Today we left the famous Bay of Fundy with its large tides to arrive here near the southernmost point of this province of Canada.  We were last camped near the south end of the Digby Spit, a rocky spine of Basalt that extends southwest from the town of Digby parallel to the main body of Nova Scotia and separated from it by the narrow St. Mary’s Bay. The Whale Cove Campground is situate on the ridge above a break in the rocky shoreline that is Whale Cove. 

We arrived with scallops and a three pound lobster, purchased at Digby.  We planned to visit tiny Brier (pronounced “Briar”) Island on one day, and take a whale watch boat ride there.  We ended up spending most of three days on that island.  To get there we drove to the end of the spit and took a ferry across to Long Island which was an extension of the same formation that formed the spit.  From there one drives another ten miles to a second ferry that crosses the Grand Passage to Brier Island.  We ended up buying a book of ferry tickets. 

The ferry landing is at the town of Westport within the Grand Passage and perhaps the most sheltered part of this windswept island with four lighthouses.  We drove about the few miles of roads between the lighthouses to gaze at grand seascapes and look for birds.  Westport is the kind of community where if you are there for a few days you become part of it, sharing good humor with the ferry boatman and general store owner. 

While we were there a double trailer truck hauling firewood logs from the mainland failed to make a turn and dropped its rear tires in a ditch.  The whole town was out to assist in the rescue or watch.   We watched too as the rear trailer was unloaded and then a trackhoe lifted the trailer up and over onto the cartway.  There were cheers and everybody went back to work or home.  We were finally able to go up the road to visit the last lighthouse for the day.

We arrived at Digby Neck the evening that a hurricane was passing to the east and our motorhome shook all night.  The next morning we stopped at the whale watch office on Brier Island and asked about trips.  “None today,” we were told. 

“How about tomorrow and Sunday?”

“Yep.”

“Sunday will probably be calmer.”

“Might be.”

We went on Sunday and the sea was almost flat.  The humpbacks were feeding, but not at the surface.  Still, they put on a good show of surfacing, floating, shampooing with seaweed, and diving.  Hundreds of birds, mostly three species of shearwaters, carpeted the water and flew aside for the boat.  An Atlantic Puffin appeared in the mix to give me (Chuck) a North American life bird.  I have seen this species in England.  Anne saw one from a boat off of New Jersey.  I couldn’t find that one.  She had that species over me.  No more!

The tides were impressive, but not as exciting as I thought.  We saw tidal bore waves pass up two creeks and filmed small islands that become suspended when the tide goes out.  In Minas Basin miles of mud flats arise when the tide goes out and vanish into a large bay when it comes in.  One does not want to walk out too far if the tide is coming in.

We walked the rough trail to Cape Split where the tidal current roars when it arrives at the point and forms a series of rapids between the “splits” of the Cape.  None of this seems to bother the birds which find the still water and calm eddies between the tidal rapids.

Except for the cost of all things in this country, and especially gasoline, we are enjoying it all.  We are halfway through our loop around the south end of Nova Scotia.  After our stay here at the south end we will camp near the famously scenic Peggy’s Cove near Halifax.  From there my sister Laurie will fly home on the weekend.  We will start westward for a final stop near Amherst and then return to the U.S.A.