17.09.2012 – 17.09.2012  18 °C

A nice early start this morning because I wanted to try and see the fossil cliffs at Joggins before I drove over to PEI. Joggins is a UNESCO listed area and is one of the best areas in the world to find and see fossils!

Well, supposedly it is one of the best places to find fossils. I didn’t quite find it that way today! For starters, I didn’t think about the fact that mid to late morning is high tide today so the cliffs and the fossil beach would be under water. Hmm. What this meant is I had less than an hour to wander under the cliffs to take a look! The other slight issue I ran into was the fact that we’re in the off season now here in NS so there were no archaeological tours. For me one rock looks very similar to another so I wasn’t feeling confident to find a fossil without an expert!

Undaunted I headed down the stairs and onto the shale beach in search of some fossils. I found some obvious fossils (that I think were planted so that all tourists could find something), looking like inlaid plants and a big hunk of what looks like petrified wood. Actually, that is one of the reasons why Joggins is so famous, it is one big petrified swamp. The fossils from here all date to the “coal” age, which is approximately 300 million years ago. Joggins was first discovered in the early 1900s by then renowned geologist Sir William Dawson and it became famous because it is the first place that fossilised amphibians had been found inside fossilised trees! Now days, it is one big cliff and one big shale beach apparently brimming with fossils.

I found it to be one big windy, uninviting grey rocky beach surrounded by equally rocky cliffs. I’m sure with the right guide on a day when the tide wasn’t rushing in and minus the wind, it would have been a great day out.. For me, not worth the out of the way drive just to see some grey rocks. You can’t always get it right!

Anyway, because I didn’t spend much time at Joggins it meant I had more time to spend over on Prince Edward Island (PEI). The drive from Joggins to PEI wasn’t very far and I arrived on the island just after lunch. I stopped in at the visitor centre where I was hoping to get some advice on what to do on the island. Sadly the information centre is not designed for tourists… I’m not sure who it is designed for but obviously not for this tourist! The lady who “helped” me basically told me to go and see Green Gables and that was about it!!! I mean, surely the province has more to offer than one house that was used as the basis for a very famous book???

In fairness, I came to PEI with the sole reason of seeing Green Gables (and I guess many others do to) so maybe she thought that was all I was interested in.. I tried to draw her out on other topics but monosyllable answers aren’t quite what I was looking for…. Anyway, road map of the province in tow, I took off to discover the “Gentle Island” for myself.

That first drive across PEI will always remain in my memory. My gosh, PEI is one very beautiful province! The afternoon was just brilliant. Very sunny (although still windy) and PEI is SO green.. Every inch (or so it seems) of the island is covered in green and red. Green for the grass and red for the soil. Ruby red soil! Incredible to see!!! My description of central PEI is that it is one big farm! And every farm has the green, green pastures (many of which were cut today or the day before for haying), beautifully coloured farm houses (white and red seeming to be the prominent colours), red barns, red soil and a brilliant blue sky. Honestly, some of the most beautiful vistas I’ve seen in a long long time. I now know why Lucy M Montgomery loved this island so much that she based her famous characters here on the island. It is truly beautiful, and to be fair the parts of the island I drove through today are probably similar to the way they were a hundred years ago!!

I arrived at my accommodation for the next few days at Brackley Beach mid afternoon and checked in. After dumping my stuff, I headed out to take more photos of this wonderfully beautiful island. I mean I’ve got absolutely perfect weather.. I can’t afford not to be out taking photos in this light!!

First stop was down to the PEI National Park. The park runs along the foreshore nearby to BB. I couldn’t stop myself, every hundred meters or so I would stop the car and take another photo.. Just so pretty! The shore was very sandy and actually is probably a great place to go for a swim, if the temp was a bit warmer! M would have been impressed as the beach was littered with shells, and not the small broken up types either, but nice big pipi style shells.. Honestly, more shells on this beach than I’ve seen on a beach for such a long time!

From the NP I turned back around and headed up the coast towards the infamous Green Gables. One thing I will say about PEI is that their tourist map is designed so that if you follow a few routes you can see the main attractions for the areas. Even better is that the route is clearly sign posted as you are driving along so no need for my sat nav or my map reading skills today! The drive up to Green Gables follows the foreshore and it is just so pretty. Acres and acres of farmland, some of which is this rich dusty yellow colour (which I later discovered is potato crops that are dying off!). The colours here are just amazing! More beautiful is the fact that many of these farms run right down to the ocean side.. Blue on green or dusty yellow… Gorgeous! The other thing that makes it so photogenic is the fact that the trees that are in this part of the island are mainly there as shelter belting for the crops/ animals so plenty of open spaces not all closed up with pine forest.

I did make it up to Green Gables before closing time but just took a couple of shots as I wanted to be able to come back tomorrow to really soak up the atmosphere. Sadly, the town that now surrounds Green Gables is pretty garish.. It has grown over the years to accommodate the hordes of tourist who descend on the old farm house every year and so is pretty tacky.. I’m sure LMM would be very disappointed if she could see the town of Cavendish (the imaginary Avonlea), I know I was!

My super gorgeous afternoon ended with me testing out the local seafood at the small seaside town of Rustico. I had some scallops with fries and some homemade seafood chowder. The chowder is perhaps the worst I’ve had since coming to Nth America but thankfully the scallops more than made up for the poor entrée. I’m going to miss top notch seafood when I get back to Aus….

Day 1 on PEI complete, three more gorgeous days to follow..