Shubie

Saturday Oct. 10
Shubie Camp Ground, Dartmouth Nova Scotia
It’s 9:30 on a rainy Saturday morning in Darmouth Nova Scotia. All night we’ve been laying in our little bed listening to the rain falling on the roof outside, thinking how happy we are not to be in a tent. It’s a lazy morning here. We’ve been camped out here for the last four days since Tuesday. Dartmouth is right across the bay from Halifax and has become swallowed up by greater Halifax region, sort of like the GTA has done with all those municipalities around Toronto. Each morning we wake up and walk to the bus stop out front and take the bus down to the ferry terminal. From there we take the ferry over to the other side where it drops us off right downtown on the Halifax harbourfront. It’s a nice ride. Sitting on the ferry we get a nice view of the Halifax skyline as it approaches. We also get a nice view of all the activity in the harbour. Big cruise ships coming in, oil platforms brought in from the ocean for repair, there’s the naval base with a few modest warships there, big ocean going freighters in dock unloading their cargos. We took a tour of the area the first day on one of these little tour buses to get the lay of the land. After that we spent a lot of time walking. Also a good way to see the city. We stopped in at Pier 21, the famous gateway to Canada for all of our parents. It helped to put into perspective what they and so many others went through to come here, and why! We walked up to Citadel Hill for the firing of the noon day canon. Halifax has played an important part in the development of Canada. Built by the British in the early 1700’s it was so well fortified that it has never fallen to any conquering nation. It played an important role during the “Seven years war” during which time France slowly lost it’s grip on Canada, but it also was a deterrent to invasion from the United States later that century, if not we might well have been Americans today. Halifax is also home to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. We were able to spend some time there yesterday. Mari timers have a right to be proud of their art gallery. They have many pieces of fine Canadian art including a huge selection of maritime art that is very important to this part of Canada. Included here is an exhibition currently on display of Maude Lewis, a folk artist, including the home she lived in (a small shack) which she painted inside and out in the same brightly colored style as all of her works. Much more than just her art, is the story of her life, which was an enormous struggle of overcoming adversity, with a modest cheerful disposition. We had the privilege of attending a single act one woman play of her life. It should be required viewing for all high school kids in Canada! She is an important example of maritime history. Well it’s time to hang up now. Today we move on again. First (it’s raining ) so we plan to go shopping. Then we want to drive down to Peggy’s cove for a bit of a look around, and eventually tonight we hope to be in Kentville Lord willing. I have some piks but will add them in later. Stay tuned.

Cape Breton Highlands

We've spent the last five days travelling through this park

The park situated at the North end of Cape Breton Island has got to qualify as a little bit of heavon on earth. The Cabot Trail is a road that runs all around the outside of it along the coast.

The fall colours are just starting

Set th brakes on fire coming down this 300 Metre grade

The highlands are interspersed with deep valleys and thousands of little streams and brooks and water falls

You can look back and see the road along the coast winding through small villages and up escarpments again

Slept at the base of this place one night along the ocean

After a while it all kind of left you numb. Beauty overload if there is such a thing.

Waiting for the ferry

I can't believe that a week has gone by since I last blogged. Internet service is not always easy to get out here. As well we have been pretty active visiting historic sights, museums, concerts, and walking the numerous trails out here. As Grace said in her blog just prier to this, the ferry out of Argentia was delayed a few hours so here we are putting in a bit of time seeing the ruins of the old French navel base at Placentia. Here's a pic of Grace on the blower with Cass.

As you can see there are some great trail walks out here.

It was a beautifull sunny day.

This fortress was in critical position overlooking the only icefree harbour in Newfoundland. It was also a prime location as it was so close to the Cod fisheries. Cod was to the world in those times what oil is to us now. In fact people were coming here to fish long before the French and the English thought it was theirs. Basque fishermen were coming here as early as the late 1300's already, long before Columbous discovered America. One documented accounted talks of over sixty ships in the harbour during the mid 1400's. They would establish a year round settlement here of a few settlers who would stay the winter, but most would go home in the fall with their boats loaded with Cod and come back in the spring.

The French eventually lost this harbour in an agreement with the British called the treaty of Utrecht which gave all of Newfoundland to the British. This promted the Fench to move to Nove Scotia and build the large citadel and fortress at Luisburg that Grace was talking about.

Nova Scotia

It has been slow going as far as miles goes. Last Saturday afternoon we got on the Argentia and left for Nova Scotia. It wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be to sleep on the ferry. It was delayed because of high winds and we got a complimentary breakfast because of it. Fortunately our trip was quite smooth. The next day rained all day so it was a perfect day to do laundry, get an oil change, get our hair done, buy groceries etc and then on to Louisbourg. Louisbourg is definitely on my top 10 places to live. We stayed in an RV park run by the town. It was close to the water and docks so Henry at last did a little fishing. (5 mackerel) We met some awesome local people and travellers who love to come back year after year. The park was right in town and next to a little theatre type playhouse. Every night they had a different group singing which was great fun. One night was down home fiddling and step dancing with Jennifer Roland. We also heard ‘The Men of the Deeps’ a chorus of coal miners. They were very moving. Each person in the group had been a miner. They sang wearing their mining helmets and lights. With the mines all closing up and the tragic stories they shared it was very emotional. I couldn’t help think how dad and Wilf would have loved it. The coalmine and fishery closings have been hard on many communities here. Here in Louisbourg the government funded the largest historical reconstruction in Canadian history to generate employment. The result is Fortress Louisbourg as it was in 1744 right down to the costumed tour guides. It took us 2 days to wander through military buildings, taverns, gardens, blacksmith shops, homes of upper and lower class and many other sites. Henry is definitely ‘museumed out’. Now we are on the Cabot trail. Internet is almost non-existent but the colours are beautiful. I think we’ll be going slower than ever.