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We dismiss the Cabot Trail and find some backroads — and if I see the word "Lobster" again I'll scream!
September, 1997
Our first reaction to Nova Scotia was coloured, I'm afraid, by over-enthusiastic marketing. After a night in an indifferent camp site in Indian Brook, on the east coast of Cape Breton, we duly followed the Cabot Trail, which we'd been led to believe was utterly fantastic and spectacular. What did we find? Lots of forested hills with lots of forested valleys and forested slopes slanting down to the sea. Pleasant enough, but not breathtaking. Again, our experience of B.C. has left us underawed!
The Ceilidh Trail
We drove round the cape, saw some pilot whales plodding southwards, and then reached an area that was much more interesting. Here, in the Acadian(near Cheticamp) and then Scottish (near Inverness) settlements, the coast is edged by a wide shelf on which are dotted farms and hamlets. There are tiny fishing ports. They have charm and character, and there are real people about doing real things, instead of tourists. It was often truly "picturesque". As we approached Port Hastings and the causeway to the main island we searched Craigmore for a campground that in the end we decided no longer existed, so we drove on.Marine Drive
We began by looking for a campground, and in the end spent the night in the van at a mosquito-infested pullout in Tor Bay (a pullout that the next morning was used by several school buses -- fortunately we were long up) . We went on to zig-zag down the east coast, an often-attractive journey, with handsome inlet after harbour after cove. We arrived in Halifax in the rain, and stayed at another mediocre campground (Colonial Camping, gloomy and mosquito-filled).
Halifax
This was a catching-up day, and we spent it in the Halifax office of TRO Learning (Canada), Inc. Ralph is writing the third issue of Canadian PLATO, the newsletter of the Canadian arm of this international educational software company. It rained all day, so it was good to be in a warm, dry office! TRO's Eastern Manager Peter Landry was good enough to give us space all day, and even put us up that night!
The
Evangeline Trail
The drive north-westwards out of Halifax on Route 1 passes through unspectacular countryside, and then joins the Evangeline Trail at a pleasant town called Windsor. This took us along the much-vaunted Annapolis Valley, which from Route 1 is splendidly boring unless you are turned on by ugly farms, gas stations, convenience stores and ribbon development. We turned north to follow the coast, which actually means driving along a series of loops, as if threads had come loose. There were some splendid tiny ports, like Port George and Port Lorne. We camped at Parker Cove in a splendid, empty but very expensive campground appropriately called The Cove.
The Oldest Permanent Settlement in Canada
Next day Ralph's prejudice against replicas, reconstructions and people dressed in period costume came into full force when we visited Annapolis Royal and Port Royal. We stood on the site and absorbed the atmosphere, but didn't enter into the falsity of the presentation... Thence to the ferry from Digby to Saint John, New Brunswick.
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