Thursday, August 27, 2009

Nova Scotia Travel Diary: Overview

The far end of Lunenburg Harbor taken from the wharf.

I have just returned from 10 days in Nova Scotia. I decided not to bring my computer and blog as I went but wait until I got home. Being totally unplugged has its advantages. Below is a map of the province. The icons are locations that will be mentioned as I describe the trip.

Nova Scotia is an Atlantic province of Canada and is the second smallest after Prince Edward Island. There are only 32 million people in Canada, a mere 10th of the US population, so words "crowd" and "horde" must be taken with a grain of salt when referring to Nova Scotia.

What surprised us the most was how wooded the area is. All the photos you will see from my trip and others focus on the coastline. Those views exist of course, but there was a lot of driving through trees to get there. With all the hard woods I suspect that fall would be a phenomenal time to visit.

We spent most of our time around Lunenburg. My travel buddy's cousin owns a home there so we had a beautiful and free place to stay. We did take two days to drive up to Cape Breton Island to visit the National Park and drive the Cabot Trail.


View nova scotia in a larger map

We really screwed up in the planning for this trip. We checked the weather forecast a week out and visited several web cams that showed expected fog along the coast. When we got there, the province was suffering under an heat wave with 30°C/90°F weather and 100% humidity. We had to borrow shorts and t-shirts from the house. Five minutes outside and we were soaked through with sweat. Moral of the story, double check the forecast.

The other thing that made this trip interesting was that we got caught in Hurricane Bill, which hit the day we were supposed to fly out. I did not know that hurricanes ever made it that far north.

All of this and more will be described and I present my travel diary. Hopefully, you won't mind this digression from my normal Colorado posts.

3 comments:

Linda said...

A distinctly Scandinavian looking harbour. Looking forward to seeing the photos from your trip. You've certainly had an adventure with the weather alone.

MyVintageCameras said...

I was thinking the same about the colors.....keeps the dreariness away when it is cold and fogy.

Anonymous said...

Syl. On those dark days in Newfie the bright colors of the houses brighten the days of short hours of sunlight and foggey days as well.Pupper Bear

North Rock Creek Snowshoe

Distance: 4 miles round trip Elevation: 9,180 ft to 9,780 ft Elevation Gain: 600 ft Dogs: Off leash until the wilderness boundary North...