2023 East Coast Tour Archives - Page 2 of 5

Tidal Bore, Wine and Beer

Although predicted, the overnight rain did not materialize and we had a peaceful sleep. We slept in as our first stop of the day was to watch the tidal bore arrive in Truro, NS. It was scheduled for 11:58am. This gave us time for a shower and relaxing drive to a restaurant for a cooked breakfast.

We knew to arrive early at the viewing point as the published times are at best guesses based upon past arrivals of the tide. The tidal bore today arrived at 11:37am. Although not the largest I’m sure, the power of the water was quite evident when watching it hit the soft sandy banks of the river.

We were headed toward Windsor, NS and the GPS app proposed a route through Halifax and then back to the North shore. We chose not to drive across the province twice and instead took Hwy236 from Truro to Windsor. It is a wonderfully twisty and hilly drive through some marvelous farmland that took about the same length of time as the initially proposed route but was so much more interesting and fun to drive, I wish I was in my MINI instead of the van. 😜

Leaving Truro and heading into the Annapolis valley

At Windsor we joined Hwy101 to Wolfville where we drove up into the hills to locate Luckett Vineyard. The property is beautiful and the view from the bistro has to be seen to be believed as they have a clear view across the Minas Basin. We took a few pictures and share them below.

We cheekily enjoyed lunch in our van (Cheese scones with Crab spread and locally grown strawberries). We did also pickup a few vineyard produced products to take home with us.

We drove a further hour towards Lawrencetown, NS where we had made a reservation to stay at the Lunn’s Mill Beer Company for the night. A Harvest Host location that is a craft brewery with a great selection of beers and an amazing food menu.

I enjoyed an English Style Bitter while Barb tried their Lager. We split an order of Poutine and Barb enjoyed the chicken wings and I had a burger. All around a delicious meal that we were able to enjoy outside in their beer garden.

Lunn’s Mill Beer Company, Lawrencetown, NS

Tomorrow we head to Digby, NS where we will be staying for a few days. Good night one and all.

Did we stay or did we go?

We awoke to rain and mosquitoes. The idea of hiding away inside our van for the day was not appealing, so we left Panmure Island Provincial Park even though we had paid for a second night. We figured the weather had to be better elsewhere.

We started by driving from the campground onto Panmure Island to take a look at the lighthouse, the oldest wooden lighthouse on the island!

From Panmure we headed South and the East to look at Cape Bear lighthouse. As you can see, the sun came out.

Along the way we passed lots of lilacs still in full bloom and potato fields with the plants now appearing above the soil in nice neat rows.

As our plans had always been to leave PEI by ferry because it was something we’d not done on our last trip here many years ago, so we headed to Woods Islands to look at the lighthouse and check ferry availability.

The lighthouse did not disappoint, but the ferry did. They only had overflow available for the 3:00pm ferry or we could reserve for the 6:00pm ferry. It was 12:30pm and so we decided to drive back to the bridge and take it instead.

Along the way we stopped at Point Prim to look at the lighthouse. It is the oldest lighthouse in PEI and is built of masonry, is round and finished with wood shingles. It was completed in 1845 as an aid to sailors entering the Charlottetown harbour.

Crossing the Confederation Bridge took us from PEI and back to New Brunswick. We were stopped for road repairs on the bridge which gave us a good opportunity to look about and observe that concrete bridges also flex under the load of moving vehicles. Hmmm.

Entering into Nova Scotia we stopped at the visitor center and we’re welcomed by a piper. The light rains we’re about to get worse according to the darkening skies under which we were soon driving.

We were headed to Colchester, NS and were driving up and around Westchester mountain when the skies became really dark and the winds picked up. We paid the toll at the Cobequid Pass toll plaza and then the rains came. The windshield wipers were on full and the rain covered highway shone like an ice covered pond. We slowed (obviously) to about half the posted speed limit and luckily the worst was over in just a few minutes.

We stopped for fuel, dinner (fish & chips) and a few groceries at the Masstown Market. Quite a place that has just about everything you could want in one stop.

From the Masstown Market we drove 2km to the Elm River Campground as it had been a long day. Below is our site and a quiet one we are hoping it shall be. Good night.

Panmure Island Provincial Park

Today we left Twin Shores and travelled East across the island. We started by stopping in Cavendish and Barb did a little souvenir shopping and bought a COWS ice cream cone. It was just 10:30am.

We drove East across the center of the island and then out towards East point. Here a few pictures of things we saw along the way.

We also saw the crushing aftermath of hurricane Fiona (Sept 2022) in scenes like the one below where an entire forest appears to have just been blown over. Sad.

We eventually made it to the East Point lighthouse. The gift shop building now stands next to the lighthouse as erosion has undermined its old foundations. In the right hand picture below our silver van is parked next to the old concrete pad that the gift shop used to be on. It is currently hanging over nothin and could fall into the sea in a matter of weeks.

The pictures below are taken 23 years apart. We last visited in 2000 with our children and posed for a picture at the top of the lighthouse. The picture on the left was taken on our first digital camera, a Kodak 1MegaPixel wonder. The picture on the right is taken with an iPhone13 12MP camera.

Leaving East Point we headed along the South shore towards Souris. It is from here that you can catch a ferry to the Îles-de-la-Madeleine. We drove past the ferry terminal and stopped to briefly look at the Souris lighthouse. As you can see it was raining again.

We arrived at a very wet Panmure Island Provincial Park after driving around the area looking for a place to have dinner without any luck. We setup our campsite and retreated into the van avoiding the rush of mosquitoes that wanted to join us.

As you can see below the campground was not busy and we shared our section with one other van (Roadtrek) from Quebec, although we didn’t actually see anyone enter or leave the van while we were there.

All for now. We are scheduled to stay here for two nights but are talking of possibly leaving early due to the weather. Check back tomorrow to see what we decided. Happy trails.

Twin Shores Campground

We’ve spent the past two days relaxing at Twin Shores Campground on the North shore of PEI. This is a large campground with hundreds of campsites able to accommodate everything for tents to the largest RV rig. Trees or open sites, electrical, water and sewage available in differing combinations suiting whatever one might need or want. The park also has several snack shacks and a café as well as gift shop / camp shop should you have forgotten something. Doggie park and wash for those with pets, games arcade, mining exhibit, bike rentals for those with kids. They’ll even rent you a golf cart if you find walking around the park a little too much.

The owners put a lot into this park, right down to keeping small flowerbeds about the park like the one shown below between a couple of campsites. If back this way we will stay here again. As June is just out of prime season it was quiet and yet we had access to most of the amenities available in the prime summer months. Thumbs up from us!!

Of course, the star of the show at the campground has to be the amazing red sand beach. Below are a few pictures we took while walking one afternoon.

And of course, here’s a selfie to prove that it was actually us at the beach taking these pictures.

In the earlier morning hours you can watch the lobster fishing just off the beach, or on the other inner side of the park you can watch the oyster/mussel farm being tended to from your campsite.

Above you can see Barb enjoying the afternoon sun stretched out on the beach while reading her latest Coleen Hoover novel.

The weather was great while we here, we timed it just right it would seem. Tomorrow we head East across the island to spot a few more lighthouses. Have a great day!

North Cape and Twin Shores

Another quiet night and I’m early to go for a walk. Yep, for the first time in a few days it’s dry enough and warm enough to convince me to get out there. I complete a short 4km loop outside of the park on local roads and am passed by 0 cars during the walk. Quiet country roads are so nice early in the day.

Breakfast, shower, prep for the road. And we’re off. Today we will visit the North cape lighthouse and then make our way back toward the center of the island on the North shore to the campground we will be staying at for the next three nights.

We take the scenic coastal road along the west side of North cape and see some stunning vistas across the Northumberland strait to New Brunswick. The road dips and turns as it follows the red cliffs and hidden coves.

We arrive at the North cape and take a walk around the lighthouse which is over 150years old. As you can see in the following photos, the sun has finally made an appearance.

We drive south along the eastern shore of the cape towards Tignish Shore where we stop to take a look at the decommissioned lighthouse that stands there. We also take the time to enjoy a quick lunch in the van before heading further south where we pass over several inlets where we see oyster farms in the quieter waters.

After passing Summerside we turn North towards the Twin Shores campground. A few miles before arriving we pass the following church which has, for its size, an enormous wind vane balancing on its steeple.

Twin Shores campground is easily the largest campground in which we have yet stayed, and yet our campsite is quiet and yet close to the beach.

After setting up we take a late afternoon walk down to the beach. It is a huge red sand beach with shallow water that would be perfect for younger children to play in. Barb has to take off her sandals and wade into the water, it is cool but not frigid as she expected.