Graves Island PP to Salsman Prov Park NS

Overcast and 19C at 8am. We fueled up in Dartmouth, and paid $1 toll to cross MacKay Bridge over Halifax Harbour. Then on to the Lawrencetown area, stopping for a picnic breakfast at a free Prov Park picnic area nearby.

After heading across #207 through Seaforth and beyond, we stumbled across the famous Hope for Wildlife site. This is an animal rescue/rehab operation that is the subject of a well-known reality TV show that we have watched off and on over the years.

We parked out front and walked in for a tour. It was really nice to see it in person after watching a number of episodes of the show. It’s just the same as on the show, it really is accurate reality TV. They were quite busy preparing for their annual Open House this weekend, apparently that is a major fundraiser for them. They run completely on donations, no government money. We did see Hope but didn't get to talk to her, she was very busy supervising the Open House preparations.

It’s a very pretty site, well-treed, gardens, and waterfront:

Carrying on, we stopped in Sheet Harbour for a seafood lunch (chowder, lobster roll, strawberry shake). It got up to an overcast 21C by 2pm, with no rain yet.

A bit later on we stopped at St Mary’s Smoke House, where they smoke their own fish. After a taste test we had to buy some! Tough choices, but we bought a package of the maple (a surprise, since we don’t usually like maple-flavored) and one of the peppered, along with a couple of ginger beers. Such a nice combination of flavours!

Continuing the tour of less-travelled roads on this gorgeous 22C and sunny day, we headed up #7 to Country Harbour Rd, then down #316 to Salsman Prov park, overlooking the Country Harbour River. It wasn’t easy finding this place, as the GPS search by park name was way off the mark. However, the GPS coordinates given in the park book got us to the right spot in the end. A nice park, not fancy but clean washrooms and quiet.

We were camped early so had a good choice of sites, picking this nice grassy site right along the river. We were able to pick some wild blackberries nearby:

The afternoon was still nice so we got the chairs out, and took turns going for a shower. Before Cath was back it had clouded over and started to rain, so put things away and sat in the van instead. We were able to mostly keep the sliding door open despite the light rain, very pleasant.

Today's route:

The Islands PP to Mahone Bay and Graves Island PP

Another travel day, off through Shelburne by 8:30 ADT, 19C and overcast. We swung down the nearby point on #3, and stopped at Sandy Point Lighthouse. Aptly named:

At low tide you can walk right out to the lighthouse. It used to be relied on by the local commercial fishing fleets, and is still valued by recreational boaters.

We stopped by the Ovens park, with fond memories of it from many years before. It’s still there, but much changed, as so often happens. Now it is a day use park and campground, quite crowded and busy today, and camping there had no appeal to us.

So, back out to #193 to exit 7, and on to Graves Island Provincial Park. We were fortunate to get a site there ($25, no hookups), only available for a night because of upcoming weekend reservations. It’s a hilly park with seaside access at one end, and nice high vistas at the other end where we were camped. We could see Mahone Bay from our site #87.

After a late lunch break we took a drive through Chester and on to the town of Mahone Bay. It’s a sunny and warm afternoon, 29C, a little warmer than we like.

We got parked in a lot in Mahone Bay and hiked around the town for a bit. It’s still a very pretty place, but very busy. It must be a real zoo on the weekends.

We soon headed back to our campsite to welcome showers, and also some wifi access at the park office. It was cooler here, 24C, and we set up our red umbrella shelter for some outdoor shade.

It was a lovely spot for our good salmon, scallops and kale salad supper.

There are lots of nice-looking sites in this park, with good views. It has an upscale feel to it compared to many of the other NS Provincial Parks we’ve been in. Of course, that matches the upscale air all around the area of Chester and Mahone Bay. It's a beautiful area and is obviously popular, but it’s gotten too busy for us. I expect it was partly because the day was way too warm for us too.

Today's approximate route:

Whale Cove NS to Shelburne and The Islands Prov Park NS

We’re heading back to mainland Nova Scotia today, 17C and sunny at 8am. After a quick getaway breakfast, over to Digby on #217, then southeast on #101. We did stop at a Sobeys in Digby for a few supplies, including some mini Boston Creams and some good bagels (breakfast #2).

Near Weymouth we picked up the hwy 1 coastal road again, heading southeast. The area along there is quite Acadian French, lots of Acadian flags flying, with boat building and fishery plants all along the coast. With nice well-kept homes and gardens, it’s a gentler coastline than Digby Neck and the Digby area.

Along the way we stopped and roamed Bartlett’s Beach, with miles of sand beach, small whitecaps, and nobody else around, very nice.

And of course, acres of wild roses. They grow very densely here, maybe because it’s a harsh environment for much of the year.

We took #1 down through Yarmouth – nice looking maritime city – then #3 along the coast. We found that we weren’t getting enough water views as we headed down the coast though, so went out to the main road #103 to get to Shelburne and The Islands Prov park. 

The Islands is another pretty park, with lots of water view sites and shade. We got camped near the washrooms, and there was even a free load of firewood at the site. Somebody had left it, as well as a number of rolls of paper towels from the nearby washroom. Passing Park employees were happy to take back the paper towels and leave the firewood.

We were camped by 2pm, so had a nice relaxing afternoon and evening, with campground hikes and a campfire later on.

Today's approximate route:

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:

Valleyview Prov Park to Whale Cove cg NS

19C and foggy at 8am.We washed up in the van, made our coffee, and were away. We stopped for a good breakfast in Annapolis Royal, right across the road from Fort Anne, then had a good walking tour of the Fort. A very leisurely walk though, as the air is heavy and humid this morning.

This was an amazing stone wall, a breakwater likely

Then we toured the Tidal Power Interpretive Center, a demo plant in operation since the 1980’s.

We were told how well this demo has worked, but the requirement for a dam has meant that the design does not work in other parts of Fundy, as the water is usually so heavily silted it quickly fouls the dams. Several have been built around NS, and have failed. The focus now seems to be on a type of underwater windmill that’s turned by the passing tides.

Cathie toured the Historic Gardens that are also in town, and thought it was a beautiful place.

We drove out to Bear River, which used to be a lovely crafty area. Not much there now except a high-quality (and pricey) artist co-op. The picturesque windmill that was there on our visit some 40 years ago had long since rotted away.

So we pressed on, out #217 to Digby Neck, and stopped at Whale Cove cg. There is not much organized camping on Digby Neck, although I suspect boondocking is common.

Whale Cove is nice though, well serviced, complete with a seafood takeout right on the grounds that did a very nice job with scallops etc. We took site 16, $46 for 2 nights, with water/electric. The unserviced sites really were tent sites, and most were inaccessible to the van due to overhead limb clearance. Very reasonable price for what we got, but I think they gave us the unserviced price, since that was what we had requested but couldn’t use.

We got to the cg quite early in the day, about 3pm, and lazed around for the rest of the drizzly day. We got lobster rolls at the takeout for a late lunch, very good.

Large rosehips, common along the coast right now

They look a lot like radishes

We found out that a lot of the more open tent sites were taken by a group from Dalhousie Uni, camped here while going out to sea each day for some type of whale research.

Later on we both had showers to wash off the accumulated humidity, and had a walk down to a nearby wharf. One thing we saw a lot of this trip were wild rosebushes with huge rose hips, and even some lingering flowers. The plants made a great ground cover, very dense in places.
 
The wharf area itself wasn’t too active, but did have one of those signposts pointing off to civilization: 

Today's route: