The Best of the Rest

We left our cozy B&B Tuesday morning and headed off to the highlands in search of excellent scenery and moose. Our first stop was the Glenora Distillery, the only single malt whiskey distillery in Canada. We got a quick tour of how the place worked and a shot of the good stuff to perk us up before we were back on the Cabot Trail. Whiskey making is a very involved process, which might explain the very high prices of the stuff in the store ($15 for one of those itty bitty bottles!). Along the Cabot Trail (which goes through Cape Breton National Park) we took a short detour to the northern-most settlement in Nova Scotia (Meat Cove) which was lacking in both meat and the whales that are supposed to be seen just offshore. The cove was beautiful, but a very brisk sea wind and gathering clouds sent us out of there before too long. Disappointed (in the lack of whales) we went back to our tourist loop and spent the day slowly making our way through the National Park until the rain started and we set up our giant silver home. Although Lonely Planet said we’d have a hard time not seeing a moose, we saw nothing more animal like than the Pitcher plant (which eats insects) on our loop. Liars.

Wednesday was HOT, we woke up to 18oC and within a few hours we were enjoying the sunshine and 30oC weather. Our one stop for the day, an out of the way fish hatchery (Jon’s choice) was surprisingly interesting and we got to watch some very large fish close up.

We headed back to New Brunswick on Thursday to visit the southern portion. The very empty Fort Beausejour National Historic site was an excellent first stop. The fort has restored underground rooms which you can go through (if you’re short enough) and with no one else there we were able to run all over the place. If you’re ever in the area and have half an hour to waste, I highly recommend.

I’d never heard of the Hopewell Rocks until I saw them on the front of our tourist guide for NB, but we figured if they made the cover they should be at least a little interesting. So after getting our fill of history at the fort, we drove out along the Bay of Fundy to see them for ourselves. Fundy is known for its huge tides and along with some other wonderful natural processes has created pillars of rock out on the sea floor which are now known as the Hopewell Rocks. At low tide you can wander out among them and in the off-season, photograph them without a hundred strangers in your shots. We suffered the embarrassment of having to carry our large dog up and down the beach access stairs, much to the enjoyment of all the older folks at the site. The Maritimes are filled with the grey haired set, so we tend to stick out where ever we go (we’re 40 years younger and have a massive hairy dog and no motor home). I think the rocks lived up the hype so it was probably worth the strain on Jon to carry the mutt around.

A short dusk time drive around Fundy National Park finally rewarded us with our moose sightings, along with deer, rabbits and a grouse (all in about 20 minutes). I’ve seen moose before, but 3 of them at one time was pretty neat. Torrential downpour started Thursday night and carried on all through Friday so instead of spending more time in Fundy NP we loaded a very wet tent into the car and hightailed it to the Quebec border. Today we drove through Quebec, stopping only for Tim Hortons and gas – neither one of us speaks enough French to do much more than that. We got lost in Montreal (of course) but finally made it across the border into Ontario where we can communicate with the locals! Again, we’re living large at the KOA South Ottawa (which is no where near Ottawa) and heading to the cottage tomorrow before working our way slowly back to Alberta. We very much enjoyed our trip to the coast – although next time we’re taking a camper van!