Exploring Nova Scotia - Keji

Family and friends are asking what we plan to do when we return from our "big adventure" in July 2014.To tell you the truth,we have no idea. One thought is that we might work as campground hosts for the summer. So earlier this week we decided to check out a couple of local parks.

Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site of Canada (fondly called Keji by Nova Scotians) is the only Parks Canada site designated as both a National Park and a National Historic Site. It is very popular with both visitors and locals so we decided to check it out first.

It actually is two parks offering two totally different experiences. 

The main park is in the centre of Southwestern Nova Scotia  You can experience nature at its best here by camping in a beautiful, serviced, wooded campsite or at a remote wilderness site. While here discover historic canoe routes, experience Mi’kmaw petroglyphs, and swim in the warm waters of Kejimkujik Lake. It is best explored by water so we didn't spend much time there. But it is beautiful and would be a great spot to be a camp host.

Although it is in a very rural and isolated spot, approximately 70 kms from Bridgewater and Liverpool on the south shore and 80 kms from Digby on the Fundy shore, it does have a few services near the entrance to the park. Including this cafe:

The Wildwood Cafe

The food was excellent:

Arch had this smoked salmon bagel, complete with capers, red onion and lemon

and I had asparagus quiche with a very fresh side salad

beside the patio - a great spot to enjoy a coffee

Located about 70 kms south of the main park, on the ocean, is the Kejimkujik Seaside. While the inland park is spectacular the seaside is much more what we enjoy. Great hiking and spectacular ocean views.

So we decided to hike out to the beach. 5.5 kms. Round trip. Despite the fact that the only hiking we've done all summer was on the golf course. 

Our destination was on the far side of the 2nd point of land, we think

We were greeted by this at the start of the trail:

Oh well, we'll just make a lot of noise

So off we go:

As we come out of the seaside forest and into the coastal barrens we can see the ocean in the distance - a long way to go:

the thin area of dark blue is the ocean

Then a fork in the road - we chose the trail on the left, Harbour Rocks

Harbour Rocks in the distance

Getting Closer

Finally

Cannot really see the seals from here

So across the point we go to another beach and a seal viewing area

With an information panel

And there are the seals, basking in the sun

We loved the Keji Seaside but unfortunately there is no camping there. After leaving the park we stopped at Thomas Raddall Provincial Park, which is close by, for a look. It was very nice with large sites, lots of trees, etc, but no services - not even for the campground host. There is water and a dump station available but I cannot imagine going for a month without electricity. So much for campground hosting here! 

2013/14 Travel Plans

We are finding it a little difficult to believe, but our 50th wedding anniversary is coming up in April, 2014. Also, Bay Hammocks is sold so we are footloose and fancy free!

Taking a super RV trip across North America seems a good way to celebrate - it will be like a 9 month party :).

So here is our travel schedule for the coming year:

October: Visit family and friends in Eastern Canada

Nov. 1 to 15 - Cross the US border and go directly to Roanoke, Virginia where we will take the Blue Ridge Parkway across to Kentucky and Tennessee.

Nov. 15 to 22  - Natchez Trace Parkway to the Texas border on the Gulf of Mexico

Nov. 23 to Dec. 15 or so Texas

Dec. 16 to Jan. 3 or 4 - across Arizona and California to Pasadena where we hope to attend the Rose Bowl Parade - still waiting for final bill for Adventure Bus preparations for this trip before booking.

Jan. 4 to April 1st - Explore California, Arizona and New Mexico.

April 1 to 30 - Up the US west coast to British Columbia

May 1 to May 31 - Southern BC

June 1 to 30 - Cross Canada with a stop in London, Ontario to visit old friends.

July 1 - Canada Day Celebration in Ottawa

July 7 - Home in Nova Scotia

Then??????

Peggy's Cove Area Festival of the Arts: Opening Night and Paint Peggy's Cove

Three years ago I had the great idea that we should host a small, weekend arts festival at Bay Hammocks. A few artists creating art on the lawn, some music and perhaps something for the kids.

So I phoned a couple of artist friends. "What a great idea" they said. "but there is not much to paint at Bay Hammocks. Why don't we go out and paint Peggy's Cove? We will help organize it." Good idea.

Then I phoned Sarah Irwin, a friend, an artist and the co-owner of The Finer Diner, a popular restaurant down the Peggy's Cove Road in Hackett's Cove. "I think we should have a studio tour" said Sarah, "I will help organize it. I will call my artist friends and we can meet here at the Finer Diner to make plans."

The next day I bumped into Paula Fredericks at The Bike and Bean coffee and bike shop. Another local hang-out. Paula is the owner of Cornucopia Marketing, a marketing and website design company and Acoustic Roof, a business the puts musical artists and house concert hosts in contact with each other. "I can organize a musical event and do the marketing for all the events." She said.

And then Bay Hammocks, The Finer Diner and supportive friends Geoff Le Boutillier and Jan Miller chipped in some money.

And The Peggy's Cove Festival of the Arts was born.

This year the festival opened with a great reception at Shining Waters Marine, organized by Sarah and her committee and last weekend was the third annual "Paint Peggy's Cove".  With 38 artists in the village and out on the rocks painting and chatting with visitors. Following are a few pictures:

The  crowd at the Opening Reception

Lots of art for sale at silent auction

You could fish in the Fish Tank to win the item of your choice from the auction table

Five of our member artists created "fresh fish" while guests watched and discussed the process.

And then at Paint Peggy's Cove:

A temporary art gallery was created using a rented Mongolian Yurt

Paintings the participating artists brought from their studios was displayed for sale on the walls

Pods in the centre were erected to display the fresh art created during the event

Over 40 volunteers were on hand to help the painters, bring finished art to the yurt and explain the event to visitors to Peggy's Cove

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation did a piece for the evening news

Claire served great hot dogs

Lovely music at the entrance to the Yurt

All in all a fun weekend. 

I am really looking forward to this weekend's studio tour and the musical concert featuring the Hupman Brothers and Ian Sherwood on Saturday night. You can buy tickets for the concert here. It promises to be a fun evening.

You can follow more of our adventures on our facebook page

To contact me click here

Wild Leek - Food and Juice Bar

I apologize for no blog posts for the last month or so. Since we arrived home we have been busy - with very boring stuff - getting Bay Hammocks up and running, looking after backlogged doctor and dentist appointments, etc.  These things are nearly under control now so I will get on with telling you more about our life and friends in Nova Scotia and the neighbourhood where we live.

Kirsten Taggart was an "across the road" neighbour when we lived in our sticks and bricks house. She is a trained chef who blogs about her life and food. She is also a single mom with three beautiful daughters. And earlier this month she realized a life-long dream by opening a restaurant in a very interesting Halifax neighbourhood.

Very cute don't you think?

Wild Leek - Food and Juice Bar
 2156 Windsor St., Halifax

My sister, Mary, and I had lunch there yesterday. The menu is all natural and vegan. And changes monthly. There is also a daily special, a selection of desserts and excellent, made just for you, juices are served.

Although neither of us is vegan we really enjoyed our lunch. I had the quiche and salad and Mary had the Five'Oh BBQ Portobello sandwich. A fresh orange, grapefruit and ginger juice and chocolate cake for dessert. All very delicious and beautifully presented.

 I did not take photos of the food. Wonderful artist and blogger friend, Shelagh Duffett (also a photographer) has gorgeous photos of Wild Leek and Kirsten's food here.

So, if you are in Halifax, check it out.

You can follow more of our adventures on our facebook page
To contact me click here

Overnight Guests at Bay Hammocks

Last week we hosted our first guests through the Boondockers Welcome website. (click on the mailbox to the left for more information). Last year we hosted three RVing couples at Bay Hammocks and really enjoyed meeting them and hearing their stories. This time was no exception. Except our guests were not the usual Rvers who stop here.

Meet, from left to right, Illia (sorry, I know this spelling is wrong - simply a best guess), Alex and Hannah from Australia. Alex and Hannah are brother and sister, Illia a friend of Alex. They traveled across Canada from Vancouver and are now on their way to New York City to meet up with Hannah's boyfriend. Then plan to circumvent the US before returning to Vancouver and on home to Australia.  They purchased the VW camper in Vancouver and will sell it there when they leave Canada. Alex is a mechanic so they have no worries about keeping it in operating condition.

We enjoyed hearing about their experiences and sharing travel stories over a glass of wine in the Adventure Bus.

Arch suggested that they sleep in hammocks in Bay Hammock's shop as it was forecast to be a very chilly night. Which they did. And enjoyed a warm night's sleep, deemed the most comfortable of their trip.

One slept in the EarthFriendly rope hammock, which we make, one in the colourful cotton hammock from a craft cooperative in Nicaragua and I think Hannah slept in the camping hammock in the background.

After they left the next morning I stumbled upon this photo on the internet:

The perfect vehicle to tow behind their camper don't you think?

Safe travels Illia, Alex and Hannah. Have fun!!

You can follow more of our adventures on our facebook page
To contact me click here

The Power of One (if you are a well loved country music star)

They tell us that, in 1986, the road through Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg Tennessee was a narrow, two-lane country road leading through the arts and tourism community of Gatlinburg and into the Great Smokey Mountains National Park. That was before Dolly Parton developed Dollywood as a job creator for people in her home town. Today it looks like this:

Pigeon Forge, TN

Gatlinburg, TN

To me Pigeon Forge is Niagara Falls on steroids. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

Even the Titanic was there

Complete with iceberg

It was all too much for us so we headed straight to the National Park. Such a beautiful spot.

We planned to drive the Newfound Gap Road through the mountains to Cherokee, NC (in the car, not the Adventure Bus). It was closed due to a landslide.

And we hoped to hike up to Clingman's Dome, the highest point in Tennessee to enjoy the view. It was closed due to ice and snow on the road in to the trail. But we had a great day never-the-less.

Not too far into the park we encountered this sign. Where on earth is this road going!?

Turns out we go through the tunnel then up around and over the tunnel. Pretty clever.

The first snow we've seen this winter.

The hiking trails were beautiful, with something for all levels of hiking ability.

Part way down this trail we encountered this sign:

NO DOGS! Oh well. So off we went to find a trail dogs could enjoy. This one was perfect. Straight up hill but that didn't bother our lame dog.

Will you two please hurry up!

In the end we had a lovely day exploring parts of the park that were open and that welcomed dogs.

This was our last two-day stop on this winter's adventure. From Pigeon Forge it took us 5 uneventful days to get home. Until we came to the Cobiquid Pass in Nova Scotia:

Welcome home

We will be in Nova Scotia until next October. While here I will be telling you about Nova Scotia and all the adventures you can find here.

You can follow more of our adventures on our facebook page
To contact me click here