During the month of June we’ve visited various areas of some of the Maritime Provinces of Canada: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Each area has something different to offer, and yet so much is similar.
We started our Canadian adventure when we crossed from Calais Maine to St. Stephen NB. We’ve crossed into Canada at this border crossing yearly since 2007 so the roads and gates are very familiar to us. Each crossing is different in that we’ll never know what questions we’ll be asked or when they’ll want to “inspect” the trailer and pickup. Most of the time it’s been a few polite questions: where are you heading to, how long will you be here, do you have any firearms, alcohol, produce... With our prior experience in crossings, we’ve learned to empty the fridge in the days leading up to our planned crossings - have heard tales of folks having to throw out steak and lobsters, as well as fresh corn or other produce they had just bought.
In New Brunswick, our travels have primarily been along the south coast, and once again we kept to form, visiting 2 campgrounds before crossing in to Nova Scotia. Except for road signs indicating a change in highway numbers, the countryside is very similar in these 2 provinces. And there again, the countryside is very similar to Maine. Lots of coastline, sometimes with cliffs, other times long tidal beaches. Rolling hills, covered in forests with the occasional village.
Nova Scotia holds special meaning for Chuck and I as we honeymooned and took a few anniversary trips in this Province via the ferry from Portland (alas, the Scotia Prince stopped that service several years ago - part of the reason we got an RV). We deliberately did not return to places we knew from those trips and headed into the unknown for us. Even our venture over to Cape Breton, although a new destination, felt like so much of Maine, especially the Down East region.
Most recently we headed to Prince Edward Island, and returned to a campground we had stayed at before. Our first visit there was a short 2 night visit and we . This time however, we stayed for 8 nights and visited some of the Provincial Park Beaches, Cavendish (Anne of Green Gables fame) and even got some kayaking and bicycle riding in. An old railroad line that went from tip to tip of the island was converted into a public trail and we enjoyed riding parts of it.
PEI has the biggest difference in landscape of the 3 Provinces we’ve visited thus far and that’s it’s elevation. The island is relatively flat on either end and has rolling hills in the mid-region. I think I read that the highest elevation on PEI was around 450 feet. Between the lack of major hills and the strange tides we’d have at the campground, it made for a fun time.
With access to Labrador/Newfoundland a bit awkward (travel by ferry, 6 hours, dogs can’t be on deck with us and we can’t go down to car deck to check on them), we’ve now returned to New Brunswick and have moved inland on our journey back across. Our current destination is fairly close to Frederickton, an area we visited last summer. The landscape is once again very forested and dotted with lakes and streams.
Our plan is to head northwest through the province to work our way into other regions. Time will tell when and how we do this.
No comments:
Post a Comment