It’s been a while since my last post in June. Since that time we enjoyed Summer at home while taking a couple of shorter trips with the van to local camping spots along the St. Lawrence River and Provincial Parks. We also headed to Southern Ontario on a roadtrip in September that included a week in Prince Edward County enjoying the beach and the local wineries and restaurants the county has to offer. We also visited the Kawartha region before heading to Georgian bay to visit family. Our three weeks ended with some driveway camping visiting family before we came home.
As you can see from the picture above, the van is now nicely tucked away for the impending Winter having had a service and all waterlines drained & winterized. This shelter has kept the van safe for the past two Winters and I hope that it will get us through another as the roof is starting to become quite worn from exposure to the sun. Fingers-crossed!
It’s been a great year of camping that started early in March and ran until late September. We are already making plans for 2024 so stop by again to see what we have planned and to catch-up with our travels.
It wasn’t supposed to be a long day but it turned out to be the longest of this trip. Here’s how it all came to be.
The day started with us enjoying a slow start to the day. We had a light breakfast and then went to the beach expecting to see the tide in but it was out again exposing a long stretch of beautiful beach sand. The pictures below are taken 15min apart and show the influx of elementary school children on the beach enjoying what we assume was an end-of-school outing.
New River Beach Provincial Park, NB
We left the campground at 10:30am and headed West towards St. Stephen where we turned North towards Fredericton. The pictures below show some of the backwoods beauty of this province.
After joining Hwy 2 and driving North for a few minutes, we decided to leave the highway and drive along the side of the Saint John River on the old highway. This led us to seeing a black bear cub as he climbed over the guardrail towards the road in front of us. Yikes! 😳 Brake hard, he sees us & returns to the safety of the trees. Phew. No pictures as it was all over in a second. We stopped in Meductic and ate lunch in the van overlooking the river.
Saint John River
Shortly after lunch we stopped in Hartland to look at the worlds longest covered wooden bridge. It was closed for construction and as no traffic was able to cross it gave me an excellent chance to view the inside of the bridge by standing in the roadway.
Hartland Covered Bridge, Hartland, NB
Just North of Hartland we passed a more modern crossing of the river and then we rejoined Hwy 2 towards Edmundston, NB.
Saint John River crossing, Perth-Andover, NB
We pulled into the Grey Rock Casino in Edmundston at about 3:30pm. We were supposed to end our day here and camp out in the parking lot for the night but decided that it was too early to stop and so just picked up a cup of coffee and rejoined the highway.
Our initial thought was to return to the campground in Rivière-du-Loup; however, as it was only 90min North and we were going to cross back into Eastern time, we would arrive at 4:00pm EDT so we looked towards Levis and found a Craft brewery near St. Pascal that welcomes campers. New destination entered into the GPS.
It was a short while later that I realized that rather than stop just to sleep and then continue, why not simply continue? Home was only 7hrs away. We stopped in Levis for fuel and then continued to Drummondville where we stopped at a rest stop and had a quick meal in the van. Still feeling awake and energetic, we continued onwards towards Montreal where we left autoroute 20 and joined autoroute 30 which would take us around the south shore of Montreal. Below are a few picture of the sunset that we saw shortly before Montreal.
By the time we get around Montreal and cross the St. Lawrence River we were just 90min from home. We turned West onto autoroute 20 towards Cornwall, ON. After Cornwall we continued to Hwy31 where we turned North towards Winchester. At this point we were almost home and would arrive by 11:30pm. It turned out to be a 12 hour day with time taken out for stops and eating. In all I figured we drove for about 10 hours in which time we left the Bay of Fundy and returned to Eastern Ontario. A distance of about 1100km.
This concludes our East Coast Tour for this year. We have places we want to go back to as well as places yet to visit, as such we will make the drive again, when? We’re not sure yet, maybe a year or so.
Today I celebrate the completion of 60 trips around the sun. I get to spend it near and on the ocean. This day will be epic.
We complete our morning routines and prepare the campervan for a day of travel and head out shortly after 10:00am. Our first stop is at the local fish market where Barb picks up a bag of frozen Digby scallops and haddock to take home. Then a short drive along Water St to the Admiral Digby Museum which is across the street from the Digby Baptist Church.
The baptist church sits on the site of a home once owned by one of Barb’s ancestors, William McDormand Jr. After his death in 1806, his 2nd wife opened their home to host baptist congregations. Eventually the hose was replaced by the church.
Digby Baptist Church
A guide within the museum showed us about their collection and then took to their genealogy archive where we spoke for a time with the archivist about the McDormand’s as they arrived in this area in 1761. There are now descendants across North America. We need to complete more research in Ontario in order to definitively link Barb’s ancestor, John Dorman to one of the McDormand family’s in Nova Scotia. Another reason to return to this area.
After getting a few groceries and filling the vans fuel tank we had time to take a short drive to Gulliver’s Bay (Hole). A small bay just a few miles West of Digby, it was here that the McDormand families first settled in Nova Scotia after coming North from New England.
Gulliver’s Bay, NS
After enjoying a quiet lunch in the van and doing a little reading, it was time to head toward our ferry. However, first a quick detour to Prim’s Point lighthouse that guards the entrance to the Annapolis Basin from the Bay of Fundy.
Prim’s Point, Digby, NS
After walking about Prim’s Point it was now time to head to the ferry that would take us across the Bay of Fundy to Saint John, NB.
Digby Ferry Terminal
We arrived at the terminal about 1 1/2hrs before departure (they asked for 1 hr) and boarding began at 3:00pm. The ferry departed at 3:55pm, 5min ahead of schedule. In just a few minutes the ferry had turned to face across the Bay of Fundy and we were out of the Annapolis Basin and on our way.
Views astern and of Prim’s Point lighthouse
We began by enjoying a little time on deck in the sunshine and took a few pictures (above and below).
As the ferry crossing would take about 2 1/2hrs, we decided to grab a light dinner onboard. Barb ordered fish & chips and I had a burger & fries. Whilst ordering I happened to mention to the staff serving us that it was my 60th birthday. This resulted in them singing “Happy Birthday” to me and then adding a piece of free mud pie dessert to my tray when they delivered it to our table!!!
After enjoying our meals we settled into one of the very comfortable lounges onboard and did some reading to wile away the time. Shortly after 6:00pm we pulled into Saint John harbour and drove ashore.
Saint John, NB
We headed West out of Saint John to our overnight destination, New River Beach Provincial Park. It was only about a 30min drive from the ferry and appears to be very quiet amongst the trees a short distance from the waters edge.
New River Beach Provincial Park
After setting up for the night, Barb wandered off to the beach while I wrote this post in the van. Here are the pictures Barb took before being chased from the beach by black flies.
Tomorrow we head North in New Brunswick, come back to see what we discover.
We’ve spent that past two days (3 nights) in Digby, NS at the Digby Campground. This is a wonderful place to camp as you can easily walk the trail into town in a matter of a few minutes.
On our first full day (Sunday) we wandered into town to look about the harbour and to get some lunch. It was overcast and cool, but not raining. Being Sunday it was quiet about town (also probably due to it being Fathers Day) and most shops were closed.
Digby harbourPublic art
We enjoyed a seafood lunch at The Crow’s Nest restaurant. Being Father’s Day we were lucky to get a table without a reservation but someone hadn’t shown up and so the table was ours. Barb enjoyed a half-lobster roll and seafood chowder while I had the seafood platter with haddock, scallops and clams. Need I tell you that we really enjoyed them both? Fresh seafood is amazing.
Sights about town
After lunch we wandered along the waterfront and past the Digby lighthouse. It was originally installed out at the end of the wharf but was sold to Saint John, NB when it was no longer needed. It sat in Saint John for many years rotting away until a few years ago the town of Digby asked for it back. Saint John agreed and it’s now returned and restored and standing on the waterfront.
Digby lighthouse
Monday was a rainy day and we spent most of it in the van reading and relaxing. The rain stopped and the clouds began to breakup just as we headed back into town to have dinner at The Fundy Restaurant. Tonight we both enjoyed a surf and turf (steak, scallops & shrimp with roasted potatoes and fresh veggies) along with a glass of Nova Scotia red wine which we followed up by sharing a homemade strawberry shortcake. Mmm.
The Fundy Restaurant
The picture below on the left is a communal patio in the campground where the hosts will have a bonfire and campers can gather around chatting the evening away. The picture on the right is a view across the Annapolis basin from near the campground on the road to the nearest fish market.
We’ve really enjoyed Digby and have both agreed that we need to return as part of a future trip. Tomorrow is a big day!
The brewery was a nice quiet place to spend the night and we awoke refreshed and ready for the day. Our first stop of the day would be Annapolis Royal, but before that, how’s this for a view?
Views such as this are commonplace in the Annapolis valley, it’s hard to express how tranquil and beautiful this part of Nova Scotia is.
As we pulled into Annapolis Royal the mature maple trees that lined the narrow streets and plentiful flowering shrubs next to historic old houses told us that this is a special town.
We maneuvered the van downtown and noticed that it was very busy with many parking spaces filled along the roads. I was about to start casting doubt as to whether we would find a space into which we would fit when out of the corner of my eye I spotted an opening in a small public parking lot, I turned hard left and entered via the exit turned about and parked facing the exit of the lot. Voila, parking done. And it’s free!
Below are a few pictures from downtown showing some of the wonderful old buildings.
We walked back toward Fort Anne that we passed on the way in. It is a Parks Canada property that you can wander around for free paying an entry fee only if you wanted to tour the officers building on-site. The fort was established in 1629 on mik’maq land. Over the years it was occupied by both the French and the English as they fought over control of the land in the area. It is a four-bastion fort that has a clear view down the Annapolis River toward Digby making it easily defendable from waterborne attack.
We enjoyed walking about the grassy defenses and took a quick look in the semi buried powder magazine where gunpowder was stored. The building is the oldest that Parks Canada owns anywhere in Canada having been built in 1708. The officers building is from the late 1700’s.
Below is an example of one Rhododendron that we spotted in town, there were others equally as beautiful. We can only wish to grow such a plant in Ontario.
From the fort we wandered back along the Main Street and stumbled upon the cause of the traffic, Saturday morning market! It was nice to see the local producers and artisans setup and the townspeople out enjoying what was a welcomed spot of sunshine and nice weather. We purchased a couple of savory pies and enjoyed them waterside.
After lunch we returned to the van and headed out of town heading towards Digby, NS. Digby is a fishing port world renowned for the size and quality of the scallops caught. Yumm!
We will be spending three nights at the Digby campground which is on the edge of town next to a walking trail along the abandoned railway line that we can follow into the downtown therefore avoiding the worst of the hills. Here we are shortly after arriving, relaxing and enjoying what would be the last of the sunshine we’d see for a couple of days.
Barb took a short walk down to the waters edge and wandered along the tidal flats looking for shells and took a few photos that I’ve shared below.
Our next post will be in a couple of days in which we will summarize our two days about town.
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.
Tidal Bore at Truro, NS
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.
Luckett Vineyards, Wolfville, NS
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.
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!
Panmure Island, PEIPanmure Island lighthouse, PEI
From Panmure we headed South and the East to look at Cape Bear lighthouse. As you can see, the sun came out.
Cape Bear lighthouse, PEI
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.
Scenes from PEI
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.
Woods Islands lighthouse, PEI
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.
Point Prim, PEIPoint Prim lighthouse, PEI
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.
Confederation Bridge
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.
Masstown Market Fish market
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.
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.
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!
