Back to the Mainland – Nova Scotia

Post and Photos by Bobby; Editing and Captions by Cynthia

After another delay, we are back to chronicling our journeys in Canada that took place in the Summer of  2018.  We again apologize for the delay, but this time it was due to some updates we were doing to (hopefully) make the picture quality better in the posts.  In addition, Bobby is now working with Lightroom to help process his photos – we hope you enjoy the results.

We left Elliston and headed towards Channel-Port aux Basques to take the ferry from Newfoundland to Nova Scotia.  We spent the night before the ferry ride at Cheeseman Provincial Park, which was not Cynthia’s favorite place.  The weather was not particularly great either.

The ferry was huge!  We purchased a cabin for the 7 hour ride to North Sydney.  There’s a longer, night ferry as well that we would have liked to take, but it was booked.  The cabin was lovely and we had nice clean showers, a good meal and a nap!  The pups had to stay below as we didn’t have a kennel of the specified type and size to put them in the doggy area.  We put them in the Karavan with the hatches open so they had plenty of air circulation.  We were apprehensive on how they would do.  They did great – although they were awfully happy to see us at the end of the trip!

We arrived in Nova Scotia and had planned to stay one night at the Arm of Gold campground, but decided to stay an extra day just to relax a bit.  There was a noticeable difference in the weather; it was a lot warmer than what we had gotten used to on Newfoundland.  In fact, a few places we tried to eat dinner had closed early due to the heat and humidity.  I know a lot of people from the Northern US and Canada find it amusing when the Nashville area schools close because of even the threat of a snowflake.  But we find it equally entertaining when businesses close due to temperatures in the 80s!

After a nice stay at the campground relaxing and meeting some of our neighbors, we started out on the Cabot Trail through Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  They say this area is the closest thing in North America to resemble the Scottish coastlines.  Having never been to Scotland, we can’t comment on that, but it was a beautiful drive.

After finishing up the Cabot Trail we tried our hand at Wal-docking (spending the night dry camping in a Wal-Mart parking lot) as we didn’t have any great options for campgrounds.  We got an early start the next morning and arrived in Lunenberg around noon.

Lunenberg is a small port town on the south shore of Nova Scotia.  In 1995 it was designated a UNESCO World Heritage site as the best example of a planned British Colonial Settlement in Canada – where the British sought to establish a Protestant Settlement to supplant the native Mi’kmaq and Catholic Acadian settlements in the area.  It is a charming town now, but has a fascinating history of conflict.

While in Lunenberg we took a tour of the Ironworks Distillery, located in what was until recently a blacksmith’s shop that produced ironworks for ships.  They make an assortment of liqueurs and liquors.  Cynthia may have gotten a bit tipsy during the tasting (and left with a bottle of rhubarb liqueur), but managed to agree with me that the vodka they make from apples was quite good.  Definitely a tour worth taking if you are in the Lunenberg area.