• STARTED FROM BISHOP RILEY'S PULPIT

    2023年5月2日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    DAY: 10
    Left Bishop Riley's Pulpit
    A new day dawns…
    Up packed ready for brekky, Dave let me cook my toast in his toaster…Sat around the fire to eat…
    Once packed Sheryl and Dave headed off….Aa we packed up John and I had words, so I took off up the hill by myself…once up there realised it was very high, and with the rocks being so loose I crawled down on my bum to the bottom on the other side…as a bit scary and not the easiest climbing on my bum but made it…
    John never sees that his way of talking to me sometimes is extremely cutting...he accused me of yelling at him, which I did but to stop him closing the camper right up as I had to cut the loose cotton parts still hanging off the mending job down in Kalgoorlie….they had been dangling out the ends since done and every day I have been going to cut them since done, but forgot everyday…today I asked could he hold off closing it up until I had done it…I thought he was closing it yelled out to wait…and then he became very angry and abusive in his tone…. Did me in…he doesn’t realise the extent his voice can break me down….

    Our day has come to a stop we made it to Neale Junction in time for lunch….it’s the Junction of the Anne Beadell and The Connie Sue Hwy's….

    Stop 1 Today was an Anne Beadell’s Memorial marker…we had M/tea then all went for a walk up the Dune….the new growth on many trees….
    So many really tall trees for a desert area…Dunes started appearing more…

    Stop 2 Then along the track dead Camels one completely just bones…the one near them was still oozing his innards yuk…then further up the road were 2 more I would say shot dead just laying on the road…very sad….

    Stop 3 or should have been but on corrugating and too hard to pull up to see the 3 big old fuel drums….I would say from the age of them probably from Len Beadell’s days…

    The ever changing landscape…but the further we headed East the rougher the corrugating got….and the trees stayed taller…had been one area that had a bad fire through a whole section…but was totally destroyed….

    Sad not to see real camels 🐫 ….alive…
    We pulled up around 12:20 set up camp, made lunch going to have a relaxing arvo…
    An afternoon of the guys sitting around the campfire after John had done a check on everything…our hot water system seems to be had it…what a pain…no hot water showers on this trek from the look of it…

    I finished up my photo download and set up photo folders for this trip still got stuff to sort hopefully do some this arvo…
    I went for a walk up to the junction of the Connie Sue and Anne Beadell Hwy's signed the visitors book that Sheryl told me about…I then decided to put the corn meat on tonight get it cooked as we have a really great fire to sit the pot on with a swinging hot plate brilliant...I set that I before heading up to the junction… so by the time I got back it was bubbling away...too much so had to remove some of the heat…

    The Meal turned out to be great….everything cooked well plenty left…now to find fridge space it’s chock a block…..

    Sat around the fire for a bit then headed for a bucket bath 🧼 before bed into bed by 8ish…
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  • FINALLY ON THE ANNE BEADELL

    2023年5月1日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    DAY: 9
    Up at 5 am….John had a few sweats during the night but well this AM...packed up…caught up with the last of the Polos and slack…after my readings….got my toast for brekky and helped John pack the Camper……Bill all organised and ready to go…
    Went to the Store which on the net it said it was open but only the Servo side was….managed to get x2 bottles of Gaviscon only they were very large bottles and eat $23 ea. an expensive buy..,,

    Then finally we set off…

    Stop 1. Was Point Kidman….a marker on the Rocky range outcrop of the Hwy….the raid is great for dirt, smooth and easy driving…lulling us before the rugged section…
    Stop 2 was the Breakaways area…we found 2 spots you could camp at…I thought I saw camel footprints, but decided after the 2nd camp site it was cows fatter all…🥲…Saw some stunning coloured Western Australian Parrots…the 2nd Breakaways spot had amazing rock structures and a small cave...Bill explored the hill tops in this area as well as Kidman Lookout…

    Sheryl and Dave are way ahead of us….
    Sadly there are Gas Pipelines marking our great country even down here...grubs taking over the country everywhere in the outback areas…

    Stop 3 M/tea @ Yamarna Homestead only had a cattle yard…Tank with a huge modern generator near by for the Goldfield camp that was we think up the road…next to the tank was a great old Drilling Rig…..the boys Bill and John….both got out their drones…heaps of exploration sites with heaps of bags of samples….

    Stop 4 A look at Point Sunday we walked the hill and we saw caves…and we saw Len Beadell Surveyors Post…plus the most exciting part was a kangaroo that had been killed and all that was left was his entails that had poop in it….

    Stop 5 Met up with Sheryl and Dave at Old Yeo Homestead….. what a great stop…I thought we were staying here for the night…but Sheryl wants us to move on….so we had a look at all the treasures….A quaint little house you can’t go in now getting to run down, half tank dog pens, hand pump well very updated. A tank shower room with a bucket shower above to clean off….very neat around, some of the old fence heavy steel posts….even a loo with lots of loo paper on hand very clean it looks well Maintained…
    Had our lunch here…even used The Vans microwave to heat mine, made John sandwich’s…
    Then we headed off to see the Lake system…Sheryl and Dave were the only ones to actually find it and it did have water in it….we took the road to Sandalwood Camp area which cross lake beds a number of them, all dry…but a bit damp on some of the road patch’s…Bill had taken another track to the Lake ended up turning around and come and joined up with us…we then chose to do the old track to Bishop Riley’s Pulpit….wow what a trip…very slow going over 42ks….a lot of very tight and scratchy areas…John did amazing in these tight spots...even had our side mirrors pushed in by tight trees so before we lost them John would pull up for me to pull mine in…constant changing diverse scenery with different plants, flat lake beds, Salt bush’s… taller trees with hairy like bark..I was a bit like being on the Canning with the constant change of vegetation….heaps of burnt out plains….some trees you can see will never return, but all the gums are re-sprouting with new fresh leaves an amazing tree it’s resilience…. It was a hard but fascinating drive it took us 2 hours to do it, making it out to the Main track just before 4.30pm arriving at Bishop Riley’s Pulpit just before sunset on the Western side of the rock bringing out its features…very neat camp area….there is a path to the top of the peak…I’ll do it tomorrow before we go….a campfire 🔥 area already set out so we used that…
    Emotionally I felt I hit the wall yesterday, I felt very down and just heavy emotionally…after 6-7 weeks of going none stop with people heavy issues with those people, plus’s go, go, go packing, unpacking, repacking, packing travel, OS travel in Aust my body has died 1,000’s of ks this past month and half I am just tried…Sheryl headed to bed around 7.15 I went to bed around 8pm again only a wash...once upon a time I wouldn’t do that now I am getting to old and too tired to be bothered.
    But a great start to our Anne Beadell trek so far, all I had hoped it would be and more..
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  • FALSE START

    2023年4月30日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

    DAY: 8
    Back to Kalgoorlie
    John had more temps last night and tells me he had a huge sweat again….he has some bad bug….not sure what…Anyway this AM he seems good again…..So up early and packing up to get going on our trip to the Anne Beadell...John has his brekky then tried the car and rummm, rummm….the battery barely turned over….so with heavy heart we have to delay the start of our trip and drive back to Kalgoorlie to buy a new battery…I am upset…as it seems to me like this trip will never come off for us….
    We told the others Sheryl will book us in for another night, they will head off later this morning with Bill going as well….

    We made our way in record time for the 380ks to Kalgoorlie, straight to Supercheap….for the battery….while John fitted it I hit The Reject Shop x 2 times getting bits and pieces for the trip…some small long containers to put into the camper kitchen so stuff doesn’t jump around much….
    John got it fitted, then we hit Bunnings for a new plug as mine is leaking in the camper sink…got 2 different ones with the hope of one at least working…once done off we headed to buy a Bunnings Snagg….yummmm it was good hit the spot…next stop Coles to get some ham and bananas….I got some extra Pana Di Casa bread hopefully it won’t go off too quickly…forgot Sheryl’s tissues….
    Then off we set back again…John started coming down with feeling unwell again, but made it back in record time…3.15pm we had left at 7am did over 700ks round trip…
    Bill was here when we got back he decided to hang around and wait for us…instead of going with Sheryl and Dave…
    I took out the Turkey Roasts for tonight John not that well so has gone to bed…hope he picks up…
    The Fisho turned up after John laid down…I really would have loved to get some but my freezer is too full still….such a shame….

    A lot of the people in the park are fossickers and do it often…even saw a guys car up from me that are gravestone Markers for outback non existent graveyards….how interesting…

    So many diverse people on the road…..
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  • START POINT FORM ANNE BEADELL

    2023年4月29日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 6 °C

    DAY: 7
    John a lot better this Am but had, had huge sweats… we didn’t rush up, but still an early start had the washing all done and hung out by 7.15….@$4 a load x3 loads it cost a bit….
    Then sorted the pills, in time for Sheryl to organise us to head up to look at some sights and go to the tourist info centre for coffee…very we’ll set up.
    While there having coffee Vic called again Mum C and her decided not to go for the window in the upgrade of the ship…so now I know John won’t do it…21days with no window is going to be horrible…but guessing I have to shut up and put up with it…not impressed but what can you do…an extra $850 ea. John sees it as too much….

    A look around..to go to look at the presentation was $8 so Bill, John and I just looked at the info then headed up to the Supermarket to get the lady goodie before heading off…John managed to get a towel…the prices in the store were unreal…$9.00 for butter but we are in the outback and an aboriginal community so the prices go up, up, up….

    We walked back to the Van park around the edge of town….saw a car without a back windscreen and no number plates a number of times…obviously the police who we saw at morning tea at the info centre…don’t worry about it. While at the supermarket…a local aboriginal women came up to sell to Sheryl and I a painting she had done of a bush tucker painting….it was well done, but won’t suit any of our Décor at home at all….

    John not well, this arvo…lazy arvo with him sleeping, me getting pics and diary sorted…
    Planning Pizza tonight all going to plan…

    Sat around the big fire pit at the Van park for an hour or so…chatting to different people; one was Chris an older lady, she and her husband have been here since Nov fossicking….all the fossickers we have spoken to have all said it’s not like it used to be….Chris and her husband live permanently on the road in their Van….meet another women travelling alone in her motor home…like the lady we met at Norseman who was in her little AVan with her dog…she was actually working she is a Social Worker from Adelaide but travellers as far as Kalgoorlie for her work…what a huge area to cover…coming across the Nullarbor to get to her most distant area….

    Anyway after sitting at the fire along with Sheryl and Dave we headed to the pub to get Pizzas for dinner….it’s always busy here with so many fly in fly out workings, travellers and locals….the little French bar attendant is very efficient and friendly..

    The pizza was pretty good even had BBQ sauce in it to stop my refluxing, but still had it….
    A nice warm shower once back then off to bed we head off in the AM….
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  • Lake Statues and Arrival

    2023年4月28日, オーストラリア ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    DAY: 6
    Today we should be meeting up with Sheryl and Dave all going to plan…
    Up early around 5am but stayed in bed as cool until around 6am. John made the coffee…tried to do my readings but no phone reception here so used the books I bought and my eBook….then packed up everything…even added the big downer now with the weather turning cold…
    Had our brekky, packed the camper John went to start the car and rummmm rum splat battery is dead something might have been left on to run it down….
    So we left it and headed out onto the Lake to do the shorter circuit to see the statues…most were women only a couple of blokes…very unusual indeed….we walked around the rock hill in the centre of the Lake. Bill spotted what he thought was a straight line of rocks but it was as I guessed old fence posts…burnt off to near ground level….unusual it was that way….there were parts of the lake floor very sticky and glue like sticking to our shoes….some sections even had salt encrusted water puddles….
    We made it around…got the car going, Bill headed off…as John drove to the loo, I went to check out the camp area, it looked very welcoming and once there saw the hugest spider web….🤔🤔🤔😂😂😂 it was fake very well done…quite funny to see it there…this whole camp area is really well set up…with loos, water tanks, picnic areas and campfire areas and tables dotted around everywhere…other than the sneaky cold wind it’s been a great camp site….
    Now off to Leonora to buy a new battery, some more wine and a towel for John…
    We ended up at The Food Van Coffee shop Sheryl suggested we go to where Fiona from Emerald that owns this quirky shop with great food and Antiques… funny very loud lady…she was training a young guy to help with making coffees that was funny, but I imagine hard for him she certainly gave him heaps….
    We headed across the road to the a supermarket come Hardware for a few items…found John some cheap shoes..,,$30 for a good pair of sandshoes…his boots are too tight….
    Then off to Gwalia like Sheryl suggested…what a find a Ghost type town of an old Mining town…the old tin houses and huts had mostly been restored…and on the hill above the town is the Hoover House Museum….wow was it set up well…so many unreal relics and artefacts, plus a great coffee shop…so much to take in….
    We had a look around the many sights to collectively finish up with a light lunch from the coffee shop at Hoover House….didn’t realise we could go into the Tin houses, but checked out the State Hotel now abandoned sadly beautiful old building…. All in all a great visit…

    Story of Hoover House

    History of Hoover House
    Hoover House is typical of the expansive style of home built for senior mine management in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
    The site was chosen in 1898 by the first general manager of the Sons of Gwalia mine, Herbert Hoover, and its construction commenced under his direction, although he was transferred to China before the building was finished. Hoover, who was later to become the 31st President of the United States of America, visited the area several times after returning to Australia from China. Hoover stayed in the house in 1902 with the then manager, R. Atwater.
    The building was constructed of locally made brick, fired nearby, and bought under a contract for £2/10/0 ($5) per thousand bricks, plus the supply of fuel. The house was finished by early 1899, but not without an objection from the Coolgardie office of the mine’s owner, Bewick Moreing & Co, whose management complained that the company’s London board of directors had never expected to spend £750 ($1500) – several times the cost of an average home – on a manager’s residence. Nevertheless, two of the three bedrooms were soon extended to twice their original size.
    Eleven successive mine managers have lived in the house over the years.
    Following the closure of the Sons of Gwalia mine in 1963, the mine manager’s house, mine office and assay office were used by Western Mining Corporation as a mineral exploration base until 1971. Hoover House was renovated in 2001 and has been managed by the Shire of Leonora since September 2010.
    And info on the Museum….

    Gwalia Ghost Town & Museum
    Visitors can explore over a dozen buildings in the Gwalia ghost town, including miners’ cottages, single men’s camps, Patroni’s Guest House and Mazza’s Store. Up on the hill in the Mine Precinct, there are the Mine Manager’s House (now Hoover House Bed & Breakfast), the Assay Office, the headframe and winder and many fascinating outdoor exhibits. Highlights include ‘Midland’, one of three steam engines that worked on the wood lines supplying the Sons of Gwalia mine with timber and fuel.

    Hoover House B&B and Function Venue
    Once the grand home of the managers of the Sons of Gwalia Gold Mine, Hoover House is a luxury Bed and Breakfast and function venue near the historical settlement of Gwalia.
    The house was designed in 1897 by the mine’s manager, Herbert Hoover, who later became the 31st President of the United States of America.
    The building has been completely renovated and today B&B guests can enjoy Hoover’s legacy – three magnificent bedrooms now opulently decorated in period style, the grand dining room where mining deals were once negotiated, and the tranquil views over the spectacular Goldfields landscape from the wide veranda's.
    Guests can enjoy sitting on the veranda's or the wide green front lawn overlooking the modern open pit mine, for gold is still mined at Gwalia. As night falls and the stars emerge, the peaceful ambience on the back verandas overlooking Mt Leonora has to be experienced – you might even see a kangaroo!
    Book Online
    We came back to town for fuel…….but after this morning trying to find a battery, but alas…. no battery 😢😢😢 but did a bonus on the wine…I bought 3 bottle, the owner gave me the last low alcohol one she wanted to get rid of any more bottles pink…said she couldn’t sell them 🤔🤔🤔… what a bonus…

    Off we set to Laverton to the Van Park there to meet up with Sheryl and David….all good got a spot near them, Bill next door…had a chat then all headed to the pub for dinner….the dinner was good, the pub pumping…even a bus load of tourist came in…

    It turned really cold sadly to lots of layers climbed into bed…within an hour John was shaking uncontrollably, he had rigours, temp was continually going up…then he started to vomit I gave 3 Panadol and an Ondansetron wafer which did do the trick he did eventually go to sleep, but his temp took hours to come down...like I said to him he would end up with bad sweating and yep he did…I feel it was food poisoning…sadly he seems to be the one to get it…my gut was upset for ages from the Creamy Garlic Prawns, but not like him….I didn’t get to sleep until after 1am…another big night…
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  • Day of Salvation and Repair

    2023年4月27日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☀️ 10 °C

    DAY: 5
    Made our way to Kalgoorlie by 9 am and off to find a Canvas manufacturer to help us decide how to fix the Camper first one the guy wasn’t there, and wouldn’t be back until lunch time…so off to the next one Fiesta Canvas these guys went above and beyond helping us and before we knew it the major issue was all fixed...A guy called Paul with very long skinny dreadlocks bit of a character did the job and after all the mucking around only cost $110 unreal we were stoked…he did a great job...plus the a patch on the roof was done only bit not done was the back section that has torn. So I asked for some long strips to try and fix it myself….While John helped him Bill and I got the groceries….probably have too much. We did have m/tea up the Main Street at Cafe 312….I told Bill it was Cafe 321…. Groceries were more expensive but that’s to be expected in the outback….
    Bought yucky lunch from KFC which was awful…wish I would just learn to say no, it’s not the same as it used to be always cold and gluey….We set off for the Gourmley Statues at Lake Ballard….

    Wasn’t a very interesting trip other than a really great road… the Lake is a dry bed lake with a huge mound in the middle with a track going to the top and spindley trees growing on it….
    The statues aren’t that impressive either other than they depict aboriginal looking 👀 in various nude posses on the lake floor……a bit different that’s for sure….the sunset wasn’t even that amazing, but a nice relaxed evening sitting around chatting with Bill….he has a little oven that I managed to cook my fish bites in…. Another pasta with onion and mushroom….a good start to some nice meals…back to tasty meals unlike the US… I did forget to buy John a new towel and get some more wine…I don’t know where my mind is at present but it’s not working all that well…..
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  • To Hell's Camp

    2023年4月26日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌬 22 °C

    DAY: 4
    Well our utter disaster is described above. Very sad incident and at present until we open it up again we can’t know how bad the extent of the damage…we saw it in the light of our wanker lights so it could be a lot worse…

    Not only that but a shocking nights sleep with the side flap being pounded and knocked around for 4 hrs before John got out and tired it down with my help using ratchet straps…it helped but still the whole camper felt like it was being pummelled and knocked around for hours…when the rain started I wasn’t sure how it would go as we hadn’t been in this camper in the rain….

    The way the wind grabbed the back end of the canvas and tore it from it’s screwed down section along the back…once this let go as the side was placed in sail rail the pressure of the wind took it and just ripped it to shreds just awful…my concern was it would take the floor section and rip it off it’s hingers….I prayed constantly for the Lord to protect us we we fought the crazy wind and rain to get it shut….it took a bit as it seemed to have moved the lid which is the floor slightly to one side. John managed to get it realigned….scary and adrenaline rushing the whole experience….

    We finished up then drove off in the dark…it was 4am SA time but was around 2.30am WA time…

    The rain pelted down while we drove west, making it to the Quarantine Stn. all went well there…I had cut up and froze the papaya I bought from home and John’s limes were frozen rock solid…Our fruit boxes which were years old and not used for fruit I put in my cloths draw in the camper…

    On we drove the rain heavier then all of a sudden it stopped as we made it to Mundrabilla for fuel @$2.48l and a great brekky and coffee...only a young couple running it, but again great service, great food….we had arrived before it opened but only just….worth the stop….

    On we headed had let Bill know what had happened hoping we can go to Kalgoorlie and see if we can get gear to do repairs ourself for now…no one could have time to fix it we are suspecting…
    .We pulled up for morning tea 56 k Balladonna and filled up with our 20 l of fuel as the headwind is so strong we sucked all our fuel in less than 400k…..while getting our m/tea a young guy with an accent came to ask John for help with his tyre…He got a screw in it yesterday and now it’s flat…he Luduvic from France and his girlfriend Selena from Germany met in Australia been here travelling for 6 months they are here for 12 months hoping to extend their visas for another year….she was very beautiful and very friendly…they are loving their adventure…
    Fuel at Balladonna is $2.32.8l going slowly down.

    We arrived at Norseman around 2pm looking for fuel and somewhere to eat…the place we for fuel which was the dearest as the other diesel pump at the next servo was out of Norseman fuel $2.11.6/l for ultimate diesel…cheaper down the road but not working….planned to eat at the restaurant where we bought our fuel but No apparently this huge restaurant wasn't making any food.so off to find a cafe…very basic bit got a toasted Ham and Cheese sandwich and a cuppa…we must have rang 4-5 places in Kalgoorlie and Nothing available for the night not even in Caravan parks what motels were available were $300 up-to $800 crazy prices.so we decided to stay in Norseman Acclaim Tourist Park Norseman ….we managed to get a cabin..it was very old style and was the very last one but had an ensuite….…$134 a night but with Seniors discount it was $128…tried to put the camper up between the cabins but too wide…so got permission to put it up in another area….Bill arrived just in time to give us a hand….once up after the initial look that looked unrepairable once properly assessed we realised we can fix it enough to keep using…Thank The Lord…John straighter out the aluminium strip to put the back section back down again…took a bit but he did it…not sure how we are going to fix the ripped side sections as it’s both parts that it occurred ot when the wind took it the other night…they fixed as much as was possible then we had a few drinks, I made a basic dinner of Mac and Noddle's with fish bites…it sufficed….too tired to do anything else so went to bed around 8.30pm….been a huge emotional day.
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  • Contact with Old Friend

    2023年4月25日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    DAY: 3
    Off to do another day of big Ks… scene changed from open plains to those funny leaf topped trees you see in this bottom end of Aust…. a quick wipe around at Viterra another small grain silo community it’s with Silo Art to see…a little girl amongst the wheat fields…then next stop….a morning tea stop at a little Café come community store at Minnipa very neat little town.

    A chat with Vic as we head to Ceduna, all to Bill to update him where we are at…Msg to Sheryl and Dave to give them update on our ETA…they are having a ball exploring alone…guessing we will be in their way once there…

    A morning tea at Minnipa Community Store to have our morning tea….Great coffee, well set up store with Post Office and 2nd hand book store…Good service and friendly young women who owns it…we got some fuel there at $2.05…

    Off we set on the road nothing amazing to see until Ceduna where we filled up with fuel on our way in @$1.89 cheap as chips here…Lunch at a very modern pub…John had Homemade pie, mash and greens..I had Honey chicken, rice and greens…so much left we had the rest for dinner and it was yum…

    Off we set from Ceduna coming across once more the Windmill Town, so a must stop at Penong to have a quick look at the Windmill Museum….We stopped here years ago…

    Then off we speed to the Nullarbor Plains…nothing has changed here even the fuel is still outrageous @$2.80 a litre….but you have to pay it if you want to keep going…silly thing is about 150ks back-it was only $1.99a litre, so this mob are holding everyone to ransom…still worth a stop took some pics the sky clouds today are making everything look unreal….I bought us drinks and ice creams.. one had sadly been melted a few times and tasted terrible….😢
    Off up the Hwy to find a camp site for the night…we had earlier had to pass 2 huge wide loads and here on the Nullarbor was another and the Hwy isn’t as wide at all…in fact we had to wait until we got to the RFDS airstrip on the Hwy to get enough room to pass him….
    We were making our way to the Edge Campsite once past him, the area is covered in Limestone, low ever green shrubs and greens grey Salt bushes…
    We had clocked up another 900ks today so both ready to stop…

    So finally we made it to The bottom of mainland Australia! Our Camp-spot for tonight! All looked perfect when we arrived a bit of wind from the North so we set up the camper with the kitchen facing the ocean got dinner sorted, lovely weather! No coats! Just before bed the wind started to change to the East then it really started to hammer us! At 1am we battened down the hatch’s! Rain started on and off! Then at 3.30 am it really started blowing from the West and pounded us to the point I felt the camper might lift off the ground! So we decided to pack up! While packing a massive gust of wind grabbed the camper canvas and literally ripped it to shreds on the left side and it pulled off the screwed down section at the back! All we could do was pack it up and head off! Also blown away was our rescued 35 yr. old mat we found in the ocean at Rules beach! Very sad it was off a fishing vessel and the best camping mat we ever had! Guessing it’s gone back to the ocean with all that wind! What a night! Now to figure how to fix up our camper quickly to meet up with Sheryl and Dave and Bill to start the real adventure! 🤔🤔🤔😢😢😢
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  • Gilgandra on a Mission

    2023年4月24日, オーストラリア ⋅ 🌙 14 °C

    DAY: 2
    Left Gilgandra and heading to Broken Hill, until we hit Nyngan it was really green…each little town being very neat and tidy…
    Animals we saw Goats, goats and more goats, kangaroo, echidna, emus and dead pigs….
    Lunch on the side of the road after Wilcannia, which we did a quick drive around to see the old buildings again… A fuel stop at Broken Hill….
    more goats and more goats and more goats..
    What a massive day we ended up doing 1,100 k's massive indeed. We booked another Motel at Port Augusta, Motel Poinsettia another neat tidy Older hotel but had all we needed…
    Shame we could t see the scenery on our way into Port Augusta…it looked unreal...massive gorges and range to go through…coming out to a huge Wind Farm that covered so much of the hillside down to the massive Bay that goes up to Port Augusta I noted heaps of other Ports were near the main one…
    On the way getting closer you could see at least 7-8 farmers all ploughing their paddocks right on dark….
    We stopped at Servo for fuel and our dinner…the guy serving every time I asked for something behold look at me like I was a pest…he really upset me with his attitude but I tired to ignore how it made me feel…that rejection feeling raring it’s ugly head…
    Heard from Bill he is at Ceduna he did a big day of kilometres apparently 350 🤔🤔 poor old fella….. anyway might catch up tomorrow….
    We arrived at the hotel at 7.45pm the lady like last nights check-in was very welcoming and helpful. Ended up watching 4 episodes of Itchy Boots someone had kindly 🤔🤔🤔🤔😂😂😂 left their Netflix account open so we got to watch something good for a change… A long day both ready for bed…
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  • Anne Beadell Here We Come

    2023年4月23日, オーストラリア ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    DAY: 1
    Well off on another outback Adventure, a long awaited adventure after years in the planning…we left from K&K’s having spent a day with the Grandies…
    They are growing so quickly…James energy and seriousness but such a talented young man and Alex a ball of endless energy.
    So said our farewells and set off down the Hwy to find breakfast, we stopped at a little café ☕️ down the Hwy at a small village before Cunningham's Gap…the lady was telling me she was about to go bankrupt anyway as her business wasn’t getting the customers she needs to survive..
    On leaving we saw about 4 servos all with cafe’s so no wonder even if a busy Hwy…
    Stopped at Goondiwindie at a lovely old pub for lunch…John had the Fish and chips, I had the Meatballs, mash and peas it was so big we had enough for both of us for dinner with a little extra gravy I made…only $16 seniors meal good deal..

    We made it to Gilgandra after a 12 hr run deciding to stay in a motel…made life easy…had a microwave and plates etc making it easy to cook dinner.
    Both very tired. The scenery forever changing so Green everywhere we have gone so far.
    The motel was as neat as a pin…2 queen beds 🛌 so yep both had one each…
    もっと詳しく

  • Final Summary

    2022年8月5日, オーストラリア ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    Positives
    Wild flowers have been truly stunning…so many different Varieties growing in clusters and often huge expanses of them…
    The coffee shops with the light, medium or dark roast coffee ready in hot pots to be able to ask for the strength of your coffee was a real bonus as I am now a black coffee drinker and so man if our coffees are like thick ink strong…
    The squirrels and Chipmunks….at Tim and Jess’s
    Being able to pay for fuel at the bowser not having to go inside the service centres to pay…

    Negatives
    Not really as many wild animals to see compared to home…..
    The rotten roads…..
    The sheer amount of Street people…
    The sheer amount of Cannabis shops unreal….
    French speaking in some areas wouldn’t try to speak English… The French areas of the country that didn’t want to speak English or have English signs up, menu’s eta…but the rest of the country it was mandated they had to have both languages on everything…very one sided…

    Regrets..
    Not seeing Sylvia
    Not having a decent camera for the fast shots …

    Funny things
    The handles on the loo most on the side I am still after a few days trying to flush the loo from the side 🤪😂
    もっと詳しく

  • Day 71/73 Mon-Wed All must End!

    2022年8月3日, オーストラリア ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    Here we are on our final flight to Brisbane after starting 7pm Monday 01/08/22 we will land 1235 Wednesday 03/08/22 a day missing and very, very tired!! Time zones flown through, days sliding into one another, the brain trying to get its head around it all…

    Tim drove us to the Toronto Airport to start our first leg of our Journey… we decided to go a bit earlier and so glad we did because it gave us time to use Tim’s gift to us….the priority use of the lounge for Air Canada and the extra baggage and Praise the Lord it worked this time…. Tim thought it would take us ages to get through customs and check our bags in…but it truly was like whirlwind from the moment we got out of Tim’s car it was like someone picked us up inside a whirlwind and whhhosh through the process of it all….before we knew it we were on the other side and finding where to go to access the Guest Lounge….wow it was not quite what I expected never having had the opportunity to use one…free food and drink…wines (except bubbly or Rose) darn ohh well heaps and heaps of spirits of every type….hot food, salads, a few sweet treats, tea, coffee…. It was much more than I had ever thought and all free as a frequent flyer program…I had lime/watermelon flavoured soda water with vodka and fresh lime and lemon 🍋 my own little cocktail…John had beers….we had some corn chips, sour cream and salsa…John had some sweet and sour meatballs with rice….my goodness watching people consumer some of the wine was interesting……bet they sleep well on their flights….before we knew it, it was time to head to our gates…

    Flight one a 5 hr flight to Vancouver….no free food on this one you had to pay for it…I didn’t think I would want any food but yep I did, my tummy said it needed something…so a bottle Prosecco, crackers and cheese and huge Kit Kat for John more than enough to stop the worms in fact a bit too much….

    We landed and which….Off this flight and with only an hour and half for the next big 15.5 hr fight we made it from this our first flight to find our gate not far away and the weird thing was we didn’t have to go through customs here…I had gone to the duty free shop near where we were sitting and was checking out prices and about to ask can we buy here and get it back home to Brisbane on domestic flights as well…when I spotted Rhonda Faulkner talking in her phone in the duty free shop….We knew she was going home tonight but through Brisbane after being here with Steve for 4 weeks tripping together and having done and Alaskan Cruise and travelled to Whistler….she looked a million dollars,..any way we started chatting and laughing we ran into each other…when another lady came up to ask us about did we go through any customs…we all thought it strange we hadn’t had to go through another one like we do so often when travelling in Asian countries to be honest this one was probably the most lax lot of customs I have come across for years…anyway we all chatted then decided well just be happy there maybe isn’t any more….I talked a little longer to Rhonda then thought I had best get back to John, I was gone 15-20 mins said I was only going to be a few minutes…I did find out I could buy my grog here and I pretty sure it’s a bit cheaper and with a bit of time up our sleeve instead of at Sydney because we didn’t know how we would go there…what a blessing that turned out to be Sydney was a night mare…
    Next thing I know we are boarding…I learnt over the years to try if possible to sit right at the back of the Plane…3 reasons…firstly no one else wingeing behind you….long story I think I have mentioned before…2nd because your close to the loo 🚽 and lastly you usually get to go on first because you down the back and get to put your over head bags in before the massive rush and crush to get your gear in over head… it’s a flamin night mare with people and their over head baggage 🧳 some of the sizes people actually bring on….even though they aren’t meant to still do is so with these big and sometimes multiple bags of stopping other people bring theirs on….anyway I usually have to try and get my gear in amongst the staffs and the extra gear needed for the flight crew to do their job…tricky but it works… the things you have think about on these darn flights…but if your not prepared to have everything sorted for what you need during the flight ends up a night mare…nothing worse than trying to get stuff out of your overhead bags which may or may not be directly above you can be a pain…. And even when I think I have it all sorted without a doubt I always leave something I need in that darn other bag…which yep others off as you try to access it…

    This 15.5 hour flight was killed with 2 TV series I watched…A HBO Si-Fi called Raised with Wolves…nothing to do with wolves even though the name said so…and the other was Julia about Julia Childs the Well known 1960’s chief who changed the way Americans saw food…She was called the French Chief even though not French…she had lived in France and managed after a lot of hoops got it as the first ever cooking show to be viewed on TV in the US…. Not a bad story…I didn’t get to finish that one…sadly it was a good watch…
    I managed about 3-4 hrs sleep with drugs…the food was pretty awful…but what can you expect from flight food…

    We arrived into Sydney and to another painful Welcome to Australia customs set up….really I think Brisbane does it much better than Sydney…we had checked when we booked our suitcases in at Toronto, would our bags go straight through to Brisbane….yes we were told….well definitely flat no once in Sydney we had to get out our suitcases here and recheck then again…. Go through a customs process but not once did we see our suitcases scanned which is why we thought they were bought out from the transfer before heading in domestically….hmmmm this is odd…there was technically 3 hrs between our landing and our flight thank goodness because it took forever to go through the customs process….collect our bags…then walk what seemed mikes to find our domestic checking and as we made it there we held our breaths because we were sure they would hit us up for extra baggage with 3 suitcases…but thank you Toronto they had marked the bags well for transit and thank goodness the Qantas staff this time were happy with that… it like the Brisbane lot at the beginning of the trip…. So onto a bus over to domestic airport side…had a bit of a wait then off we went into our sardine can where we were repeating told that if our over head bags don’t fit on, as the flight was full they just would leave it behind…my glory what a awful feeling thinking after all this huge trip I might not get all my bags home…plus this time not first on as we weren’t right at the back and to be honest Canada’s boarding process is so much better than ours…more controlled and more relaxed….anyway did manage to get that rotten now very heavy small cabin bag in…heavy as loaded with grog for gifts….and squeezed in to the middle with no TV this time…but bonus free wifi…but to be honest brain is so tried can’t think…they did offer coffee and bonus choc chip cookies to eat…Qantas has really changed its service so much so it makes you wonder why give anything at all now..but I suppose if they are advertising as with food services….it has found they aren’t lying are they…..and if they give a bikkie and a drink….well guess it’s food services isn’t it….the flight was very noisy being so full and all the flight food plus some of those chock chip cookies finished off my already upset gut no end.,….it just wanted off this last flight and through every flight I had been dealing with this massive headache I worked out was from the plane pressure…hadn’t really had this before but it was on every flight and not there while not on a plane….I will also admit I will really think hard about extra long flights in the future…the old body just isn’t coping as well as it used to…

    Lessons learned…..Always fly back into Brisbane never ever do a flight back to Sydney or Melbourne if having to flight OS through them…too many flights, too many hoops….so much easier when OS flight lands in your home state….

    Would we go back to Canada……No ….it’s somewhere I never ever wanted to go in the first place…but Tim asked us to do the trip with him…have we enjoyed the trip….well yes and nooooo…we have seen some amazing sights that’s for sure….doing close in 20,000 ks has been very very challenging and tiring….it’s been the most expensive trip we have every done because Canada is expensive… food, accommodation and fuel have really been hard to keep costs down …even travelling in Europe for 9 months wasn’t as difficult with food and accommodation costs…

    We have done it now and when we get time to look at the amazing pics I am sure we will rethink about the positives of this trip,…for now we are tired and just need to stop and reflect….something that we haven’t had time to do…and won’t for a bit yet too many commitments over the next few weeks before we might be able to just say let’s stop 🛑 breath, think and reflect on the positives of this huge mammoth trip….knowing it was a huge country is so very different to experiencing it’s huge expanse on the road..the roads are truly terrible due to the sheer amount of snow every year which does impacts the car knocking it around and you as a body in it…..with this pounding on your body daily as you travel makes you more tired than you already are when you are doing daily 6,7,8 hour drives….

    Not seeing as much wild life as we thought we would was disappointing….Tim’s back yard had more wild life than we encounter on the road…. Which we have laughed about…..

    Final Summary

    Positives
    •Wild flowers have been truly stunning…so many different varieties growing in clusters and often huge expanses of them…
    •Scenic views of the Rockies on the WestCoast
    •Snow Capped peaks of the Rockies and diversity of Kamloops unreal change of scenery from one rugged scene of the Prairie to the rugged mountains scenes 2 totally different yet unreal sights! If you do the Open view train 🚂 it would take you through all this truly awe inspiring scenery!
    •Granite bolder islands with houses on them so crazy to build on tiny areas but liked unreal!!
    •Stunning heritage homes in Nova Scotia
    •Mind blowing views of Niagara Falls
    •Quebec and it’s heritage sights a wonderful city to visit
    •Peggy Point in Nova Scotia unreal sights
    •The Puffin Cruise 🚢 seeing the wildlife natural setting
    •Anne of Green Gables History on Prince Edward Island
    •Food finally was exciting and edible in Montreal
    •The coffee shops with the light, medium or dark roast coffee ready in hot pots to be able to ask for the strength of your coffee was a real bonus as I am now a black coffee drinker and so many of our coffees are like thick ink strong…
    •The squirrels and Chipmunks….at Tim and Jess’s
    •Seeing a Beaver 🦫 in his natural habitat!
    •Being able to pay for fuel at the bowser not having to go inside the service centres to pay…
    •School buses all yellow and black and have a stop 🛑 sign on the outside of the bus in the left hand side if our all cats both ways have to stop
    • A lot of motorbike or push bike 🚲 riders wearing Fluro vests so you could see them easier especially on hwys!
    • Minimal electric scooters 🛴 or skate board rides compared to our cities that are over run by both!
    • Predominately the majority of homes were well looked after and immaculate gardens!
    •Floral presentation of flower 🌺pots large and small just everywhere never in our travels have we seen so many flowers in baskets! Truly stunning!
    •Cheap spirits so cocktails 🍸 were usually cheaper than a wine which it’s opposite here!!
    •Shower Curtain rail bowed out at the top to keep it from attaching itself to a wet body as so many of ours do!! They don’t have just a shower always a shower in a bathtub 🛀 a pain but it’s how it is!!
    • Knowing we could 90% of the time getting a good cappuccino for John hot water for me to make my own coffee and s bacon 🥓 farmers wrap for brekkie at Tim Horton’s!
    • Free parking and free WiFi in 98% of our accommodation! Not like here where they charge for so many extras! We are finally getting a lot of free WIFi but not in the expensive hotels
    • Free brekky with so many of your hotels especially from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia half the time we didn’t even know it was part of the deal! They weren’t amazing meals but it was food!!
    • The old sheds and abandoned homes even though very sad I loved from a photographic point of view!!

    Negatives
    •Not really as many wild animals to see compared to home…..
    •The rotten roads…..
    •The sheer amount of Street people…
    •The sheer amount of Cannabis shops unreal….
    •French speaking in some areas wouldn’t try to speak English… The French areas of the country that didn’t want to speak English or have English signs up, menu’s eta…but the rest of the country it was mandated they had to have both languages on everything…very one sided…
    •Driving up the wrong side of the street a few times so crazy 😝
    •Motel rooms never quite know what you will get regards to coffee making. If a fridge how big the fridge does it have a darn freezer for this darn ice bricks…. Did my head in!
    •Cost of Accommodation so expensive
    • Food when you bought in cafes, restaurants or shopping centers or anything else like gifts, cloths etc, etc…always not the price on the ticket always add ons at the counter! Taxes and Tips are extra and you have to pay it before you get the service which might actually be really crap! The tipping amounts you had to give as you paid on the machine and depending on the business how much the tipping percentages would be….12%-15%-18% and 20%-25% crazy usually 3 choices you had to pick from the amounts, but it was expected 18% or higher so frustrating!

    In between pos and neg:
    •Green trees that seemed never ending
    •Lake after lake after lake after ….. too many beautiful lakes you just stopped seeing their beauty after awhile as so many!
    • Long distances involved if you had the money to fly and hire cars the other end would be preferred! But we did see more of the country than most locals we were told time and time again!!

    Regrets..
    •Not seeing Sylvia
    •Not having a decent camera for the fast shots …

    Funny things
    •The handles on the loo most on the side I am still after a few days trying to flush the loo from the side 🤪😂
    • The weird taps you never knew how to use some of them took sometime to work them out!!
    • The fact you can turn right on a stop light unless indicated you can’t this was rare
    • The stops signs on every intersection and the first person there goes first always this way
    • Have set speed limits but no one not even truckies stick to the speed limits set! Some go so fast it’s like a whoosh going by!

    Thanks for following our crazy long journey and putting up with my spelling slips which will be edited when I have time to review them all! Hope I didn’t bore you too much!

    Good chance of I’ll add to the last part of this as things come to mind an never ending story 😫😁😃🤔😂 ! If I remember 😂😂
    もっと詳しく

  • Day 70 Sun-Squirrel & Chipmuck delights!

    2022年7月31日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    Actually really did sleep until after 6.30am yeah…then relaxed in bed…
    made my brekkie, then Phoenix and I spent most of my morning outside on the back deck, him chasing squirrels me watching them…. Jess joined at one point and could point out the weeny tiny Chipmunk 🐿 a teenager….he was so tiny, I even managed to sneak up to it enough to get some sort of decent pic of him.,,in the mean time the squirrels lead Phoenix a merry chase…yesterday they were actually telling him off…it was the funniest thing to watch them up a tree just far enough out if his reach and then there were literally going off their at him in Squirrel language..,.he has been away so much of late I am sure they were very offended their peace had been shattered by his home coming and they were letting him have it…as did the chipmunk to the squirrels earlier today…

    John and I headed out for cuppa to find an open Coffee shop on a Sunday is a bit if a trick here…we did finally find one….Williams Diner that served John the most massive cappuccino…it was one of those big bowl cups…that and cheesecake filled him so much he didn’t need lunch..

    Jess and Tim did a wonderful spread for lunch of cheeses, a Burratta cheeses ball with bruschetta mix over it
    With garlic cooked baguette….plus some other goodies, it’s just nice to have food with flavour…after most of the trip with horrible heavy stodgy foods the last week since hitting Montréal where the food took on a totally different theme of more Mediterranean feel…it was great…

    A restful arvo even a sleep so good…then Tim and Jess whipped up their magic pizzas they do…no tomato base so none of us have deal,with the dreaded reflux…seems how all of our family, John, myself and both boys suffer from it terribly…pretty sure Kate and Jess don’t but it sure has been passed onto our boys very badly…

    Anyway another successful meal for us to share together being our last night meal being able to share with them…I am pretty sure they can’t wait for us to be gone so they can get back to some sort of routine before they come home to Australia….

    We watched a Marvel movie with Tim, Jess read her book…
    Tonight is our last sleep in Canada back home to sort out dad and other Apts to be done before we heard home…
    もっと詳しく

  • Day 69 Sat-Slowly, slowly we are tired.

    2022年7月30日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    The body is so used to getting and going sleeping in just didn’t happen…however an hour extra is a sleep in isn’t it…
    Got the mundane things like washing sorted and all the kitchen gear like my grocery bag and the extra bag of containers etc…unpacked and distributed to poor Tim he ended up with lots extra…not that he wanted much that’s for sure..,

    Then went shopping with Tim to the Markets…his local Kitchener weekend market is so much better than that St Jacobs one…the St Jacobs Market is just too big and too much rubbish…… this market is a fresh market….. it’s great….we wandered around looking at the table after table after table of wonderful fresh produce…Different varieties of Tomatoes….carrots , zucchini’s, cauliflowers, broccoli, onions, potatoes 🥔, plus so many different other veggies….then we found all the different varieties of mushrooms…one called Lions Head…it really looked different…another a lovely yellow colour and another a dark yellow, one you can substitute as seafood as has a sea foodie taste 🤔🤔…Tim bought up on these…then we headed inside to the meats, seafood….breads, pastries, maple syrups, plus, plus, plus….all the veggies are on the outside…the meat etc on the inside…they all looked so fresh and really good prices…however Tim decided we would head to his Butcher instead…before then he bought bagels and Labner a kind of cheese…then across the road to the gourmet shop with cheeses and more breads, baguettes…it really is a foodies paradise….from the butches which was like a mini deli in itself to around the corner to a Pastry, come bakers shop called Lenjo…it’s where Tim and Jess had struck up a friendship with the Baker Lenore…Lenore had done her training under Cordon bleu…or the like and had trained for quite awhile in New Zealand plus did some time in Adelaide and Melbourne…Tim had convinced her to make Lamingtons to sell only when she first started doing them he was on the West Coast of Canada and couldn’t try them…She now only does them once weekly…She also bakes pies….small pies like we have at home…small as we refer to them as hand pies, in this country aren’t a thing…so it’s getting people try them…so for now she offers breakfast pies…which seem to fly our the door…I bought 2 Macaroons for myself still to try..,and a Gateau cake for John which was overly sweet even though he ate it, it wasn’t to his liking 🤔🤔🤪🤪 silly him…

    I also bought Melatonin 5 mg tabs…it’s something we can’t buy at home…Melatonin is made in the brain and when people have difficulty sleeping it’s more than often due to A drop in Melatonin…..also as we age it can be to do with the drop in cortisol and Melatonin….so we often need to replace it with a medication….we can get 2mg from our GP in Australia ….any higher must be through a Compounding Pharmacist and that’s usually no more than 3mg…Dad has compounding Melatonin and it costs him Over $60.00 for about 100 tabs…
    I bought 120 5 mg Tabs for $5.59ca unreal… I need them for about month when I get home to reset my body clock…that’s the great thing about them when you travel your Melatonin gets out of whack with different time zones so being on them 2weeks to a month before you go and same once there and then come off them for a long time like while travelling as we have for a couple of months…then start up again same time line before you had home and then take them again for up to 1month - 6 weeks to get your body clock recalibrated….😂 confusing to work out but it does help,,,

    Wish I had known about this before I went on our first world trip in 2000….. it took me and I am not lying….took me 6 months to reset my body clock…there were other factors…. but the fast pace of that trip 23 countries in 28 days…was horrendous on the body clock…going from country to country on different time zones does crazy stuff to the poor old sleeping patterns, let alone the body…

    Anyway everyone in Kitchener must be buying up 5mg Melatonin because I have only been able to access a couple of bottles…I know you can buy it online but honestly why it’s so tightly regulated in our country is a big ????, not sure why…considering it’s something the brain makes naturally but depletes with stress, illness, travel and age…🤔🤔🤔

    Tim and Jess prepared a Korean dinner for us tonight…it was very tasty indeed…we wanted a new movie with Ryan Gosling called Grey Man a typical secret agent type pic…but killed the night…
    Then I got a msg from Jill to say dad had called the Ambulance early hours this morning Aussie morning and asked to go to hospital you know he us really sick when this happens because he has had such an awful time last year with his wound etc he said he would nearly have to be dead to go….They have transferred him to Rocky base with ???? Kidney or his wound backing up because it hasn’t leaked for about 5 weeks now…

    Since he has had Covid he has looked terrible and keeps saying every time we talk he wishes he could die.,.his colour has been very yellow and his eyes very sunken…I do feel it’s his kidneys as they have been slowly failing more and more over the last year…

    Will have to wait to see what the tests reveal….Jill tried to get him straight to the Mater but so far no luck…it’s a weekend and she can’t contact Dr Wheatley until Monday…😢 I know his time is drawing nearer to going home to His Lord, just praying it won’t be dragged out with terrible health…like mums is now dragging out and it could be years before the Lord takes her home…it’s just so sad seeing parents age and the progression of their failing bodies or in mums case mind…I know God is in control of this, but still breaks your heart…
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  • Day 68 Fri-Last leg of a mammoth trip

    2022年7月30日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    We packed up early packed the car…then farewelled Montreal……After brekkie at Tim’s we went from France to Scotland Glengarry to England as Cornwall….heading past Greece Athens ….then into Newcastle England 🤔🤔🤔🤔 could have been Australia 🤪 nope England…then onto London wow we made it back to London…it’s so funny seeing all these names of places around the world, but mainly of France, Glasgow Scotland and numerous other names from England.. Berlin Germany, Athens in Greece ….Sydney Australia and I think 🤔 England……Copycat names for most…Sydney here is older than our Sydney… then Perth, Gladstone and Queensland, and Victoria….. Certainly a multi nation of Well known towns and cities names copied…

    When the forefathers of this country came here the never embraced a new country they all dragged the old country with them never letting it go…especially the French ohhh my goodness have they dug their heals in and not let go of the mother country…it has been quite an experience mainly on the east side of Canada to see the indoctrination of past history from the countries of origin still impacting this country so much today..,something we just wouldn’t see in the our country…well maybe in Sydney or Melbourne but not so much Brisbane etc….

    Tim and Jess had made it to Toronto to sort out his Passport which only has a few months left on it…They had been in Quebec with the Pope and couldn’t access so much of the city due to his presence there…now heading home to put up with us oldies for the next 2 and 1/2 days…
    We stopped at a very tiny but quaint waterside community called Rockport for morning tea…it is the (Heart of the 1000 Islands
    Rockport’s rich history dates back over 200 years when Scottish and Irish settlers first came to the area. In the 1880’s, Rockport was an important steamboat building, transportation and cord wood refueling centre. The first ferryboat from Alexandria Bay, New York to Rockport started operation in 1924, owned by the Hutchision Brothers with a flat scow and a motorboat to tow the scow. Later the ferry was taken over by the Hutchision Ferry Co. in 1925 when the steamboat, the Roosevelt was put on to take the place of the scow. As the business developed another boat was necessary to accommodate the increased traffic. The General Hancock was added in 1929 until the Thousand Island Bridge was built and the ferry boats were discontinued. A large photo mural of the Roosevelt and General Hancock can be found on the Boathouse Motel.

    Rockport’s history of boat building is depicted by a mural on the boat building shed at Andress Boat Works. Established in 1921, it is estimated that nearly 50 tour boats and working boats, plus many St. Lawrence Skiffs, were built at Andress Boat Works. The standard St. Lawrence skiff is a river icon. St. Lawrence skiffs, once common on the river of their namesake, are fading into the past.)

    From here we keep going down down Hwy 401 ending up after checking goggle maps for a lunch spot …we found the Copperpot Brewery but there eftpos machine was down so only took cash and we didn’t have enough cash…so we found…The Yardbird restaurant at Clarington for lunch….what a find very French menu we settled on…..cream of mushroom soup, accompanied with red-wine braised chicken / caramelised/ wild mushrooms, house bacon, pan jus, brioche bun…. All very tasty, me being a bit uncouth asked what the consume was with the meal…turns out it was the Jus and you dipped your Brioche bun into it… it tasted so yummy I wanted to have it alongside my cream of mushroom soup…plus I had a yummy cocktail of Prosecco with Gin and Lemon juice, lemon peel and syrup…very tasty…John even had a beer he enjoyed…
    Feed and relaxed, off we set into mayhem of crazy traffic from one side of Toronto to the next…that turned into chaos… our 8 hr trip back turned into 10 1/2 hours… very tiring very stressful…..so glad to make the turn towards Kitchener….

    Made it Tim’s at 5.30pm….we had to unpack the whole ute it goes back tomorrow…as in past big trips this car has done us well….it’s done 90ks short of 20,000 kilometres….no wonder we are exhausted…bet it is too…..it looks dirty but looked after…John will give it a car wash tomorrow it has to be back by 12 md…

    We as usual….. and because of me have so much crap to sort out, get rid of and or take home…John always calls what I take a chuck wagon….😂😢🤔😩 …. We survived the trip with our cold bags even through the darn fridges did my head in…I have to sort out my grocery bag….Knowing with Tim and Jess coming home to Aust they don’t need more crap…..Our downside this time wasn’t being able to access self container units…mostly a fridge, microwave, coffee machine and in most rooms twin double beds…, no real cooking facilities which I use when we travel…and it has hit and miss to what we ended up in our rooms…regarding fridge, microwave etc…

    Tim took him and myself to Farm Boy to buy some fresh veggies 🥕 and some salmon 🍣 for dinner…just love that Farm Boy…the choices of veggies and fruit plus the huge deli section, Bakery and prepared meals is unreal….I would go crazy living with one of these I couldn’t help myself buying the great goodies on offer….I was so glad we got to go there before we left…Also went to LCBO which is Ontario’s government run alcohol shop….they have strick laws on Alcohol here which is government controlled….Funny thing is Wine 🍷 is very expensive, but Spirits are nearly 1/3-1/2 off our prices…Our Wine is cheaper by far, but spirits heaps dearer…Beer is Beer around the same prices or there about…
    Anyway I had found while here a bottle of light sparkling Rose called Lola it’s made in Canada and I love the taste 👅 of this wine…won’t be able to access it at home I am sure…so one more bottle before going.,.

    Phoenix is snuggling up to us both…he was picked up earlier today and I could tell glad to be home again…. he has lost a bit of weight again…..so Tim will be on a mission to get his condition back before he is able to come back to Aust….they are having major issues trying to get an Animal transport company to take on Phoenix’s case…. Apparently sending animals to or back to Australia is a nightmare….and most animal transport company don’t want to deal with it due to the strict Australian Bio Laws….he has been trying for 6 months to talk to someone about it….he has sent numerous emails and kept msgs and until yesterday he finally talked to as he said a real human…they will get back to him early next week and as he says if not then he will hound them again…their whole coming home depends on Phoenix’s coming home…he has been getting all his shots and done everything to prepare him for the trip, just need the animal transport side if it to be sorted….

    Our time is nearly done….
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  • Day 67 Thurs-Buses-Boats-Feet

    2022年7月28日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    A productive morning..…but first up we headed to headed to a Diner to have breakfast…. My glory was there too big of a choice so much to choose from we had trouble making a decision! And of course every time you order there’s always choices about how you have your eggs, what you have on the side,what type of sauce do you want, do you want extras with that the list goes on and on. I actually ordered a crepe this morning something different…

    After brekkie came back to the room downloaded all my pics, and then we set off on foot towards the Hop on Hop off bus. We only did a couple of stops with this and then got off again and set off on foot once more to go looking to see what else we can find in the area, because we thought we hadn’t seen around here…But turns out it was where we had been after all….we found a place for a cuppa….While there we decided to check out cruise prices for a cruise on the St Lawrence River @ $37.50 ea we thought it worth it for 1 1/2 hrs….we planned to do the 1230 pm cruise because it’s going to rain this afternoon, a very big storm apparently….

    Once we paid for it online we set off on foot again this time going through Chinatown from here we weaved our way down to the wharf. Arriving just in time to board the very smart looking boat…it has most of it closed in with glass everywhere to see the sights… not sure why they sights were actually pretty bad…mainly an unloading dock, loaded with huge amount if shopping containers, plus x 2 massive lots of Grain Silos…very unattractive looking area…

    It would have been such a relaxing time, but the kids on this cruise were extremely unruly and noisy,..and the noise just got louder and louder…so not a peaceful relaxing cruise as we had hoped…. Once back we were more than happy to get off and would not really recommend this particular cruise as nit really anything to see…..

    From here we headed into the Old City to find a restaurant for lunch..we did find one a very very old Spaghetti House…it seems it Charles Dickens actually lodged here at the back rooms of the restaurant in May of 1842 and wrote his notes for the Tales of Two Cities….
    It had another story in the menu about the Sun Life Building at the time was the tallest building in the British Empire…..for a time the roof of the building was used to anchor Zeppelins…. Plus in the basement we’re a huge amount of vaults used to store Gold and Crown Jewels…..during the 2nd World War….very interesting reading before what had been another amazing tasty meal…another Beef and Pork rissole in Tomato base…Mushroom Risotto and salad bar…the flavours were absolutely Devine….Montreal has actually been the best place on the whole trip for food….we haven’t had a bad meal yet….

    After lunch we headed out o lay to have the heavens open wide on us….We made our way back to the pick up point for the Red Hop On Hop Off Bus…fortunately we had our red Niagara Rain coat things still…it become very windy and nasty…we made the bus very wet…then after having to get off it at our stop point the heavens got even more angry….we weee drenched everywhere the little rain coat things weren’t…back to dry out and rest…we have done as much of Montreal that we want to…

    We headed to bed around 10pm at we didn’t know what hour we kept getting knocks on the door! It had woken us from a deep sleep 🥵 and scared the crap out of us! I kept yelling go away! It went on for a 3 mins on and off! John went to the door and I thought he was going to open it and panicked! Thank goodness he just looked through the peep 👀 hole 🕳! They had finally gone, but it left us rattled and every noise from then on woke me from my very light sleep! What a pain! I would say they got the wrong room but still scared me very much! What an end to our Montreal time 😫!
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  • Day 66 Wed-Montreal Red Line Day!

    2022年7月27日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    I was to sleep in but that just didn’t happen sadly…we ate the last of what I had been carrying for brekky then set off on foot to find the Tourist Info Centre….. it too us over an hour and hang of walking to it…didn’t help matters we..will I kinda divert from route John had planned…he didn’t tell me until much later we were way off track….I was having a lovey time taking pics of the interesting buildings etc…We eventually found it and ended up having to buy the tickets from the info centre which were much dearer than the ones we had planned to buy on line with Booking.com they must have sold out of there’s because no matter how hard we tried we just couldn’t get it to download…it was about $40 cheaper through them compared to the info centre..😩 …nothing we could do…anyway we headed for a much needed coffee before making the 1030 bus…it started at 10am…one we were had more brain energy we walked back to the bus meeting point to board our bus…we decided we would just do a whole round with the bus today as it’s a 2 day pass see what we wanted to go back to tomorrow…mind you after sitting on the bus for a few hours today…I am not sure I really want yo go back..but we paid good money for the tour so best make good use of it…
    Below are the sights if the day and the stops we could have gotten off at…
    Highlights

    Dorchester Square
    Old Montreal
    Place Jacques Cartier
    Old Port
    Square Victoria
    Place Ville Marie
    Chinatown
    Gay Village
    Latin Quarter
    Quartier des Spectacles
    Downtown
    Fine Arts Museum
    McCord Museum
    McGill University
    Saint Joseph’s Oratory
    Mount-Royal Park

    Stops:
    Square Dorchester
    Old Montreal: Notre Dame Basilica
    Old Montreal: Pointe-à-Callière Museum
    Gay Village
    Latin Quarter
    Festival Quarter
    Fine Arts Museum
    Saint Joseph’s Oratory
    Mont-Royal: Kondiaronk Lookout
    Mont-Royal: Camillien Houde Lookout

    Just a sure note * We did find out on the tour we were fair smack in the middle of Gay central…it’s actually called the Gay Village I am sure the tour guide on the bus says 35,000 live in the Gay village…so no winder we felt our numbered when we first arrived not realising it is actually noted for it’s name….

    We chose to go right back to the start then walk to the Old Montreal area…for lunch and to go to the Pointe-A-Callliere …The Museum of Archeology and History…the lunch spot was an open air restaurant along the main walk to the old port…we had the best meal I have had since I didn’t know when it was a Share Antipasto platter with a small side dish of tomato 🍅 meatballs…the best on the platter was a whipped Ricotta with Truffle oil and drizzled with Honey…sounds awful but was truly Devine…the whole platter was simple….simple tastes but delicious …

    Feed we headed to the Pointe-A-Callliere …The Museum of Archeology and History for a quick visit…..🤔 so we thought…they had a Viking Exhibition on as well as the rest of the museum which is the heart and remains of the birth place of Montreal….so by the times we did the Viking part then the rest it took us over 2 hrs…we were to continue on looking at stuff and John had thought ohh well we will catch the bus back later but I realised the last bus was probably gone…so we said we would walk back home later….just as we walked out of the Museum a big red bus pulled right up in front of us….so decision made back hime we go,,,we knew from this morning that we only had 2 stops and we were back in The Gay Village and very close to our hotel bonus,..plus being honest we really were beat…so back for a rest..so far John’s been asleep… for near on 2 hrs and still going…we enjoyed the day…the museum had lots of info to read…John sorted out some questions he had about the Vikings originally landing in Canada and he thought it would be Newfoundland and he was proven right…they definitely did…plus in the birth place of old Montreal section of the history museum….we got to go through a huge underground section of the old sewerage tunnels they had originally built for the city…now all light up and pretty it would have been an awful place once…I just couldn’t get over the sheer width of it…unreal real…

    (The museum complex comprises three archaeological sites: Pointe-à-Callière, Place Royale and 214 Place d'Youville; the archaeological field school at Fort Ville-Marie; Montreal's first Catholic cemetery; the William collector sewer; an archaeological crypt: Place Royale; a heritage building: the former Youville Pumping Station; 165-169 Place d’Youville, the Mariners House; and archaeological collections of over a million objects. The Pointe-à-Callière stands above several historic and archaeological sites of national significance, showcasing major periods in the history of Montreal. Some of the archaeology exposed during construction of the building has been left in situ as part of the museum's permanent display on the history of the city. The museum was constructed on pilings to stay existing finds undisturbed and protected.

    The main entrance of the museum rises above the point of land where Paul de Chomedey, Sieur de Maisonneuve, Jeanne Mance and other French settlers landed in 1642. The museum displays archaeological remains from every period in the city's past, and the sites it protects have produced one of the largest archaeological collections in Canada. The museum's staff specialize in research, conservation, outreach activities and managing archaeology and history. In partnership with universities,[which?] it conducts research on the city's archaeology and history, and its ethnohistorical collections include artifacts and documents donated locally. The museum also displays exhibits on the city's built and industrial heritage.

    Permanent exhibitions include 1701 - The Great Peace of Montréal, Archaeo-Adventure, Building Montréal, Crossroads Montréal, Memory Collector, Pirates or privateers?, Where Montréal Began, and Yours Truly, Montréal multimedia show.)

    All in all a good day we saw heaps and most in the comfort will 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔😩😩 of an old bus that chugged along very roughly….but got us from A-B…it’s a vintage bus so we couldn’t expect any better but did the job for the tour….

    We came back to our hotel and yep the line up was a mile long again it was around 4.30pm so peak time… John had bought a 12 pack of Corona and was juggling them and trying to open our door and no matter what card we used nothing…I knew it was going to be a nightmare at the desk with the massive line up but I went…yep a night mare indeed…I wasn’t the inky one with room key issues another couple of guys also on a new side line we started….I know yesterday how I felt when people did the same when we were trying to check in…but John was waiting and I I jumped on the main line I would have been over an hour…anyways the older guy at the desk had another guy come to the side line he asked something…next thing the older guy the only one at the desk disappeared…no one at the desk….this went on for about 10 mins…next thing a women in what looked like gardening cloths but they weren’t was at the desk on a phone…obviously she was in charge of staff…was talking very loud trying to get more staff in for work…she’s talking very very loud about how she is about to have a nervous breakdown it’s all too much…going on and on with all theses people listening very unprofessional…the older guy from the desk still hadn’t come back…so she stated then serving customers…so I jumped in quickly said my room key won’t work..,she then tells us they had a 9 hr power outage…and all keys have to be reprogrammed….🥵🥵🥵 ohh my glory what a mess…it looked a nightmare and I guess it is a nightmare…people angry and just wanting rooms…but they could have had a note up that explained what happened and maybe that might been easy for people to calm….I couldn’t complain my room key/ card thing was reprogrammed so we could get in….Wheww….

    A good rest John slept for over 2 hours again…then we headed to the Latin quarter for dinner…it as busy as..line ups at the popular restaurants mainly street restaurants…the whole streets are closed off to traffic….. we found a popular one with a spare table and ended up with a really great smart ass but lovely waiter…asking John did he want ott….Wings or BBQ John says what…Ott wings or BBQ he said again,,,I am kacking myself and eventually said to John HOT 🔥…..ohhh the light bulb clicked…he and the waiter had more banter about the OTT wings…it as funny…anyway the wings turned out to be extremely OTT…he was on fire…I had fish tacos with mango salsa .yummm…could only fit one of 3 in….we have had 2 exceptional meals today what a change…

    This place is crawling with Weed…my glory we are nearly high ourselves from everyone walking by with weed….2 blokes making out on some steps…hmmmm…and the funniest thing were 2 old blokes cruising on the gophers…looked so funny…

    Music pumping…people everywhere…what a vibe and a smell…🤪🤪🤪…
    I wanted to go and see the fireworks on the massive bridge tonight we were told by a few different lots to go it’s fantastic.,,John wasn’t interested, so we didn’t go…we could hear it from our room and got the smallest glimpse of it out our window…it went for over 30 mins you could tell it was spectacular…😩😢 I couldn’t go…. Apparently they are weekly at present with a different country supplying the costs..,it would cost a fortune…
    What a day…
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  • Day 65 Tues-Long Haul-Gay Central!

    2022年7月26日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Up and in the road just before 7 am which where we are now was 6 am…Only 3 stops Breakfast at Tim’s, MTea at from a Servo…actually really good coffee shock of shocks…and lunch in the Main Street of what feels like and looks like Gay and Homeless Central…

    It was a long haul, fairly boring 7.5 hrs of driving…did see a huge bus factory….some funny sights on the Hwy…a huge motorhome towing a caravan…that was weird….A kangaroo Trucking company in Québec🤔….. a massive Egg, Funny characters… A big car towing a weeny trailer…..
    2 dead Racoons, 1 dead skunk, 2 dead porcupines…and 1 live squirrel 🐿 is the count of animals for today…still no bears or mooses

    Then we arrived in Montreal for the next 3 nights….we found our way to our hotel in the main part of the city…they didn’t have our room ready…. But we could park our car in @ $25 which equates $28 a night… anyway one less thing we had to think of and it’s off the street…only a few more days before it goes back so we can’t risk any mishaps with her…

    So we set off to find a spot for lunch which by our last time would be 3.30, but 2.30 here…by the time we actually got our lunch it would have been 4pm but 3pmish here…and what a spot we picked honestly the sheer amount of Homeless in the street were unreal…all with their cups out and a fag in their mouths..,As we are sitting there it became evident that this was a high Gay area and once we finished lunch…we could see Gay Bars surrounding us…Gay shows and Heaps of skimpy Gay cloths stores… this by the way is not the Gay Village that’s advertised as another area…but Downtown Montreal… I’ll be honest I am not impressed with Montreal…Like the first time we went to Paris… bags of rubbish lining the streets and rubbish everywhere along footpaths…it feels dirty and looks dirty..…the only highlight was as we walk through one of the main streets there were these huge Cameras and Lights setup which we quickly realised was a movie being made,… then after lunch as we walked around we saw heaps and heaps of Movie set Vans and Change rooms etc set up,.,in fact whole Car lots were taken up with the movie set vans all named with what they were…. like …..change rooms.., Wardrobe….peoples names, as well as main star in very large print on one van… so interesting have no idea what movie is being made… but this is a huge production you can tell by the sheer amount of equipment around the area up the streets, in Car lots and down streets…
    Found 4 actual massive church’s….one completely abandoned….over green with weeds out it’s front…😢😢😢 would loved to have seen I sure it…plus another close by and 2 massive ines earlier when looking for lunch…I didn’t get to see inside any if these….on,y one open and we were on a mission at that stage needing sustenance…but I am guessing the others aren’t open due to the sheer amount if homeless around…mind you they could turn the abandoned one into a night shelter for them….

    We come back to the motel at 4pm like we were told to find around 50-60 people all either sitting around or in a line up to get a room…. It was absolute chaos…. We actually stood in the line for 55 mins before arriving at the desk.., with one person trying to look after all these people…People coming back complaining wrong types of rooms, no aircon, I ordered 2 rooms where is the other…we are standing in line thinking this isn’t good…so I started to look up other accommodation just in case…there was a whole bus load of tourists sitting waiting for their rooms to be ready cleaned…they really looked impressed…

    Ours turned out to be in a rabbit Warren of up stairs down stairs dawn long hallways,.but once here it really was ok… had requested a high floor and that didn’t happen,..but it’s comfortable… air-cons working…beds are comfy…fridge freeze very tiny…but we are in our last 3 days and I have cut all the food down to bare minimum…won’t need much to get back to Tim’s…

    We are thinking of doing a hop on hop off tour here…but so far sights aren’t enticing so we shall see…

    We had a bit if down time…John had a big sleep again…then we headed out around 7.30 for dinner….as we were just past the motel area in a big car lot all the homeless were being feed…said to John we could just line up behind them 😁….on we went…thought we would go a different way through the shopping centre we found this arvo very close to us….we tried a door a few times seeing it was locked..next thing we had a dark policeman talking to us in French…I looked totally confused and then says sorry I didn’t speak French…I think he thought we must have had our car locked in the car parking area underground…he then told us it’s closed at 7pm…I thought to start with we were in trouble and we could have been if he really though we were trying to break in…I fessed our say we are trying to find the supermarket…which I think we meant car lot and said again it’s closed at 7 pm…so not wanting to get into trouble off we headed..

    We found a love,y pizza place I read about in our room info…it had very light pastry so didn’t upset our tummy’s as badly as many do…Very tasty a but spicy 🥵 but tolerable….

    We weaved our way back to the $Dollar store that’s not a $dollar anymore…to get some water…the sights tonight are full in…people everywhere…we didn’t stay around the streets just needed some rest and relaxation so back to our room…when we passed through the main desk it was a bit quieter compared to even when we headed to dinner people were still checking in…what a nightmare….
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  • Day 64 Mon-Coming full circle…

    2022年7月25日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Had a terrible terrible night before finally getting to sleep…the lovely crunchy chicken from last nights dinner truly has knocked the pants off me with an upset gut…slept a little longer than planned…finished the blog…got packed and headed to breaky…it was actually a hit breakfast for a change…Tim and Jess joined us after we had gone to get ours…we’re were nearly the first in the room and then the onslaught arrived….The meat which I felt was odd for bacon…but thought they might have air fired it as was very dry and crisp….but he tells me it’s fake bacon Tim tells me it’s made from Turkey meat…and as it’s the Indian family cooking it guessing they won’t touch pork…also lots if Canadians have this instead of bacon…plus scrambled eggs Tim also tells me is powdered…well at least the Hash Browns were real 🤪🤪🤪…..they had other stuff like cereals, fruit, yogurt and breads with jam etc…but I choose the bacon 🥓 I thought was bacon 🥓 that isn’t bacon 🥓 at all…🤪🤪🤪…it filled the spot we farewelled Tim and Jess and set off for our next destination….John planned a few routes to take us off the main highway…which was great plus the bonus of great old homes, abandoned sheds and homes and the huge bonus was finding a wonderful old railway station at Tatamagouche now as a restaurant, cafe, gift shop and accommodation in old carriages…it was a little piece of paradise to find and explore…the morning tea was excellent…great coffee…great slices and then the exploring of everything around including dress up vintage cloths guessing for pics…what a joy to see it all plus I found a bargain ..an African mother and daughter little statues reduced from $40 to $10… I couldn’t leave them behind they are so gorgeous….now just have to find the space to pack them in…🤔🤔🤔🤔😩😩😩! Might have to send them back with Jess and Tim’s shipping container when they come home…Even the village was quaint and would have been wonderful to wander around…but sadly no time…

    We continued on the rest of the day on and off the Hwy pretty much capturing a few interesting sights here and there….bought lunch at what turned out yo be a subway…well it’s food…then arrived back at the Knights Inn Woodstock where I ate the poor man behind the desk last time Witt my very tired bad mood..…I didn’t go in this time thought it safer…in the same building but further down…bonus this time we have a microwave…yeah can do dinner I hope…and we have our open field views to calm the soul…John is getting tireder and tireder….go thing no driving for 2 days while in Montreal….our next stop…then back to Kitchener for a few days then fly home….wow the time has flown but I will be glad when we are done…never thought I would say that about an adventure but this one has been a killer pace…we are too old now…need slower paced trips to smell the roses 🌹…..

    Both truly exhausted I used cold meat from lunch, salad 🥗 from last night and bits I could add for a stay in not the best but food we could eat and not go out… looking out across the potato fields is very peaceful…
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  • Day 63 Sun-Puffin Sea Adventure

    2022年7月24日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 31 °C

    What a shame we can’t stay longer here…lovely room other than I keep banging my head against the sloped ceiling…up early to get blog done but the net is so, bad…we have no phone reception at all…only the net which is the worst wifi we have had nearly the whole trip…
    Try as I might after I had finished I couldn’t send it so lucky I can keep it for when we get good wifi…which looks much better at the Talisman Lodge near Baddeck….

    We had brekky again at this motel…the lovely owner went out of his way to make sure you had everything you needed…

    He was telling John about the Lobster season onl,y lasts from about April to a June…then they do the crabbing…… most fishermen have filled their quoters and are only 2 weeks into the season…we are still learn how they survive fir the rest of the year with only those few months of work.. We asked him about the closed down motels…he was saying a lot if motels have been bought out by fishing industries to put up their workers…the huge motel we saw yesterday shit down near the Whale Interruptive Centre was originally owned by a young 35 yr old who won 14 Million he had his mother running it and when Covid hit he shut up shop and has since just worked away from it…so sad…it’s a massive Complex…that’s just going to rot to the ground if not salvaged……he hasn’t put it up for sale he just left it and walked…😢😢😢

    Anyway we thanked our motel owner and headed out to kill some time before we went onto the Puffin Boat Cruise Jess has organised….before we left Cheticamp we started to drive around but then parked up to look at a boardwalk along the habour and inlet along Cheticamp…it was peaceful and interesting just wondering along the great wide boardwalk…seeing an old light house…information boards about the old town being originally a harbour to transport out Gypsum from the mine near by…and about all the disasters that lead them eventually shutting down the old mine…it was a sad tale indeed,.,

    Also as we walked along we saw heaps of lodging places right in the waterfront that edge the boardwalk….only issue many of the areas had rotten piers I front if their lodgings which made them look a but 2nd rate even though they were probably getting big money for them.,,

    Next stop was the massive Saint Pierre Cathedral..it was huge and fortunate open so I could leak into it…nearly as lovely as the one I was in last week…just amazes me these massive structures that take so much upkeep in tiny villages like this one…I know they were bigger communities years ago,,,but now they would have very few going to them unless everyone in the village is Catholic..,😂🤔😁…..

    (Built in 1893, St-Pierre's Church majestically watches over the Acadian community of Chéticamp. An imposing 212 feet long, 74 feet wide and with a steeple rising to 167 feet, St-Pierre's lavish Baroque interior and original Casavant organ make it one of the most ornately beautiful churches in the Maritimes. At the time of the construction, Chéticamp was a very poor parish. Under the resourceful leadership of Father Fiset and the devotion of his parishioners, the community was able to come together to achieve what seemed impossible. Much of the work and materials were donated. Parishioners all gave one day a month of labour. Stones, quarried from nearby Chéticamp Island, were hauled across the frozen harbour by horse-drawn sleds in the winter and lumber was donated from the land of community members. Father Fiset's wise direction not only contributed to the construction of this glorious church, he also worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the Acadian people of Chéticamp. Father Fiset is entombed in St-Pierre as an eternal testament of the community's love and gratitude.)

    (Chéticamp was a fishing station used during the summer months by Charles Robin, a merchant from the island of Jersey, and is considered one of the Acadian capitals of the world. In the years following the Great Expulsion, many Acadians came to this area. The first permanent settlers following that era were the families of Pierre Bois and Joseph Richard, who arrived in 1782, although both brothers John and Paul Chiasson along with many other French settlers like the AuCoin family were believed to have predated Bois, Richard and Robin by over 100 years. Chiasson is looked at today[by whom?] as the oldest family name on record in the town. Many of the original family names still reside in and around the small town. They, like all the original founding family names of Chéticamp, can be found chiseled in stone in the town still to this day. Settlement was formally established in 1785 by a grant of land to the 14 original settlers. Today Chéticamp, which is at the entrance of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, is a popular tourist spot.)

    (The gypsum in the mountain behind Chéticamp village was originally discovered by M.W. Grandin, a New Glasgow prospector, in 1897. This discovery excited the poor village, whose inhabitants were primarily dependent on fisheries for their livelihood. By 1907, the Great Northern Mining Company was formed and the village parish priest, Rev. Pierre Fiset, was made president. Mining machinery and a 5,000-ton ship were purchased and the mine became operational by 1908.
    “When they first built it, they were hauling gypsum to the harbour by horse and buggy, so carriage,” said Aucoin. “Then they got a steam locomotive and built the track.”
    By 1911, a railroad track connecting the Gypsum Mine to the port of Chéticamp had been completed and a locomotive, La Vielle Louise, was shipping gypsum the four km distance to the coast.
    After several changes of ownership, the mine was eventually sold to the National Gypsum Company in 1936. It continued to operate until 1939 when the transport ships and workers were needed for the war effort during the Second World War.
    After that, the site sat abandoned for about 70 years. The mine pit filled with water and Mother Nature gradually reclaimed the land. The Gypsum Mine in Chéticamp, seen here in this photo dated late 1920s to early 1930s, operated from 1908 to 1939. CONTRIBUTED/Gypsum Mine Trail committee )

    On we went up the road to another tiny village Margery Harbour……it had a couple of lighthouses in odd spots…a lovely old church and some abandoned properties…but looked very tranquil in its setting.,.also had an amazing scene along the coast of craggy massive rocks….

    From here we had to do a quick trip to Englishtown where we are to meet Tim and Jess for lunch…only issue is Englishtown isn’t actually a town…all it has is a harbour and a Ferry that takes people across to the Cabot Trail…so Tim sent us a msg that fortunately it managed to sneak through the atmosphere to tell us to meet them back up the Hwy at a restaurant on the turnoff to the Cabot trail…so off we speed got there only to discover it wasn’t opened…so plan C to heard back up the Hwy to Baddeck…. Which we did then had heaps off issues finding somewhere to get a takeaway…we were in a time limit to get back for our Puffin Cruise..l
    After driving all over Baddeck looking for Tim as we thought he was behind us but he wasn’t…John had wring car wrong person and we spent good time driving around looking for the wrong ones…finally we found a little cafe that could make us a Club Chicken Bagel and I asked if they had hot chips…well we have chips with salsa…🤔🤔🤔🤔 I thought for a minute went ok that’s great… add that to the bagel…I went to the loo and as I came out could see big bags of corn chips….🤔🤔🤔🤔 that’s when it dawned on me I had ordered Corn Chips…they call hot chips fries here and I was tired and not in the ball ohh well that’s they way it goes in another country…life has to change quickly with our normal expectations because they aren’t what we think they will be.,,we had food we didn’t care.l,and it was a very tasty bagel in fact one if the tastiest means we have had….. and by late arvo those Corn chips tasted amazing 💓😁😁!

    So back we dove again up this road we had now done 3 times in last couple of days… dry unusual on the trio to do any back tracking,,,and by the time we finished we were taking off on it one more time..,

    We lined up at the only spot in this town the harbour…an older, much older couple are running theses tours…I would say for many years now….by the time we were all seated in very tight seating the boat still had more coming on board…they had and looks like do over book each trip…so a heap had to sit out the back…it was a very hot day yesterday so I can only imagine it would have been hard to take out the back…I was sitting next to a window and I was cooking with the sun coming down in me… the boat was an oldie, and the seats were like the old style school busses…straight up and down but with less room than a plane seat to move the legs around..it certainly wasn’t the most relaxing but we managed….

    Off we set with the craggy coastline on our right…we had spoken to a couple of ladies just before we went getting off the more ing cruise and they suggested we sit on the right side of the boat…

    It took about 45 mins to get out to the Rocky Outcrops of Bird 🦅 Island’s…straight up we got to see these little puffin birds popping out if their hidey holes….then more and more and more

    (1. Nicknamed “sea parrots” – and sometimes “clowns of the sea“! – Atlantic puffins have black and white feathers and a large parrot-like beak. They are small seabirds measuring around 25cm in length.
    2. Puffins spend most of their lives out at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming. Their range spans the eastern coast of Canada and the United States to the western coast of Europe.
    3. A puffin’s beak (or bill) changes colour during the year. In winter, the beak has a dull grey colour, but in spring it blooms with an outrageous orange! It’s thought that the bright colour helps puffins assess potential mates.
    4. Puffins are carnivores and live off small fish such as herring, hake and sand eels.
    5. Puffins are fab flyers, flapping their wings up to 400 times a minute and speeding through the air at up to 88km an hour. Wow!
    6. What’s more, these brilliant birds are great swimmers, too! Using their webbed feet as a rudder, puffins can dive down 60m under water in search of their favourite fish.
    7. In spring and summer, thousands of puffins gather in colonies on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic Ocean to breed. They usually pair up with the same partner as previous years – some may have been together for 20 years!
    8. When starting a puffin family, our feathered friends dig out a burrow using their sharp claws and beak, usually in a grassy bank or rocky crevice. At the back of their burrow home, they build a nest lined with feathers and grass where the female lays her egg. Both parents take it in turn to incubate the egg for the next 36-45 days before the baby “puffling” hatches!
    9. In the wild, these winged wonders live for around 20 years. Their main predators are hungry gulls, which can snatch puffins mid-flight or swoop down and scoop their tasty treat from the ground – so they need to keep alert!
    10. Although puffins are not classed as an endangered species, populations in some places are in decline. The main threats are overfishing, which can lead to a shortage of food for puffins, and pollution – particularly oil spills. Not only does the oil make these beautiful birds sick, it destroys their waterproof feathers, essential for their survival.)

    My goodness watching theses little creatures fly was so entertaining with their little wings flapping so fast but they just didn’t look long enough to sustain themselves…but they do…

    Our entertainment didn’t stop with just puffins…there were RazorBill’s, Black Guillemot’s, Black Legged Kittiwakes, Herring Gulls, Great Black Backed Gulls, Double Crested Cormorants, Great Cormorant’s, Great Blue Herons, Common Loons and to top it off with heaps of Bald Eagles…it truly was a bird watches paradise…and a couple on board had their massive bird lenses on their cameras…You truly needed that to see the details on the birds…and see the bald Eagles hiding under big over hangs that protected them but made it had to actually see them easily…

    Then to a final too off heals and heaps of seals…the most unusual colours…some looked like Dalmatian dogs with their b,suck and white spotty affected fur…in the beginning just like with the puffers there were only a few….but after a while it seemed like the word got out and they just started streaming out bobbing in the water and sunning themselves on the rocks…I was as fascinated with the Rocky outcrops as the animals….it was so interesting,,.even got to see 2 faces on the end of the Rocky outcrops…funny she never mentioned this to the big group…the Judy had heals of great info…but I could just tell it was a job without a passion for them both…they looked like it may have been once but now just about the money…Tim worked out they would make $5,000 ea trip and they do 2 a day…but as I said to him you have to take into account once the cold come that little boat wouldn’t go anywhere with the ocean freezing around theses parts…
    Even though I could see the lady’s lose if passion it was still an unreal tour seeing so much wildlife all together in one spot….. my only disappointment was I had hoped to see a whale…but as Jess said it’s a Puffin Tour Rell…and there was no mention of the occasional whale sighting on any if the media advertising….ohh well for another day I guess…it was still worth going on…

    We drove back over what seemed very familiar now our 4th trip on this Hwy…to our home fir the night the Talisman Lodge….over looking a huge lake which we now know is actually an inlet from the ocean…as we arrived there were about 50 or more Canadian Geese…..they were eating…next thing we see them having a swim and then they were gone…

    This place had a chicken diner and it was highly recommended with their crispy chicken…they had special of a pound of wings and a beer for $13.99 which we thought that’s perfect fir us plus a fresh salad….Looks like every other person from the motel plus around the trails thought the same thing and the staff were under the pump big time…people ordering constantly…you could tell they were over whelmed nit expecting the sheer volume to come in and virtually all around the same time around 7pm.,,Tim and Jess had used their brains and had dinner in Baddeck much better plan than trying for this…it took much longer than they said to get out meal…which once we got it was really good..yep great crispy chicken and a really good fresh salad…it is an Indian nit native other running this motel a family affair I would say…
    My down side was the chicken even though it didn’t taste oily must have been I was as sick as a dig from it uo till after 1230 trying to stop that extreme reflux and nausea…me and some oils just don’t mix….good thing I still have drugs…took a bit but finally settled so I could sleep…it was another huge day but a good day seeing nature at its best…

    We honestly wouldn’t have gone on a tour like this but when Jess suggested it we felt we should go with them, we are so glad we did….
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  • Day 62 Sat- Cabot Trail adventure.

    2022年7月23日, カナダ ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Stinking night, but up and ready to go…fortunately we could go a little slower today as we were about to set off on the Cabot Trail loop. But first brekky in the main house if our motel…it too was a grand old manor built in 1865…you can tell she has history… now used as an office and a breakfast room.,…I took my own add one’s first brekky today some ham and a banana…can’t do jam everyday…

    Fed and watered we did a circuit of the town to get pics if the harbour and grand old buildings…
    The was spent zipping in and out of coves around the peninsular…we left after the lovely sights were captured in Baddeck…now head the long way to Cheticamp…

    To start with the sights weren’t that good to be honest…but the further around we got the better it become…Villages, harbours… the bays become more rugged and craggy….church’s dotted the whole way around…nearly 99% always white…so they certainly standout…
    Some quaint sights like a clothing shop,advertising her wares with painted up cars…one even had bling on it….

    Heaps and heaps of big motorcycles 🏍 with trailers or huge side saddles… beaches that actually had sand but had millions I mean millions of round rocks all along the bank of the beach above the sand.,.I am still trying to work out if it’s natural or man made…🤔🤔🤔 a few lighthouses either on the coast or relocated to varies spots…millions upon millions well maybe 1,000’s of lobster baskets stacked up all over the loop ready for next season which we read is from Oct - May….one harbour we drove past had heaps of Truck units with their freezer sections running..that must be storing the lobsters 🦞 in…heaps of walking trails which we didn’t have time to explore…

    The craggy coast line become more so…then after lunch which was at Angie’s Place…John had another Lobster Roll… I had Seafood Chowder..minus the lobster or I would end up in an anaphylactic state… not good here…the young lady serving us asked where we were from and when we said Australia she was enthralled because her 5 yr old loves Bluey…a hit show all,over the world……anyway back to my point….once coming over French Mtn at 445m the landscape changed dramatically….
    One thing I forgot as we stated this trail…there was a Gaelic College where heaps come to learn the language…it was bought here by the Gaelic speaking Scottish…

    Also on the last leg before we made it too the motel we saw and had to turn back fir a Scottish Sheep Shelter…called a Lone Shieling…….it’s where the Highlanders or Crofter would shelter when the weathers as too heavy with wind and snow...he and his sheep would seek shelter in the stone cottage open at one end and if really bad weather would have pallets of Heather or bracken to cover the door way…after seeing this it too us through a lovely Forrest walk back to our car….well worth a stop and look.

    We are it to our motel and I forgot we had been given the last room in the motel the Loft…it is actually very nicely decorated….but no kettle, no coffee machine or no microwave….I felt deflated it had been a biggish day already and we were about to head out on a 6k long walk after 6pm to the Skyline Trail to see the sunset 🌅 on the famous walk….Jess must have read about it and his amazing it is and she decided it was best we do the walk at sunset….

    Also in our room are slopped ceilings like we had in some if the rooms on our European trip…well ha ha 😂😂😩😩 I keep running into the roof line on our room….they have painted it the same colour which detects from the angle ….that’s great but my poor old head has dinner Ted with it about 4-5 times so far…silly me… So back to the jug…while I was unpacking the car John went to see the manager and organised for us to borrow a kettle for the night….the manager kindly lent it to us from the kitchen where the residents have breakfast….apparently we have brekky here to…we have really lucked it this top end with most of our mites offering a continental breakfast…yeah…we quickly made a cuppa and set off back up the mountain range we had come down this arvo from the cabot trail drive…it really was quite spectacular as we drive back along the coast with the afternoon sun reflecting off the mountain range…

    Before we left….we had had issues all day with our opine reception and by the time we hit our hime base for tonight absolutely none it was gone…the only way to contact Tim was on Wifi and the motel Wifi was terrible it kept dropping out..and very weak….so he had trouble getting all my replies from his texts to us..I think he thought I wa ignoring them…eventually I got it to work enough for him to know where we were so we could follow them to the walking start point..what a pain with out net…or ph…

    So we managed to follow them to the trail we are to go on and already quite a number of cars…it’s the thing to do here apparently….we all got out and set off for what turned out to be a wonderful walk through low trees, massive massive different ferns growing everywhere…and when no ferns all different varieties of grasses and wild flowers…it truly was a picture perfect walk…it was about 3.25ks through some high wired enclosures….that were trials to see what would grown back with out the mooses eating the vegetation…it reminded me when we were standing in a lookout tower of the Sci-fi Terra Nova with the massive electric fence around the compound and if you went out of it the dinosaurs would eat you….I told Tim and Jess this they thought I was crazy…but I said to them instead of the dinosaur 🦕 eating us it would be the bears 🐻……rahhhhh….this didn’t deter them in any ways😂😂😂….off we set fir the mast part of what felt much longer than 3.25k which really is nothing…our original plan was to do the whole 8.2k walk but once the sun did go down and light was getting less and less we had to hightail it back along the less visible path with the threat that there could be a bear…there wasn’t but you just never know…it would have been ok anyway both Tim and John had their trusty bear spray we bought at the beginning of the trip….

    Back to the huge Skyline board walk it literally made its way half way down French Mountain….which meant yep heaps and heaps of stairs down the steep cliff of the mountain…this little bunny was already tired so both John and I sat on a good viewing set while T&J headed down the steps..it was over an hour or more before any sunset started to happen….people coming and going,.,some used their Brain and bought wine and cheese with a baguette..
    Jess advised we take no food with bears around…I did at the last minute through in some pretzels….which John and I did eat because we didn’t have dinner before we come and everything will be shut once done…so I had hoped the bears wouldn’t find me with my food….
    The cliff face we were perched on about 290-405 m high depending where you were on the boardwalk…most of the walk there was on gravel…except for the last section down the cliff face…it was very well done and made it look very inviting until you realise that there are hundreds of steps to high tail it back up…both T&J looked exhausted once the climbed back to us…the sunset was in my opinion a bit of a fizzer…I have seen much better…but Jess was enthralled and I heard her say it was the first sunset she has seen go into the ocean 😩 bless her heart…it was magical for her and that’s why we came…

    Well all good things must come to an end and we had to head back to our cars…it was a very fast exhausting walk back…everyone seemed to pass me very quickly…I seemed to be getting slower and slower my old bad foot wasn’t too happy in my new walking boots so a bit if pain to try and ignore…

    We did make it back in one piece….no bears, no mooses…Tim did see a chipmunk 🐿…and we did have some little creature not sure as it hide well on the path to the viewing area…a few birds in trees singing,,,but sadly not much wildlife at all…for all the jolly signs they have around and yes it’s like our croc 🐊 signs that must be around….we have virtually seen hardly any wildlife at all..😢😢😢 in fact T&J have more in their backyard than what we have seen in the whole trip…
    We made it home around 10pm a long tiring day…but glad we did it with T&J…no dinner or should I say no microwave to heat the dinner I had,….John had jelly and custard tubs we had bought days ago..I had salami and cheese wraps and a few biscuits with tomato 🍅 on it that’s enough a glass of wine and a beer for John ready for the cot.,,should sleep well tonight…
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  • Day 61 Fri-Sydney Harbour Views!

    2022年7月22日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Actually feel so, so run down today…so after hitting the Hwy..I actually had a Kip in the car..I try not to do that…

    Today we headed for Cape Breton Island…it’s been a pretty boring trip all up…the scenery has been very boring…we did see a beaver home in a waterhole…shame I didn’t have time to just sit and watch that little beaver…but we didn’t…The Canso Causeway!
    Coming into the island was across a massive causeway…

    (The Canso Causeway (Cabhsair Chanso in Gaelic) is a 1,385 m (4,544 ft) rock-fill causeway in Nova Scotia, Canada. The causeway crosses the Strait of Canso, connecting Cape Breton Island by road to the Nova Scotia peninsula. Its crest thickness is 40 m (130 ft), carrying the two vehicle traffic lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway, Nova Scotia Highway 104 on the mainland side, and Nova Scotia Highway 105 on the Cape Breton side, as well as the single track mainline of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.

    Constructed in an "S" shape, the causeway has a base width of 244 m (801 ft) in waters having a maximum depth of 65 m (213 ft).

    Cape Breton Island remains circumnavigable as a result of the 24 m (79 ft) wide and 570 m (1,870 ft) long Canso Canal, which is located at the eastern end of the causeway to allow ship traffic to transit the Strait of Canso. The 94 m (308 ft) Canso Canal Bridge is a swing bridge which carries the road and railway line across the canal.

    The word "Canso" is believed to be derived from the Mi'kmaq word kamsok, which means "opposite the lofty cliffs."

    On July 2, 2014, it was announced that the Government of Canada would transfer ownership of the causeway to the Nova Scotia provincial government. The federal government will still maintain the Canso Canal and the navigational locks.)

    Once across we stopped at the tourist info centre and wandered through the Scottish gift shop….very Scottish Nova Scotia …which as Jess guessed means New Scotland…so town names, and street names all very Scottish…
    While in the info centre the bridge towards the end of the massive causeway must have opened or spun around…it must be on a rotating turn table…anyway we missed seeing it happen,..but the traffic was banked up for ks we must have just missed it…how fortunate was that…these poor buggars had a good 15-2o min wait fir the bridge section to reopen…shame not to see it in action though…

    We had a pic sent to us from Tim and Jess that they were in Queensland…🤪😂 it’s a place near where they stayed at Hubbard yesterday…and we ended up in Sydney for lunch.. at The Governors Pub and Eatery…..good views over the harbour below in Sydney…food so, so….after lunch we drive down to the harbour seeing a massive Fiddle….nothing like Sydney views ha ha ha….we really couldn’t pretend they are certainly 2 very different cities that’s for sure…but both do have a harbour….

    Then off we headed to our home for the night at the Ceilidh Country Lodge in Baddeck…nothing special…no microwave but bonus a bigger fridge with a good size freezer…

    The island so far hasn’t really got anything outstanding with sights…but maybe tomorrow will prove me wrong… yesterdays views were outstanding hard to beat I think…

    We finished off our day with Dinner at a swanky restaurant Jess had picked for dinner…everyone enjoyed their meal…well nearly everyone….I had the soup like I had the soup for lunch…I have come to the conclusion that Canadians just don’t know his to make soup…for a country that has so much cold you would think they would have a soup meals down pat….I can honestly say I have had one, yes one truly amazing soup meal…and that was at a little diner in the middle of nowhere…the rest have been quite tasteless devoid of flavour…disappointing to be honest….I know we have been eating out 96% of the time…and haven’t tried a real home cooked soup…but the diners, restaurants , pubs just seem to push out tasteless grub without thought to flavour…😩😩😩 can’t wait to get home and make a good soup….

    The restaurant we had dinner at was an old manor house…with lots of accommodation it was very much in the style of the old days in a movie where everyone sat in the parlour or front porch reading and sipping sherry ….the service was very good as it has been just about everywhere we go..,only a few places where staff should never have gotten out of bed….White linen table cloths and napkins..very quite atmosphere that I think us Aussie broke….we even had a little dessert tonight which is a total rarity…I didn’t eat all my soup being not very that tasty and the biscuit thing they put with it was sweet, crumbly and just horrible to eat so didn’t have that either…so I had room for a few mouth fulls of a chocolate dessert thing….Anyway it was meal, gave me nourishment I think 🤔….

    Back to the motel where it looks like a huge wedding party are also staying…very active this arvo…so many of them…it’s been quite overcast today, hopefully for their wedding our for Jess it’s sunny tomorrow…. She wants to go on the World renown Cabot Trail tomorrow afternoon to see the sun setting as we walk on it…she must have seen a picture depicting this scene and I am sure she us a romantic at heart…so the plan is to do the long boardwalk later tomorrow to catch the sunset…I’ll be honest I hope we get it we have only seen a few good sunsets this whole trip…nothing like you guys have been getting at home…
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  • Day 60 Thurs- Peggy and Halli….

    2022年7月21日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    My routine is down pat….had myself organised by 7am for brekky….but just before we went we had a msg from Tim to say due to Highseas the cruise we were all going on was cancelled …

    Sad for Jess but to be honest it was a reprieve for me so I could get my pics posted and then kfff the phone….my days were building up again…it gets to be too big a job if I leave them go too many days…

    Anyway all sorted we headed to met Tim and Jess at a Coffee shop they find obviously with good reviews…and yep it didn’t look that great outside but inside was lovely…and the owners must have made their own food….John got what they called a scone…with blue berries in it….my goodness the outside was so light and crisp…I have never had a scone like this…I was nearly going to ask how did she get the crispness on the outside like it is…she also made a heap of hime made sausage rolls which she bought down after we arrived…by the time we went to go they were all gone…as were the scones and half the food in the cabinet display….there had been a steady stream of people coming in and our the whole time we were there….it was a shop really the position was basically in the middle of nowhere…no town just some houses and the Hwy going past….they must have a reputation because it was none stop while we were there…when I arrived I didn’t hold out much hope but it was lovely…I grabbed a bacon scone scroll that’s what they all were scrolls….not like our scones and all over the country they were similar not like our shape at all…

    From here we started down the road towards Peggy’s Point where there us a big light house on massive granite rock…but before we went there we headed into Indian Harbour Lighthouse…it is a small fishing village founded in the 18th Century…..around 1780 ish….massive granite boulders started to appear ….I had noticed as we drove down here this morning that any land being excavated ready for building on…had huge round boulders being pulled out if the ground…what a buggar of a place to build on…digging down for cellars etc would be a pain…

    What I didn’t mention was that every bay in the area is absolutely a mass of huge granite rocks it’s an unusual scene to witness yet extremely interesting….certainly lots to look at never a boring water scene here compared to sine if the lakes that looked the same after seeing one you nearly could say you saw them all….this is truly different, alive and artistic looking at every level…so enjoying this area…

    As we arrived so did the sea fog roll in…making it very difficult to see the lighthouse out on a point… The massive kelp and seaweed here was very impressive… a big group scuba dives were getting ready to head out in the clear, clear ocean that looked very cold…the mist rolling in gave such a weird appearance over the area….the Rocky terrain around us was unreal…all granite…looked amazing…Jess and Tim had seen 2 deers as they arrived…I forgot we saw one in our way here today as well….
    As we headed down to a Peggy’s area we took a wring turn which turned out to be a total bonus…the most unusual house on the edge if a bag that had been built up on wooden stilts to put a deck over the rocks…the wooden pylons were in a splayed affect into the ocean below….it truly amazing what a sight it was.. other little houses also in the bay made the scene again look serial like out of a movie set…

    From here we drive down to Peggy’s Point Lighthouse….we were 1-2 ks from it..but it could be seen and John said is that people all over the Rocks…..my glory like ants 🐜 there were 100’s…. Like going to Lunenberg yesterday thus spot was crawling with people…

    Getting a park before we even got out if the car was our first trail…..we last Tim and Jess walking out of the car park…..he told us to just keep driving around….we had followed a couple walking towards the cars thinking we might get their spot…cars were ducking and weaving all over the place….even big rigs with their massive caravans were trying to jocky to get a park….it was utter chaos…just as we were about to give up and head back out to the Hwy to try and Kari there which as we come past on the way in was filling uo fast as well… that couple we had given up on were just pulling out and we were able to slide quickly into their spot….Thank you Lord….so like the other ants 🐜 on a crawl off we set towards the lighthouse…

    The scene of Peggy’s Point is like out of a movie set….thus very, very quaint old fishing village has such unreal character…everywhere you look is a picture opportunity…..and like me everyone is an amateur photographer…..100’s clicking away at the scenes….I bet if you asked a 100 people to put up there pics you would get a 100 different scenes because everyone sees things through a different lens….it is always interesting to watch people taking pics to try and see what they are looking at…
    It took me about 20-30 mins to walk 500m up to the lighthouse due to the scenes around me…so much to look at capture and just look at…John had had enough of trying to wait and off he went…
    The lighthouse itself is perched on top of this massive, massive granite rock flow….truly a sight in itself….plus to add to the whole scene the Sea Fog was rolling in here as well and getting thicker and thicker…added an unreal scene to the view…

    (History

    Peggys Point Lighthouse, also known as Peggys Cove Lighthouse, is an active lighthouse and an iconic Canadian image. Located within Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia, it is one of the busiest tourist attractions in the province and is a prime attraction on the Lighthouse Trail scenic drive. The lighthouse marks the eastern entrance of St. Margarets Bay and is officially known as the Peggys Point Lighthouse. The classic red-and-white lighthouse is still operated by the Canadian Coast Guard, and is situated on an extensive granite outcrop at Peggys Point, immediately south of the village and its cove. This lighthouse is one of the most-photographed structures in Atlantic Canada and one of the most recognizable lighthouses in the world.

    Visitors may explore the granite outcrop on Peggys Point around the lighthouse; despite numerous signs warning of unpredictable surf (including one on a bronze plaque on the lighthouse itself), several visitors each year are swept off the rocks by waves, sometimes drowning.

    The first lighthouse at Peggys Cove was built in 1868 and was a wooden house with a beacon on the roof. At sundown, the keeper lit a kerosene oil lamp magnified by a catoptric reflector (a silver-plated mirror) creating the red beacon light marking the eastern entrance to St. Margarets Bay. That lighthouse was replaced by the current structure, an octagonal lighthouse which was built in 1914. It is made of reinforced concrete but retains the eight-sided shape of earlier generations of wooden light towers. It stands almost 15 metres (49 ft) high. The old wooden lighthouse became the keeper's dwelling and remained near to the current lighthouse until it was damaged by Hurricane Edna in 1954 and was removed. The lighthouse was automated in 1958. Since then, the red light was changed to white light, then to a green light in the late 1970s. Finally to conform to world standards the light was changed to red in 2007.

    The lighthouse used to contain a small Canada Post office in the lower level during the summer months serving as the village post office where visitors could send postcards and letters. Each piece of mail received a special cancellation mark in the shape of the lighthouse. However Canada Post closed the lighthouse post office in November 2009 citing mold growth as a safety hazard.[5] The lighthouse at Peggys Cove was declared surplus by the Canadian Coast Guard in June 2010, along with almost all lighthouses in Canada. The lighthouse had until May 29, 2012 to be nominated under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act by a group willing to look after it, or the lighthouse will face disposal. The province of Nova Scotia has discussed taking ownership but has not made a decision.[6] In 2015, 74 lighthouses were listed which will be preserved under the Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act but they did not include Peggy's Cove.)

    This story above talks about people being washed into the ocean…while we sat with Tim and Jess on an outer part of the granite flow…we watched this guy taking ours very close to the waters edge…the tide had turned and the water was starting to hit quite heavily against the rocks around the edge…we all sat with baited breath thinking any moment this guy is going to get swept away with a powerful wave coming in…fortunately he didn’t….. but honestly I don’t think he really saw the danger he had out himself in….it was scary to watch him….there were people everywhere and I know so many hate having people in their pictures and fir myself I will often try and wait fir an opportunity to get a shot without 1,000’s in my shot…but in saying that most times I just click away with the 1,000’s they can add to the character of the shot…and often when they are coming up in our lounge room slide show we have going at home you often see funny sights you never even noticed the day of taking the shot..funny shits because of what people can often be doing when you capture it…plus if you really want to get rid of people of it’s only a few in the scene you can PhotoShop them out….very rarely do I do that…

    Anyway we had enjoyed our time, so decided to get some lunch…we were very fortunate to actually get a table at the restaurant right at the lighthouse…by the time we had finished our lunch the line up to get a table was a mile long…glad we got it when we did…

    So having finished here after I clicked some more scenes because now with the sea fog so thick the scene looked different…of we set for Terrace Lighthouse only once we got to the spot…it was impossible to get to as private roads all around the area stopped you from going to the point to see it…the bay we pulled up in had dozens of people swimming in it…brave souks I thought looked very cold…and Tim to,d us later that they put their feet in and it was truly freezing below 10c 🥶🥶🥶🥶…. All of Canada were bracing for a heat wave today everyone was complaining how hot it was and it was about 28-29c 🤔🤔🤪🤪…. I actually had a coat on all day…but I am the exception I guess…

    Not finding the lighthouse and needing to get into Halifax we said goodbye to Tim and Jess and headed into the city…the drive back wasn’t as long as I thought it would be thank goodness ….

    We parked by the wharf area which turned out to be free at present not sure why but it was…then off we set on foot to look at the waterfront….was thus a happening place as well…action everywhere…it is peak time for their summer holidays here so yep people everywhere… I spotted the Rum Cake shop I had read about this shop in some of the brochures…so we sat down had a cuppa and a small rum cake…I don’t think the one we had was the actual rum cake as it had cream and was a cupcake…but the icing did taste like rum…anyway you can’t win them all…while here there were stories on the walls of the rum runners and about the Real McCoy…

    So here are some if this stories…
    ( The Real McCoy
    William Frederick "Bill" McCoy (August 17, 1877 – December 30, 1948), was an American sea captain and rum-runner during the Prohibition in the United States. In pursuing the trade of smuggling alcohol from the Bahamas to the Eastern Seaboard, Capt. McCoy, found a role model in John Hancock of pre-revolutionary Boston and considered himself an "honest lawbreaker." McCoy took pride in the fact that he never paid a cent to organized crime, politicians, or law enforcement for protection.[1] Unlike many operations that illegally produced and smuggled alcohol for consumption during Prohibition, McCoy sold his merchandise unadulterated, uncut and clean.

    McCoy was born in Syracuse, New York in 1877 to a Scottish-American family. He had a brother Ben, five years older, and a sister Violet, five years younger. His father, also William McCoy, was a brick mason who had been in the Union Navy during the American Civil War, serving on the blockade of Southern coasts.[3] Bill McCoy attended the Pennsylvania Nautical School on board the then USS Saratoga in Philadelphia, graduating in 1895 first in his class.[4][5] He later served as mate and quartermaster on various vessels including the P & O steamer Olivette, which was in Havana, Cuba when the USS Maine exploded in 1898.

    Around 1900, the McCoy family moved to a small Florida town named Holly Hill, just north of Daytona Beach. Bill and his brother Ben operated a motor boat service and a boat yard in Holly Hill and Jacksonville . By 1918, having constructed vessels for millionaire customers that included Andrew Carnegie and the Vanderbilts among others, McCoy earned a reputation for being a skilled yacht builder. During Prohibition (1920–33), the McCoy brothers fell on hard times. Their excursion and freight business could not compete with the new highways and buses being built up and down the coast and across Florida. Needing money, the two brothers made a decision to go into rum-running. They sold the assets of their business, traveled to Gloucester, Massachusetts, and bought the schooner Henry L. Marshall.

    McCoy then began to smuggle whisky into the U.S., traveling from Nassau and Bimini in the Bahamas to the east coast of the United States, spending most time dealing on "Rum Row" off New Jersey. After a few successful trips smuggling liquor off the coast of the United States, Bill McCoy had enough money to buy the schooner Arethusa. Placing the schooner under British registry to avoid being US jurisdiction, Bill renamed the vessel Tomoka (after the river that runs through his hometown Holly Hill).

    McCoy made a number of successful trips aboard the Tomoka, and – along with the Henry L. Marshall and up to five other vessels – became a household name through his smuggling activities. Capt. McCoy mostly hauled Rye, Irish and Canadian whisky as well as other fine liquors and wines. He is credited with inventing the "burlock" – a package holding six bottles jacketed in straw, three on the bottom, then two, then one, the whole sewed tightly in burlap. It was compact and easy to handle and stow. These were generally known in the Coast Guard as "sacks."
    McCoy also became an enemy of the U.S. Government and organized crime. When the Coast Guard discovered McCoy, he established the system of anchoring large ships off the coast in international waters and selling liquor to smaller ships that transferred it to the shore. McCoy also smuggled liquor and spirits from the French islands of Saint-Pierre and Miquelon located south of Newfoundland.)

    Having read the info and revived on a cuppa off we set looking around…There we’re a number of old ships moored at the waterfront in front if the Maritime Museum they were truly in beautiful repair…all painted up and looking very slick…lots of history about the Rum Runners along the water front…there were people coming and going…Ferry’s with the most unusual nob in the top of them going up and down the waterfront…a tall ship coming back in…And amphibious duck boat thing called the Hopper taking tourists up and down the waterfront as well…it was packed

    Music being played…an African Festival with their music and yummy smelling find being cooked..kids playing in what looked like a bug tall wave…with a sigh saying dangerous do not clim and it was crawling with kids in it sliding down it and parents sitting front of the signs…🤪🤪😂😂

    Tim and Jess had gone to the Citadel up on the hill in the middle of the city…we ran out of time to see anything else so left…Tim and Jess stayed on at the waterfront for a look then joined us for dinner at the lovely restaurant from last night….

    It’s been another huge day….very, very tired couldn’t finish this last night so getting it done this morning a new day..

    We have 11 days left…count down on….
    An add on to my story was about Swissair Flight 111 in September 1998 crashed into St Margaret’s Bay near Peggy Cove…. Sadly no one lived 😢😢😢
    もっと詳しく

  • Day 59 Wed- Shags and Piers

    2022年7月20日, カナダ ⋅ ☀️ 26 °C

    5 o’clock comes around so fast and my poor old body clock just goes barging….anyway the usual start getting everything sorted….No coffee machine here so the good old microwave….

    Finished the blog…then packed and off to breaky….yep I just knew it would be the usual…muffin….sweet cereals if you like that…yogurt….some fruit…this place even offered bananas…😁😁😁 toast with their sweet bread like Asia….for some reason not sure why but bread in most Asians countries it’s hard to find bread that’s not sweet flavoured…and seems to be similar here…it actually tastes odd with anything savoury…which I tend towards not a big sweet fan in toast….

    Anyway feed and watered we Headed to Cape Forchu to see it’s lighthouse…on the way were unreal bays…stunning purple Lupins and to my Joy of joys a fantastic old pier with heaps of fishing boats…but this pier had history…while researching the lighthouse I found out that Yarmouth is the biggest salmon fishing fleet in Canada…

    The light house consists of 3 structures, a double dwelling house which was built in 1912….an apple core style light tower was built in 1963..it’s 27.7 metre the first part now it’s 30 metres height…originally…the light house was constructed in 1839 was operational in 1840…then demolished in 1961 and rebuilt 1962….it was used in a movie about 2 lighthouse keepers ….

    A lovely groundsman tried to convince me to check out the area…which actually looked so interesting….but we didn’t have time,..what’s new hey…
    So off we set so I could capture the amazing old pier….what beauty this one is…
    John s plan was to the coastal routes from Yarmouth to Halifax…. But the in and out of the different bays was taking its time….each bay certainly had great sights to offer…amazing homes dotted around the bays…and heaps and heaps of abandoned homes also dotted amongst the homes being lived in….
    Animal count today is 1 deer 🦌! 2 squirrels 🐿 running for their lives!
    Our plan was to head to Shag Harbour…hence the shags….guessing it’s named after the birds Shags…but who knows…it is also the sight of a UFO from the 1960’s …..true story…story below…just did my research on this story and discovered I was right the shag being a bird…there you go…

    We found another unreal old area as we zoomed along…I spotted it out of the corner of my eye….even managed to get John to stop for this one…..I could only think it must be some kind of old type of shelter Harbour made out of wood….I could have spent ages here so much character in this old wood whatever it was……by this time I was completely exhausted today and my poor tired mind had switched off …so we headed into Shelburne which was an old Shipbuilding village….we read about a great coffee shop which we later found out other than a Tim’s was the only coffee shop….it was down by the Harbour…when we arrived it had quite a line up…with only 3 people at a time allowed in it took ages to get our morning tea…and would we give the star rating others have on TripAdvisor most likely not…John’s Cappa definitely had the tired well and truly out…we had a walk along the Harbour then around the block of the Main Street with amazing old buildings…worth a look indeed…

    We continued on our way in and out of the coves…but times was moving on the mileage to our home for tonight was seeming further and further away… funding another light house tucked in to a corner block…had been moved there…..killed more time so then we headed back to the Hwy….while on it I saw a sign for a UNESCO village…Lunenburg….wow oh wow was it was a treasure trove of wonderful buildings beyond my expectations…but the downside were the other 1,000’s of people trying to explore this unreal sight…plus everyone of them I am sure we’re after lunch…every restaurant we went to had massive line ups pouring out their doors…we took ages to find somewhere to sit and eat …it was a Greek/Italian/Pizza/seafood shop,,,,crazy cray busy…but we found a table…ended up with I am sure someone else’s extra piece of fish on our seafood basket…the Yummiest fresh seafood… but not the best Chips…it was a comedy of errors with the food delivery not a good set up…people not getting meals others getting more than they should like us….it was funny as the lady serving was slapping down paper plates slamming down the salt and pepper…yelling in the kitchen funny as…the food was great… but we paid for hours with it being an oily dish…

    By this time we had to get into the Hwy to our hime fir the next 2 days….Coastal Inn Halifax….yep as usual right on the outskirts…hence why it’s a little cheaper….not that much cheaper mind you…as mentioned before accommodation in Canada is high high high……

    The guy in the desk was very helpful and friendly…we had booked 2 nights here….on 2 seperate bookings…plan was only 1 night mainly because we thought we had to gerbil the road more…but we didn’t and after John had booked this one that only had one room left when he did…someone must have cancelled a few days ago because another one popped up…thank goodness…inky concern was we would have to move rooms…but the lively guy at the desk sorted it all out and no we don’t…Thank The Lord….

    Once in the room the first thing we always check on the trip…firstly does it have a fridge….then does the fridge have a freezer….well, this one was so tiny…but what freezer section it did have was so frozen up you could barely shut the door….so I took it out carried it to the bathtub and tried to defrost it…but it was so thick…it would have taken hours even with the trusty hairdryer stretched nearly beyond its capacity to the tub so I could use it…it was still going to take ages and I would most likely burn our the dryer….so we contacted the girls in the hall who doing the rooms,….they were a but shocked I put in in the tub..,but I told them if I defrosted it it would have gone all,through the carpet hence the tub…they did laugh…. But went to see their manager and if course mentioned I had out it in the tub.,,he had a fit…so rang John…thank goodness by the time he phoned John has out the fridge back in its tiny hidey hole…
    Anyway people streamed in and out…one guy was going to defrost it…next thing a knock at the door and another fridge was marched in.,,to replace the one there…they felt very happy with themselves having fixed the issue…when I looked inside it too was fairly frozen over…not quite as bad as the other…but not a beak better…so no none if our frozen bricks could fit into it…thank goodness they offered to place it in their freezer….😩🤔🤪. One shall see if any dramas when I go to get them,……n the mean time I could place 2 bottles of John’s beer in it 😁…. So all not los on the freezer issue…ha ha…what a drama over a stupid fridge…. But the staff were absolutely wonderful here…

    I spotted a restaurant as we drive in at the near by big Hotel…. So for dinner we headed over on foot to it…Brand spanking new…beautiful decore…slick looking staff…great service….not bad prices although I think John accidentally gave them too big a tip…the bill was a lot dearer than it should have been.,,but that’s happened a few times last few days…you have to always remember the price on the menu is just the tip of the payment…taxes….gratuities….. plus, plus plus…plus yep the usually expect a tip as well…we don’t pay that it just gets out of hand…I am sure even though we get slugged with so many taxes it all in our costs is so much easier…
    I had wontons very crispy with pulled. Chicken, cheese and sauces over it…too many I couldn’t eat them all..5 in total ..John had another lobster 🦞 sandwich ha ha it came in a tasted bread nit a roll as everyone else serves…a bit cheaper than the last one he had…but he said very tasty…but not as good as ours…nit that he has lobster in Aussie Land…… feed and watered…Tim had contacted us and we are doing dinner tighter tomorrow…so we booked this place again…try something else…just have to watch John when he presses the button to pay the bill and the tip but he doesn’t hit the bigger amount…they must love him…😫💓💓

    Back to our room I tried to write this but too buggard today…so now I am finishing it next morning…my brain is functioning again. 😳😁

    Please forgive is mistakes will rectify once home…

    Story of the UFO sighting below

    (Shag Harbour UFO Incident

    An Extraordinary Event
    front page newsAn extraordinary event in 1967 would practically put the small fishing village of Shag Harbor on the map. Located at the southern tip of Nova Scotia, this rural community would be host to one of the best-documented UFO events of the past 40 years.

    Named after the "shag," a bird of the cormorant family, the harbour was literally left off most maps of the time, but that would be changed once and for all.

    The tiny fishing community has always had its stories... stories of giant sea serpents, man-eating squid, and ghost ships. The list of local colours would see one more addition to its list: a story of a visit of a mysterious flying craft of unknown origin. This craft would visit the waters of Shag Harbor, permanently stamping the village's name in the public eye.

    Orange Lights in the Sky
    The first indication of this mysterious occurrence would come from local residents who noticed strange orange lights in the sky on the night of October 4, 1967. Most witnesses agreed that there were four orange lights that evening. Five teenagers watched these lights flash in sequence, and then suddenly dive at a 45-degree angle toward the water's surface. The witnesses were surprised that the lights did not dive into the water, but seemed to float on the water, approximately one-half mile from the shore.
    Witnesses at first thought they were watching a tragic airplane crash, and quickly reported as much to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, which was located at Barrington Passage. Coincidently, RCMP Constable Ron Pound had already witnessed the strange lights himself as he drove down Highway 3 in route to Shag Harbor. Pound felt that he was seeing 4 lights, all attached to one flying craft. He estimated the craft to be about 60 feet long.

    The Response
    witnessConstable Pound made his way to the shore to get a closer look at the phenomenal sight. He was accompanied by Police Corporal Victor Werbieki, Constable Ron O'Brien, and other local residents. Pound clearly saw a yellow light slowly moving on the water, leaving a yellowish foam in its wake. All eyes were glued on the light, as it slowly either moved too distant to be seen, or dipped into the icy waters.

    Coast Guard Cutter #101 and other local boats rushed to the spot of the sighting, but by the time they arrived, the light itself was gone. However, the crewmen could still see the yellow foam, indicating that something had possibly submerged. Nothing else could be found that night, and the search was called off at 3:00 AM.

    The RCMP ran a traffic check with the Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, and NORAD radar at Baccaro, Nova Scotia. They were told that there were no missing aircraft reported that evening, either civilian or military.

    The Report
    shag harbor mapThe following day, the Rescue Coordination Center filed a report with Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa. This report stated that something had hit the water in Shag Harbor, but the object was of "unknown origin."

    The HMCS Granby was ordered to the location, where divers searched the bottom of the ocean for several days, but without positive results.

    Soon, the story of the mysterious crash at Shag Harbor died as quickly as it had begun. That is, until 1993. As the original story faded from papers and newscasts, several theories were put forward. One explanation was that a Russian spacecraft had crashed, which would explain the presence of a Russian submarine in the area. There was also the rumor of American involvement in the follow-up investigation, but there was no official statement from the United States.

    Chris Styles
    The Shag Harbor incident would have new life breathed into it through the efforts of MUFON investigator Chris Styles. The case intrigued him so much that he decided to search for more details. Styles found the names of many of the original witnesses through newspaper clippings and was able to interview many of them.

    Styles was assisted by MUFON investigator Doug Ledger. These two men would uncover some extremely compelling evidence through their interviews. They discovered that when the divers of the Granby finished their work, the case was not over, after all.

    oceanThe divers, along with other witnesses related these events: The object that dove into the waters of the harbour had soon left the Shag area, traveling underwater for about 25 miles to a place called Government Point, which was near a submarine detection base. The object was spotted on sonar there, and Naval vessels were positioned over it. After a couple of days, the military was planning a salvage operation, when a second UFO joined the first. The common belief at the time was that the second craft had arrived to render aid to the first.

    The Navy
    At this time, the Navy decided to wait and watch. After about a week of monitoring the two UFOs, some of the vessels were called to investigate a Russian submarine that had entered Canadian waters. At this point, the two underwater craft made their move. They made their way to the Gulf of Maine and putting distance between themselves and the chasing Navy boats, they broke the surface and shot away into the skies.

    landscapeThese extraordinary events were corroborated by many witnesses, both civilian and military. Unfortunately, the reports were given "off the record." Ex-military personnel feared the loss of their pensions, and civilian witnesses feared ridicule, and their privacy being invaded. The unusual events of Shag Harbor command an important place in the study of UFOs. There is little doubt that something "unknown" crashed into the waters of Shag Harbor on October 4, 1967.

    Written by: B J Booth
    To learn more about the UFO Incident of 1967, visit the Shag Harbour UFO Incident Centre – 5615 Highway 3, Shag Harbour, Nova Scotia Phone: 902-723-0244)
    もっと詳しく

  • Day 58 Tues-Nova Scotia delights…

    2022年7月19日, カナダ ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    Up early but didn’t have to leave until after brekky at the motel…had a messenger call from Vicky to tell us Robyn Bryant Jane’s daughter had collapsed and been flown to the Gold Coast hospital from where they live on the border between Qld and NSW…..much prayer is required and we pray that God will uphold them in this difficult time….as I write this blog there is no word in why this has occurred for Robyn….Jane was in a Biloela visiting Bill and Vicky about to all head out to dinner when the news came through…poor Jane had to drive to Gladstone to get a flight out after arriving in Bilo today from a 4.30am flight from Armidale….she will be absolutely exhausted plus filled with worry…But God has this in every way….

    So feeling very sad we headed to brekky…..I had bought a heap of tomatoes 🍅 that some had accidentally become frozen, so for brekky today because we could cook toast I microwaved them to have on my toast….yummy, yummy….was the best brekky I have had for weeks…with some butter, salt and pepper into it and voila a great meal 🥘 to behold….very satisfied today…

    It was raining when we woke up, so had to pack the car in the rain…then off we went towards the massive 12.9k bridge…. This time we had to lay the toll of $50.27 to get off the island….remember the Canadian $ is more in Aussie $’s…..off we headed over this massive bridge…in the pouring rain and howling wind…to be honest a bit scary with the wind knocking us with its gusts….

    We left around 7.30ish so drove for a few hours stopping at a Tim Hortons for a cuppa….today John’s in luck….he had his Cappa…..on we went until we drove into Nova Scotia where straight up a toll this one was only $4.00 so very good it wasn’t an arm and a leg….then after seeing the Nova Scoria sign there was a tourist info centre…this was truly one of the best centres we have encounter the whole trip…I got to look around while an older guy had John pinned down 😁🤪😂… not really… but he did have him by the ear filling him with all the info of what to do and where to go…I had been around picking up booklets and brochures and blow me down John walked out with nearly the same amount in his bundle as mine…truly crazy we had heaps and double of everything….

    Ahh well I can give a Tim and Jess a bundle 😂😂😂😂 !

    Off we went on the yellow tourist trail through village after village…the most notable and remarkable sight was the red, red mud cliffs…river and ocean banks….truly different and like PEI it stained the water pink….
    We seemed to keep finding Lighthouse here as well …. and Church’s my goodness so many church’s…unreal gorgeous homes kind of Cape Cod type some of them…we seem to follow the inlets that truly left a remarkable sight with what we discovered as Massive tides…one spot we stopped at that had an old bridge that had long gone…but left some pillions behind that had been errored with time with the unreal 10meter tides rolling through the river mouth…We could see on the river wall just how high up it comes.,…. This area had been part of an old rail line with the bridge that was now long gone going across the river South Maitland Marsh….an old caboose was left behind and the tourist info centre at this spot had just lined it with Cedar it smelt unreal….interesting area that’s for sure…. My glory seeing where the ocean comes up the river inlets just how far, how wide and how high it comes in is indescribable…..I was gobb smacked just seeing it’s force of nature and ferocity where it had come up the estuaries….

    Then finding Lighthouse spots dotted along the coast at Burncoat Head… first….this one was built 1859…. This area was filled with people out on the mud flats as it was truly an amazing area to explore….most people had mud boots 🥾 on which gives you an indication of how the area is awash with water over the red heavy soil area… 100 cubic kilometres with incoming and up outgoing tides….unreal isn’t it….apparently the people walking in the beach’s in this area have to keep a close eye on the tide times… because when it does come in it comes in so quickly people have drowned very quickly with its force of the incoming tide 😮😮😮
    Info below in this light house! Any info I have copied has brackets around it so you can zoom past it if you don’t want t know the history!!

    (The Burntcoat lighthouse guided wooden sailing ships since the Golden Age of Sail in Nova Scotia. Built in 1858, the lighthouse was built on land which eventually became an island. A narrow neck of land, just wide enough for a team of horses and wagon, connected it with the mainland. After the strip of land was eroded, the inhabitants went to and from the lighthouse by climbing up and down the bank by means of a ladder. There were five kerosene lamps that were cleaned and lit every evening. The lighthouse keeper of the first lighthouse saw the crashing of the schooner the Only Son (1898). This vessel belonged to the Mariner of Minasville, Captain William Scott. The vessel was being sailed by his sons in a storm and was dashed to pieces off the rocks of Burntcoat. The sons survived and the only part of the vessel that remains is the vessel's guiding light. The first lighthouse was eventually lost to erosion of the coast. The lighthouse was re-built in its present site (1913). The lighthouse was kept by William Faulkner and his family, on whose land the lighthouse was built. The gas light in this house was raised every evening on a 76 ft. tower. During the Great Depression, a German mail plane crashed off the coast at 3:30 am on 6 October 1931. Many local residents, including the lighthouse keeper Thomas Faulkner, heard the loud roar of the plane over their homes and then an explosion in the bay and then silence. Fifteen minutes after the crash the lighthouse keeper Faulkner heard screams from the water. The lighthouse keeper made his way to the Noel wharf to see if a rescue boat was available. There was a schooner, however, Faulkner had to wait for an hour before the tide was high enough to push it off. While he waited, the pilots continued to scream. After an hour, as the schooner began to float, the pilots fell silent. After a twelve-hour search, the bodies of the pilots were not found. The only remnant of the plane that was found was the gas tank. A week later, a pilot's body was found by a passing tugboat. Immediately after the event, Thomas Faulkner reported that he thought he could have saved the men had he had a boat ready. The local newspaper reported that the crew were trying to set a record for mail delivery from Europe to New York. The lighthouse eventually burned (1972). To commemorate the history of the lighthouse and the site where the highest tides in the world have been recorded, the community rebuilt the lighthouse (1995). Burntcoat Head Park is currently operated by the Municipality of East Hants and operates seasonally during the months May–October. Burntcoat Head park contains a replica lighthouse and walking trails and displays that interpret the natural and human history of the Minas Basin. The replica lighthouse contains an interpretive centre that provides information about the tides, past lighthouses, and history about the surrounding area.[15] Burntcoat has one of the only two lighthouses remaining in all of Hants county. The other lighthouse is in Walton, Nova Scotia.)

    The other spot we had time to view a lighthouse was at Walton built in 1873…info below….it was out on an obscure point you couldn’t see from the road so we thought the sign was wrong! But there it was and a lovely little gift shop with a young girl selling her wares there! She hag some really lovely items for sale but John was already in the car ready to head to our next port of call! I had to say sorry the young lady that we were on a time line so couldn’t look longer! It was so quite I could tell she felt quite down! Anyway off we speed’

    (The present lighthouse was built in 1873 by Timothy Parker, at a cost of $620.00. It is the only surviving lighthouse in Hants County. It was once the brightest lighthouse on the upper Bay of Fundy, guiding seagoing ships into the port of Walton.
    Here they loaded cargoes of pulpwood, gypsum and barite before setting out for ports along the eastern seaboard of the United States. The light apparatus consisted of two large flat wick lamps with a brass base, using kerosene oil. The light was magnified by a Fresnel lens with a 16" reflector. A black screen revolved around the outside of the lamp so that the light was visible 10 seconds; dark 3 seconds; visible 4 seconds; dark 3 seconds (occulting), through a repeating cycle. The screen was operated by a clock mechanism, that had to be hand wound each night by cranking a handle for about 60 turns. Kerosene oil for the lighthouse came in 45 gallon drums, and were lightered ashore by the ship's launch to the breakwater, from the Coast Guard ship, S.S. Dollard, which anchored a few miles offshore. In later years the SS Dollard was replaced by the CCGS Thomas Carleton, to serve the Bay of Fundy and the Minas Basin. In later years the lighthouse was converted to an automatic system, with an electronic flasher installed giving light 3 seconds; dark 4 seconds; light 7 seconds, then repeating itself. After the decline of shipping in the late 1970's from the port of Walton, the lighthouse was decommissioned. The lighthouse was declared surplus by the Department of Transport, and was put up for sale by tender. The Municipality of East Hants bought the lighthouse in 1991 for its heritage property. The lighthouse was designated as heritage status on August 12, 1992. Today, the lighthouse is maintained by the East-Hants Tourism Association. It has become an important tourist attraction along the Hants Shore.)

    We ended up with a quick lunch at Just Us Coffee Roastery at Grand Pre’ nothing special but food and quick as we still had a good 5 hours to go…big days with this travelling….getting in late just looking at a few sights along the long roads we are on…truly is crazy going at this pace and you as why! That in itself is another story!

    As with PEI we came across church after church then as we zipped along an absolute monster appeared at the side of the road Église catholique Saint-Bernard Catholic Church it apparently took 32 years to build….Built in the shape of a cross was constructed in 1910 finished for first mass 1942…. Couldn’t see inside and didn’t have time…evening it was opened!

    The best of the truly stunning Homes were in Clifton area Church Point….. my glory seeing the best there as around was at the beginning of the run and nearly the end…

    The houses we were seeing,…were unreal so looking it up I could see what types that we were seeing today….
    (Nova Scotia has many diverse architectural styles, spanning the province's four centuries of built heritage. These styles include:
    French Colonial, 1604-1790
    Dutch or Georgian Colonial, 1700-1830
    Palladian Architecture in Canada, 1749-1830
    Picturesque, 1790-1840
    Neoclassical Architecture in Canada, 1820-1860 (includes Classical, Roman and Greek Revival)
    Scottish, English, German or Irish Vernacular, 1830-1880
    Gothic Revival, 1840-1890
    Italianate/Italian Villa style, 1840-1885
    Second Empire, 1860-1890
    Queen Anne Revival or High Victorian Eclectic, Shingle Style, 1880-1905
    The Four Square, 1895-1930
    Craftsman and Bungalow, 1910-1940
    Tudor Revival, 1915-1940
    Most of the province's heritage structures, especially private residences, were not architecturally designed, but were instead built by knowledgeable carpenters. Consequently, while most have characteristics of a particular style they will not necessarily be 'pure' examples, due to many vernacular influences. Some may even be transitional buildings, with the characteristic style of the time predominating, but overlaid with first touches of the next architectural trend or with vestigial reminders of an earlier style.)

    Our last piece of wow moment was another unreal, cathedral Église Sainte-Marie is a Catholic church in Church Point, Nova Scotia, Canada. It is one of the largest and tallest wooden buildings in North America. Built in the form of a cross, the church nave measures 58 metres (190 feet) in length, with transepts that are 41 m (135 ft) across. The church spire rises 56 m (184 ft) from floor to steeple, with its cross adding another 1.67 m (5 ft 6 in). Originally 4.6 m (15 ft) taller, the church steeple was struck by lightning in 1914, requiring part of the spire to be rebuilt.

    (The first church built in the Church Point area, part of Nova Scotia's French Shore, was at Grosses Coques. Built in 1774, it was a rough chapel to serve the needs of Acadians returning from Massachusetts, and other areas, following the Great Upheaval, the deportation of the Acadians. A second chapel was built in 1786 on a point of land jutting into St. Mary's Bay, giving rise to the name "Church Point"….A third church was built following the arrival of Jean-Mandé Sigogne, the first resident priest. This church was built along the main road in the community, where the parish cemetery is now located, rather than on the point. It burned down in September 1820. It was rebuilt in a classical Georgian style, and served the community from 1829 to 1905, when the present church was opened. Construction on the present church began in 1903. Father Pierre-Marie Dagnaud, a Eudist Roman Catholic priest, was appointed the head of Collège Sainte-Anne in 1899, thereby becoming the parish priest of St. Mary's. He decided on the construction of a grand church, and hired Arthur Regnault of Rennes, France as his architect. The church was built by master carpenter Léo Melanson, with the assistance of 1500 parishioners. Due to dwindling attendance and rising maintenance/repair cost, the church held its last service on Christmas Eve of 2019. With repair cost estimated at $3 million, the Société Édifice Sainte-Marie de la Pointe was set the deadline of September 2021 to raise the required funds.)

    To be honest my mind had by this time gone into overload…so much zipping by so fast trying to capture it as best I could…. My mind has taken in as much as it could….. actually felt numb…

    These long days even though filled with wonderful sights are exhausting…5 yrs ago we could have Blitzed it in….not as young as we were and very, very tired….we will make it I know…. It’s a long story and one I won’t write about…but been a different trip to what was the plan…
    We are in Yarmouth for tonight a seaside town but looks like on an estuary! Yarmouth is the home of the largest fishing fleet in Atlantic Canada!
    We ordered in room meals as we were just too tired to go out…went to reception to order the Vietnamese meals…all good until about 30 mins later they rang to say sorry the cook went home….great… so plan B we found out there is a Walmart looks like frozen dinner meals…and yep they were great…cheap and eatable…a few drinks to cheer the soul and the day has had enough…
    Still waiting on word from Jane on Robyn other to say she is in terrible pain….
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  • Day 57 Mon- Visiting Anne….😁💓

    2022年7月18日, カナダ ⋅ ⛅ 27 °C

    We slept in yeah…John even longer….not a rush to get going today even though we planned to do the East Section if the Island.,,.

    Breakfast was offered In the hotel….nothing special but it was a free or part of the accommodation payment..

    Off we set to see the middle section and go to visit Anne….Anne of Green Gable’s….I truly thought it would just be a little house on a farm we drive by….But it was a huge Tourist Centre all dedicated to the Author Lucy Maud Montgomery….Story of her below…
    We did the tour of th centre about Lucy…then wandered the gardens coming across Anne’s house we didn’t think we could go into Anne’s house as we didn’t think we had paid for that part of the tour…but we did….An older guy came in full of enthusiasm and started filling us in on all types of info about Anne’s life in the house,…they have some really interesting old pieces of old items in the house made to be Anne’s home with Marilla and Matthew ….

    If you have never seen Anne of Green Gables it’s a must….I think even a John enjoyed the visit….

    (One of the best-loved children's/young adult authors, Lucy Maud Montgomery was born on November 30, 1874 in Clifton, Prince Edward Island, Canada, the daughter of Hugh John and Clara Woolner. After attending Prince of Wales College and Dalhouse College in Halifax, she became a certified teacher, eventually teaching in Bideford, Prince Edward Island. She also served as an assistant at the post office and as a writer for the local newspaper, The Halifax Daily Echo. Best known for her Anne of Avonlea and Anne of Green Gables books, Montgomery received many high honors. She was named a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1923 and a Canadian stamp commemorates Montgomery and Anne of Green Gables. In addition, various museums dedicated to the book series and Montgomery's life dot Prince Edward Island. The books in the Anne series follow the growth and adventures of a red-haired, spritely, high-spirited and imaginative orphan named Anne who lives on Prince Edward Island. The success of these books rested in Montgomery's ability to vividly recollect childhood and her easy storytelling ability. They are tremendously popular to this day and have been translated into more than 35 languages and adapted as movies and PBS television productions. On July 5, 1911, L.M. Montgomery married Ewan Macdonald, a Presbyterian minister, and the marriage produced three children. She died on April 24, 1942.)

    The middle section of the island had 100’s I mean 100’s of cottages to stay and heaps of places to eat at….And interesting places to go….
    We managed to find a absolutely stunning place with unreal gardens…The Dunes is a gallery and cafe….it was loaded with amazing items from Bali….it had fine art, Canadian crafts, pottery, furniture, fashion, jewellery, sculpture garden, and a truly stunning, stunning garden..John and I had a conversation about the gorgeous garden….I said everything would have been planted just this season , because the snow would kill them all….John disagreed that they could be this big just this season…I will admit the growth of plants in one season here is truly unreal…anyway there was a gardener so I asked him…and yep all planted this season…..truly remarkable the growth that occurs every season…..mind you the soil here is red soil which is always so much more fertile…..just seeing it in Bundaberg and the veggies they can grow there is amazing…

    We headed off in the hope of seeing some big sand dunes but they were part of a National Park which you had to pay for and we didn’t have time to do it justice since we had to do a u turn and head out….To be honest the rest of our day didn’t end up that exciting….everything we tried to see ended up too hard to see or go to just could get there….even lunch ended up a bit mucky trying to find somewhere we tried find somewhere St Peters Harbour, nothing there… then St Peters no luck there either….

    Another lightbulb 💡 moment tripping around…I noted so many barns with their roofs caved in and driving towards the upper east as well I noted a metal half dome barn with this roof dinted in…it hit me it’s the heavy snow that’s caused the cave ins….even saw half a house with the back half carved in..crazy hey….

    Anyway back on the track to find someone…. We were going to head to Georgetown…but discovered on goggle Montague had restaurants….one stood out Windows on the Water….John had a Lobster Roll that’s the big thing to have here…I had Seafood Chowder…great views love,y and relaxing…after lunch I did a bit if photography around the harbour…then we decided as they day was moving on fast we wouldn’t go any further but head back to Charlottetown to see what it had to offer..We spotted a tourist info centre just after parking…so asked then with limited time what could we see…honestly after discovering it didn’t have a lot to offer we probably did t need to see the info centre but still they were helpful.

    The downtown area was nothing amazing…except for the magnificent St Dunstan’s Basilica Cathedral built Beth 1896-1907….it really rivals anything we have seen in Europe quite stunning in design and all the unreal stain glass windows…quite remarkable….the town centre really didn’t have anything to rave about…we ended up back down at the waterfront…where restaurants are, a number if floating little eateries, a couple of marinas and gift shops were….it was the happening place..plus today is the hottest we have had it the whole time here…28c but it did feel very hot at that…anyway we killed time on the floating pontoon eateries and bars…I had a hit cup of tea…John a beer…then as I really didn’t want to go back to the motel which was 6 ks away then come back out again…we decided to have some more drinks At Peak’s Quay….there was a shop as well called Mrs Peak…I sent pics to Kathy Peak at home…anyway a few more drinks, John had $1 Oysters which were this price between 3-5 we got in 4.55pm….just in the nick of time….sadly they were very tiny one…but guessing they wouldn’t give the big ones for a $1 each…they farm them in the waters around the island…we saw heaps and heaps today…as we drive around the coastal areas….anyway for $1 they were fine….I had Fish Cakes yummy ones they were…… John also had chicken wings which he really enjoyed…it was actually a lovely spot…a good meal…great service…we had a winner,,,😁😁😁 only downside was my Mojito…it tasted like sugar water with obviously vodka in it…2 leaves of mint…and a clear fluid…if it was soda water 💦 I’ll be surprised as it had no fizz….one piece of lime on the side of the glass but none, absolutely none in the drink…😫🤪😩…. I have had a lot of mojitos but never one so tasteless…I had to ask them to bring me some lime so I could add it in and with a straw try to muddle out the flavours of the lime and 2 mint leaves…. It worked eventually not the best but better than the start of it…my goodness they obviously don’t know how to make a mojito….. maybe I could start classes 😁😁😁😁!

    All done with Charlottetown we headed home….John was in bed by 7.30pm…this trip really is knocking him around….
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