Summerside

By the wide Summerside Harbour was the six-and-a-half-kilometre Bay Walk that passed the marina and several tourist shops around Spinnakers’ Landing. Beyond the shops a search and rescue vessel was moored. 

Canoe Cove

A short distance south of Charlottetown was Canoe Cove. Mi’kmaq once brought British soldiers ashore by canoe, hence its name. Later the region had been settled by Scottish newcomers in the 1700s who farmed and fished. But that was not what drew me to this quiet location. It was the cliffs.

Prince Edward Island National Park

This national park on the northern side of the island was established in 1937 to protect the beaches and sand dunes as well as the region’s wetlands and marshes. The twenty-seven square kilometre park faced the Gulf of St Lawrence and consisted of mostly access to its many sandy beaches. But there were some trails away from the dunes.

Prince Edward Island’s eastern tip

I drove on a rainy morning heading to P.E.I.’s East Point lighthouse. As I drew nearer the rain clouds lifted and the sight of the lighthouse of 1867 against a blue sky was breathtaking. A climb up the precarious lighthouse steps offered a view of the surrounding coastline where in 1882, a British war ship had run aground on the offshore reef. A year later the lighthouse was moved to the tip of the point where it stands today.

Charlottetown

In 1720 the French arrived in what later became Charlottetown and placed guns at the entrance to the harbour against British attacks. But after the British defeated the French in Louisbourg the region came under British control despite French and Mi’kmaq resistance. A century later after the American Civil War, the Maritime provinces feared an attack from the Americans and began talks on uniting. By the end of the conference the Maritime provinces had created the foundation for a united Canada. Not long after the conference, a fire devastated four blocks of buildings. The shanty-like buildings were gone and replaced with brick homes, stores, and warehouses that still stand today.

Peggys Cove

Only forty-four kilometres from Halifax was a tiny fishing village famous for its rugged coastline and lighthouse. It was one of the most photographed sites in Canada. Although it was home to only forty permanent residents, some seven hundred thousand visitors came to Peggy’s Cove annually.

Halifax’s connection to the Titanic

My main reason for visiting Halifax was it’s association to the Titanic disaster. The city was the closest port from where the Titanic sank back in April, 1912. It was no wonder there was a section in the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic dedicated to the calamity.

Halifax’s Immigration Museum

The Immigration Museum was one of my reasons for visiting Nova Scotia’s capital. The Port of Halifax was an ideal harbour because it was ice-free all year round, so Pier 21 where the museum was situated, became a busy port once WW11 began. British children were evacuated from London’s constant bombing. Some went to the English countryside, but many were shipped to Canada and disembarked wearing a tag around their necks with their identity details. Margaret was one such girl who entered Canada through Pier 21. She spent four years with a family in Winnipeg before she was able to return to her parents in England once the war ended.

Halifax

The Mi’kmaq called Halifax Harbour, Kjipuktuk—the Great Harbour. At thirty-five kilometres in length, with a width of just over three kilometres and a depth that reached seventy-six metres, the harbour was admired for centuries. In 1711 a French military engineer drew up plans to develop the site, but nothing came of his design. In less than thirty years, the British moved in realizing the location’s potential for defence.

Day one of Cape Breton Highlands National Park

From Boutouche I headed into Nova Scotia and arrived at St Anns, Cape Breton Island, to a perfect sunset over St Anns Harbour. The Cabot Trail was on my doorstep, but a few kilometres up the Trans-Canada Highway, a ferry crossed the harbour to a restaurant further north where I had breakfast next morning before tackling the national park.