Five Island Provincial Park- Fun on the Fundy Flats

Five Islands is named for a tight grouping of small islands named Moose, Egg, Diamond, Long & Pinnacle. Five Islands sits in the Minas Basin where the highest recorded tides of Fundy occur. This was our camping spot for the next 4 nights.  After discovering a treasure trove of cheeses and clams, we turned our attention to hiking @Five Islands Provincial Park.  We hiked the Clift trail for 5 miles, and then the next day, we hiked the Fundy flats, which were at the base of the Clift trail. The time window for safely hiking across the bay floor posted by the park rangers was from 1:15-5:30pm.  So we headed out across the flats.  It is incredible how the water disappeared

with just the mud flats remaining.  We noticed huge piles of jagged rocks toward the shore, but we were able to bypass them by walking across the mud flats.

  

As we hiked along the bay floor and around a huge rock formation, the cliffs continued to amaze us.  

  

We stopped along the beach and found a spot for a picnic. The water was crystal clear and many beautiful pebbles.
It wasn't too long after lunch that we checked our watches and knew it was time for the tide to come in.  We headed back and noticed that our mud flat was appreciably smaller. And as we continued our journey, the only path remaining were those jagged rocks- our mud flats had disappeared!  The going was slow for about one quarter mile as we scrambled across these rocks.  Finally, ankles intact we made it to the end of the hike, covering about 3 miles of varying degrees of mud wetness or drying- depending on the direction of travel. There were only 2 other crazy couples making the same journey.  A successful hike!

While we were at Five Islands, we visited the lighthouse and enjoyed traveling down back roads.  We also discovered that they love to play washer toss- a game somewhat like a combination of maybe horse shoes and corn hole.  Varying sizes of washers are used and tossed into a circle. In a box.  Points are as follows: 3 pets if it lands in the circle, 2 points if it lands in the box, and 1 point if it touches the outside of the box.  An extremely popular game, tournaments are held and there is great competition for trophies.

   Views from lighthouse.

Finally, the day we left, we came across an art show in a nearby town- Parsonsburg.  Here are a few pictures from the show.  There were submissions from all over the world- USA, Canada, New Zealand, Italy- just to name a few.  Media used included paintings, videos, and other materials for construction of their art work.  In addition to an expert panel of judges voting for first, second, third choice and honorable mention, they had a "people's" award where anyone stopping in to view fills out a ballot with 2 choices.  We voted for our favorite art pieces. What fun!

 

So. off to our next destination.  But wait- a market on the way? Oh, yes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cheese and Clams, August 26

You might ask yourself - what does cheese have to do with clams?  Well, you know that I am going to tell you and it is quite a story!  So we were on our way to park #5, which coincidently is called Five Island Provincial Park, located along the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia.  We were told that there was this amazing farm about 10 miles from the park where they make cheeses, exclusively Gouda cheese from cow's milk.  the farm had quite a few cows roaming around, including white cows from France.  This farm had thousands of wheels of Gouda cheesecake at  various stages of maturation....shelves piled high with cheese wheels were evident and a basement full of wheels of cheeses.  They also make several aged blue cheeses.  After tasting too many samples, we chose several different cheeses and went on our way.  It was nearly sunset and we hurried down the road to get to camp and set up for the next 3 days.  That night I was thinking about cheese and knew that I would have to return for more.  We got up and took a beautiful hike on Five Islands and then meandered once again down the road to the farm.  It was a really overcast day and shopping seemed like an excellent idea.  More cheese was brought to bring home with us.

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So we left the farm and as we headed back to camp, I noticed a tiny road off to the left along the bay with lots of fisherman wandering around and digging- way out on the bay floor.  The tide was out and there was a wide expanse of bay land exposed.  "Bob- we gotta stop and see what they are doing". So we parked down that road and ventured out to have a look.  A fisherman, clad in overalls and wellies, approached us loaded down with his bucket, shovel and a bag of clams and asked Bob: "where's your shovel"?  He then proceeded to tell us that the local and commercial fisherman were out on the bay floor to gather clams and we told him that we have never done any clamming.  He very carefully went through a "rough guide to clamming" for us.  It was at that moment that we decided to go back to camp, put on some sort of rugged tennis shoes for the extreme mud(!) and grab our enamel pot for our clams.  At that, he said:  "if you need any of my equipment to borrow, I am just across the street in the 2 nd trailer- ask for Al.  I got everything you need".

So we went back to camp, got our shoes, and saw a park ranger who we excitedly told:"we are going clamming". Turns out she does the clamming demo for the park service @Five Islands and got us a pitchfork and proceeded to cut out 2 empty gallon water jugs for us to use as we dig them up.  *****Are you getting the message that everyone here is so helpful and kind?

So, we had just over 2 hours to walk the bay floor as once the tide comes in and the water approaches very fast and you need to be off shore.  We began to dig and scoop and low and behold- we got clams!  At first they were rather elusive, but once we realized the clear association between little tiny holes in the sand and bountiful clams beneath, we started to find a lot. We gathered 50- legal allowance is 100 clams per person per day at the length of 1 & 3/4 inch.

  

So now you know how cheese and clams come together.....if I hadn't wanted to go back to the farm for more cheese, we wouldn't have seen the road, traveled down, and found ourselves clamming for dinner.  We soaked them overnight in the bay water and the next night- Viola!  Fried clams, sliced tomatoes and corn on the cob.  A wonderful meal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Graves Island...

Graves Island is a tiny island, about 160 acres, along the south shore of Nova Scotia.  Access to the island is over a very short, probably 50 feet long, one way causeway from the mainland. You can walk around the entire island in approximately 2.5 miles.

I know that I have been saying how beautiful the landscape is on this journey, once again we have come across a very quiet, private provincial park with sweeping views of the water.  During a recent storm one evening, we went to bed listening to the fog horn. The next day, the loons were making their mournful sounds.  We wake up each day, pour our coffee and sit and watch the water. I am grateful for the opportunity to relax and just watch the world go by! Usually, we took a 4-5 mile hike each day and even got into the water for a dip - extremely refreshingly cold!  We spent 5 days on Graves Island.

   Camp site

  Sunrise and the little causeway  Hiking around the islan

While we were at Graves Island we went to Wolfville Market & Community Supper for the town.  You spend $10.00 and pick out a dinner at one of the vendors, and they give you salad, bread, and water. See below-

  Wolfville Market

Town of Wolfville

 

We went to a local winery along the drive and it was so good..... Gaspreau in the valley.

Finally, on the last day, we traveled around the coast to two towns- Lunenburg and Mahone Bay and enjoyed lunch of fish & chips @ The Fish Shack.  There were great little shops, schooners, fish boats, etc.  The towns reminded us of New England.

   Lunenburg market and shops

  Mahone Bay

  Bluenose II schooner

Stay tuned....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A word or two about foods and libations.....

We began our Canadian trip in New Brunswick, which is home to Bay of Fundy lobster, and also salmon, haddock, and other yummy seafood.  Thank God I brought from home my huge enamel pot that rode on the front of our camper- a much needed item for steaming lobster.  Salmon is either sold fresh or smoked.  Lobster is picked out by customers.

   Fresh seafood shack in NB

As we traveled across the waterway from New Brunswick to Digby Nova Scotia, we were greeted with Digby scallops. Again, there was also fresh lobster, haddock, and local shrimp.

  

We continued to have fresh haddock as we traveled the souther shore on our way to Graves Island. 

We have also had a ton of blueberries as it is blueberry season.....blueberry wine, blueberry jam, and blueberry ice cream!

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On our drive through the Annapolis Valley, we came upon a local farmer who made maple syrup.

  

One of the locals directed us to the local butcher and we purchased freshly ground beef, smoked bacon, and sausage- honey garlic and spicy Italian.

    

Well, I am sure there will be more foods to talk about.....stay tuned!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

A wonderful treasure....Nova Scotia- .Kejimkujik National Park.

Kejimkujik (called Keji by the locals) National Park, located in the central western area of Nova Scotia, is 156 square miles.  The park was recently threatened by a raging fire nearby so fire breaks were set up by the firefighters (see below) and there was an evacuation that has since been lifted.

 Fire break....

 Our campsite in Keji

This land was once inhabited by an arboriginal people, the Mi'kmaq ( sounds like "mick-mau" ) some 10,000 years ago.  Today, there is a national monument erected @Keji along the lake in their honor and we were able to take a tour to see some of their several hundred or more year old petroglyphs. Visitors are not allowed to enter this area without a park guide.  Funny story- the English speaking tour was full this weekend, so we were with a French speaking tour.  What the heck-petroglyphs don't have words anyways!

   Keji lake

 Hunting for petroglyphs with our guide

   

     Hiking with 400 year old Hemlock!

   Other stuff on the hike

   More hiking along Mersey River & falls

 Sunset on Keji Lake