Kathleen's Window: Annapolis River and Digby Scallops

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Sunday morning June 2^nd we drove away from Blomidon Provincial Park, off the escarpment and down into the Annapolis Valley. The weather forecasters promised one more day of sunshine, and we enjoyed our journey southwest through farmland and pastures. Past apple groves, chicken farms, berry bushes, sheep, cows, horses and green, green fields. We stayed off the main roads and explored the farm lanes. The valley is hemmed in by the North Mountains and the South Mountains. Not too clever with names those early settlers, eh?

Diked farm fields constructed by French in mid-1600s

Apples

Canadian horse farm

It was time for a propane and diesel fill-up in Kentville. We have gone a month on our 18 gallon propane tank. We've had to run the propane generator more lately to charge up the coach batteries when we dry camp, because our solar panels haven't had sun. Next we needed to re-supply our food. The last grocery stop was Calais, Maine before we crossed the border. I wasn't down to one carrot and one onion like I was in Stillwell Ranch, Texas (60 miles from the nearest grocer), but I was close. The food prices were similar to the US. This was a smallish local store. We haven't been to a Sobey's yet, which seems to be the big chain. I was hoping to find lots of local produce since we're in the agricultural heart of Nova Scotia, but it's still early Spring here. Most of the produce was not organic, and was from California or Mexico. I did find Nova Scotia mushrooms, asparagus, apples, greenhouse tomatoes and English cucumbers, and Prince Edward Island onions. I purchased a small amount of fiddleheads, the tightly curled up ferns that come up in the Spring woods. They're considered a treat before they unfurl. As soon as we entered Canada we saw them being sold on the side of the road. I spoke with a local shopper who suggested I boil them in salted water for five minutes and then saute them with garlic.

I commented to her that I was surprised to see so much produce had been shipped in from the States, and she said she was with a group that was trying to get the grocery stores to carry more local produce.
We drove out to the North Mountain range which is the high cliffs that border the Bay of Fundy, and along the top. It was 84 degrees in the valley and 60 degrees on top of the bluff. The fog bank was literally at the edge of the cliff, so there was no view. Back down in the valley we stopped in Berwick for lunch at The Union Street Cafe and the Wick Pub. They specialize in local ingredients, and we had the Sunday Brunch buffet. Breakfast type foods, including fish cakes with yummy sauce, salads, and we had local beers. I had a Propeller Honey-Wheat and Greg had the Garrison Ale. The Tour de Brew continues!

The perfect lunch - all you can eat breakfast and a local ale!

By late afternoon we arrived in the town of Bridgetown along the Annapolis River. We backed in to a site 15 feet from the river at the Annapolis River Campground. It is run by the man who holds the world record catch of a Bluefin Tuna, at 1,496 lbs. He looks really young on the photo compared to the white haired man he is now. Greg said there probably aren't tuna that big anymore given the overfishing of them. So he may be the record holder the rest of his life!

We sat along the river and watched the small boats go by; canoes, jet skis and powerboats. There was an abandoned railway trestle nearby and the local teens were daring each other to jump off of it. There was very little tidal change on the river, and we discovered the next day that it was blocked from the tides by a causeway down the river at Annapolis Royal.

The sun was so warm, we needed to sit in the shade along the Annapolis River

The rain came back overnight. Before we left the next morning we had a nice conversation with the campground volunteer. He and his wife are there for the summer. They are British and taking 3 to 4 years to travel in their motorhome around North America. Having been posted in Hong Kong years ago, they are planning to spend some years in Asia next, probably doing a lot of inexpensive beach rentals. He gave us some good tips for campgrounds in Peggy's Cove and Cape Breton.

We continued on through more of the Annapolis Valley until we reached Annapolis Royal, which was the first capitol of Nova Scotia, in the 1700's, before Halifax. Stopping at the Annapolis Tidal Generating Center and Visitor Center, we took a tour of the facility. Greg will tell you about it at the end of this post.

Close by was the Port Royal National Historic Site. We sat in the RV and ate lunch while the rain poured down. Once it slowed enough we headed to the entrance. Port Royal is a reconstruction completed in the 1940's under the instigation of a woman from the U.S. It was founded in 1605 by Samuel de Champlain and was one the earliest European settlements in North America. This area of Nova Scotia was originally settled by the French, but changed hands many times with the English. Our guide was a tenth generation Acadian. This area was originally named Acadia. Wow! We got an hour's worth of Acadian, Canadian, and personal history. We even heard about his trip to Camden Yards baseball stadium in Baltimore, where he saw Cal Ripkin, Jr. hit the 9^th inning winning home run! Obviously, we were two of the few visitors on that rainy day, and he was thrilled for the company. When we finally got to walk around the settlement, we wound up in another long conversation with a costumed docent who has been there since 1988. That led to an interesting discussion of the Jamestown Settlement in Virginia. They sailed up to this settlement in 1613, raided it for supplies for Jamestown and burned it down, effectively ending Port Royal. We'd never heard their “side” of the story! They had been quite successful up to this point because they were able to forge a strong relationship with the First Nation tribes who helped them to survive.

Our guide, William Melanson, 10th generation Acadian explaining the delights of authentic Acadian rain.

It had become a rainy, dreary afternoon, so we skipped the walking tour of Annapolis Royal and Fort Anne, and drove the half hour to Digby. We found the Digby Campground, along the road to the ferry back over to St. John, New Brunswick, picked out a spot with a water view, and spent the night there.

Digby campsite

This morning, the sun was out again (fickle weather!) We walked down a bike path through the woods behind the campground and within 10 minutes found ourselves in downtown Digby. There are only a few blocks to the town. Digby is known for it's scallops, so there were fishing boats tied up, and a marina with sailboats. The main street ran along the water and had shops and restaurants and lots of water views across the Annapolis River harbor. We walked a bit and then had lunch on the deck at the Shoreline Restaurant. Greg got to try the famous Digby scallops sauteed in garlic. We had local beer from Halifax, Oland Ale. After lunch Greg found the Mag Pye Bake Shop and came out with pecan squares. Since we had already eaten, we got them to take home, but it would have been fun to sit in the shop with the unique antique tablecloth on each table and have a treat while drinking out of antique mis-matched tea cups and saucers.

Authentic Digby lupines

Digby downtown

Flowery things

Mural on tourist center

Digby scollops! If I had been smart, I'd have replaced the fries and veg with fried clams.

Always ready to try the local variations of Pecan Pie!

If he had driven the same distance south instead of east, he would have been in Acapulco!

Digby Harbor, still more fishing boats than yachts.

After we walked back I took advantage of a nice, empty laundry room at the campground to do laundry, while Greg read and took a nap in the “man cave”, the bottom bunk in the back of the RV! The next three days should be cooler, but good weather, so tomorrow we will drive to Digby Neck, which is a long skinny peninsula along the coast, take the short ferry to Long Island, and another short ferry to Brier Island at the end, to see the bird life, lighthouses, and the seal colony. After that we will head for Yarmouth on the southern coast of Nova Scotia.

Annapolis Tidal Generating Center - by Greg

When we were camped at Bridgetown along the Annapolis River, we noticed that the water level in the river channel only fluctuated about a foot even though the tides down here were still over 30 feet, so we expected to see a tidal weir at some point down stream. What we found was a much grander structure consisting of an earth and rock causeway about 12 miles downstream at Annapolis Royal. Centered in the causeway is the Annapolis Tidal Generating Station, which was built in 1984 as a demonstration project for generating electricity using low-head tidal flow. We had a great tour by a very knowledgeable docent (probably a retired engineer) who was thrilled to have company on a rainy Monday.

The futuristic concrete building is just the cherry on top of the huge concrete structure that extends 40 feet down to house the 10-foot diameter turbine. This station was a test of design and materials to learn how well stainless steel turbines and concrete endure the saltwater and abrasive sediments. The station works well, generating 20 megawatts at peak flow but is the last of its kind. The ecological impacts and engineering headaches learned here and at other causeway sites in the 1960's mean that causeways will not be used to cross significant lengths of water in the future. Even though there is a large fish passage right next to the turbine intake, enough fish go through the turbine that a semi-permanent population of gulls, cormorants, and seals comes at mid-tide to enjoy the fish that are stunned by the turbine pressure waves.

Future efforts to generate electricity from tidal flows will concentrate on free standing structures submerged in deep, fast flowing channels. Recent full-scale tests have discouraged one major Irish design effort after the 30-foot diameter, 50-ton turbine had all of its stainless steel blades blown out in a matter of weeks. The peak flows in the bottom of the Minas Channel were more than twice as powerful as the design was capable of enduring. This shows that the power is there but creating a durable-enough generator will be a tough challenge.