RVing With a Purpose

Thursday, August 3, 2023

We had a quiet, peaceful night right on the shore and this morning we headed back to Cape Forchu to visit the lighthouse again.  Anne cooked breakfast (oatmeal with cranberries and blueberries) in the parking lot while we were waiting for them to open.  We were the only ones there for the first tour so we had it to ourselves. We were able to climb to the top.  Such pretty scenery.  From Cape Forchu we resumed our counter-clockwise travel around the island taking the scenic route that hugs the ocean. It was a beautiful drive.

We unknowingly arrived in the little town of Shag Harbor.  We began to see various signs noting UFO’s and then drove by a bright yellow building with a sign saying “Shag Harbour Incident Society UFO Interpretative Centre”.  Google tells us it’s all about an incident you might remember (we didn’t) that occurred on October 4, 1967 and is reported to be Canada’s most famous UFO Case.  It’s still a big deal for the little community.  There is a UFO XPO in September.  Tickets for the two day event are only $250.00 if you would like to attend.  Sorry, but we can’t make it this year.

Moving right along, we continued our oceanside drive.  Our destination was Hawk Beach.  When we arrived in the area we first drove out to Hawk point.  In an attempt to find the white sand beaches, we ended up at a little park with a pond and all these cute little pirate ships floating around.  We had noticed several pirate displays/yard decorations as we were entering the community.  Seems we arrived just in time for Hawk Dayze.  Some of the locals told us it’s a local festival.  There will be different things going on all weekend and it began yesterday with the launching of the little handmade boats.

We found our beach.  We’ve had two long walks in the sand.  We are sitting here listening to the waves break on the shore as we prepare the blog.  It’s a great destination for the night.  But…it’s not about the destination, but the journey.  It’s been a fun, and interesting day.

Tuesday, August 2, 2023

We said goodbye to our friends Owen, Lynn and Maggie this morning as they were headed out clockwise around Nova Scotia.  We are going counterclockwise around the island.  We had a little work to do today before we left but were in line for our first ferry at 10:05.

We only drove about 107 miles down to Yarmouth, NS.  The Cape Forchu Lighthouse is probably the best lighthouse we have visited.  The grounds and gardens all around the lighthouse and the trail are so very pretty.  They don’t allow overnight parking or we would have just stayed there for tonight.  We didn’t get to go up into the lighthouse today but might do that tomorrow.  Anne has a knee that is bothering her so we are trying to be careful.  While at Cape Forchu we saw another white Beyond pull in the parking lot.  We met the sweetest couple from New Brunswick and we shared van life experiences.  They are new Christians and just this afternoon stopped at an antique store and purchased a beautiful 18^th century Bible.  They were so excited to show us their new treasure.  They also gave us some hints on what to do when we go to PEI and if we return through New Brunswick gave us some hints for there as well.  It’s so much fun to make new friends as we travel.

After leaving Cape Forchu we stopped at a cute little park on the shore of Yarmouth and just happened to arrive just in time to see the CAT ferry coming into port in Yarmouth.  That is one nice looking ferry.  It runs between Bar Harbor and Yarmouth, is a little pricey but depending on when and what route we decide to take back to the US, we could take that ferry.  It was another great, beautiful, sunny day.

Tuesday, August 1, 2023

Today began with a beautiful sunrise over the waters of the Bay of Fundy.  Wow, what a great way to start the day.  We were up early this morning because we were going on a whale watching adventure.  We ate our breakfast and took our Dramamine and put on warm clothes as encouraged by the tour group.  We of course were the first to arrive for check-in but we didn’t have far to go since we spent the night in the parking lot.  We were blessed with a gorgeous day.  We headed out of the harbor into the Bay of Fundy hoping we could get a few pictures of the whales.  We knew the whales were in the bay yesterday, but that is no guarantee that we would be able to find them today.  They are wild creatures in a wild environment.  We will not keep you guessing.  We were able to see and photograph SEVEN whales today.  There was a group of three unrelated whales, a mama and her baby, (really big baby, longer than BB) and two other single whales.  We also saw several groups of dolphin and several ocean sunfish.  We had never seen an ocean sunfish before  Interesting to watch but really not a very pretty fish.  They have two fins but no tail and swim on their side with one of the fins out of the water.  For those that might want to do this adventure, we used Brier Island Whale and Sea Bird Cruises.  They are one of two companies on the Island and were the first in the business.  They began in whale research and now use the tours to help fund continued research.  There were 2 naturalists on our trip, one teaching us about what we were seeing and doing and the other actually doing some research. All the staff were very helpful and we would recommend this group based on our experience.

After our tour, we scoped out some spots around the island to spend the night and drove about 3km out to another light house. After that we met up with the You Tube influencers, Owen and Lynn of VAN TREKKING Lifestyle.  We have followed their channel (one of our favorites) for several years but did not meet until this afternoon.  What a great afternoon we enjoyed with them.  We are boondocking for the night next door to them overlooking St. Mary’s Bay.  We are blessed to have two new friends that we will hopefully meet up with down the road.  We have similar travel styles and likes so… hopefully we will meet again.

It’s been another fantastic day on the Summer Road Trip.  Feeling very blessed tonight!

PS: After completing the blog we looked out and saw one of the prettiest moons we have ever seen.  Had to go back and add it to today’s blog.

Monday, July 31, 2023

This morning we left our campground home for the past four nights and resumed our road-tripping.  Leaving from Kentsville, we are driving counterclockwise around Nova Scotia island and as in the US, we are avoiding interstate type roads whenever possible and driving the more scenic, rural, routes.  First stop was at Margaretsville Lighthouse.  It was built in 1859.  The lighthouse was automated in 1963 and the Coast Guard still maintains the light to help fishing vessels and recreational boaters.  Just a short distance down the road at Port George is another lighthouse that we just sort of stumbled upon.  It was built in 1888 and was only 21 feet high.  The lighthouse is no longer in use and is maintained for historical purposes by a local group.  Next was the Hampton Lighthouse which was actually the one we set out to find today.  It is a white wooden pepper-shaker style tower, topped with a red roof.  This lighthouse is also maintained for historical purposes.

You never know what you will find when you are looking for lighthouses.  At the Hampton light, just down below the light, in the harbor, we found some lobstermen emptying their boat of many heavy lobster traps and various ropes and supplies.  There was some heavy duty work going on and they seemed in a hurry.  We learned that today was the end of lobster season so all traps had to be off the water by 6:00pm.  In the case of this boat, on the Bay of Fundy, there was less time to do the work because they had to get the boat emptied and repositioned to its slip before the tide was out so far their boat would be resting on the floor of the bay waiting for the tide to come back in. (after the 6pm deadline).  The men’s wives and children were there helping and all seemed to be in somewhat of a celebratory mood because the men would be back home rather than out on the boats.  It was fun to watch.

As we continued to loop around Nova Scotia, we headed out on a little spit from Digby called the Digby Neck.  The first ferry took us from Digby to Long Island.  Long Island is home to Balancing Rock.  We hiked out to the rock, read the sign boards, took some pictures and then drove on to another ferry for a longer ride from Long Island to Brier Island.  We were later than we planned arriving, so we haven’t explored the island yet but in the morning we will be boarding a boat for a whale watching trip.  Hopefully the whales will be active and we will get some great photos.