Vanlife Archives - Page 8 of 18 - Our View From The Road

Digby, NS

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.

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.

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.

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 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!

Annapolis Royal and Digby

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.

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.

We find a flock of swallows nesting in the cliff tops and they dart above our heads, clearly not happy that we are there.

As you can see below, the beach is not busy, one of the key advantages of visiting ahead of the main summer camping season.

Barb revisited the beach after our hamburger dinner and caught the following sunset. This will do nicely for the next couple of days.

Cedar Dunes Provincial Park

It’s still grey and overcast when we wake, the forecast is for better days ahead, will today be the day we find the sun? Or it finds us?

The morning is the typical routine, awaken slowly and too early to be of much use for anything ahead of the morning coffee. Coffee, banana and a yogurt and we’re feeling the day. Clean up the interior of the van, disconnect the electrical service, remove the leveling blocks and we’re away. Today we head to Prince Edward Island, or PEI we are used to referring to it as.

We head toward the Confederation Bridge, the 12.9km (8miles) long concrete structure that connects mainland Canada to its smallest province. Opened in 1997 the bridge has made it significantly easier to visit (and leave) PEI. The toll is $50.25CAD (in 2023) which is paid upon leaving the island.

You can above that from our van we had a very good view from the bridge, those driving cars will barely see above the concrete wall that forms the edge of the bridge deck.

We stop at the PEI visitors center at the far end of the bridge and pickup a lighthouse map and few souvenirs as well as a few alcoholic beverages from the liquor store.

We head to the West across the island stopping in Summerside for groceries. The potato crop is just being planted and we take note of the fact that trees are 3-4 weeks behind Ontario. The same is true of people’s yards as the garden centers are doing a booming business and people are busy planting their gardens.

Leaving Summerside we drive westward towards West Point where we will camp for the night at Cedar Dunes Provincial Park. We get setup on our site and after a short rest in the van take a walk to the West Point lighthouse.

This is our second time here, the last being in 2000 when we visited with our children and camped in a tent that we carried in our minivan. The park was damaged quite extensively by hurricane Fiona in 2022 with many of the cedar trees being uprooted. There are still some around but the damaged areas are easily spotted and will take many years to recover. As you can see below, our site had a spruce tree on it but it was one of very few. The beach is beautiful and in the summer the water very warm as it faces south. A very nice smaller park to stop at with family for some beach time.

Parlee Provincial Park

We spent Thursday relaxing and reading in the van whilst the rain showers continued. We did get out for a walk from the campground to the bottom of the ski hills (they don’t allow hiking up them for some reason) and I’ve include a few pictures below.

Sugarloaf Provincial Park, Campbellton,NB

Friday we packed up and headed out of Campbellton towards Cap-Luminiere, NB. We had no planned stop for the night but there are a couple of campgrounds right on the shore that we felt should have some space.

We stopped at near Bathurst at a Tim Horton’s for a coffee and sandwich before heading on to Mirimichi where we pulled into town and stopped by the river next to the marina. It was raining again. The town claims to be Canada’s Irish Capital, something that I will need to research as this was news to us. It was while stopped by the river that we changed our plans for the night and decided to continue on to Shediac, NB. It is only a little further than our original destination and we’d get to see the worlds largest lobster!

A short drive later and we’re pulling into Shediac, and there’s the lobster! It is rather large. We stop to take the required photos. It’s stopped raining but is windy and cold.

The town of Shediac is clearly very popular with summertime tourists and the town has some very nice looking stores to browse through. We cross town and pull into Parlee Provincial Park. They have lots of camping sites available and decent, clean restrooms and showers (although it takes a $1 coin for the shower to run for 5min). Shower skipped as we showered at Sugarloaf.

We got setup and walked about 1.5km to a nearby restaurant where we enjoyed bacon-wrapped scallops, clam chowder and a lobster club sandwich each. Yummy! The walk back to our campsite was welcomed to allow dinner to settle before tucking in for the night.

The weather forecast is for sunnier days ahead and we’re about to drive over to Prince Edward Island so fingers crossed that we can spend a little more time outdoors in the upcoming days.

Sugarloaf Provincial Park

Good morning. Power at the campground is still out but we have full coach batteries and so are fine. By 10am we have eaten breakfast and organized the van. It is a till raining but we have reservations in PEI for Saturday and so need to move along a little in order to keep the driving days reasonable.

We’re aiming for a campground in Percé, QC with views of Percé rock. It’s one of the most picturesque places along this coast and in the Summertime can become quite crowded with tourists. We’re hoping the weather eases somewhat as per the forecast.

The drive along the coast is slow and relaxing, albeit wet. We arrive in the town of Gaspé and stop for some lunch. We enjoyed homemade soup and seafood at the Brise Bise restaurant before heading to the Oh les Pains bakery for a few baked treats to take on the road. A quick stop for fuel on the way out of town and back on the road.

Any hopes of the weather breaking are coming coming to an end. The clouds are so low that for most of the drive we can barely see the shoreline or treetops from the van. Corners on road appear out of nowhere as do the hills. We arrive in Percé and it becomes clear watching those outside that it is not a day to sightsee. The campground with a view has none and we decide not to spend money on something we couldn’t see. The weather is not supposed to improve much here over the next 24 hours and as such we decide to push on. We will have to return another year when it’s drier and warmer.

I think there’s a lighthouse somewhere out there.

We aim for Sugarloaf Provincial Park in Campbellton, NB. The forecast looks to be better with only light drizzle, let’s go find out.

The drive along the South shore of the Gaspé peninsula is completely different from the North shore. It is far more populated with many small towns along the way. Agriculture is much more prevalent and the terrain is flatter and not as high. Carleton-sur-mer appeared to be the main touristy center along the coast with a large harbour.

Boutillier Brothers museum, Pasbébiac, QC

A couple of hours along the coast and we’ve turned South to cross into New Brunswick, Canada’s only officially bilingual province. We stop to top off the fuel tank and head just out of Campbellton to Sugarloaf Provincial Park where we plan to stay for the next couple of nights. The campground is only just getting going for the Summer and there is lots of room for us even without a reservation. The site is level and treed, a good place to kick back while we wait for the last of the rainy weather to move out.

Although we grumble about the rain, our thoughts are with friends and family in Ontario suffering with the smoke from the Quebec forest fires. Hoping that everyone is OK and staying safe.