Nova Scotia: Cape Breton Island, South Shore and Bay of Fundy

We “parked” ourselves for 4 nights in Cheticamp, the Acadian (French-speaking) portion of Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. Cheticamp is also a gorgeous national park, and we took advantage of hikes alongside salmon streams, drives up the Cabot Trail, a spectacular coastline to stunning overview hikes on the Skyline Trail.

Cabot Trail

If Prince Edward Island was like going back to the 60’s, Cape Breton is like going back to the 30’s, with isolated countryside homes and small businesses. In the village of Cheticamp, most residents can trace their roots back directly to the French settlers who moved there in the 1700’s. While most inhabitants are bilingual, you can tell it’s a stretch for some to use English. Our second day began with a torrential rainstorm, but it was still fairly warm, so we scheduled some catch up time around camp and went out for dinner and a fiddle show that evening. We left Cape Breton with a bit of sadness. The coastline is stark and dramatic, not someplace you’d call “homey”, but a gorgeous piece of God’s earth.

Traveling to the South Shore of Nova Scotia from Cape Breton is a bit like going from the Olympic Peninsula to Edmonds (but smaller). Tourist buses are frequent on the South Shore (near Halifax where the cruise ships come in), traveling to Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg even in October, and I can’t imagine what the twisty bay roads are like in June or July!

Triple churches on Mahone Bay

We captured some iconic pictures and Lunenburg is a UNESCO World Heritage site, so we appreciate the fisher people who helped create that lovely environment.

Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse

Lunenberg, NS

The little town of Mahone Bay was in the throes of a scarecrow festival, and the entire town was inhabited by bizarre and colorful scarecrows!

Mahone Bay Scarecrow

 

 

 

We left a rather uninviting campground on the Peggy’s Cove Lighthouse run to stay on the Bay of Fundy at the Ponderosa Pines Campgrounds.   I think we hit pay dirt here! Over a hundred campsites, and we are maybe 10 of us camping here? Surrounded by water, and lots of trails!

High Tide, Day 1

We were rewarded with the amazing spectacle of 160 billion gallons of water flowing into and out of the Bay of Fundy twice a day from the Atlantic Ocean (that’s as much water as flows over Niagara Falls in two years!).

Low tide day 2

We left Fundy feeling sad to leave Canada after such a marvelous experience, but also looking forward to our trip down the east coast, beginning in New England.