ANNAPOLIS ROYAL and MONCTON

After our brief stay in Halifax, it was off to the west coast to Annapolis Royal and Digby, which would mark the last stop in our two weeks in Nova Scotia and then on to New Brunswick with Saint John and Moncton on the list.  On the first day, we took a run down to Digby for the 7th annual Digby Wharf Rat Rally - Simply put - it was packed, and the main festivities didn’t start until the weekend.   Downtown Digby was completely overtaken by motorcycles.   The Wharf Rat Rally is the largest Atlantic Canada Motorcycle Rally.  It started only 6 years ago with 750 motorcycles and has grown consistently every year and for a town with a population sitting at around 2,100 - when about 25,000 motorcycles and 50,000 people come to town (this years numbers) - it's a big deal!   It was certainly hard not to become enthusiastic about owning a bike!

We also visited the Annapolis Royal Generating Station.  This is a 20 MW tidal power station located on the Annapolis River immediately upstream from the town of Annapolis Royal.  It is the only tidal generating station in North America.  The generating station harnesses the tidal difference created by the large tides in the Annapolis Basin, a sub-basin of the Bay of Fundy.  Opened in 1984, the Annapolis Royal Generating Station was constructed by Nova Scotia Power Corporation, and creates power for approximately 4600 homes.  We had a chance to go on a tour and were very impressed by the turbine.  Although it is very good at generating power for Nova Scotia, the design we toured will never be used again.

On Saturday, we connected with Sharon and Jim, friends we had met back in Camperland this past spring.  They had been travelling in Nova Scotia and when we made contact on email to update each other where we were and what we were doing, that they changed their plans and came over to Annapolis.  We had a couple of great days reminiscing about our travels so far.  They had just come off of a three-week tour of Newfoundland and Labrador and had many tales of icebergs and the wonderful people there. 

We visited Fort Anne on Sunday.  Fort Anne has been the center of Annapolis Royal since 1634.  This was the year that Charles de Menou D'Aulnay build Fort Anne.   One of the first regiments to garrison here was the "Fighting 40th". This regiment was formed in Annapolis Royal and reined from 1717 to 1758. Only three of the original sixty buildings remain today. The rest were either torn down or were left to fall and decay.  Beside the officers' quarters and the powder magazine, the third building is referred to as "the Black Hole". The French built it into the west bastion.  Although built as a powder magazine, it proved to be too damp. Later the British used it at times as a prison.   The one statue we saw was of de Monts, who in 1605 established the first white settlement in North America, north of the Gulf of Mexico.

We went on a walking tour of Annapolis Royal including some very interesting homes.  One, the O’Dell House was quite a story.  The house was built in 1869 by a former Pony Express rider, Corey O’Dell as a home for his family and a tavern and is resplendent with period furniture.  Another, the Bailey House was built in 1770 and once held a ball for the Duke of Kent.  The Pickles and Mills building built in 1870 is where they used to make sails for ships. The Sinclair house was built in 171 and is where the first Masonic Lodge met in 1738.  The house has not been restored but has been dismantled in strategic places in order to display over 300 years of building techniques and materials.  In a few places parts of the flooring were covered in plexi- glass to show the foundation and how the floors were supported 300 years ago.  We had no problem walking on this, but the dogs had a very difficult time with it.

On our last day, we toured “the Habitation”, or Port Royal, founded by Pierre Du Gua de Monts and Samuel de Champlain.  The Habitation at Port Royal (1605-1613) was the first successful (though short-lived) French settlement of New France in North America.

No conversation about being on the Bay of Fundy would be complete without noting the tides.  There are three tides in the Bay of Fundy, lateral, horizontal and the bore.  Anyone who has been near the sea has seen the horizontal tide of the sea as it makes its way out and in on a 12 hour schedule.  But, the tides on the Bay work in an 8-hour schedule and can vary by an hour between tides.  We wanted to see a lateral tide so we staked out the new wharf (recently replaced the one from 1891) and took these pictures of the vertical tide.  The first, low tide was taken at 9:45 AM, the second, at high tide was at 3:40 PM.   It was a tide of 7.8 meters or 25 feet.  These first pictures are of low tide. Our next stop will be New Brunswick to see the tidal bore and the tidal rocks.

These next three are of the same area, but at high tide.

Have you ever thought of a graveyard as a place of adventure, learning and discovery? Well, we decided to take a chance and tour the oldest English graveyard in Nova Scotia at night, with over 50 other people.  This graveyard is found in Annapolis Royal at Fort Anne.   It is the most popular tour in Nova Scotia, has been written up in the New York Times and has been running four times a week for over 20 years.  But, it was quite a sight, all of us carrying lanterns walking through the dark.  We could imagine the comments of those walking the streets.   We had a great time learning the names and dates and history of many who established the community in the 1700’s and the life the people led.   The tour was given by a 10^th generation Acadian who has traced his roots back to the 1600’s and listening to him talk about his family was absolutely fascinating.

The next day, we were up at 5 am to be at the ferry dock by 7am.  We took the Bay Ferry from Digby to Saint John, New Brunswick and   arrived amongst the layered fog of the harbor.

We headed up to Moncton to spend a few days., mostly for R&R and just shopping around town.  We did head out to the Bay of Fundy to see the Hopewell Cape rocks.  We can certainly see why the Hopewell Rocks receive the hype they do. 
During low tide you can walk on the ocean floor for up to 3 hours, but you are warned to make sure you are back on real land before a certain time or you could get trapped as the tide comes in FAST! The water levels are amazing, and are marked on the rocks so you can see exactly how high they get. 
Besides walking on the ocean floor, you can  find observation decks to look below. There are also trails for walking, a restaurant, gift shop and a mini museum.

We can certainly see why the Bay water which flows into Moncton and area, is nicknamed the Chocolate River – it is so muddy it looks very much the color of milk chocolate.

One of the other attractions we took in was in downtown Moncton at the Tidal Bore Park to see the natural phenomenon of the tidal bore.  This is a result of the record high tides of the Bay of Fundy. These cause the water in Moncton's Petitcodiac River to rise with just one wave coming in from the Bay. Within an hour the river can go from a muddy river bottom at low tide to being filled to its banks at some 7.5 m (24 feet) depth. The Tidal Bore can be seen from many points in the Greater Moncton area, one of the best being Tidal Bore Park, where we saw it roll into town. We were amazed at how quickly the water at the edge of the river rose, in the short time we were there.

We also had a chance to drive up to Magnetic hill a local tourist attraction.  The Magnetic Hill is an example of a gravity hill, a type of optical illusion created by rising and descending terrain. It is located at the northern tip of the City and is similar to the one we experienced in Vernon.  They now charge $5.00 for you to enjoy this illusion.  The area is surrounded now by two huge shopping centers, the Magnetic Hill Concert Site where the Eagles recently played, the Magnetic Hill Zoo and the Magic Mountain Water Park. 

On our trip across Canada, Susan has now met two people from Chilliwack hospital.  A nurse she knew connected with her when we were in Drumheller and as we started to walk on Fundy Bay floor, a unit clerk she knew recognized her – it is a small world!

Tomorrow we are leaving for Edmundston, New Brunswick and then on into Quebec City on Saturday, where we will be meeting up with Fran and Tony, our friends from Chilliwack.

HALIFAX

We arrived in Halifax from Cape Breton on August 27. The weather has been very good to us all through our trip and arriving in the far eastern edge brought unseasonal high temperature and blue skies.  We’ve now crossed Canada, from coast to coast, ocean to ocean.

The first day after settling in was a time to visit the harbor and the true maritime flavor of the famous coastal city of Halifax.  And, true to its coaster heritage and coupled with a storm called Irene, the weather was a bit cool and blustery.  But, we headed into town and visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic.  The museum has over 26,000 artifacts and one such artifact is the CSS Acadia.  This was the first hydrographic research vessel build to chart Canada’s Arctic and eastern waters.

The museum itself houses exhibits on small watercraft, Sable Island and its hundreds of shipwrecks, the Halifax Explosion, ship chandlery and shipwreck treasures.  There is a large exhibit on Cunard ocean liners, wartime convoys, the Days of Sail and of course one of the largest permanent exhibits, the Titanic.

While we were there, and patrolling the outside exhibits, we came across a couple of unknown vessels.  These were a large yacht named the “Unity” and an ocean sailing ship named the “Scheherazade”.  We researched each because they were awe-inspiring and jaw dropping.   The first, the Unity – a 40 meter (131 foot) yacht with white decks over a blue hull belongs to Elena Ford, the great, great, grand daughter of Henry Ford.  According to rumors, Ford and her husband spent $17 million for the Grosse Pointe Yacht Club in Michigan to dredge part of the harbor to make room for their yacht.

The other sailing yacht, the 47 meter (154 foot), the Scheherazade, is currently registered in Bermuda but sails out of Maine.  She is up for sale; a mere 29 Million is the asking price.  It was a lot of fun imagining the life aboard one of these cruising the Atlantic.

There were several other sailing ships ready for charter in the harbor as well and one of the last serving WWII corvettes, the HMCS Sackville.  She was a Flower-class corvette that served in the Royal Canadian Navy and was active from 1941 to 1982.  She is now open for tours.

After an exhausting museum tour, what else does one do in Halifax but go across the street to the Alexander Keith ‘s Nova Scotia Brewery.   Here the oldest part of the original 1820 brewery has been converted into a pub, a gift shop and offices.   The best part is that the tour of the brewery is done by period actors who take you through the old processes and even serve you a few tastes afterward.

The next day, we decided to head south to Peggy’s Cove.  Peggy’s Cove (population approx. 46) is a small rural community located on the eastern shore of St. Margarets Bay.  The first recorded name of the cove was Eastern Point Harbor or Peggs Harbor in 1766.  Peggy’s Cove has a classic red-and-white lighthouse still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard. The light station is situated on an extensive granite outcrop at Peggy’s Point, immediately south of the village and its cove. This lighthouse is one of the most-photographed structures in Atlantic Canada and one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the world.

The Swissair Flight 111 Memorial is located at The Whalesback, a rock promontory approximately 1 km northwest of Peggy’s Cove. It is one of two memorials built to commemorate the victims of the Swissair Flight 111 disaster, which saw the aircraft crash into St. Margarets Bay on 2 September 1998.   The monument reads in English and French: "In memory of the 229 men, women and children aboard Swissair Flight 111 who perished off these shores September 2nd, 1998. They have been joined to the sea, and the sky. May they rest in peace."

The site of the crash and two monuments form a triangle. The three notches on the monument at Whalesback represent the numerals 111. The sight line from the three grooves in the stone points to the crash site; while the markings on the facing stone point to another memorial at Bayswater. The memorial wall at Bayswater contains the names of the 229 passengers and crew of flight 111. The facing stone points to the crash site.

The next day, we headed for the Halifax Defence Complex, commonly referred to as the Halifax Citadel.  With the founding of Halifax by the British in 1749, a system of fortifications was established to protect the naval shipyard and naval base.  One of the most enduring and recognized symbols of Citadel Hill's role in shaping Halifax is the daily ceremonial firing of the noon gun. The artillery is also used for formal occasions such as 21-gun salutes.

Fort George has a living history program featuring actors portraying life in the fort where soldiers of the 78th Highland Regiment, the Third Brigade of the Royal Artillery, soldiers wives, and civilian tradespersons re-enact life in 1869. 

We utilized both the guided and self-guided tours available as well as audio-visual presentations and exhibits which were very informative and really gave us a glimpse into the Citadel's role in shaping Halifax's and North America's history.  The "Army Museum", located in the Citadel's Cavalier Block, displays a rare collection of weapons, medals and uniforms exploring Nova Scotia's army history.  With the many changes in command while it was being built, while also fighting many battles, the fort was basically out dated by the time it was completed after 28 years.

After our brief stay in Halifax, it was off to the West coast to Annapolis Royal and Digby, which would mark the last stop in our two weeks in Nova Scotia.