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Maritimes in September Trip Report On September 6, 2005, ten coaches gathered at Mt. Desert Narrows Campground in Bar Harbor, Maine. This was the beginning of a unique adventure. Our Caravan was different than the usual ones. We extend our condolences to Hoyt and Nancy Highfil for their loss, but we also extend our gratitude for the advance planning they did. And special thanks to Sandy and Dick Bell for taking the helm of our self-directed Caravan and keeping us all on track. They oversaw all of the details, directions, and provided great resources to the rest of us, who each researched one of our stops. Lucky for us there were nine planned stops.
The first night our Bar Harbor hosts, Connie and Ed Tilman, treated us to a Welcome Dinner. It was great meeting new friends and reacquainting with others. We took a whale watching boat tour the first full day, and had a great naturalist narrating the ride. We were out over 3 hours and saw 13 fin whales and two smaller minke whales. A large school of porpoises swam with the boat on the return trip. We spent the rest of the day exploring Bar Harbor. We took a shore walk that went by some summer homes. On Day Two the group toured Acadia National Park.
Day Four we caravanned to St. Andrew, New Brunswick, crossing the Canadian border with no problems. Our St. Andrew hosts, Nancy and Jim Sherfey, provided us with lots of information so we could explore the interesting town of St. Andrew. Our campground was right on the Gulf of Maine, near the opening of the Bay of Fundy. We had little time to see the area, but had a chance to do some walking and bike riding. Nancy and Jim arranged for the group to eat dinner together in a restaurant right on the water. We were there as the tide was going out, and we saw sandbars and rock appearing as we ate. The tides move very swiftly on the Bay of Fundy, which has the highest tides in North America. Happy Hour at Reversing Falls! Day Five we moved on to St.
John, NB, further east on the Bay of Fundy. Norma and Don Preston provided us
with maps and information. We traveled in small groups to the market places and
bought produce and fish. Afterward, we went to the Reversing Falls, the Seventh
Marine Wonder of the World.
Picture of the group at the Hopewell Rocks Intrepretive Centre Day Seven we continued on to our next stop, Hopewell Cape, NB. Charlotte and Mike Hayes were our hosts and arranged a Ranger guided tour at the famed Flower Pot Rocks on the Bay of Fundy. These are pillars of sandstone and rock with fir and dwarf spruce growing on top. We walked the floor of the ocean at low tide and stood at the base of huge pillars. At high tide (the highest being 46’) the top of the pillars appear as islands. We saw the formations at a fairly low high tide, only 31’, but it was really impressive! We have never seen so many tidal wonders. The Bay of Fundy is Awesome!
Day Nine we were on the move again to Peggy’s Cove near Halifax, Nova Scotia. We were at a campground right on the Atlantic Ocean. That night friends of area hosts Laura and Bob Bernthal came over from Halifax to give us a local viewpoint of the area. The next day many in the group drove the South Coast route of NS, which goes through lots of artisan communities and along beautiful seashore. The fishing village of Peggy’s Cove is built on huge granite boulders. It is a bit touristy, but wandering around the village we saw that the people who live there year round are a hearty bunch. There is a lighthouse on a huge granite ledge. It is very unique because it is used as a Post Office in the summer. I guess September is still summer as it was still open. Nearby we visited the memorial to the Swiss Air flight 111 that crashed off Peggy’s Cove in 1998.
We spent Day 10 and 11 in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia. It was one of the first British settlements in Canada, because of its long inland harbor. There is a boardwalk that hugs the harbor for several miles, sporting lots of shops, restaurants, and historical points along the walk. Some took the “Duck” boat/shore tour. Some spent several hours seeing the many exhibits at the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic, including a very comprehensive one about the Titanic, which sunk off the Nova Scotia coast near Halifax. Many of the victims are buried there in Halifax. It was a very well done exhibit.
We also spent time in an exhibit depicting a massive explosion of two ships in the narrows of the harbor during WW1, in November 1917. One of the ships was a munitions ship waiting for a convoy to Europe. The resulting fires and concussions flattened a major part of Halifax, and the explosion was felt 200 kilometers away. As rescue and recovery efforts were underway, the city was hit by a record setting snowstorm. The city of Boston sent a ship that was used as a treatment center, and rescue workers. To this day Halifax sends a tree each Christmas to Boston to thank them for their assistance. Here are our coaches at the Wal-Mart stop in New Glasgow, NS, as we were awaiting Hurricane Ophelia to blow through. Our plans for our last day in the Peggy’s Cove area will have to be revisited, as we left the shore on the warnings that Ophelia was going to hit as a tropical storm. We all left and headed north and parked the night in a Wal-Mart parking lot in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia. They normally do not allow overnight parking, but our leaders got permission because of the weather conditions. We had people driving through looking at these nine (Kathy and Roger Teising had to return home) very large and impressive coaches all afternoon and evening; I think they called all of their friends and neighbors to come see the sight. We had a lot of rain overnight, but no wind.
Day 13, eight coaches (the Sherfeys had a family crisis and had to leave) went on to our next stop, Louisburg, NS. This was our first of three stops on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. We camped at Louisburg Motorhome Park, right on the harbor. The local merchant association owns the park, and there were signs around town welcoming our Monaco in Motion Caravan. We spent the first day exploring the Fortress of Louisburg. The site includes a reconstruction of 20% of the fortress built by the French in 1720-1745. The original footprint was used in most buildings. We took a guided tour and then wandered on our own to visit the many buildings where costumed guides depicting soldiers, cooks, blacksmiths, prisoners, etc., played their parts and told about life in their period. Cape Breton is famous for fiddling and Celtic music. Our campground was next to the Louisburg Playhouse, and thanks to hosts Jobie and Hugh Berry, where we enjoyed two nights of Cape Breton music. The first night we were entertained by two piano players who called themselves 88˛. They educated us in: faking Gallic singing; singing, stomping and clapping Cape Breton style; and gave us a history of the Celtic roots of music in Cape Breton. They were very accomplished musicians; in fact one is a music teacher. They played classical, jazz, and the music of their two idols, Billy Joel and Elton John. They even played some Jerry Lee Lewis music, full body participation and all. But the heart of the performance gave us an appreciation of the Scottish roots of Cape Breton music. The next night we were entertained by Scumalash - a family of Mom on the keyboard, with Dad and son Scott on fiddles. They continued our education about Cape Breton music.
Day 16 we moved on to a KOA Campground at Seal Bridge in New Harris, NS. We again were overlooking water and the bridge for an awesome view. Hosts Lady Dell and Homer Martin had visited the area before, and had lots of things for us to do. The first day we visited the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site of Canada in Baddeck. It was very well done, and I learned a lot about Bell. I was unaware of his work with the deaf, and his involvement in flight and hydro-boat development. The second day we drove the Cabot Trail, one of the most scenic drives in North America. There were many view pull offs and points of interest along the way. We would recommend taking two days for the drive to see everything. The next day some of the group drove to tour the only single malt Scotch distillery in North America, while others went back to Baddeck and explored some more. We all met for a great seafood buffet.
Our last night on Cape Breton was spent in Pictou near the ferry to Prince Edward Island. Some of the group visited a full-size replica of the Hector, a three-masted Dutch sailing ship that brought the first Scottish immigrants to Nova Scotia in 1773.
Day 20 we crossed over to Prince Edward Island (PEI) on a ferry, which took 75 minutes. We had calm seas, and it was a beautiful day. Our campground in Southport, across the Hillsborough River from Charlottetown, had sites facing the river. On arrival day, there was a freighter docked across from us in Charlottetown. The next day there was a container ship, loading potatoes. Next appeared a very large cruise ship.
Charlottetown is the birthplace of Canada. In 1864 PEI, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia convened meetings to plan joining together in a union. Canada (now Ontario and Quebec) invited themselves to the meeting, and the result was the Confederation of Canada. We visited the Founders Hall and the Province House National Historic Site to learn the history. The Province house is still used as the Provincial legislative meeting place.
PEI is where Anne of Green Gables was written by Lucy Maud Montgomery. We traveled to some of the historic sites related to the stories, and a highlight of the trip was attending a performance of “Anne of Green Gables, the Musical.”
Too soon our caravan was over. The last night we celebrated our journey’s end at the Canadian Culinary Institute in Charlottetown. Thanks to John Ham for telling the PEI hosts, Jeri and Bill Desmond, about this treasure. It was an appropriate end to a wonderful trip.
Almost all of our campgrounds had beautiful marine vistas, and we had Happy Hour outside most nights. We spent time getting to know each other, celebrating birthdays, and sharing our traveling experiences. The trip was too short, and I know Bill and I have a Maritime “go-back” list we hope to fulfill someday.
Submitted by Jeri Desmond (Edited and Excerpted from Journals sent to family and friends as we traveled)
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