We awoke to rain a couple of times through the night, so the morning was pretty damp. The campground has showers with faulty timers so we had nice hot showers at our leisure. After coffees we packed up and headed up the road to Peggy's Cove to check out the lighthouse. On the drive in we found the memorial to the Swiss Air Flight 111 crash (caused by a cockpit fire back in 1998). That is a somber stone memorial in an otherwise beautiful coastline. The anniversary of the accident was last week so the memorial had some fresh flowers and other mementos to the 229 who perished in the crash.
Peggy's Cove is a small fishing village that has a lot of tourists (guilty) and tour buses, even this late in the season. The village is colourful as are many in the coastal areas. We parked the van at the info center and walked the streets up to the lighthouse where you are free to roam the rocky approach. The weather improved as the morning progressed making us regret wearing our rain coats. As mentioned, the area was pretty busy with tourists so any photos without a lot of people are likely to be a digital edit. While we were at the lighthouse, a coast guard helicopter did a low fly-by that was pretty cool. Easily amused, yes, but I like that kind of thing!
After Pete was finished his socializing with the seniors from the bus tour, we got to the van and headed to Mahone Bay, Blue Rocks, then Lunenberg, about an hour's drive down coast. Mahone Bay is another quaint village with some very colourful old buildings on the waterfront. Normally, the bright colours wouldn't "work", but here they do. Think in terms of bright primary colours, bold oranges, purples, pinks, greens, and yellows. We found another great coffee shop and cinnamon buns, then we headed to Blue Rocks that another RV'er suggested we check out. It is a community on the peninsula that is a quirky mix of colourful buildings and shake sided buildings weathered to a silver grey colour. There were some new builds in the area - the modern black look really seems out of place in these communities. The road wound along the shoreline and wound through the small community.
In Lunenburg, we found the Bluenose II moored down at the docks; it was a maintenance day so the decks were closed to the public. The ship's sails were down so it didn't look much like the image on the Canadian dime, but it is still an impressive ship even at rest. I was impressed with the finish and size of the timber masts and the detailed fittings and riggings. We made a quick stop at Lightship Brewery for a beer across the bay from Lunenberg and enjoyed the view of the colourful town. Afterwards we came back up to the campground near Peggy's Cove for a second night.
Our neighbour at the campsite is from Kitwanga BC, so we were chatting about the drive east. The evening was looking a bit drab, but the sunset suddenly changed the sky and it went into soft pinks, then brilliant pinks and reds. A beautiful end to a great day.
Glad you stopped at Peggy’s Cove and Lunenburg – those were two that I meant to mention ….If you have time Ministers Island is a neat place to check out too if you end up back in NB (St. Andrews)