On the Road to Antigonish

     

A beautiful sunset in Pugwash

     For almost a week we took the scenic route to Antigonish where we had planned to see the Highland Games. We travelled north and then west towards the Bay of Fundy and then north and followed the coast east along the Northumberland Strait in order to get to Antigonish. A roundabout way, but we experienced many local sights along the way.

     Growing up, I listened to the songs of Anne Murray, so we had to visit Springhill where Anne grew up and now hosts a museum dedicated to her life. Her life story from childhood up to her retirement in 2008 is told at the Anne Murray Centre.  The centre houses a collection of memorabilia from both her personal life and professional career in a series of displays. A registered Canadian charity, the centre aims to foster tourism in the area and promote awareness of the music of Nova Scotia and Canada. All the revenue generated from its operation is used to provide employment for local people and for its ongoing maintenance. It was interesting to see the dedication she had put into her career but I was very surprised and somewhat disappointed in her personal life. You will have to go to the centre yourself to get the whole picture.

The entrance to the Anne Murray Centre.

Murray was the first Canadian female solo singer to reach No. 1
on the U.S. charts, and also the first to earn a Gold record for one
of her signature songs, "Snowbird" (1970)

     We visited the Joggins Fossil Cliffs which is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Joggins Fossil Centre is situated on the reclaimed site of the Old Joggins No. 7 Coal Mine overlooking the Joggins Fossil Cliffs. We walked through the indoor exhibits on fossils and then had a guided tour of the fossil cliffs at low tide. Very fascinating to see the enormous amount of fossils still in the cliff face. 

A statue of a miner stands at the exit of the centre. Beneath
this area was a coal mine. The swamp forests produced massive
 quantities of organic matter that, over millions of years, created
the coal deposits for which this period of history is named.

The shoreline when the tide is out.

The property at Joggins comprises
14.7 km. (9.1 mi.) of coastline along
the tumultuous Bay of Fundy.

Rock outcrops are everywhere and we were warned not to stand
too close to the cliffs because of the falling rocks.

Here our guide is showing us some fossils in the cliffs

A Lycopsid tree preserved as a trunk.
We saw many of these in various sizes

Another tree fossil

Photos of the cliff face

The vastness of it all.

It is hard to believe but this was an opening to the coal mine.
Probably, this is where the water from the mine escaped.

A piece of rail from the tracks used to bring the ore to the wharf.

The remains of a dock from a past time when the mine was functioning

Al taking a photo of the dock.

This may look like a fossil but it is not. It
is the markings of a snail or other sea animal.

      We had a great time learning all about fossils. Seeing all those fossils in the cliffs and on the beach was amazing.

     Finally, we got to the coast of the Northumberland Strait which separates Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island (PEI). While travelling along the coast road we could look out over the waters of the strait and see the outline of PEI and remember fondly our time there in 2017. But now we move forward to more new adventures.

We stayed one night in Pugwash at a campsite on the ocean.
I had to take this photo at the town sign to send it to a friend in
Ontario who visits family here every year. Since she comes in
May, we missed seeing her this year.

 The view from our campsite.

     In Pictou, we went to visit the award-winning Grohmann knives factory. Although we did not get any further than the on-site outlet shop, it was interesting to see the building with the knife sticking in the wall. In order to have a tour of the factory you needed a certain number of people and we were the only ones in the store. But click here to learn more about Grohmann knives.

The knife!!

        We are from Ontario and we thought we knew all about maple syrup. Canada produces 71% of the world's maple syrup. Ontario is the second-highest producer of maple syrup in Canada (after Quebec). Nova Scotia is also located in the region and produces syrup too.  We went to Sugar Moon Farms to buy some syrup and have a maple treat.

A wood carving outside the lodge at Sugar Moon Farms.
This is a great place to take the family to learn about the production of maple syrup.

One thing I learned was that you can make maple water.
The lodge was full of wood carvings such as the one in
the background of this photo depicting the process of making maple syrup

The Garrison Brewery even makes a Maple Porter beer
from the maple syrup at Sugar Moon Farm.

     The Sutherland Steam Mill was an interesting find. We were the only two people in the mill and we had a personal tour of the mill and how the owner, Alexander Sutherland, invented all sorts of things in order to run the mill better. The Sutherland Steam Mill Museum is a restored steam woodworking mill from the 1890s. The mill operated until 1958. This mill did not use water power but steam power to run the mill. In that way they were not dependent on a river nearby which had an inconsistent flow rate and could be located near a transportation source like a railway.

The mill preserves a time when our ancestors were far more
self reliant than we are today. In this mill, trees went in
one end, and out the other came almost everything you needed
to build and beautify your home including bathtubs.

The thing I found most interesting was the fire safety features.
On the roof was a row of rain barrels which, back in the day, would
have been filled with water. In case of a fire, the water from the
barrels would have been used to extinguish the fire or wet the
wooden building so the damage would be minimal. Remember,
almost everything was made of wood.

     We had lots of fun travelling towards our final destination, Antigonish, finding lots of shops, art galleries, and just plain interesting things along the way.