We-2Bs: Canadian Maritimes August 5-6, 2019

Day 57 Monday August 5, 2019 We had our driver's meeting at 9:30AM and was expecting a late departure from this campground since we only have 52 miles to drive to the next campground. But the Wagonmasters said there was a caravan of Air Streams coming in and would be here by 11AM so the campground management has encouraged us to depart before 11AM. After the meeting the group all hooked up and everyone was soon on the way to Lunenburg BOT Campground in Lunenburg. For some reason Lena and I made two wrong turns but was able to get back on the right road without any trouble. This is the first time we have done this on this trip since we made the wrong turn and crossed into Canada before we wanted to, so I guess that it not bad in all the miles we have driven so far.

We have started seeing farm land again in this area. The land is not nearly as rocky as Newfoundland so the people are able to have corn crops, large fields of hay, etc. We even saw two signs advertising sauerkraut. And also a diary farm.

Wayside Dairy

The group got to the campground all about the same time so it was hectic getting everyone unhooked and into their sites but we all did it without any issues. This is a small campground, some of the sites are laid out rather strange and several has the water and electrical hookups on the wrong side of the sites but we all dealt with it.

After lunch we did a little exploring. The Wagonmasters gave us a handout with some suggestions on places to checkout while we were here. We only have one organized group event at this stop. Our first stop was Mahone Bay about 8 miles away. It is a small town built around a cove that has lots of sail boats anchored out in the water around the cove. Most of the small towns we have visited have mostly had fishing boats but here it is mostly sailboats. The town is filled with small shops, restaurants, etc. It even has a Tim Hortons's so I expect they get a lot of tourist through here. There were lots of people walking the streets checking out the shops, etc. The town has three large churches all sitting side by side facing the waterfront.

Our next stop was the town of Lunenburg which is much larger than Mahone Bay. It also sits along the edge of a large body of water. There were even more sailboats here in the water and very few fishing boats. This is also a busy tourist area. There are lots of small hotels, B&B's etc. The buildings along the waterfront are very colorful and some of the homes are really nice old large houses.

Lunenburg

Then we drove down the coast to the village of Blue Rocks and followed a very narrow bumpy paved street along the coast until it came to a dead end. The coastline here is really rocky and has a long natural harbor for the boats to pull into. Here there were several small fishing boats. I guess the village took it's name from the color of the rocks which had a blueish tint to them.

Former Blue Rocks Lighthouse - now a home

Day 58 Tuesday August 6, 2019 We drove out of town about 10 miles to a place called The Ovens. It is not what the name implies. I don't know why it is called The Ovens because there are not any ovens there except in the on site diner at the campground store. The “Ovens” are actually sea caves that have been carved out of the rocky cliffs by the wave actions splashing against them. There is a trail that goes up along the top edge of the cliffs and steps down into a tunnel named Tuckers Tunnel and down to the bottom of the cliffs in a couple of places. I went down the steep steps into Tuckers Tunnel where it leads to a sea cave where local lore says that Tucker found a rich view of gold. One of the sea caves is called The Blow Hole because the wave action against the rock structure compresses air that then propels the surf and large rocks up to 80' feet into the air when the waves and wind is just right. We didn't take some of the steps that went down really low to the water because we didn't really trust the wooded retaining fence that was there for support. Those railings would never pass safety inspection in the USA.

Tuckers Tunnel

Sea cave at end of Tuckers Tunnel

Coming up from Tuckers Tunnel

Sea Cave at end of Tuckers Tunnel

There was a gold rush at the location in 1861 and for a short period there was over a 1,000 people working in gold related mining activities and a small town sprung up here but all the buildings are gone from that time.

We returned to the campground and picked up two of our group to go into Lunenburg for lunch and meet our tour group to take a tour of the Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic. One of the museum guides (Nancy) gave us a informative talk about the boat building that still goes on in Lunenburg and then with the help of some of our group she demonstrated how a new boat is launched into the water.

Lunenburg

Old fire engine

Painted tile in women's washroom

She comes from several generations of fishermen and has been married to a fisherman for 37 years. She said in years past there would be as many as 1,000 tall schooner fishing ships out in the harbor but that is a thing of history now and the last one is docked here and is part of the museum.

Then we went inside and another guide told us about the history of the fishing industry. I learned that the reason we are not seeing many fishing boats in the waters around the town now is they do mostly lobster fishing here now and that is done in the Winter months. He also told us many years ago lobster was not highly thought of and only poor people would eat it and it was used to put in gardens to fertilize the land. It sure is not that way now. He showed us the growth pattern of a lobster and it takes over 7 years for a lobster to get to the size that most people prefer to eat about 1 ½ to 2 pounds. The museum was three stories high and also has a large restaurant attached.

100 year old Birch Bark canoe

Ice saw for cutting ice to be used on fishing boat

After we toured the displays inside we went out and toured the tall fishing schooner (Theresa E. Connor) and a side trawler (Cape Sable) that is also part of the museum.