Greg Upham picked us up at our hotel at 9am and introduced us to Ian and Elma from Scotland and Ryan, who is a student at Dalhousie Uni from mainland China. The six of us fitted comfortably into his Dodge Caravan people mover and we set off for a nine hour tour of the South Coast, which is often called the Bluenose Coast.
First stop was Peggy's Cove, which was one of the popular options on the Queen Mary 2 excursions list. It is a beautiful little resort town where fishing, boat building and tourism keep it thriving. We had an hour to wander around, starting with the lighthouse surrounded by smooth granite shelves.
Some people wanted to see plenty of pictures of Canada so here goes:
Lobsters are caught in abundance here and exported all over. Even Subway and Maccas offer lobster options on their menus.
The legend of "Peggy" was chiselled into a large rock to explain the origin of the town's name.
We followed the coastline in and out passing many bays and villages until we came to a sign which announced we were in Queensland, complete with a patrolled sandy beach. We were expected to be homesick.
At Chester we parked next to a Nissan Leaf being charged from a public charging point. As Malcolm photographed it the owner turned up on a motor bike and proceed to rubbish the iMievs. After debating that point we went on to argue which country had the more conservative PM, Canada or Australia. We agreed in the end they were equally terrible. He was an engineer and was convinced electric cars would take off within ten years.
The bay at Chester reminded us of Wagstaffe and Pretty Beach.
We reached our final destination of Lunenburg at 1:30pm and ordered lunch in the restaurant inside the waterfront marine museum.
Malcolm had carrot soup and Lyn had a delicious seafood chowder (first ever). As the town's name suggests it was settled by German speakers from Switzerland and Germany and we saw several churches identical to the ones we saw in Germany. The oldest house was this one.
The famous tall ship Bluenose II has its home here and the coast is named after the ship.
It was almost upstaged by another magnificent sailing ship called the Columbia, flying an American flag (!)
At 4pm we were back at Mahone Bay strolling around the town and we were able to watch pewter pieces being produced in rubber moulds. We loved the former Train Station which was one of a few we saw being put to good use.
All day we saw timber houses painted in bright colours and felt uplifted by them.
Back at the hotel at 6pm after a great day out. Take a bow Greg.
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