BY CLAY LARROY
A
vacation can soothe the soul and leave you renewed, refreshed, and invigorated.
Whether you are just now starting to plan your next vacation, or are merely
looking for travel
ideas and suggestions, read all the articles about Canada. So take away some of
the stress of making travel plans, and get started thinking about the fun and
relaxing times you will soon be having on your next trip! When you are ready to plan an
exciting vacation contact me!
Look at the article below for a mesmerizing viewpoint on Nova Scotia.
Nova
Scotia: A small province that's big on adventure, culture and indulgence
This had better be good. It's
30C and I'm wearing a boiler suit, a life jacket and a pair of battered
trainers that, if they have seen better days, those days were a long time ago.
As I slide down the muddy banks of Nova Scotia's Shubenacadie River, a tidemark
of thick red clay is oozing steadily up my legs. Along with sounding somewhat
scatological, brown-water rafting so far lacks the cool factor of its
white-water counterpart. But I'm willing to give it a go. The
"Shubie" opens on to the Bay of Fundy, home to the world's highest
recorded tides which, in about 15 minutes, will funnel a bore wave down the
river's narrow channel at about 18 miles an hour.
Shubenacadie
in the local First Nation's Mi'kmaq language translates as "place where
wild potatoes grow", and as the Zodiac chugs out of the Tidal Bore Rafting
Park past brown banks, brown sand bars and brown clay cliffs, high-octane
thrills seem a distant promise. Less prosaic is local Mi'kmaq legend, which
tells how the river illustrates just how deeply the earth inhales and exhales,
twice a day. Our skipper, Amber, is reverent about this tidal respiration.
"I love brown water! It's so much more unpredictable than white
rapids." Amber hears the rumbling of the wave long before we see it and
guns the boat towards the head of the bore, which we bump over like a sleeping
policeman. I begin to wonder what all the fuss is about.
Seconds
later we plough into the oncoming swell and it's abundantly clear what the fuss
is. I'm making much of it, although only after swallowing a face-full of salty
water do I realise I'm screaming. Ten feet high chocolate pudding waves are
pounding down on the boat's seven passengers, leaving us waist-high in water
that threatens to float us overboard. We're drenched, disorientated and
grinning like demons. For the next hour, Amber expertly rolls us into the
oncoming waves and, having released our inner child, ends the ride at the steep
banks of a muddy creek where we belly-slide into the water and chuck handfuls
of sludge at one another. The buzz, and the muddy residue, lasts all day but
once back on land, amid the serenity of the Annapolis Valley's farms and
orchards, I begin to see just how varied Canada's second-smallest province is.
From
whale-rich waters and Celtic villages in the northern highlands of Nova Scotia
to the vibrant, even edgy, culture of its capital, Halifax, down to the blond
sand beaches of the south, this Atlantic province is culturally hard to pin
down. Around Fundy Bay, marshland and mudflats recall the Suffolk coast, albeit
on a giant New World scale. Inland among the Annapolis Valley's clapboard
houses, apple orchards and corn silos, I could be in New England. Indeed,
Boston is just a day's drive away and the province often doubles for America's
East Coast in movie shoots. Yet in many ways it could not be more Canadian. In
the Annapolis town of Windsor, ice hockey was born on a frozen pond behind the
country's oldest private school. Quirky sports abound here.
Billboard posters flanking the town's maple-shaded pavements advertise a
Thanksgiving river boat race, a root vegetable regatta with craft carved
out of giant pumpkins.
Pumpkins
aren't the only things to thrive in Nova Scotia. On the same latitude as Bordeaux,
the province also produces award-winning wines. Most of its vineyards are
concentrated in the Annapolis Valley. At Domaine de Grand Pré, a vineyard fêted
for wines made from the local acadie grape, I stop for a tasting.
"Historically, Nova Scotians are rum drinkers," says vintner
Hanspeter Stutz. "It comes from a maritime tradition – all that trade with
the Caribbean. When I came here in the 1990s, Canada was known for ice wine,
but things are changing fast." I try everything from big reds and a refined sparkling to award-winning whites such as Tidal Bay and l'Acadie Blanc, the
latter perfect with local scallops, according to Hans.
Seafood
is something Nova Scotia truly excels at. Just north of wine country, at Hall's
Harbour, rolling agricultural landscape gives way to an expanse of blue; sea
and sky spiked with fishing boat spinnakers. At the Lobster Pound, I select a
wriggling crustacean from a rudimentary tank, which is promptly cooked to order
and served on the dockside deck. Before I tuck into the modest half-pounder –
the Bay of Fundy lobsters often reach 6lb – Lowell, my waiter, demonstrates how
to stroke a lobster to sleep. He wakes the creature to have it crack muscle
shells like an overzealous castanet player: dinner and a show. From the terrace
of this sunny restaurant life appears pretty laid back. But the job of a
fisherman, while potentially lucrative, is still tough.
"Licences
for lobster traps don't come cheap: 100 traps cost C$10,000 [£6,666],"
says Lowell. "Add fuel and labour ... you have to be out there every
minute the weather allows."
In
season, a fisherman's family sees very little of them for months on end. Or, as
many of the local history books in the Pound's shop attest, they're never seen
again. Along with big tides come big storms and treacherous conditions. It was
off the coast of Nova Scotia that Titanic went down. The province played a big
part in the recovery of the ship's victims, the moving details of which can be
uncovered in the museums and graveyards of Halifax. But Nova Scotia's maritime
heritage dates back to long before this fated ocean liner set sail. As early as
the 17th century, its ports were gateways to the New World.
REFERENCE SITE:
I'll always be a small-town boy from Dartmouth, Nova Scotia.
James Tupper
Travel
to create marvelous memories for you and your family or friends!
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