Whale Cove to Brier Island NS day trip

We woke to a clear blue sky and 16C. First we took a short drive down to the old Whale Cove wharf that we had almost walked to yesterday, then set out for the East Ferry to Long Island. We made the 9:30 crossing. This ferry and the next one to Brier Island were $7 each, but no charge on the later return trip.

Long Island didn’t really catch our interest, so we pretty much drove right through to the ferry to Brier Island, which is the lower tip of Digby Neck.

Brier Island was great! We roamed around, then headed out to Western Point lighthouse, which is in a nature reserve area with lots of bird life and a very rugged coast with waves crashing in. We’d like to have camped there overnight (may not be permitted), but we were already booked in to Whale Cove. We hiked around the area for a while, beautiful hiking on this gorgeous day.

Very rugged coastline

Lots of bird life

What kind of ferns are these?

I'll bet Stew knows!

Gulls seemed to be nesting in some of the trees, only 4-5 feet up

We finally managed to tear ourselves away from this area, and made our way back to Westport, the only real town on Brier Island. The restaurant there provided really good fish & chip takeout, which we had outside on their deck:

One of the little Island ferries

Afterwards we took a drive out to Pond Cove, very pretty sandy beach, some mild hiking, even more wild roses, and some Himalayan Impatiens (classed as an invasive weed some places).

We had another pretty drive from there out to a Coast Guard station at Northern Point lighthouse. They have a seaside parking are there, so we just sat in the van for a while, watching a large freighter go by in the distance, some fishing boats, and a number of whale-watching tour boats roaming around.

This really was the only sign pointing to the ferry dock

After we took the ferry back to Long Island, we drove out to an area we had seen from the ferry and had a lovely coastal hike. At one point someone had set up a party spot:

The drive back across Long Island was pretty, with a number of hiking trails offered. They didn’t really appeal to us today though, so we just carried on back to Whale Cove, getting back about 4pm.
We had to stop in to the Whale Cove takeout and sample a couple of their scallop rolls:

Yummy!

Today's route: