Maritimes 2007:Lower Five Islands

Whoopee!!! A sunny day at last… and the sunny day lasted. It was a good day to explore the area to the west of Lower Five Islands.

Our first stop was the town of Parrsboro. We had passed through here on the way to Lower Five Islands. The literature we had indicated that the town had a Geological Museum focused on the Bay of Fundy. When we got to the museum, it turned out to be more of a shop selling rocks than a museum. Since we were heading west on Main Street, we continued on, eventually getting to a sign that said no outlet and the paving ended. This was perfect for our curious ways and turned out to be an interesting ride. We got some good views of the Minas Basin from the top of some hills and found the town’s harbor and lighthouse.

Our next stop was Cap D’Or. The guidebooks said that this was one of the most spectacularly situated lighthouses in Nova Scotia. It sits at the entrance of the Minas Channel, which connects the Minas Basin with the main part of the Bay of Fundy. Behind the lighthouse are cliffs rising some 350 feet. One of the informational signs at the lighthouse stated that the amount of water that passes through the channel every six hours and twenty five minutes exceeds the daily outflow of all the worlds’ rivers. The nature of the land on either side of the channel and an underwater reef causes the flow to break into three separate currents. These currents cause an area of turbulence just off the cape that is called the Dory Rips.

Advocate Harbor, a few miles from Cap D’Or, was to be our next stop. It was a pretty bay, but we didn’t find it “special.” We continued on to Joggins, which, according to the guidebooks, was of interest because of the fossil laden cliffs outside of town. We walked down to the beach below the cliff and looked for fossils. There are warning signs to stay away from the cliffs because of the falling rocks, but like everyone else, we went close anyway because that is where the potential fossils were. I found nothing of note and presented Susie with a lump of coal, which is sort of a fossil… she threw my gift away :-(

The ride from Lower Five Islands to Joggins was about 85 miles. I didn’t want to drive the same route again so I turned on my trusty GPS and asked it for a route. The calculated route was 39 miles and looked like it took us cross country and we would only hit a small section of the route traveled on the way out. Cross country are the key words. Most of the route was on graded but unpaved roads that took us through the woods. As we were driving I commented that we had seen much wildlife on our trip thus far, save for the ferocious rabbit at Cap D’Or. I no sooner got these words out, when a black bear bounded across the road in front of us.

All in all, it was a great day.

Lower Five Islands, NS

13 July 2007

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