Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics A motorhome (RV) tour around Nova Scotia & Cape Breton - Part 1 by Spinner

 

Lies, Damn Lies and Statistics – A motorhome (RV) tour around Nova Scotia & Cape Breton.

There is some doubt who coined the phrase ‘lies, damned lies and statistics’, but for the purposes of this account let’s say it was Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli. I plumped for Disraeli only because, according to my research, there are parallels between Disraeli’s imperial ideas and that of Canada’s first Prime Minister, Sir John A Macdonald.  I was also struggling to find a suitable title for this blog that would gain your attention long enough for me to convey some of the facts about this wonderful part of the world.

First I will talk about the statistics and then, if you are still reading, ‘the lies’ and maybe some damned lies!

First the statistics.  

Nova Scotia (NS) has a land area of 53,338 km2 and a population 947,284. Compare this with England which has land area of 130,279 km and a population of 54,786,300 this works out roughly that in NS there are 18 people to the sq. km and in England 420 people to the sq. km! The provincial capital of NS is Halifax, which has a population of roughly 400,000.  Now if you do the maths you can quickly see how devoid of people some areas of NS are. 

In NS there are reportedly 12,000 black bears, goodness knows how many coyotes… apparently a lot as they have a culling season, and some 1000 or more moose.   

 

 Day 1

After a six hour flight from Gatwick by way of St Johns, Newfoundland, we arrived at Halifax International Airport which is, surprisingly, on a similar latitude to Biarritz in the south of France.  The usual protocol with RV hire companies is that you have to pick up the following day if you arrived on an international flight.  So our first night was in a hotel in Dartmouth, a former city in its own right, but now a suburb of Halifax.  The RV hire company we had booked with was Canadream whose depot was conveniently a few miles down the road. Following a quick call with the company, arrangements were made that they would pick us up from the hotel at 12 midday.

Day 2 

After a good nights’ sleep and a somewhat unusual breakfast, where everything was served on disposable plates with plastic cutlery, the man from Canadream arrived as arranged.  I won’t go into too much detail here about the experience of hiring an RV as I intend to write about this at a later date.  Needless to say, after finalising all the paperwork and doing the walk around checks we were ready to hit the road.  

Now when I say we, I mean Mrs S, myself, our two sons, daughter in law and grandchild, hence two RV’s! Sharing one, no matter how large, would be tantamount to inciting mutiny. By whom I am not sure?

 

Our first task was to stock up with essentials, we had already hired the ‘comfort packs’, bedding, towels, cutlery etc. so it was mainly food. Destination, Atlantic Superstore, two miles down the road, a sort of Walmart but a bit more upmarket (Sainsbury’s as opposed to Asda perhaps) It is now 5.00 pm and the bad weather that followed us from St Johns had arrived in NS and the light was fading.  With two large trolleys full to the brim we loaded the said shopping into the cupboards, just randomly, as we would do a proper sort out when we reached our first stopover.

A little bit of research prior to leaving the UK encouraged us not to pre-book any campgrounds, it was September and the main tourist season had passed so there would be plenty of space. I decided we would tour NS in a clockwise direction, don’t ask me why, that was just the way it was going to be. Our first stopover was to be Peggy’s Cove about a one hour drive from Dartmouth, the route would take us through downtown Halifax. 

Now for some reason I had decided not to take up the offer of hiring Sat Navs. If you are asking yourself ‘why not man?’ then you would not be alone! “We have a map and there is really only one road to follow” I said to my astonished family, “we don’t need sat navs, we can easily find our way through Halifax”.  “In the dark, in the rain, in the rush hour in an RV (one at 28 ft and the other 32ft) unfamiliar left hand drive!” came the reply. Needless to say we got lost and were no longer in convoy! I should point out here that rush hour in Halifax is nothing like rush hour in the UK.  More like Sunday morning traffic going to an out of town shopping centre.

 

 

About six years ago, while looking through the hardware section in Lidl, I espied  a pair of walkie talkies; you know the little handheld things. Now I just can’t leave without buying something from this section and on this occasion it just happened to be them.  Now these amazing little chaps have got us out of a few scrapes in the past I can tell you, and again they came to the rescue. With a range of a couple of kilometres we discovered, by consulting the maps, (you should never be without a map) that we were only a few blocks apart. My daughter in law had now got the correct directions and all we had to do was to meet up and follow them, ‘no problem’. 

An hour later we were clear of downtown Halifax and Peggy’s Cove was now only forty-five minutes away.  The rain had stopped and this was replaced with sea fog that came rolling across the twisty road in waves, at times I could only just make out the lights of the RV in front of me, at least that is what I think it was!. 

“No problem” cried Joyce, a kindly lady, probably in her mid-sixties! and owner of the King Neptune Campground. ‘You just go and park up where you like, you can have a drive through or a backup, they’ve all got city water, come and see me when you are all settled in’. It was now eight in the evening and as I walked back from her little yellow clapboard house to our RV I could still hear her muttering, no problem, no problem. At this point my mind drifted to the Caravan Club, can you imagine the response you would have got from them in a similar situation?  God only knows what would happen to you if you were a non-member!!

Note

City water is where you connect your hose to a standpipe, switch off your pump and hey presto you are on mains, simples. It seems that all the campsites were proud of this facility! 

 

Settle in we did, and with one press of a button the whole side of our RV slid out to create enough space for me and Mrs S to attempt the tango. Connected to ‘city water’ we were all good for our first night in NS on wheels!

 

 

 

It is said, that the lighthouse at Peggy’s cove is the most photographed     lighthouse in Canada, the World, or even the Universe.  Whether this is true or a lie I have no idea, and nor does anybody else for that matter, but I added to their tally and took a picture myself.

  

For those of you who are not familiar with North America you have to remember that everything, and I mean everything there is bigger, longer, deeper, better, than anything else anywhere, and they say size doesn’t matter.  In this part of the world it surely does! As you will see if you read on.

 

 

 

Day 3

We awoke next morning to a beautiful warm sunny day.  

Located next to the seashore in a sheltered bay, and only five kilometres from the said lighthouse and village, Joyce’s campground was perfect. We decided to take one RV and drive as there was no pavement on the highway leading to the village.  With the slide out all safely tucked in and the ‘city water’ disconnected, we were off. 

Now as I have indicated NS is pretty sparsely populated. However, Halifax is a cruise ship destination and Peggy’s is within spitting distance.

So we turned off of the highway and joined the coaches winding their way up the little road.  It was so busy that people were parking at the bottom and walking up.  “You won’t find anywhere to park that” said a walker, “coaches only”. Well, I was already committed so I shrugged my shoulders and went up the hill anyway.  As soon as we reached the top a lady in a high vis vest pulled me over.  “You looking for somewhere to park” she said, “yes” I replied apprehensively, and with that she whipped a cone away and said “we got a special place for RV’s, you park right over there behind those others”. “How much?” I said, feeling for my wallet. She looked puzzled! “For parking” I said. She smiled, “no charge for RV’s” she replied.  Now, not being used to this sort of reception from car park attendants, especially when in a motorhome, I was slightly taken aback. In a somewhat deferential voice, along the lines of Lady Penelope’s chauffer, Parker. I said “that is very kind of you”. “No problem” she hollered, “you just take your time” and we did.

   

Another Statistic

NS is the largest exporter of Lobster in the World – and it’s the best?

Now having read so much about NS Lobster it would be sacrilege not to sample what is reputedly the best and compare it to its cousins on the other side of the Atlantic vis a’ vis the Cornish coast.  Recommended was the Maritime Pasty Company, run by a lady from Crawley.  We ordered from a small serving hatch and sat on the benches adjacent to eat our five lobster rolls, with slaw and dressing, of course.  At 16 dollars (£10.00) each! they weren’t bad and almost as good as their Cornish cousins! As it turned out they were best we had in NS and not the most expensive!

 

Day 4 Lunenburg

We said goodbye to Joyce and thanked her for her hospitality.  “No problem” she said
 as she waved us off.

 

The Board of Trade campground at Lunenburg sits on a hill in this UNESCO World Heritage Town. Built of painted clapboard houses and a historic wooden decked waterfront with traditional sailing ships alongside, visiting Lunenburg is like stepping back in time.  Lunenburg is also famous for its scallops. In the mid-fifties, after the collapse of the salt fish trade, Adams & Nickle, a fish wholesaling company turned its hand to scallop dredging. From their bright red buildings that dominate the waterfront they now sell and export the best scallops in the world! 

 

 

 

We booked a trip around Lunenburg bay on the Eastern Star, a 48 foot Ketch. Built in 1948 of mahogany and teak, she was a sight to behold. The contrast of her three white sails and white hull against the dark wood of the deck made her a good match for her rival, the larger Blue Nose II, a favourite with the tourist board! The wind was up, and so, with sails reefed we slipped out to watch the evening sun dip behind the horizon.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is difficult to describe the pleasure one gets from sailing, especially when the ship is built of wood.  Heeled over, the water running through the gunwales with our grandson at the helm, will always hold special memories.

 

 






  

 

 

 

Day 6 Kejimkujik National Park

Whenever you see pictures of Canada there is usually one depicting someone alone canoeing out on a beautiful still lake somewhere ‘up country’. So Mrs S took one for our own album.

 

Kejimkujik National Park is an historic sight of Canada. Set in 404 sq kilometres, Kejimkujik is the second largest biosphere reserve in the country.  With its interconnected lakes and rivers it was also the an
cestral home of the Mi’kmaw people, where for centuries it was a place of encampments, fish weirs, hunting territories and burial grounds. We spent one night in Kejimkujik, we could have spent more, we should have spent more!  Now, every campground we stayed on had fire pits including the one in Kejimkujik. This surprised me as only back in August, after they had one of the driest summers on record, fires broke out causing more than 350 hectares of destruction. Picking up on the canoeing thread again we headed up to Jake’s Landing, a mountain bike and boat hire place and did what all visitors to Kejimkujik should do. 

 

 

Day 7 Bay of Fundy – Best whale watching place in the world?

According to the good folk of Digby, the Bay of Fundy is the best place in the world to go whale watching. Well for us it was true!

“Where you from?” asked the lady in the RV next to us. She had noticed the Canadream Logo. “The UK” I replied. “You going whale watching”? “Yep, sure am” (by now I was getting into the lingo). “You better get yourself down to Brier Island, plenty down there, only the roads are a bit narrow, you taking your RV?”.  Now at this moment my mind quickly computed that narrow roads here are not as narrow as roads are in the UK. “No problem”, I said.  “Back home we’ve got plenty of narrow lanes so pretty used to it”. “Don’t you guys drive on the other side of the road though?”  “Yep, we sure do”. “Gee, it must be difficult driving over here” she said in that American drawl, they were from Texas. I was tempted to say ‘no problem’ but thought this might be overdoing it. “Be sure to stop off at the café at Free Port, by the ferry, best scallops in the World! Do you like scallops?” “Sure do” I said.

 

Now perhaps I should explain. The Bay of Fundy lies between Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. Jutting out into the bay is a 70 kilometre long strip of land made up of Digby Neck, Long Island and Brier Island, which requires two short ferry trips.  According to the tourist board website the Bay of Fundy boosts the highest tides in the world!

With of a bit of help from the campground owners we made arrangements with Mariner Cruises on Brier Island to be on the following morning’s 10.00am excursion. So once again with the slide out back in and the “city water” disconnected we made an early start to be sure of catching both ferries.

As we chugged out of the harbour on our four hour long excursion, our host gave us a quick safety briefing. There were about thirty of us and she was so pleased to have us aboard the Chad & Sisters Two, a lobster fishing boat which is owned by the Graham family and has been operating since 1994.  Now to say the sea was rough would be an exaggeration, especially to Kenney Graham, the captain, and our hosts who were obviously seasoned fishing folk. However, as we cleared the headland the swell picked up and against the grey sea and leaden sky our little boat was soon pitching and rolling. 

 

 

 

It wasn’t long before our first sighting, a female humpback and her calf. They came so close to the boat along the starboard side we could almost touch them! Cameras were clicking and about half of us oohed and aahed as these two beautiful creatures flipped their tails and spouted water.  I say half of us because the other half were throwing up on the port side, as this was ‘leeward’ it was ‘no problem’ for the rest of us.  And so it continued for the next three hours more whales, probably thirteen in all, more clickety click, more oohs and aahs and more throwing up.  As we tied up in the harbour the next excited group were ready to take their turn.  “Did you see any whales?” somebody shouted. “You bet” I said, and to the embarrassment of my offspring, I shouted “we had a whale of a time”. I’m sure I heard Kenny mutter, “not that old joke again”!!

 

Part 2 will see us up in Cape Breton Island or Breten as the locals call it, deal with a breakdown a tow truck, a balancing rock and tell you some of the damn lies about the Cabot Trail

Useful Links - if you are interested!

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