From Here To There... Archive

Lunch in Halifax

I'm down in Nova Scotia this week, today and tomorrow I'm in the Truro area and then down in Kejimkujik for the rest of the week. Today was a travel day, so we had the opportunity to have lunch in Halifax.

Across from the restaurant was NovaScotian Crystal, it is on the waterfront and the glassworks area is open to the street. Here is the one guy blowing the glass.

Then he passed it off to another guy who added the handle.

The glass jug with handle.

The oven.

Somewhere along the waterfront.

Some of the boats in the harbour.

Close-up of the floats on the boat.

A lighthouse on Georges Island.

Some jellyfish in the harbour.

This is a cool play structure on the waterfront, it is shaped as a boat.

A sign outside the visitor information centre.

A sign on the wharves, "Wooden Wharves Please Do Not Smoke".

It was low tide at mid day.

Tidal Bores

My ride for the week in Nova Scotia is a Toyota Highlander. Quite the change from my Yaris.

We started the day near Jackson, Nova Scotia, it's about half way between Truro and Amherst. The site is at an old fish hatchery. The ponds and raceways are overgrown.

An old abandoned building.

I like the door on the second floor.

We had to travel on part of the Cobequid Pass Toll highway.

We drove the north shore from Truro to Annapolis Royal to get to Kejimkujik. We crossed over the Shubenacadie River, it is Nova Scotia's longest river. The lower 30 km of the river is tidal and the river experiences a tidal bore twice daily, with some bores reaching up to 3 m in height at certain points along the river. Here is the river before. You can see mud flats across the river.

Here you can see the tidal bore approaching.

There are a series of piers from the old bridge, notice how calm the water is.

After the tidal bore has come through you can see the wave action.

Some of the sights around the lookout point.

The new bridge which spans the river.

Another of the piers that has been overgrown with vegetation.

There was a fog hanging over the Cobequid Bay.

Ticks and Toads

The weather this week was pretty good, a few days of clouds, but no significant rain as forecasted. The blackflies were out in full force, even the operator admitted she pulled out her bug jacket at the beginning of the week because they were getting bad. Here I am in my bug jacket. Of course my hands got chewed alive.

As well the ticks seemed to be worse then I have ever seen. Almost every time you went outside you were bound to pick a couple of ticks up, they like to hang on to the tall grass and railings and as you walk by they jump off and onto your pants, shoes, whatever. Here is a tick on my pants, the penny shows the size of the tick.

A closer look at the tick. This looks like the wood tick. It is the blacklegged tick which carries lyme disease.

I saw this toad as I was leaving the site.

The North Shore

I'm spending the week in Longue-Pointe-De-Mingan, it is located on the north shore of the Gulf of the St. Lawrence. I flew to Sept-Isles and then drove about two hours east.

My ride for the week is a Dodge Caliber, it was pretty good on gas.

Especially since gas in Sept-Isles was 147.4 per litre, makes our 134.7 look like a bargain.

Longue-Pointe-De-Mingan sits right on the "sea" as the locals call the Gulf of the St.Lawrence.

The sun sets around 20:30, after a drive through rain and fog along highway 138, it turned out to be a nice evening.

The beach is a stones throw from my maisonette.

Longue-Pointe-De-Mingan has a couple of Big Things in town. There is a Humback whale and a giant Puffin.

Both of the statues were designed and made by the owners of the place I was staying at.

Catching a Sunrise

Even though Longue-Pointe-De-Mingan is further east than Fredericton, New Brunswick, it is still in the Eastern Time Zone. Needless to to say this makes for a very early sunrise. I discovered that yesterday when I did not close my bedroom door and a 4:00 am the room was filled with the sun. Today I thought I would get up and take some pictures. This was at 4:05 am.

The view to the south.

Looking west towards the town.

I found this guy as I awaited the sun. A capelin I think.

At 4:14am the sun starts to peek over the horizon.

Three minutes later.

It gave the town a nice glow.

Looking down Rue du Bord de la Mer. Can you see all the Puffins.

One last look at the sun (4:21am) before heading back to bed for a couple of hours.

A few more sights

This area is odd in that along the highway there are areas with sand dune like environments and then turn the corner and it is the Canadian Shield. To the south is L'Île-d'Anticosti, you can just make out the bump in the middle of the photo.

Walking east along the beach.

Along with tourism, the other main employer is a seafood processing plant. It is Poseidon, Les Poissons et Crustacés incorporé.

A fishing boat heading back to port.

I really lucked out with the weather this week. Even though they forcasted 40% chance of rain on a couple of days they never materialized. There was also a steady breeze which helped to keep the blackflies away.

Back to Sept-Isles

I headed back to Sept-Isles onFriday before flying back home early Saturday morning. The scenery was a lot better when there isn't fog. This is the Magpie River.

There were a couple of guys fly fishing on the other side.

Close to Sheldrake.

Finally the Baie des Sept-Isles.