Destination Ontario

Maybe it was all too soon but having been away for more than four weeks we were ready to get back home so we packed up and left Dartmouth behind on 29th July. It took us what seemed like an age to actually leave Shubie Campground due to one or two people taking an age to dump their trailer waste etc but we did eventually get away. We stopped off at Nackawic to see the world's biggest axe. Apart from the axe it was a beautiful little town on the St. John river.

From there we drove a little further north to boondock at the site of what we think used to be a motel. It's now a gravelled area along the old trans Canada highway which is now a quiet secondary road but the site was right on the river (Sigahaw Cove) where there were lots of fish. No picture but I did catch my largest perch to date from the bank....

Peggy's Cove

Thursday 28th July was, as usual by now, hot and sunny so we headed off as early as we could when we're on vacation to Peggy's Cove. I will update the storyline a little later but here's some pictures to be going on with.

After leaving peggy's Cove we drove along the coast a little way to the memorial site for the Swissair Flight 111 disaster.

Nova Scotia

 We had a good night's sleep and woke to shower and get breakfast from the buffet which was well stocked and reasonably priced. After a smooth sailing back to North Sydney we docked around 9.30am and were keen to get off the ferry and begin our 400km drive to Dartmouth. In the ferry we'd been parked at the front of a row of trailers but in front of us were dozens of motor bikes each one chained to the deck to prevent movement. One by one the motorcyclists came back to their bikes and rode off, until they had gone we could go nowhere since we were all packed in tight. You might imagine our frustration that all the bikers went quite quickly...... except the big bike chained up directly in front of us. After about 15 minutes waiting for the biker to return and claim his bike the ferry crew instructed us to stay put and the vehicles behind us all backed up and pulled around us. Eventually we had to back up and drive around the still chained bike. So much for thinking we would disembark quickly, turned out we were about the last!

Ninety minutes later we were back at a coffee stop at Canso Causeway (Port Hawkesbury), the same place we stopped at on the drive east. Nothing here to see that we didn't already see so it was on to Truro where we gassed up before parking at the Canadian Tire store where we had lunch and did a little retail therapy.

We checked into Shubie campground and were set up by 4.40pm, after some laundry it was time for a BBQ.

It was already promising to be another hot day even when we rose in the morning on the 27th July. We decided to head into Halifax, visit the visitor information place and see what we could find. We parked the car downtown in a multi storey car park. Despite following the 'Information' signs we couldn't find the tourist information office so after a little wandering we set off for the citadel. It proved to be quite an uphill walk and the heat didn't make it any easier. Once we arrived we realized we could have driven up and parked at the top! 

HMCS Sackville

Halifax Citadel

Halifax Citadel

Halifax Citadel

Halifax Old Town Clock

Continuing our discovery of Halifax we drove off to find the Titanic cemetery. The cemetery is a regular stop for tourists, especially those coming into Halifax on cruise ships! Fortunately there were no significant numbers of tourists when we were there. The headstones of those buried here are arranged in the shape of a ship's bow. A sombre visit, reading the story of the disaster and those who were lost.

In the shape of the ship's bow..

From the past we decided to go to the port area and chill out over a cuppa. So we headed to Pointe Pleasant park where we anticipated getting some Halifax scenery. We pulled into a parking lot on the northern side of the park but all there was were a lot of trees and some walking trails threading between them. So we decided to try again and moved to the west side of the park where we found another parking lot but the scenery there was no better. After some discussion we moved through an open barrier and finally discovered a decent parking lot near the bay. 

Black Rock Beach

 

From our new spot we were a bit mesmerized watching the dockers loading containers on to a nearby ship. 

If we had done more (some?) research beforehand we may have taken a short walk through the trees behind us to explore Fort Olgilvie.

Finally it was back to the trailer for supper. Not wanting to stay around the trailer all night for a change we decided to head to the Dartmouth waterfront area to see what was there. We were surprised to find a Busker Festival and fun fair in full swing with a corresponding crowd to go with it.

Bridge from Dartmouth to Halifax

You didn't think he was dead did you?

Absolutely capital part 2!

 The 24th July started warm and got warmer throughout the day so it gave us an opportunity to potter around the trailer having a clean up in the morning before heading out after lunch. A couple of days earlier we had booked a whale watching trip from O'Brien's Tours in Bays Bulls. The tours were selling out quite quickly and even booked days ahead we couldn't book any tour earlier than 4.30pm though, on reflection, at least we were over the heat of the afternoon by then but it was still 33C when we arrived at the boat site.

Before the boat tour we drove a little further down the coast to Witless Bay. We had a boat tour that the boat guide said was an 8/10 which was good for us. 

 

 The boat was quite close to a humpback whale and the whale came right up to the stern and both sides of the boat before we had to leave it behind and continue to Gull Island to see puffins and other seabirds.

The 'white' cliffs of Gull Island

Splashdown!

Common Murres

Then it was time to call an end to the boat tour and head back to shore....

Sun goes down on our Newfoundland trip

The next day came too soon as it was the day that we say goodbye to Newfoundland until next time, we needed to check in at the ferry terminal by 3pm. We left Pippy Park around 10.30  and started the 160km drive to Argentia. Before going to Argentia we took a short detour to Pacentia around 12.50 where we had lunch at Tim's and looked around the town a little. Placentia is not much above sea level and is pretty much surrounded on all sides by water, not sure I'd want to live there in a storm surge!No pictures of Newfoundland would be complete without a picture of the boxes everyone seems to use to place their garbage at the end of the driveway to protect it from birds. After leaving Tim's and gassing up we explored the beach and stopped off at Castle Hill Historic site before heading to the actual ferry terminal.

The Stewart's bin storage (apparently)

Placentia from Castle Hill Fort

Bridge to / from Placentia

Water water on all sides, from Castle Hill Fort

Placentia beach

Ferry ready to go

Anyone for a 16 hour cruise?

We looked around the ferry terminal and bought a couple of souvenirs before boarding, settling in the cabin and getting ready for the 16 hour trip back to North Sydney which proved to be a good, non-eventful trip.