Rob-n-Hild, Eastward Ho!

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Lunenburg and Peggy's Cove 264 km. 4:13 hours. Elevation maximum 135 metres

With the weather still a bit cold today, but at least not chucking it down, we figured this would the day for a drive to two of Nova Scotia's most popular spots - Luneneburg and Peggy's Cove. This was a good choice as we had a lovely time and although we needed a jacket, we were able to get in a walk at both places

As you may remember, the reason for our somewhat zig-zagging route through the Maritime provinces was due to some pretty nasty forest fires not too far from Halifax. Although they didn't affect the city or the places we were planning to visit, the roads we took today went through the affected areas and while there was still an evacuation order we really didn't want to get in the way of the the emergency response. After the rain last week (a lot of it while we were in PEI) the fires are now completely extinguished, but as we drove through the area we could see the evidence in both burned out forest and destroyed homes and cars. We haven't heard that any lives were lost, but there was a lot of property damage and we could still smell smoke in the air too.

Lunenburg is a fishing port thst is still active, although not as big as it was "when cod was king"! There is a very famous schooner from here called the Bluenose which was unbeaten in international fishing fleet sailing championships between 1922 and 1938. She is even featured on the back of the Canadian dime (10 cents) and although she was wrecked in 1946, a replica has been sailing from the port of Luneneburg since 1963. Unfortunately, Bluenose II is out and about herself just now, so we didn't see here today. However, we are in Yarmouth at the end of the week where she is due to put in an appearence - keep your fingers crossed!

Even withough Bluenose Lunenburg was very picturesque with a busy harbour and the multi-coloured houses that a lot of the coastal towns in the Maritimes are famous for. There is a fishing museum as well (which we missed out on) and a lot of history about cod fishing. Until net trawlers took over after WWII, most were caught on long lines set and hauled in from samll boats - called dorys, manned by at most two men - carried by the schooners which stored the fish either fresh or salted. This seems a pretty rough kind of job and I can imagine they were not missed!

Then it was on to Peggy's Cove named (supposedly) for a young girl rescued from a shipwreck and whom everyone went to visit "Peggy from the cove". Makes a nice story, but since it sits at the mouth of St Margaret's Bay there may be a simpler reason (Peggy being a nickname for people called Margaret). Anyway, it is a very lovely cove as the rocks here are bare granite having been scraped by the last glaciers about 10-20,000 years ago. It is quite exposed (we needed the jacket even though it wasn't actually cold) with no trees and the harbour entrance had to be blasted with dynamite! The granite intrudes everywhere - one man decided - in his 70's to carve a mural out of the granite outcrop in his garden! Even the concrete pavements are laid around the granite instead of trying to cut the rock.

The lighthouse is probably very important here. And a very popular tourist attraction - while we were here half a dozen sight-seeing flights came past - as well as a military/search and rescue helicopter! The rocks are popular to walk on - even though there are plenty of signs about how dangerous they are. Even though the sea seemed calm, there were still waves crashing up so we stayed well away from anywhere that was wet!

Coming up: Halifax - by bike!

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