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.

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.

Bouctouche

In the late 1700s French Acadians settled in the area which explains why so many street names were in French, as well, it was the most common language spoken in the small town located by New Brunswick’s Bouctouche River. (featured image) And as one of the town’s locals told me, the British may have burnt their villages and expelled them centuries earlier, but they had survived and thrived.

the contents of a dish are not always in the name

I saw a t-shirt in a Japanese restaurant before I left on this trip last October that said, “I travel to eat” and thought, that’s me! But Taiwan had not met my expectations in the eating department. My best Taiwanese meal had been the cheapest when I visited a night market.

Fanny Bay

North of Parksville on Vancouver Island, Fanny Bay sits opposite Denman Island. It’s a place you might drive through without stopping if you weren’t aware that it’s famous for oysters. The Pacific oyster is exported all over the world and the oyster farms, unlike salmon farms, don’t harm the environment.

A Free Feast

While descending to the rocky shoreline on our Gowlland Tod Provincial Park hike, I wandered over a beach covered in pebbles and shells. I didn’t notice what lay over the boulders at first. I was too busy studying a starfish half hidden amongst the rocks.

The last word on Trinco

Photo courtesy: Indi Samarajiva – Wikimedia Commons

Trincomalee was memorable for the families I met. There were two other reasons I’d rather forget that I also connect to the town. One happened while I strolled along the harbourside heading towards a shop to buy butter.

Oyster Bay – no oysters, only soft sand

Photo courtesy: mwanasimba, Wikamedia.org

Oyster Bay was a short drive from downtown Dar es Salaam where Indian Ocean winds washed over the sandy beach.

I used to mooch into the Oyster Bay Hotel poised across the road. Waiting to dock in the harbour were tankers anchored off shore, lit up like distant, silent cities.