Our last full day on PEI was a stunning fall day and a mix
of fun and housekeeping. Spent the
morning touring the beautiful grounds of Fort Amherst, the French-built and
Brit-controlled fort at the mouth of Charlottetown’s bay.
Mother nature gave us several gifts. The mountain ash trees are just stunning in their flaming red/orange berry fineries. We were tickled by the antics of Chip and Dale and friends at the entrance to our campground. Early morning brought a hoard of cormorants energetically feasting for half an hour on a school of fish in front of our campsite. And we had a great view of cruise ships going in and out of Charlottetown from our little campsite.
Went down a dirt road to discover the Block Point lighthouse, truly a house (uninhabited now) and working light. In fact, haven’t seen a single lighthouse anywhere that's non-operational, and we've seen plenty of lighthouses.
Even the drive to and from the park was a winner – it’s hard to find a coastal drive that isn’t just stunning. PEI is just a beautiful island.
Mother nature gave us several gifts. The mountain ash trees are just stunning in their flaming red/orange berry fineries. We were tickled by the antics of Chip and Dale and friends at the entrance to our campground. Early morning brought a hoard of cormorants energetically feasting for half an hour on a school of fish in front of our campsite. And we had a great view of cruise ships going in and out of Charlottetown from our little campsite.
The afternoon brought the necessary windshield replacement (thank-you, Allen) and loads of laundry (me), followed by PEI oysters and grilled fish at our favorite Claddagh Oyster House – again! All in all, a winner of a day.
A quick up-and-out Thursday got us to the ferry running from PEI to Nova Scotia. A 75-minute trip, the run repeats 10 times each day, ice permitting. The change in landscape from PEI at the end of the ferry trip is stunning. No red soil. A pulp factory welcomed us, as well as highways busy with trucks and zillions of tourist-trap billboards. Disneyland was gone for sure.
But the farther east you travel, the more stunning the natural scenery gets, and the tourism stuff eases somewhat. Mountains, lakes, scenic vistas become the norm again. Spending a couple of nights at another KOA cabin (“kabin”) near Sydney, as the ferry to Newfoundland was completely booked on Friday; we’ll travel again on Saturday instead. The campground is located on an ocean inlet at the base of a mountain where the face of the mountain looks as if it has literally fallen away at some point. Actually, the entire thing was used to build the causeways for the adjacent bridge over the Atlantic inlet in the 1950's. It is just a bit disconcerting to look up to see the forest floor and trees at the top of the mountain hanging like a stiff mat over the edge of a table; there’s literally nothing underneath some of it.
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