The CAT’s excessive pace signifies that the 98 nautical-mile passage from Bar Harbor to Yarmouth takes solely 3½ hours, crossing the Gulf of Maine, considered one of 4 distinct our bodies of water that encompass the Canadian maritime province. The others are the Bay of Fundy, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and, after all, the Atlantic Ocean. With a ensuing 10,000 miles of shoreline, Nova Scotia is billed as “Canada’s Ocean Playground,” and no place in the province is greater than 50 miles from the coast. My intention is to take a look at the waters.
Will they be therapeutic waters? Given the struggle in Ukraine and different despondency-inducing present occasions, I really feel a bit just like the narrator Ishmael in Herman Melville’s “Moby Dick.” To escape the “November in my soul,” he seeks “the watery part of the world.” I’ve all the time discovered solace in swimming and boating, certainly all aquatic pursuits, and the waters don’t have to be heat (as they certainly aren’t in Nova Scotia) to be therapeutic.
The CAT arrives in Yarmouth shortly earlier than 6 p.m. Actually, it’s 7 p.m., I belatedly notice. We’ve misplaced an hour touring from the Eastern to the Atlantic time zone. The place I’ve booked for the evening is a few hours away, alongside what’s known as the Yarmouth-to-Halifax “Lighthouse Route.” The rental cottage will not be coastal however lakeside; in Nova Scotia even the land’s inside boasts our bodies of water. There are over 6,000 lakes with floor areas better than 2.5 acres, in accordance to the Nova Scotia Department of Environment and Climate Change.
The often-memorable names for Nova Scotia’s our bodies of water replicate the land’s settlement historical past: From the First Nation Mi’kmaq phrase Kejimkujik (which means “tired muscles from canoeing”) to the French Barachois (coastal lagoon) to the Scottish Loch.
Most of the lakes are glacial in origin. As not too long ago as 15,000 years in the past, the land that the British would christen with the Latin equal of “New Scotland” lay below ice up to a mile thick. The now-liquid lake over which our cottage is perched lies in the splendidly named Whynotts Settlement, simply exterior the previous port city of Lunenburg. Established in 1753 by Britain to assert management over land claimed by each Indigenous folks and the French often known as Acadians, Lunenburg has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for retaining the unique structure and look of its British colonial settlement.
After a great evening’s relaxation on the soothing shores of the small lake, my spouse, Pat, and 25-year-old son Thomas (visiting from Hawaii) need to see the 1800s vernacular structure for which the Lunenburg waterfront is legendary. The picturesque fishing village of Blue Rocks, lower than 4 miles seaward, additionally beckons. Then we head additional up the coast towards Halifax, the place one other fishing village, Peggy’s Cove, is so picturesque that it’s usually clogged with vacationers.
Just a couple of miles farther, however removed from the crowds, we attain the secluded waterfront cottage that we have now booked for a full week — our lily pad from which to make exploratory hops. The water right here is called the Northern Arm, a jagged inlet off the Atlantic Ocean. The cottage has a dock for boating and swimming, which floats up and down with the incoming and outgoing tides. To paddle round, we lease a canoe. At the property’s entrance is Black Duck Run, which feeds into the Northern Arm. But at excessive tide, the creek flows upstream, as if backward, and broadens right into a brackish pond.
The tide differential averages 3 to 4 toes, and the water is chilly, someplace in the 60s. But I discover it barely much less chilly if I take a dip because the tide goes out. Still, I keep in the water only some minutes, simply lengthy sufficient to swim to a rock outcropping revealed at low tide. Later in the day, because the rock turns into much more uncovered, it serves as a favourite perch for a loon.
For Thomas, who’s a big-wave surfer on Oahu’s North Shore, the water is rarely too chilly so long as he’s browsing. So he takes the automobile and heads for a surfboard rental place on Lawrenceville Beach, a couple of miles northeast of Halifax. Afterward, he reviews that the waves are simply “okay” (in contrast with Hawaii), however nonetheless attention-grabbing and enjoyable: A seaside not of sand however of pebbles and cobbles, framed by pines as an alternative of palms.
For Pat and me, our exhilarating waterborne adventure will probably be rafting the Bay of Fundy’s tidal bore because it roars up the rivers feeding the bay. Thomas will be a part of us, after all, anticipating an adrenaline rush comparable to browsing. We make reservations for a two-hour tour the subsequent day on the Shubenacadie River, on the other, northern aspect of Nova Scotia from our cottage, however solely about an hour’s drive away.
Boarding the inflatable raft, geared up with a robust outboard motor, is timed to the low tide that afternoon. It’s so low that the riverbank is a mud flat, and we slip and slide our method to the water. Our raft is considered one of three, with every holding a most of eight folks, plus a information manning the outboard. As we motor downriver, two bald eagles soar above us.
The Bay of Fundy, identified for the world’s most excessive tide fluctuations, is formed like an extended funnel. As the incoming tide is pressured into the bay’s ever narrower, shallower higher reaches, it collides with and reverses the river currents working downstream. The outcome is a large cresting wave known as a tidal bore — from the previous Norse phrase “bara,” which means “first wave.”
The information on the raft’s helm expertly heads into the wave’s face, then zooms forwards and backwards, creating the feeling of driving a really bumpy curler coaster. Everyone will get splashed, even soaking moist; some scream with delight; nobody falls overboard, although that always occurs (why life jackets are required). The standing waves are equal to a class-three-or-four white-water fast.
Sharing our raft are giddy members of a bachelor social gathering joking with the groom whereas firmly clasping the bouncing boat’s security strains. Pat, talking from expertise, joins the banter: “Marriage is like riding the tidal bore, up and down and wildly unpredictable.” At journey’s conclusion, shivering, we’re provided out of doors showers to wash off the mud earlier than turning into dry garments. Hot water spraying from the bathe head has by no means felt so good.
Thrills can finest be savored in retrospect, so the subsequent couple of days at our waterfront cottage appear particularly restful and reflective. Relaxing in an Adirondack chair overlooking the dock, I can’t assist however hear Otis Redding enjoying in my thoughts: Sittin’ in the mornin’ solar/I’ll be sittin’ when the evenin’ comes…. I additionally replicate upon the notion of Lebenskunst (“the art of living well”), for the reason that cottage homeowners are Swiss German.
The water right here is rarely the identical. When the prevailing southwesterly winds align with the rising tide, the floor texture ripples, not easy. There’s even an occasional whitecap. And the blue water all the time adjustments its hue, steadily, then abruptly, relying on the colour of the sky and angle of sunshine. When fog slides in from the ocean, the rocky shoreline’s sharp shapes soften, as if lined by a marriage veil.
To stretch our legs, we hike the paths at close by Polly’s Cove (adjoining to Peggy’s Cove). Where land and sea meet is all the time hanging, however the rugged magnificence right here could make different coastlines appear ho-hum. Narrow however well-worn paths weave by means of a panorama of heath and coastal barrens, a colourful carpet of wildflowers and evergreens made into dwarf-like shrubs by fixed publicity to salt spray and wind. We maneuver round (generally over) big boulders — what geologists name “erratics,” deposited by retreating glaciers — interspersed with freshwater bogs and fens. At the path’s terminus are towering cliffs from which we glance down at ocean swells crashing towards the rocky shoreline.
Though we really feel like we by no means need to go away our waterfront cottage right here close to Polly’s Cove, different waters beckon — in specific, the Bras d’Or Lake on the very tip of Nova Scotia on Cape Breton Island. There, the pristine water’s shores so enchanted the inventor Alexander Graham Bell, reminding him of his native Scotland, that he constructed a grand summer time dwelling and analysis facility, which he used to take a look at man-carrying kites and hydrofoil boats.
Though known as a lake, it’s truly an estuary with two slim entrances to the Gulf of St. Lawrence because it meets the North Atlantic. A canal on the lake’s southern finish, constructed in the 1860s for delivery site visitors, additionally connects to the ocean. In 2011, UNESCO designated Bras d’Or a Biosphere Reserve.
Today, the lake is a widely known vacation spot for crusing fanatics, so we constitution a 42-foot catamaran for a couple of hours on the water. The captain, who grew up right here and custom-designed the boat himself, says to consider the 424-square-mile lake as “an inland saltwater sea.” Because of its protected nature and shallow depths, he’s been instructed that the summer time waters are counterintuitively “the warmest north of the Carolinas.”
I would like to take a look at the proposition by leaping in the lake. Instead, Pat, Thomas and I be a part of the captain for drinks on his boat’s dock in the village of Baddeck, the place the eponymous river joins Bras d’Or. Several drinks, for it occurs to be my birthday. From him, I be taught extra in regards to the waters of Nova Scotia, a lot extra that I’d have to write an extended story. Or higher, come again quickly to Nova Scotia.
Nicklin is a author primarily based in Maine and Virginia. Find him on Twitter: @RoadTripRedux.
6958 Prospect Rd., West Dover
Located in an enthralling fishing village close to Peggy’s Cove, with an off-the-cuff oceanfront environment, Shaw’s emblem boasts “Beer and Lobster. Enough Said.” But its in depth menu presents way more, together with seafood chowder, Digby scallops, calamari, fish truffles, pickled herring and pan-seared haddock. Open every day midday to 7 p.m. Entrees from about $8.
The Freight Shed Waterside Bistro & Market
Located on the wharf on the shores of the Bras d’Or Lake, the restaurant is a favourite for guests and natives alike. The menu presents all the things from seafood linguine, smoked salmon bagels, crab truffles, seared recent haddock and steamed mussels to connoisseur grilled-cheese and burgers. Open every day 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Entrees from about $13.
Tidal Bore Rafting Resort
One of various outfitters providing tidal bore rafting adventures across the Bay of Fundy. 2.5-hour excursions from about $54 per individual 12 and over, about $49 per little one ages 6 to 11, ; 4-hour excursions about $73 per individual 12 and over and about $67 per little one ages 6 to 11. Reduced charges for teams of eight or extra. Open May to October. Book on-line to select excessive, excessive, or common tides. Includes flotation gear and post-tour scorching showers. Also obtainable are lodging choices and venues for particular occasions.
2017 Lower Prospect Rd., Lower Prospect
Outdoor useful resource middle options half-day, full-day and sundown sea kayak classes and guided excursions. Individual gear leases can be found for skilled paddlers. Rental charges for single kayaks vary from about $31 for two hours to about $62 for full day; double kayak, about $39 to $76 and canoes from about $23 to $70. Canoes could also be taken off-site. Stand-up paddleboards additionally obtainable, from about $27 to $58.
4348 Lawrencetown Rd., East Lawrencetown
This surf college is positioned simply steps away from the waves at Lawrencetown Beach. Open every day 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Daily classes by ISA licensed instructors can be found; surfboard and moist swimsuit leases included. Group surf classes from about $58 per individual, newbie classes from about $66 per individual, personal classes from about $82 per individual. Surfboard and moist swimsuit leases about $19 per day.
Sailing CBI (Cape Breton Island)
The crusing constitution is a 42-foot catamaran known as Cape Bretoner 1, docked on the Baddeck Community Wharf. Overnight, single and multiday charters obtainable; two-hour night constitution from about $385 for a non-public group constitution of up to 6 folks, with $35 per further visitor to a most of 12. Cottage leases are additionally provided. Available June to October.
Potential vacationers ought to take native and nationwide public well being directives relating to the pandemic into consideration earlier than planning any journeys. Travel well being discover information may be discovered on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s interactive map displaying journey suggestions by destination and the CDC’s travel health notice webpage.