The night turned very cold and when we woke up we were freezing. I turned on the little furnace and within minutes Stellas was a nice and warm and cozy. However the inevitable trip to the shower meant a walk in the cold. Little Stella was covered in frost…so it WAS cold. Interestingly when Carol went to the ladies washroom, the frenzied little man walked in on her , hurrumphed and walked out. This was a strange campground. We didn’t dally with cooking breakfast, we had scones and coffee and headed to the Louisbourg Fortress, a Canadian National Historic Site.
This is a reconstruction of the original early 18th century town, which changed hands between the French and English all through the 18th century. The town was complete with people in period costume, doing period stuff. Louisa was our guide (we took a tour) and told us tales of all the exploits of the town and it’s history. She was awesome..a lady in her late 60’s who knew the history backwards and forwards and with a charming personality. That was the best $3 Canadian we spent on this trip.
After the guided tour Carol and I wandered the fortress, chatting with soldiers and lace makes and a highlight for me…a baker! In the garrison bakery they were making 18th century brown bread. We were even able to purchase what they were making. We bought a small and a large loaf, which were round and hard. We munched the smaller loaf as we walked around town, it was very good bread. Some time during the morning we met up with the folks from Rhode Island that we had met along the Cabot Trail. we had a few good laughs and exchanged contact data.. nice folks, hope we meet them again. We also visited the gift shop and found nothing new and the display of the native people the M’ikmac - who got along just fine with the French and even intermarried and all converted to Catholicism. Touring this fortress was a real highlight and I just don’t have the competency to describe how well they brought us back in time to understand the era. Thanks everyone in Louisbourg Fortress.
By noon we moved on and headed toward St. Peters, Nova Scotia, our destination for the day. Stopping at the St. Peters information center (every town has one) we found the the Battery Provincial Park was indeed open (my app said it closed on the 15th)and so we headed the mile down the road to the park to check in. It is always a fun thing to check into campsites as there is always lively conversation about where we are from and what is happening locally. A jolly guy was behind the desk and he started taking our information. The lady that was behind the counter was wise cracking, and I may have been as well when the jolly guy said ‘oh oh’ — ‘I think I entered them as hosts!’ The lady said ‘Well back out and correct it’ “I can’t” he said…”Well it looks like you guys are here for free!” We all had a laugh and and I offered to pay and he said there was no way to fix it now..just don’t tell anyone. So it is on you fine readers out there not to tell anyone. We found campsite number 32 and set up a fine camp overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.
We headed into town to explore. We found all sorts of little gift shops, even a Christmas shop with way too much Christmas stuff..I can’t even think about that stuff now. We found another grocery store, looking for an ATM, which never happened. St. Peters is cut in half by a narrow canal and lock which separates the lake and the sea and it was here along side of the canal where we met a couple of guys on a sailboat called Sea Chanty, coming up from Maine. However the guys were from Switzerland and had purchased the boat in Maine and are keeping it up here for the winter in a boatyard to work on it with plans of heading to the Caribbean next year. We chatted with them for quite some time.
Back at the campground we both scrubbed up, changed clothes and headed for the local pub MacBrough… it is Tuesday which means ‘jam night’. We ordered pizza and had a couple of the local beers as the music began. For the next couple of hours we listened to country folk, rock and even Dr. Suess music all mixed in with a Celtic song here and there. Performers were coming and going - some good some, well, less good. It was a grand evening. The food and the music was fantastic and the pub felt like home.
The day ended back at the campground with a full moon rising over the sea and we had a sky dappled with stars where the moon wasn’t shining too brightly. We got comfortable and watched a bit of a show before turning in. Below are a lot of photos from the day. The fortress was fascinating.
