We Took the Ultimate Scenic RV Tour of Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is a very welcoming place. Canada's Ocean Playground is its proud motto and our Fantasy RV Tour's first campground in Nova Scotia sure lived up to that and more. We stayed at Parker's Cove right on the shore of the Bay of Fundy with spectacular oceanfront views that made us never want to leave. So we're all camping right here on the beach and you just couldn't find a nicer spot but now that we're in Nova Scotia a whole bunch of new memories and adventures are awaiting. This is the harbour for Parker's Cove Nova Scotia and about a half dozen families make their living lobstering here in this cove. All of these men that you see here are multi-generational fishermen. It's in their blood. It's who they are. It's what they do. They pass it on from generation to generation. They have a love for this. So I'm a fifth generation lobster and halibut fisherman here in the bay shore of Nova Scotia. Are the lobsters here really better than Maine lobsters that everybody talks about? Yeah well I'm not just saying it because this is where my heritage is but they really are better. It's due to the extremely cold clean coastal waters in the rock bottom of the Bay of Fundy. Pretty cold. It only warms up a few degrees between summer and winter and it's due to the injection of Labrador current into the Bay of Fundy every day. So twice a day actually the Labrador current is shooting down from north here with extremely cold water and the inward push of the tidal flow into the Bay of Fundy twice a day pushes that cold water up in here. It keeps the Bay of Fundy a lot colder than other coastal waters. Okay I gotta ask a fifth generation lobsterman. How often do you eat lobster? Well not as much as most people would think. When I was a kid I had to take them to a school for sandwiches and traded them for peanut butter and jelly. So a few times a year I would say Really? Only a few times a year? This is too much of a good thing right? There is such a thing. It's too much of a good thing. I love them and I was raised on them and my father ate them every day but I enjoy them but maybe just a few times a year. That's good. That's a handsome looking bugger. All of us on this fantasy RV tour of the Maritimes have sure eaten our share of lobster but the locals told us we also need to try the chowders filled with fresh caught Bay of Fundy seafood. Look at this chowder. Havoc. Lobster. Plants. It is absolutely fabulous. This is Digby, Nova Scotia and it's known as the scallop capital of the world. They say the scallops here are the best that you will find anywhere in the world. They are in high demand all over the world and we have been told that you've never had scallops until you've had Digby scallops. So we've come to Digby to eat some scallops. Look at the size of those things. Oh my gosh. Seafood was a constant on all of our dinners out. Linguine with scallops. Salad. Yeah this is good. This is salad with scallops. Spaghetti. Seafood spaghetti and linguine with scallops. Good thing we all like seafood right? Absolutely beautiful to look at as well as the smell. This is how we like to travel. We like to be serendipity in our travel. We like to stop and smell the roses and just enjoy the beauty of where we are and explore it. Taste it. Smell it. Be part of it. This is so nice. So well thought out. These red chairs are placed different places in Canada for you to stop, sit down, reflect upon life, enjoy the beauty that's around you. Just slow down and enjoy which is something that I think we all need to do. This place that we're at now is the first French presence in North America. It was recorded in 1605 and this is the oldest of all the historic sites in Canada. Its history goes back more than 3,000 years to the Mi'kmaq natives who lived in this area. The first nation folks. Then the French came and then the British came but it is a beautiful area and the waters here in Annapolis Royal by the original Mi'kmaq people were called the place of bountiful fish and to this day it is the fish and the seafood of this area of Nova Scotia that is known worldwide. What a place to sit and just take it all in. I hate to do this to you Mike but it's time to move on. We've got a fort that we need to go look at and it's not that far away and if you look you can see a couple of red chairs there so let's go check it out. This is going to be my new standard for a place I want to visit whether they have red chairs. Well these wooden chairs are comfortable. There was a trail of tears so to speak here in Nova Scotia. It involved the French people, the Acadian people. For a couple hundred years this was their territory shared with the first nation Indian tribes but then the British came and they forcibly deported those Acadians. Here in Annapolis Royal there's a plaque that commemorates it in this very spot right here. 1664 local Acadian men women and children were forced onto ships and deported by the British. Some made it back to France but others made it to Louisiana where we now refer to them as Cajuns, Acadia Cajuns. But a trail of tears this happened throughout this whole province as the British moved the French out. I think it's great how the native people and the French meshed together well. They get along, they got along very well. In fact the native people protected a lot of the Acadians and hid them, got them food and helped them stay on this land that they had carved out. They had made dikes and made it suitable for farming and they lived here and they didn't, they just wanted to be neutral. They just wanted to exist and of course the British and the French were fighting and the Brits wanted them to sign allegiance to them. To the crown yeah. And then they would have had to fight against the French and these people were French you know originally even though they just wanted to live peacefully here and it seems like wars. Somebody always is the oppressor, somebody always is the oppressed. It seems to be the story of mankind all over the world doesn't it? But hats off to Canada and Nova Scotia for commemorating all of that and telling us these stories here, powerful stories. Such a pleasant place to come and have a glass of wine. Look at this, isn't this beautiful? Here's to you Nova Scotia. After almost 10 days of enjoying the Bay of Fundy it's time to move on and so now we're headed to the small town of Lunenburg in Nova Scotia and it's quaint and beautiful and old homes bright and colorful and lots of little shops and restaurants to enjoy and it's supposed to be a real highlight. Wow this is pretty country isn't it? Oh it's absolutely stunning and I love how the weeds are growing up on the side of the road they're not cutting them down and it's flowers. We're going down this road that's lined with beautiful flowers, the white and the yellow and occasional pink and roses. It's delightful. This is Mahone Bay, I hope I'm pronouncing it right, Mahone, Mahoney Bay. It's not far from Lunenburg and you can see this little cove, it's just gorgeous. But where are we going? We are going to a place where they make pewter and we're going to make a little piece of pewter. We're going to learn some of the history of pewter and why pewter is such a part of the culture and the life around here. So you're going to make something? Everybody in the group is going to make something? Yes, I'm going to become a pewter expert. A pewterer, pewterer, something like that. Bo's along, Bo says whatever. Yeah, Bo says thank you for not leaving me back at the RV. Up until the mid-19th century, pewter was used for everything. For dishes, for silverware, everything that you needed to hold and store it seems like it was made out of pewter. It even held your medicine. So pewter was a part of life that you couldn't get along without and this is one of the few places still left where they make handcrafted pewter. While Jen and our fellow campers worked on making a pewter ornament, Bo and I took a look around Mahone Bay. In particular, we wanted to check out these three churches right on the harbor front. And since we had some time to kill, we drove over to the ocean and a place called Blue Rocks. You can see these rocks definitely have a blue tint to them. Then it was back to see Jen and what she made at the pewter store. Hey, while you were gone, look what we made. Isn't this a cute little sail ship, a little reminder of being here? And I could put a little hole in it, make it a tree ornament or hang it on the window or I can put a magnet on the back just to be a little reminder of this wonderful adventure that we've had here. All right, that's really nice. Now what are we going to do? Well, I think we've got more exploring to do. How about going to the ovens? The what? The ovens. What are the ovens? That sounds pretty exciting, doesn't it? Well, it sounds okay. Let's go. Let's go. Is food involved? No. Oh, well, let's go anyway. All right. We are at the ovens and just when we thought it couldn't get any prettier, it has. This place is a must see. The ovens is a private park, but check this out. They call this place the ovens because of the sea caves carved out at the base of the cliffs. Caves shaped like a large oven. A trail meanders along the cliff offering great views. Staircases make their way down to the caves, which fill and empty each day according to the tide. We're about 35 miles from Halifax. This is where we are going to come upon Peggy's Cove, which is an iconic place here in Nova Scotia. It's probably the most photographed lighthouse anywhere in the Maritimes. And it is an amazing little town. Just picturesque little houses. Peggy's Cove. So there it is. That's the lighthouse. And half the fun is just walking around on these rocks. As far as the lighthouse goes, location, location, location. This is just a very picturesque location because we are just over there. North Atlantic. Check this out. Everybody is scrambling around playing on these rocks. There is that lighthouse. Next, we visited downtown Halifax, the largest city in the Maritimes. It's built around a star-shaped citadel constructed by the British in 1749. Troops in full uniform replicas from the time period paraded for tourists. The impressive fort commands an awesome view of the modern city. After touring the citadel, we strolled along the Halifax Wharf with hundreds of other visitors. We left Halifax for a unique experience called the Tidal Bore, where those massive bay of fundytides rush into the Shubenacadie River. Twice a day, they flood the river up to 35 feet, and then they drain out, leaving behind lots of mud. The Tidal Bore creates opportunities for brown water rafting and mud sliding. It was time to head to the far eastern end of the province and Cape Breton Island. So we are on Cape Breton, and we are about to take a little ferry over to the Cabot Trail. And this is, the Cabot Trail is probably one of the most epic road trips anyone can take anywhere in the world. World famous, gorgeous views. The weather today is a little overclass, but hey, we're going anywhere. We're here, so we're gonna go, and it's not raining. We have a little shortcut from our campground. There's a little ferry that takes you across. And we just watched 14 vehicles get off this ferry, which I would have been amazed if it could hold four. So I guess we'll make it. The Cabot Trail is a 178 mile curving road along the northern end of Cape Breton Island. It has great scenic overlooks of the Atlantic, but it can become quite crowded at times. On the day we drove it, the cloud cover and a bit of fog obscured the best views, though what we saw before everything turned gray was indeed impressive. Back at the campground, just 20 miles away, the weather was fine, but the next morning when we visited an amazing place called the Fortress of Louisbourg, the fog had rolled in again. What you notice when you enter the fort right off is that the people who are explaining the history of this fort are dressed in costume, and it makes it very educational to see how they dress and to have them speak as though we were in that time period. You have to kind of get used to that little bit. I love this. I love it. I'm so glad we're here. Thank you for bringing me. Like stepping back, like stepping back in time into this French community. Okay, Mike, I'm going to lead you for a little bit, and to make you stay put, I'm just going to do this to you so that you'll I'll know where you are, and you haven't wandered off, and I don't know where you are, and I don't So this ought to keep you in one spot. All right. This building is the military. After the fortress, we were hungry and ready to try a special sandwich we'd heard a lot about, unique to the Maritimes, called the donair. Tell me what a donair is. It's a Greek food. Yeah. It's from Greece, and they make it sometimes with chicken, pork, with hamburger. But it's just special meat, right? Yes, and a special sauce. It's a sweet sauce that goes on it. Oh, it's cooked on a spit. Yeah. And then it's cut down in strips. Yeah. Terms on it, it's called a soumekian machine. All right. I hope you like it. I'll find out. Thank you. Okay, Mike, this is one, and you would not believe how heavy this is. It is, it feels like a brick. Holy cow. We are not going to run laps after these nuggets. Holy smokes, that is a lot of meat. I see tomatoes and onions and a very interesting sauce that has a little bit of a kick to it. This is a lot of meat. I don't know if that's cabbage in there. I'm not quite sure what else is in there. It is tasty, and I can see why people could get hooked on these. The Donair. Well, that pretty much wrapped up our tour of Nova Scotia, but our fantasy RV tour of the Maritimes continues with a visit to a third province. And I can't wait to go to Prince Edward Island. That will be in our next video. Hey, we're Mike and Jennifer Wendland. Thank you for watching. Would you do us a big favor and subscribe to our RV Lifestyle YouTube channel. Just hit that little subscribe button, click the bell icon, and then you'll be notified when new videos are online. Thanks so much for watching. Happy trails.