Winding along the country roads through Nova Scotia is a very pleasing experience. We landed in the province on the ferry from Saint John, New Brunswick following a long and eventful drive from Montreal. Our hire car, from the hilarious-but-actually-true company ‘Rent-a-Wreck’ managed to break down on the side of the Highway on the outskirts of Quebec City. After learning the French for ‘wheel bearing’ (turns out it’s ‘bearing’) we were on our way, We drove the entire length of New Brunswick, taking in a waterfall en-route.
Grand Falls: Just on the side of road really.
Nova Scotia is the most British place outside Britain I’ve ever been to. It’s even more British than Guernsey which is in Britain. After landing in the town of Digby we took a trip out to Digby Neck, a tiny strip of land which pokes out 30 miles into the Bay of Fundy. The summer is whale season and the whole area is a great place for whale watching. Trouble is, the summer doesn’t actually start until June here, and it only lasts for 3 months. Then it’s basically back to winter again. The ‘neck’ of land is amazingly thin and reminded me of Spurn Head near Hull, only a lot longer. From there we headed south to the town of Lunenburg. A UNESCO world heritage site, the town is a popular place for shooting movies and, sure enough, we parked up right next to a shoot. Apparently, according to Greg our friendly hostel patron, it was a TV series called ‘Haven’ based on Stephen King’s books. Greg had been an extra in the TV series ‘Moby Dick’ and filled us in on the local penchant for film making.
Filming ‘Haven’ in Lunenburg
The town is amazing. A postcard perfect fishing village with tall ships sitting in the dock. One of the ships, a barque named the Picton Castle, was about to set off for a 14 month round the world voyage. Apparently you can pay to be on the crew! They set off the day we left and we caught a glimpse of them sailing off into the distance.
The Picton Castle: Set off around the world the day after this photo. Also a castle in Pembrokeshire.
From Lunenburg we moved onto the wonderful provincial capital Halifax and proceeded to pass through New Scotland’s landmark towns of Truro(!), New Glasgow(!) and now we are in a small village called Aberdeen(!), how original. The Canadian imagination wins again. I mean, I’m not having a go but here is a brief list of some of the familiar sounding places we’ve driven past/near in the past week. Kingston, Peterborough, Cambridge, Pontypool, Whitby, Grimsby, Pickering, Lincoln, Brighton, Bath (twice), Cornwall, Warwick, Bristol, Canterbury, Liverpool, Bridgewater and Enfield. It’ll be nice to stay in good old Pleasant Bay tomorrow night after driving the famous and apparently spectacular Cabot trail. Over and out.
Nova Scotia
DAVE CHEESEMAN 