Day trip up the "Annapolis Valley"

August 2, 2007
Upper Sackville, NS

Today was another day of touring, except that we got off to a later start than expected. This time it wasn’t a case of us sleeping in, but a minor medical situation that required a detour to the vet before we started out. As I was walking the pups, I noticed some tapeworm segments that Merlin had left behind. We’ve never seen these in a dog before, but we certainly had enough of them when we had cats years ago. So, off to the local vet we went and $42 later we were fully equipped to deal with the situation for Merlin – and Maya Lynn (the vet said, “If one has them the other probably does as well.”). A plus to the trip was that we were able to find their normal kibble, which is only distributed through vets in Canada.

Our day trip took us north along NS-1, along the eastern shore of the Avon River, and then northeast along the coastline of the Minas Basin. This is basically a bay off the Bay of Fundy, and an area where the narrow waterway compounds the tidal flow, resulting in exaggerated high-to-low tide variations, similar to what we saw in New Brunswick. We were traveling through right near low tide, so the mud flats were in view, sometimes stretching for quite a way out into the bay.

We stopped for lunch in Walton, at a public park surrounding the local lighthouse. We took a few pictures, and you can see the difference in the “before” and “after” lunch shots as the tide had risen quite a bit in that short time.

There were quite a few construction zones along the route to Walton, so we made our best guess for a shortcut return route. It was our best guess because the road wasn’t labeled on the map, but that was OK since it didn’t have any road signs either! We did some reckoning by the navigation system in the Range Rover, and seemed to be going in the right direction. It worked out perfectly, cutting at least ½ hour out of the return trip from Walton.

We stopped to take a picture of the center of Brooklyn, just for grins because it was nothing like the center of the Brooklyn we used to live in (NYC). All there was in this one was a combination service station and dollar store.

We then followed our route along the western side of the Avon River, through towns like Windsor and Falmouth (familiar New England names) before turning west toward Wolfville, a pretty little college town mentioned by Brian Mills. From there, we headed north toward Cape Split and Scots Bay, with a stop at a place called “The Lookoff”. From a distance, we could see that we were going to climb a ridge, but we didn’t realize until we were at the top what a view it would provide of the valley below and the bay/river off in the distance.

We continued west along the shore, stopping in Baxters Harbour (thinking there might be a picture there I could send to Peter – nothing but a ‘road closed’ sign), and then on to Halls Harbour. I’d seen an ad for the Halls Harbour Lobster Pound in the tourist guide, so I thought this might be a good place for an early dinner. It worked out pretty well, even though it was a tourist trap of sorts (I know, what did I expect from a place advertising in the official tourist guide?). You know you’re in a tourist trap when you have to order your lobster in the gift shop, not the restaurant. While we were waiting for the food, I took some digital and film shots. It’s a working harbour, and several fishing boats were just finishing the clean up process after offloading.

Geri had mussels (OK but not really equipped to beat the ones we’ve had in Brussels) and we each had a 2½ pound lobster. The lobsters were fresh (you get to pick them out of the tank yourself) and, before we got hooked on Brown’s, we’d have thought they were excellent. Now, they just rated a B+, as they were boiled (the salt water does help but steamed is better) and the melted butter can’t compare to clarified butter. We are so spoiled! We had a local wine, a Sauvignon Blanc from Grand Pré Winery, which went pretty well with the seafood.

After polishing off the mussels, Geri actually saved the body of her lobster to bring home (you know she’s not feeling up to snuff when that happens). Me, not so much; I was trained to be in the “clean plate club” as a kid.

After we ate, I went back for the camera and took a few more shots. The fishing boats were now empty and, since the tide was going out as we ate, had dropped 10-12’. They were just beginning to sit on the harbour floor. The gulls were having a feast on whatever they could reach by diving to the bottom in the few remaining feet of water. I’m not sure if it was something that was living there or leftover bait thrown/washed off the boats, but those gulls were sure ready for dinner!

I took the pups for a short walk on the beach, which is really on the rocks, especially with the tide out. Usually Merlin will go wading at least, but he stopped 10’ from the water line, did his business on the ocean floor, and headed for the car or “Mom” or both. They were ready to go and so were we, so we headed back to NS-1, and hopped over to the NS-101 expressway for the trip back. Once again, the return trip was a little over an hour and we were home in no time. We relaxed for a bit with an Al-tini before calling it an early night.