Halifax

Wednesday 2 Oct

Today we spend the day exploring Halifax on foot. Jen did not join us, for obvious reasons, and did her own thing for a while.

We went through the beautiful Halifax Public Gardens which were transformed into the urban oasis of today by the amalgamation of two adjoining gardens, a swampy piece of wasteland and a lovely bequest from an estate. The driving force behind this transition was the passion for horticulture of a number of Haligonian citizens. Many were politicians who had the influence to realise their vision.

After the gardens we joined a tour in the famous Citadel. In the heart of down town of Halifax, this strategic hilltop fort offers a commanding view of Halifax Harbour. It is like stepping back to 1869 and we immersed ourself in the social and military history of Halifax with the 78th Highlanders and the 3rd Brigade Royal Artillery. We saw a demonstration of the first rifles used when they replaced the old muskets. This new gun had many advantages over the muskets such as easy to reload and more accuracy. Plus they had a reach of almost 900 meters.

The next demo was the firing of a canon at exactly 12 noon as shown by the town clock. This was used, back in the day, so people, who had a clock at home, could synchronise it with the town clock. The guide explained that this was easier than lugging your grandfather clock to the town square to adjust it 😊.

The Citadel has a few museums and one could easy spent a whole day here. However, we wanted to see a bit more of Halifax and said goodbye to our guide.

Jen and Arno met up on the water front and had lunch. We did some shopping and made our way back to the AirBnB.

Here are a few more images from Halifax:

Thursday 3 Oct

Today we make our way to Cape Breton island. It was only 270 km so we had a leisurely start of the day. We really enjoyed our AirBnB in Halifax and managed to get all our washing done 😊

On our way we made a stop at an information centre just outside Truro. The friendly lady explained the purpose for this centre as it is next to a river that has an incredible tidal phenomena called a tidal bore. This is the result of that the Salmon River is connected to Canada’s Bay of Fundy – home to the highest tides on Earth! A tidal bore occurs here twice daily at predicted times offering a natural demonstration of the extremity of Fundy’s renowned tides.

The nice lady gave a few tips for lunch in Truro and advised us to be back at 1:15. We did and after a short wait we could see the tidal wave rolling in. Quite an amazing experience and how lucky were we to be here at the right time. Here you can see the wave coming in:

What is a tidal bore:
A tidal bore is a tumbling wavefront which moves upstream in a river, announcing the arrival of an incoming tide. Tidal bores occur in regions of the world that have large tides. However, a tidal bore does not occur in every river flooded by a high tide.

Our second stop was Hemlocks and Hardwoods Trail – Kejimkujik National Park and National Historic Site right next to the town of Truro. Here we enjoyed Nova Scotia’s oldest trees, some that are more than 300-year old hemlocks. As we moved into the stand of tall, stately conifers, we noticed how different it feels under the thick-leafed canopy: cool, dark and moist.

The trails at Kejimkujik showcase an incredible variety of habitats, scenery and places of cultural and historical significance.

We made our way to our cottages and enjoyed the sun set before we had a lovely BBQ with our friends.