Day 30 – Wednesday, June 11, 2014

Hubbard, Nova Scotia to Grand Pre, Nova Scotia – 171 Miles

Today was a much better day than yesterday.  It dawned bright and clear, and after a good night’s sleep I put the downer day of yesterday behind me.  We decided to drive a little further down the coast this morning before cutting across the peninsula to the Bay of Fundy side because we wanted to visit the town on Lunenburg, another historic, bayside settlement located on the tip of the next bay south of Peggy’s Cove.  It was a beautiful drive over, following right along the shoreline most of the way.  Lunenburg turned out to be a delightful place, a much larger town than Peggy’s cove.  It is set on a sloping hillside with large trees and a small but vibrant downtown area, which stretches for several blocks along three main streets which parallel the harbor front.  The buildings are all from the Victorian era, brightly painted and embellished with lots of gingerbread trim.  We had coffee on the outdoor deck on the second level of an inn and restaurant overlooking the harbor, then spent a couple of hours exploring the shopping district, which had many real businesses, as well as art and crafts galleries in addition to the usual touristy T-shirt and knick-knack shops.  After a light lunch of crab sandwich and a slice of almond cranberry banana bread, we set out toward the Annapolis Valley, which is located just inland from and parallel to the Bay of Fundy on the western side of Nova Scotia’s southern peninsula.

We followed a winding road along a river and string of lakes until we reached the divide separating the Atlantic and Fundy watersheds, then another, smaller river down the other side.  Reaching the major southwest-northeast highway up the western side of the peninsula, we passed through a land of pastoral farms and meadows separated by dense mixed hardwood and pine woodlands.  It was only a few miles before we turned west, down to the towns of Wolfville and Grand Pre, the heart of Acadia, as this part of French Canada was called.  There were two places in particular that Jeanette wanted to see here – an herb and sculpture garden called the Tangled Garden, and the Museum of Acadia, a history center that is part of the Canadian National Parks system and the location of a famous statue of Evangeline, the ill-fated heroine of the story of the same name written by Robert Louis Stephenson.  I also wanted to see the amazing tides in this upper end of the Bay of Fundy, which are well-known as the highest tides anywhere on earth.

Our first order of business was to get checked into a campground so we wouldn’t be worried about that later in the evening.  We found a place called Evangeline Beach Family Campground, located right on the beach a couple of miles west of Grand Pre.  We then went to the gardens, which were bustling with early spring-blooming flowers.  It was a shady haven on a warm spring day. 

Next we went back into Wolfville, a short three or four miles south of Grand Pre, then over to Port William, where the tidal flow up the Cornwallis River averages 40 to 50 feet, depending on a number of factors such as the phase of the moon and what’s going on out in the Atlantic.  It was near low tide, approximately two hours past the actual minimum, when we got there, but I wanted to get a couple of pictures of the muddy river bottom and the tall pilings supporting the century-old wharf on the riverbank for comparison to when we come back tomorrow at high tide.  Being late afternoon, the sun was at the wrong angle to get a good photograph, but after I do a little Photoshop manipulation I think they will be useable.  But that means I won’t be posting the photos for a few days.

We stopped for dinner at a small café on Wolfville’s Main Street, and I had a delicious dinner of chicken primavera with red and green peppers, onions, and broccoli served over penne pasta, and Jeanette had pan-fried fresh haddock with a spinach salad.

Returning to the campground, we had time to take a shower and do a load of laundry before walking across the street to the bluff overlooking the beach to watch the evening high tide rising over the wide beach.  However, the peak wasn’t until after midnight and we were tired from a busy day, so our high tide experience will be tomorrow at noon when we go back to the Cornwallis River at Port William.