

A few lily ponds were in bloom and surrounded by perennials and shrubs. After our visit we walked over to the Garrison House to make a dinner reservation for tonight. Michele got a hot dog from a street vendor truck for lunch, and ate at a picnic table overlooking the wharf while Rob walked along it to get pictures. 

An older gentleman came over to Michele with his walker and said he needed a break in the shade. He introduced himself as a retired local scallops fisherman who worked for 34 years. He was forced to retire because nearly everything needed surgery. He worked on a 100 foot steel boat. He was specific about the steel boat because in 1984 the wooden boat he worked on sank. They had to call in for help as the stern was going under, and after that he said no more wood boats. He worked 14 days at a time, 16-17 hours a day, then got a week off. All the men in his family were fisherman. During his career he saw whales, dolphins and swordfish, and would fish year round no matter the weather. His name was Ron and he was kind and friendly, even when Michele admitted she doesn't have a taste for fish or seafood.

We rested at our B&B for a few hours before dinner. Our dinner at the Garrison Inn was delicious, a salad and stuffed chicken. After, Michele stopped in the ice cream place to get a scoop of salty caramel. The owner is from Florida and runs the shop during the summer months, then goes back to Florida for the winter. We had just googled how much snow Nova Scotia gets per year (5 feet!) so it's no wonder he transitions to a warmer clime. He said he has family in Vienna and Aldie, Va. 

Back at our hotel, we rested in our room until the fireworks started at 9:30pm. We sat outside next to the wharf where the fireworks were staged. They were so close that we had to practically look straight up to see the bright displays and could feel ash particles fall on us! The explosions would echo off the hillside across the Annapolis River making a big sensory effect.

Afterwards, we chatted with two of the couples from Edmonton. The couple that includes the retired teacher also has a motorcycle (a V-Star with a Harley rear seat) and they both love riding. She studied music (piano and organ) and loves writing music. 

Tomorrow we plan to hike in the national park nearby.