Before I get to the island tales I need to tell you about our trip
to the island. Barb found not one, but two roadside attractions that she just
HAD to stop at. At least they were both on our route and both close together.
In Shediac, they have the World’s Largest
Lobster! When we got there, there was a group of people, who I am pretty
sure were from a foreign country well east of here. They were climbing all over
the lobster taking what seemed like hundred and hundreds of pictures of themselves (complete
with selfie sticks) and each other all over that thing. Barb and I walked the
dogs waiting for them to clear out but after 20 minutes we gave up and took the
dogs for a walk into town. When we came back we had the place to ourselves.
If that was not exciting enough just down the road is a huge
white rooster. Zoey just had to have
her picture taken on it.
From there we headed east to Prince Edward Island or PEI as it is referred to locally. The bridge linking New Brunswick to PEI is Canada's longest bridge at 12.9km or 8 miles long. There is no toll to get on the island but if you ever want to get off there is a $50.25 toll for 2 axles vehicles.
We were aware of the lobster fishing here but we were not aware of the fact that 1 in 4 potatoes sold in Canada come from the island. Or that over 86,000 acres of potatoes were grown right here on the island. Or that the Canadian Potato Museum is right here on the island! We had to go! The entrance fee at $8.85ca for each of us. We find new and old farming
practices very interesting so this was actually a stop I was looking forward
to.
I have included a lot of pictures of antique farm equipment
from the early 1900’s as I thought
Farmer Bob would like them. But then I got to thinking that he is sooooo old some
of these were probably new when he was a kid!
It is a pretty interesting visit and cool to see the equipment used throughout the years to plant and harvest the potatoes.
Back on the road, a couple of things I noticed right away was how red the soil is here compared to the Dakota's. The farm equipment and eventually our truck was covered in this red soil.
The other thing I noticed is how much pride the Islanders took in their homes and yards. Almost every home was well maintained and the yards had acres and acres of manicured lawns. Beautiful but it has to be a lot of work!
It was cooler and rainy our first day so we did not get a lot of outside activity in so we just took in some scenery on the west side.
We did score a beautiful boondocking site right on the ocean at the end of a dead end road! I am glad no one else down as there was just barely enough room for us to turn around and park for the night.
Between rain showers, we got out for a few walks on the beach. I can see why the soil is so red as the beaches and surrounding shoreline consisted of red sandstone.
Barb even did her own Instagram pose as she did not want me being the only one who goes viral!
The next day was another cooler and wet day as we made our way north along the west coast to the North Cape Lighthouse.
The visitors center was closed. They have some nice walking paths in that area but with the rain, we just walked the immediate area, reading some of the informational signs and left making our way southeast along the north coast. We came across a few old cemeteries along the way as well as the next day. The earliest date we saw was 1811. There were some markers from earlier than that, there were just headstones, literally just the stones with no markings whatsoever. Every interesting.
We stopped in Thunder Cove to take in the islands most photographed rock formation called The Tea Pot. It has stood for decades and one has to wonder how long it will last. It is hard to get a perspective of how big it really is but the base has to be about 50-60 feet across.
What Prince Edward Island is famously known for is their lobster. There were lobster boats and fish markets everywhere!
We did buy some cooked lobster that night for dinner. We talked about getting a couple of lives ones but we did not bring a pot big enough to boil them in. As we were going by one harbor we noticed they were off loading so we stopped to take a couple quick pictures.
Then there are the beaches. Many of them too have the red sand from the sandstone. Dakota and Zoey were not allowed on the beaches in some of the parks but we did find a couple that they were allowed on. What is it about dogs and beaches, they just love to run in the surf and play!
The next night we moochdocked at the Visitor's Center in Cavendish. There was one other rig there with us. We were up bright and early the next morning to hit National Parks along the north edge. We hiked the Bubbling Springs trail in the Brackley area. The bugs were bad but tolerable.
We also took in the sea arch in the MacKenzie's Brook area. The sun was bad for real good pictures but it was cool to see in person.
We continued across the north coast eastward towards Eastpoint in the very far NE corner of the island there is lighthouse there and some great views of the ocean.
We spent the night at a Provincial Park on East Point ($36ca w/e) where we dumped, filled with water did laundry. showered and worked on this post. The campground is on a bluff above the ocean, there is plenty of room here for any size rig with great views. I would recommend this campground to anyone coming out here.
Our last day on the island we went south on the east coast to the town of Souris where we took in the lighthouse there that is open to walk all the way to the top.
And of course when we saw Bogside Brewery in Montague we had to stop for a flight and lunch. One of the beers brewed there is called Red, Right, Return a red ale. Someone had just mentioned this beer to us in the past couple of months but for the life of us we can not remember who it was. We asked all our usual beer aficionados; The Jordan's, Colibaba's but it wasn't any of them. ......
From there it was off to Wood Island where we will be taking the ferry to Nova Scotia tomorrow. We are leaving a day early as we got here a day early and saw all the sights on our list and then some. We spent the afternoon at the Wood Island Lighthouse area where they have a park and some picnic tables. They were dredging the canal and one of the workers came over and talked to us mentioning that they were selling lobsters for $10/lb over at the port a few hundred yards away. Barb walked over and came back with these two beauties. A couple of 1 1/2lb'ers that we cooked up and had for supper that night.
She could have bought this 5 1/2lb'er for $54 but we would have had no way to cook it and would have had to just keep it for a pet. Next to it is a 1lb'er for comparison.
I would like to thank Marie who lives here on the island and writes a blog titled Island Musings for her advice on what to do and see while here. Who better than a local to get advice from!
Tomorrow morning we board the ferry at 8:00am sharp to take the ferry over to Caribou Nova Scotia. Wish us luck!
