September 22, 2009 – Pleasant Surprises

We camped yesterday in Bridgetown, a small farming town. The camp ground, situated on a small river, is right on the edge of town. We can walk across the bridge into the town and four blocks later be on our way out the other side. There isn’t much in town to see; a grocer, a couple of clothing shops, Realtor, lawyer, a couple of barber/beauty shops. It is just like the majority of small farming towns we’ve seen. On Post Office street, you can find the Post Office. Church Street has the town three churches and Rink Street has the ice skating rink.

But we wanted to see Digby. We took the coast road over to Annapolis Royal. I expected another little seaside fishing village. And in most way, it was. But we found Fort Anne, originally founded by the French. It is a bastion style fort. The earth works are quite evident, but most of the fort’s buildings, except two, are gone. One of the remaining buildings is a powder magazine, built in 1705 of stone and mortar. The other, a wooden frame building, now houses the visitors’ center. The rest of the town consists of a couple of blocks of shops, cafes and the waterfront. But the history of the town with occupations by both French and English is quite interesting.

Next, we were off to the Digby Neck which is a peninsula between the Bay of Fundy and Mary’s Bay. If you travel the full extension of the Digby Neck, you can then take the ferry to Long Island. And, if you travel the full length of Long Island, you can take the ferry to Brier Island. About half-way out the Digby Neck, Carol stated she didn’t really need to see any more. Thinking to my self, “thank goodness”, I agreed and we turned around. One interesting note is the proposed development of wind farms in the Digby Neck. We saw a lot of signs in support of “clean energy” and a lot of signs in opposition. It must be a real hot button locally. When you get to the upper reaches of the Bay of Fundy, they are proposing a “tidal” energy plant. As best as I can tell, they submerge hydro-turbines which spin as the tide moves in and out. And, in the Bay of Fundy, it can be a significant motion.

Digby, town of, specifically, was our next stop. Wow, another fishing town! We haven’t seen one of these for a while! Look, colorful houses; ticky-tack shops; little cafes; a board walk along the harbor; a nestle of fishing boats and eateries featuring the world famous “Digby Scallops”. We did stop for lunch and one of us had the “Digby Scallops”. One of us selected French Onion Soup and was somewhat disappointed. The scallops were sautéed in garlic and butter. While they were quite good, I’m not enough of a scallop connoisseur to deem them “world famous”. I mean a scallop is a scallop isn’t it? Don’t ask that question of a Nova Scotian, there will be Hell to pay.