Colourful houses in a seaside village

Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

17-19 July, 2016

Fort Cumberland to Lunenburg is three hours, so with our stop at Fort Cumberland, it stretched our driving day of 432kms until about 4pm. We hadn’t done any Walmart stopovers since coming into Canada, but decided to stop in Bridgewater with the intent of moving onto an RV park the next day. We asked the manager if it was okay to stay, of course he said. The next morning a police car stopped by our trailer and then we hear a knock on our door. O oh. Lindsay opens the door and invites Mr Policeman in, does he want a cup of tea? No, thank you. It seems there was a robbery overnight and some Honda generator’s had been stolen. Ours was purring away just outside the door. He had noticed it was the same brand. I’m still not sure if he thought ours was part of the stolen bounty or if he thought we might be in danger of losing it. If it was the former, I have a scan of the receipt from Campingworld but he didn't ask. I told him that I had come to photograph the waterfront down in Lunenburg and he asked if I was going to do it from the golf course. I had just been looking at Google maps c/- Walmart’s free wifi and had come to the same conclusion, but it was good to hear it confirmed. We had a bit of a chat about things in general and he went on his way. Nice guy, it's a pity more policemen aren't like him.

The full panorama of the waterfront

Lunenburg was about half an hour away. It has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It’s a pretty seaside town, where people have really taken pride in their properties and painted them in all sorts of colours, emphasizing the moldings, windows and doors in a contrasting colour. Even the church is a striking sight in black and white.

Strong contrasting colours

Bright colours

Striking church

Our friend Debbie from Vancouver Island had told us that her cousin lived down the coast in Broad Cove. So we thought it would be a good idea to combine a coastal drive and going to meet her at their coffee shop. Unfortunately they are closed on Mondays so we didn't get to meet them, but it was a nice drive anyway.

Lots of lovely little coves

and fishing boats

That night we went down to the golf course to get a panorama of the waterfront at sunset, except there was no sunset as it was overcast. We tried anyway, walking through some marsh to get to the best vantage point only to be massacred by mosquitoes. Even though we had some insect spray in the car, we had forgotten that in Canada at night, you really really need to use it. Because they wouldn’t let us walk through the greens we had to take the long route around and it was too far to go back to the car. Disappointingly there were three fishing trawlers in front of the red buildings that I specifically wanted to photograph.

Sometimes it's better to concentrate on a small section

The waterfront

Lots of fish

The following day we explored the other side of Lunenburg. Mahone Bay was another pretty little town and we stopped at a coffee shop. After ordering our coffee at the counter Lindsay came outside to say we were moving tables as he had just struck up a conversation with Peter and Leanne from Kiama, a small town on the New South Wales coast. It turns out that I had spoken a few words to him the day before while photographing the church in Lunenburg. So fate had given us another chance at connecting. If you think we have done a lot of travelling, then you would be amazed at where these guys have been and what they have done. It was really good to catch up with some like-minded people from home.

Lovely little shops

Many of the flowers are annuals as it does snow here

The sky was clear so we went down to the golf course to try again. You wouldn’t believe it, someone had parked their huge and I mean huge white yacht in front of the red building. So annoying. Fishing trawlers were still in front of both red buildings.The sunset was to the side, so the light wasn’t what I expected. I wasn't just wasn't meant to get this photo. All in all, it was very disappointing.

Nice boat, but not what I wanted in my picture

Digging up clams

Camping:

Bridgewater Walmart - we never ended up moving!