We-2Bs: Canadian Maritimes August 7-9, 2019

Day 59 Wednesday August 7, 2019 We departed the Lunenburg Campground at 9:30AM and started our 101 mile trip to Cove Oceanfront Campground in Parkers Cove Nova Scotia, which is about a 10 minute drive to Annapolis Royal NS. We stopped on the way at a WalMart to restock a few items before continuing on. There was a lot of turns today so we had to be careful and read the trip book and listen to the GPS. We drove through a lot of open land today with lots of farms. The most open land we have seen in weeks. We were a little more inland for most of the trip than we have been for awhile but our destination took us right to the shore of Bay of Fundy.

We had to stop about ½ mile from the campground at a Baptist Church parking lot and unhook our toad and wait our turn to go down to the campground to be personally parked by the lady that owns the campground. This is unique experience for us. We have been guided to our site before by campground staff but never had the owner or anyone personally guided us into the site. The lady was very good with her hand signal directions but we prefer to get into our site on our own plus it took way to long to get everyone into their sites since she could only direct one RV at a time. She got upset with a couple of our group for trying to assist with directions and moving picnic tables out of the way. And we are forbidden to wash the bugs off our windshields here or any other task that using water outside the RV. But it is a nice campground and we have FHU so we can get the laundry caught up and the views are great across the water and up to the local boat harbor.

Our view

Fishing shacks at boat harbor

The Wagonmasters had arranged a 4PM tour of a lobster processing facility that is just a 5 minute walk from the campground and had arranged for purchases from their retail counter of different types of seafood for those that wanted it. The tour was quite an eye opening experience on how lobster are handled. The company owns lobster boats and buy lobster from private boat owners also. They sell products locally but ship live lobster to Japan, Korea and China but not to the USA anymore. We were surprised that they can pack lobster in a Styrofoam container with one thin sheet of wet paper like material on top of the lobster and that is enough to keep them alive for 3-4 days until they reach their destination.

When the lobster are brought in off the boats they already have the rubber bands on the claws, they are sorted by size and placed in a crate like container and placed in a huge vat of swirling water that is kept at 0 degrees Centigrade (32 degrees Fahrenheit). The water is pumped out of the Bay of Fundy just across the street. One type of container the guide showed us is 7' long and it had 602 2 ½ lobsters in it. The water vats are 7' deep the containers are kept in.

Contains 602 - 2.5 lb lobsters

Lots of lobsters all crates are full

Automated weighing machine

She showed us how to tell the difference between a male and female lobster. If the female is caught and she is carrying eggs the boat crew will turn them loose. Then she took a huge lobster out that weight 14 pounds and was about 65 years old. She let some of our group hold the big guy up for photos. He was placed beside a 7 year old lobster for caparison. She said a lobster has enough strength in their claws to break your fingers. I wouldn't want to have the job of picking them up and using the tool to put the rubber bands on their claws.

14 lbs - app. 65 years old

1 lb on left (7 years old) 14 lb on right (app. 65 years old)

Male lobster on left - female lobster on right

The tour ended at the retail desk where those that pre-ordered picked they orders up and she let us taste a sea weed that they package and sell. We tried it and it was AWFUL to us but the guide said she like it.

At 9PM several in the group followed the Wagonmasters into Annapolis Royal to Fort Anne for a Candlelight Graveyard tour of the garrison graveyard a historic cemetery dating from 1632. Fort Anne is an old 5 star pattern earthen military facility. This was not paid for in our package but arranged by the Wagonmasters as an optional tour. The guide was dressed in period clothing and handed out lanterns with candles in them. His Arcadian ancestors have lived in the area for several generations and he still owns 50 acres of the land they lived on. He was a good and humorous story teller as he related stories of some of the 2,000 residents of the graveyard. Including one grave with the oldest English epitaph in Nova Scotia. He said it is believed that there are over 500 Arcadian graves without any markers. Only wooden markers were used and they are long gone. We didn't get back to the campground until after 11PM.

Daytime view of graveyard

Day 60 Thursday August 8, 2019 We did another optional tour today of the only Tidal Hydro Electrical Generating Plant in North America and one of the few in the world. The facility uses the tidal waters to run a turbine to generate up to 20 megawatts of electricity. Enough to power 4,500 homes.

Several floors down in plant

After the tour us and the couple that was ride sharing with us went into Annapolis Royal for lunch before returning to the campground to relax and do some more laundry. The wind really picked up in the afternoon and before sundown we got the first rain we have seen since we left Gander several days ago. It was nice because it is dry here and the roads through the campground were very dusty. There is a burning ban here so no campfires.

Day 61 Friday August 9, 2019 A tour bus picked our group up at 8:45AM. We went to the original location of Port Royal for a tour of the buildings that have been reconstructed like it was when the area was settled by the Acadian people. A women from Cambridge Massachusetts came up with the idea to build the village and helped with the fundraisers to get the village reconstruction started. An Interpreter met us and took us into what was a dining hall and gave us some history of the village. The original inhabitants were men and due to the harsh living conditions and poor food many of them died the first Winter with Scurvy.

Interpreter and Emma

Wine Cellar

Coffin

Rebuilding the well

Yep, they wore wooden shoes like the people from Holland

Hey, they fit

Attic sleeping room

Chapel

Then he inducted all of us into the Order of the Good Time before letting us explore on our own. When he called my name out to get my certificate he commented that I might be a descendant of the Acadians with the last name Brown. We have seen the name Brown in many places on the trip. The buildings and contents were very interesting. There were several construction workers doing repairs on the water well and some other items. One man in period clothing was using a Spring Pole Lathe to demonstrate how wood items were made back in the day. This type of lathe is hand made and is powered by the foot of the person doing the turning by pumping a pedal up and down.

French spelling of Brown

Spring pole lathe

Sleeping bunks

Our next stop was Fort Anne in Annapolis Royal (Annapolis Royal was originally named Port Royal) which is across the bay. Fort Anne is where we did the lantern walk in the graveyard Wednesday night. It is the first operated national site in Canada designated in 1917. The fort was attached 13 times and changed hands between the French and British 7 times over its history.

Shape of fort

Soldier Joe

Soldier Dolan (That was a heavy coat)

We toured the museum and looked at several artifacts that were found around the grounds. One of the Interpreters gave us a talk about two large tapestries that tells the story of the fort and area. It was all done by a cross section of people from the area. It was a beautiful piece or art.

Then we toured some of the grounds and the powder magazine (gun powder storage building). It was designed so that if it ever exploded it would not destroy the fort.

One of the maintenance crew was mowing grass on the steeply sloped earthen banks around the fort with a remote controlled lawn mower. After he took a break I asked him what it cost and he said $40,000. But there is no way to safely mow the grass with any type of riding mower.

For lunch we walked out of the fort and across the street to the German Sachsen Cafe, Bakery and Restaurant. Lena and I had pork schnitzel, with German potato salad and slaw. Sure brought back memories of our years living in Germany. Dessert was a blueberry cobbler with ice cream. Lena bought a big piece of Apple Strudel that had just come out of the oven to take with us.

Owner and daughter

Our last stop was the Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens just down the street. Web site (www.historicgardens.com). It covers 17 acres and has 1800 different species and cultivars of plants. They boast one of the most significant plant collections is Nova Scotia. And is has a reconstructed Acadian house from 1671 era. There were several different themes in the gardens and it had a section that showed how the Acadian people built dykes to keep the salt water out of the marsh areas so they could plant crops there for food, etc.

Acadia House with thatched roof

We returned to the campground about 2:30PM. Lena and I walked over to the harbor where a few fishing boats were tied up. The tide was out and all the boats are sitting on dry ground until the tide comes back in which will raise them over 20 feet.