Quidi Vidi - A Tiny Natural Fishboat Harbour

Quidi Vidi is a lovely little place not to be missed on a trip to St John's. We have never been hugged by the proprietoress of a bar in the past especially after one quick beer. We were stunned but we loved it.

The green building was an old fish plant but has been converted into a brewery. We took a tour around the brewery, had some samples and got talking to the maintenance man who forced us (not hard, I know) to try numerous bottles of their new ice berg lager as a taste test. A note to Quidi Vidi - good beers, lads, keep up the good work. But what do you expect from a labour of love?

Ice Berg Ahoy!

These titantic sinking lumps fall off of Greenland in Spring and like most European travellers arrive off the East Coast in early summer. Enterprising individuals such as Quidi Vidi (next blog) go out with barges to collect bits of berg to melt for beer or keep frozen for cubes in chi-chi cocktails.

Guess the season and win a pint.

Yes, the weather in St John's was really shite! The average temperature was 8 degrees and we were bundled up in toques, this was June for goodness sake! Well, what can you expect from an island in the North Atlantic with ice bergs floating by. Actually, the poor weather was partly a result of said ice bergs. The warm wet air passing over the ice bergs results in heavy cold fog.

The curve in the road is the end of infamous George Street which consists of nothing but pubs and clubs. The construction seen in the lower righthand of the picture was on a new brewpub which will hopefully be completed by our next trip but on Newfoundland time we are not entirely certain it will be!

The gregarious Newfoundland drinker, full of wit and spontaneous fiddle playing, is a noturnal beast that we rarely encountered. A late night for us is eleven o'clock which is about 2 hours before the Newfie drinker appears on the scene. On our next trip to Nfld, we plan on practising staying up late weeks before going so as to be able to sample the nightlife at least once.

On Our Way to Newfoundland

Newfoundland is a long way away (for BC ferries riders). It isn't surprising that they did not join Canada until 1949 (a subject that is hotly debated to this very day).

Pictured right is the MV Joseph and Clara Smallwood on which we travelled 14 hours each way, to and from Newfoundland and it felt like forever, even with the fabulous atmosphere of the bar (nonexistent). There are 2 ferries to Nfld, 1 that takes 6 hours and results in driving the whole length of Nfld if you are going to St John's (tortuous, we hear). This 14 hour ferry results in a 2 hour drive to St John's and is priced accordingly (not cheap but try swimming with a camper).

Hiking in Cape Breton Highlands

Travelling north into the highlands, it is very picturesque and similar to Scotland. The Gaelic ancestry is still apparent on road signs, Gaelic is taught at schools and the fiddle and bagpipes are regularly heard ( and not necessarily for tourists).

We fit in a bit of hiking while there in the national park and it truly is a spectacular sight and well worth a visit. The views are stunning as you can see here. Northern Cape Breton is sparsley populated and has poorly maintained but empty roads and is ideal for motorcycle touring (we would love to do that one day).

On our way there, we passed through a small hamlet called Indian Brook and had to pull over when we saw a sign for a Lobster Supper. What a feast....! Couldn't have had better at a fancy restaurant and just for a fraction of the price. Here we were served lobster, salads, buns, dessert and tea or coffee for only ten dollars each - a second lobster would have only been five dollars more! YUM...(we had heard that this is a common fundraiser in the coastal towns and so were on the lookout for such a deal).

The Og's First Swim

We have renamed the Sand Dunes Beach at West Mabou "Og's Beach" (though, you probably won't find the change on any maps) because this is where our little otter fell off the continental shelf and learned that he loved to swim. Now, we can't get the little bugger out of the water. He simply loves it, he will just swim around and around if you give up throwing a stick for him.

Glenora Distillery

Canada's Only Single Malt Whiskey

Cape Breton Island has Canada's only single malt whiskey distillery - and good it is too! It is in a picturesque valley on the west side of the island near Mabou (which we will get to in a later blog).

L'Acadie...ahh!

One of the reasons for crossing the country was to see the land of Tina's ancesters, the Acadians. Here is Grand Pre with it's statue of Evangeline the heroine of Longfellow's romatic poem of the plight of the deported Acadians.

It was at this site that the Gaudets, along with the other french settlers of the area were deported in the "Grand Derangement" of 1755. At this point in time the Acadians felt to be their own people (they swore allegience neither to France nor to the ruling British colonizers) and were therefore a threat as Britain was in a colonial war with France.

Tina found it to be a moving experience to visit this historical site of her family's past and somehow found that going to Nova Scotia was oddly like a homecoming.

New Brunswick

We don't have much to say about New Brunswick. Due to the vastness of Ontario and some of our 1000 km, 12 hour driving days, we thought Canada was going to go on forever. Imagine our surprise when Tina spoke to the fellow next to her at this real ale pub in Moncton (which we had to visit, of course!) that Halifax, in Nova Scotia (our intended target) was only a mere 2 hours away! On discovery of said fact, pints were downed and with a cry of "Let's go!", we hit the road.

It being late at night, we didn't actually make to Halifax but when we parked up in Amherst we slept well knowing that we were in Nova Scotia (this was our sixth night on the road).

Vieux Quebec

After a harrowing journey through the heart of Montreal in a three ton truck and camper combo (sorry, not available at your local McDonalds) we made it to Quebec City and its beautiful old town. It has been tastefully maintained and offers a wholly European feel without leaving North America.

Having spent a summer here 17 years ago, Tina was entranced once again by the city's beauty and flair.

Charlie found that this touristy part of Quebec actually offered bilingualism and pleasant service for anglos instead of the taciturn service that we generally found in the rest of the belle province ( it does have the best roads however)(The IGA in Riviere du Loup had one of the best delis to be found in a supermarket, a good selection of wine, a brilliant beer selection and our favourite brand of Italian coffee and for a good price as well). The belle province was better than Charlie (the anglo and ardent Canadian nationist)expected and all that Tina remembered.

CROSS CANADA ADVENTURE

Well, it seems only right to start our blogs about our fabulous adventure with a photo of our nation's capital. This adventure will be presented in a series of chunkules.


Might as well start here: these are our Houses of Parliament which for some reason they chose to build in a place with unbearable summer humidity and bitter winter cold. Given this apparent lack of climatic forethought, is it any wonder that good Canadians don't take the federal government seriously? Ottawa is however, very pretty and was our first real stop on our journey across the country as we drove like mad from Fort St John to Nova Scotia in six days.