Rob-n-Hild, Eastward Ho!

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Yarmouth 15.4 km, 3:46 hours, 252 metres climbed, walking.

The weather was lovely today so we went for a nice walk and had lunch by a Lighthouse. Then when we came home, we took a short drive around the bay to another lighthouse and had a short walk there. We learned a lot about the history of Yarmouth as well as there were lots of interpretive signs. We feel a bit nerdy reading (and often taking photos) of these signs, but it is nice to have a reminder when we look at the piccies later.

Our walk started through downtown to the seashore where there is still an active fishing industry. We had seen quite a few tanker trucks in town with logos from seafood companies and then we saw a fishing boat unloading fish strait into a tanker! We coudn't tell if the fish were still alive, but it seemed an interesting way to transport them. There were a lot of fishing boats out of the water: These ones looked weird and we think they were for lobster as the season here runs from November to April.

All the way through Nova Scotia we had been reminded about the ship-building industry that was a major part of the economy through the 18th and 19th centuries and Yarmouth was no exception with quite a few companies operating from the town. There were also ferries from here to Boston, New York and other destinations. There is still a ferry to Portland, Maine which runs during the summer - we missed it today, but might see it another time.

We carried on down the coast outside the town and onto Bunker Island - named as it was the site of a gun battery from the War of 1812. We coudn't get to see if anything was left from then as that part of the Island is fenced off, but we could walk all the way out to the lighthouse at the end. At low tide you could walk all the way across the rocks, but we decided to have lunch on the rocks above the tide line as it looked a bit iffy. It was a nice place to have lunch and we enjoyed looking out over the water to the other side of the bay. On the walk back we saw an osprey on a nest - which we had probably missed on the walk out! It was tweeting now with a surprisingly high-pitched whistle, not at all what we expected from a bird of prey.
We walked back through the town center and stopped in at a couple of stores, looking for a mascot to represent Nova Scotia. It has been hard to find something appropriate, but we settled on Gulliver - a cuddly sea-gull. Yes, we know sea-gulls aren't terribly cuddly, but the gulls here in Nova Scotia are not as agressive as in the UK and Gulliver sort of represents all the sea-birds, such as cormorants and terns, who don't get to have a cuddly version on sale.

It wasn't late when we got back to the hotel and as it was so nice we decided to drive around to the other side of the to see the lighthouse at Cape Forchu. This headland had been mapped by Champlain when he first came to Canada and as there have been so many shipwrecks here, the lighthouse has been an important fixture for many years. What we didn't realise is that there is very interesting path made around the headland and named after Leif Ericson because some carvings on a rock look like they might be viking runes! There were a lot of interesting signs here too, including one all about Bunker Island showing where we had our lunch!

The road along Cape Forchu was a nice drive and the gang wanted to show Gulliver around a bit. There is a nice beach - which was popular judging by the number of cars parked along the road and one person has decorated his entire wall with lobster buoys. This has now become a much photographed spot with people driving here just to see this.

Coming up: Working?

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