The best and worst of the Maritime Provinces

Driving was relaxing because there wasn’t half the traffic on Canada’s east coast as the west coast. Plus, I got to admire the millions of lupins that showered their purple, pink, and white flowers by the side of nearly every road. (Featured image: by Masons Beach Road, Lunenburg). BUT the potholes on secondary and some major highways! Driving to Hopewell Rocks, half the road had washed away in several stretches. On one highway there were reminders that moose crossed the road and between watching for moose and dodging yet another pothole, this was a challenge. It appeared that the road crews couldn’t keep up with the amount of damage from the harsh winters.

The Ovens Park

Twenty kilometres south of Lunenburg was The Ovens Park. The seventy-three hectare site had once been known as Indian Ovens. This was probably due to a Mi’kmaq legend about a man who entered a cave in his canoe and emerged in Annapolis on the other side of Nova Scotia.

Lunenburg

Between 1630 and 1680 Acadians settled in the area where they survived by farming and logging as well as trading with the Mi’kmaq. Like many locations in Nova Scotia, the British followed a century later. They put pressure on the Acadians to declare allegiance to the British Crown. Additionally, tension between the British and the Mi’kmaq began to undermine the French community so that by 1753 only one Acadian family remained. The English encouraged protestant settlers to the area who began farming, but soon found fishing more lucrative. Fishers travelled as far as the Grand Banks catching cod that were plentiful at that time. During the prosperous eighteen and nineteenth centuries, beautiful homes were built. In 1862 the area west of Old Town was developed to make way for an increasing population. In less than twenty years the area doubled in size and became known as New Town.

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 two of Cape Breton Highlands National Park

Rocky Bluffs and shallow coves were typical on the park’s eastern side where winds off the Atlantic Ocean battered the coastline. Green Cove had warnings that large waves could crash against the headland at any time. Near the ocean, plant life was stunted due to thin soil and salt spray. Offshore, humpback whales travelled north from the Caribbean. Leatherback turtles were common and harp seals returned to the Gulf of St Lawrence for two months of the year. While on land, as well as an abundance of moose in the park, there were lynx, snowshoe hare, red squirrel, hermit thrush, American marten, boreal chickadee and gray jay. Twice I spotted moose the previous day, standing like statues in the middle of the road until I drove closer before they finally sauntered off into the forest. 

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.