Digby, Nova Scotia

We moved west across Nova Scotia to a little town called Annapolis Royal and backed in amongst a pod of monster motorhomes, which created a little courtyard of sorts. We payed for a week's stay, as last week Nancy had to work full time covering phones and scheduling for her company, so moving mid-week would have been disruptive.

Not far from camp we found a park at Delaps Cove with a nice loop trail down to the Bay and back. We left Kinsey to sleep and took Toby with us on the walk (she is very slow and tires quickly nowadays). The coastline on this side of the Bay of Fundy is very different: not red sandstone like on the New Brunswick side, but chunky granite ledge, and boulder beaches, more like Maine:

The town of Annapolis Royal is really nice - small, but with shops and restaurants that appeal to locals and toursists alike, a good hardware store, decent grocery, twice-weekly farmer's/artists' market, a german bakery, historical garden, and hiking/biking trails. Took my bike or kayak out every day while Nancy worked. Biked in the morning before the heat became unbearable; kayaked in the afternoon to find relief. Nancy, trapped inside the Whale, was thankful for the air conditioner.

I came across this floral scene out on the trail:


And, at low tide, observed these fishing boats tied to the quay:

Friday night, the work week finally over, we went into Digby, where a large fleet of scallop fishing boats resides. We strolled the town, checked out the wharf, and then settled down for cocktails and a dinner of Digby scallops, which are served saute'd in garlic and butter. They were firmer and more flavorful than most scallops we've had before - very good!

Saturday the rains came, but we wanted to visit the Historical Garden in town. We tried to time our visit between showers, but to no avail. It was nice anyway, and the rose garden was in full bloom:

Annapolis Royal also has north america's only Tide powered hydro-electric plant. An existing dyke had been built ages ago to control tide level in the river. The plant operates by opening gates to allow the incoming tide to flow up river. The gates close to trap the water while the tide goes out. When the level outside the gate has dropped by 1.6 meters, another gate is opened to allow the trapped river water to escape through a turbine. As a result, twice daily there is a massive inrush of water, creating a boiling froth visible from camp, and a similar white water expulsion downstream as they generate electricity. Pretty cool.

Today we've got a relatively short drive - heading out onto the Digby Peninsula to be close to the port towns where the whale-watching boats hail from. We want to take a cruise, but also want to minimize the number of hours the dogs get left alone in the rig. Had we done that from here, we might have been gone nine hours or more. This way we can be gone no more than six hours. Hopefully my next post will feature lots of pictures of whales. Stay tuned...