Nova Scotia - where will we sleep tonight?

We landed in Nova Scotia with van troubles on our mind.  But God is good.  We made an appointment with the mechanic who had changed our oil and rotated our tires a month ago.  We found him quite by accident but felt good about him.  This feeling was confirmed when he fixed our van, and changed our oil for $300 in 2 hours.  So we were on the road again.  Can't say I am in love with Nova Scotia. Loved Cape Breton but the South and Eastern coasts not so much.  But reading back over this, Gerry reminded me that we have done some nice little hikes along this coast.  Along one, we saw several sea caves, some we could actually go right in to.  Another was along the coast, and it started off foggy, but cleared and we saw seals and birds and beautiful beaches.  So I guess it was worth while to see it.   But we are also  having so much trouble getting campgrounds. After leaving the ferry we took the southern route, heading for Halifax. The road was rough, and windy and not very scenic.  The speed limit was 80 but Gerry rarely got the van over 60.  I kept looking for a road to take us back up to highway 1, but once we were on this road it seems we were committed.  Then suddenly the road ended and there was this little ferry we had to take. The ferryman was really friendly and since we were the only ones on the boat he talked to us for the ride over.  He assured us the road would get better about 10 km's up the road.  And it did.  But he made us feel  better about things, and he was just laughing about everything  we had been experiencing (I guess we were ranting a bit); definitely changed our attitudes for the better. We stopped just outside of Haliax as there were some biking trails that we wanted to do.   I had phoned ahead about a campsite and they had none, but she thought there might be a cancellation so if we came through we could stop and probably camp for the night.  And that worked out so we had a site for Friday night. But for the next night, Saturday, there was nothing.   Phoned to Halifax to see if I could get something for Saturday and Sunday and I could for Sunday , but not Saturday.  So I went back to the office and asked if we could go on a wait list.  Sure enough we were able to get a spot for Saturday at the same campground, but had to move spots.  We did a nice little bike and walking hike the next day. It was an old railway line. It felt good to be on our bikes again.  But the little hike we took where we parked our bikes turned put to be a bit more strenuous than we thought.  We hiked for 2 hours and it was tough. I fell, right when we met this really cute guy on the trail and then he was kind of suggesting this trail wasn't for me as it got more technical a little farther up.  How embarassing, plus I got 2 huge bruises on my hip and knee. But yes, we continued the hike and I did not fall again.  We enjoyed Halifax, but did it in one day. We started with a bus tour to get a feel for the city and then returned to some of the spots that really interested us. Plus I got my first Starbucks coffee since Quebec City.  I  tell you, if you have money to invest, buy Tim  Horton's stock.  It is huge in Canada, and busy everywhere we go.  Our next stop was KejimKujik National park where we spent 2 days hiking and biking.  It is a beautiful spot in central Nova Scotia, but it is fairly flat and so you don't get the views.  Most of the hikes we did were along rivers and through forests.  Peaceful. But not that exciting.  We had booked our ferry from Nova Scotia to New Brunswick for Saturday morning, after calculating what we wanted to see and estimating the time line.  It was the long weekend and we started on Monday trying to find campsites for Thursday and Friday night without success.  We were just debating whether to change our ferry and I phoned one last campground that I hadn't been able to contact.  They had a spot we could have for Thursday but not Friday.  Apparantly there is a big motorcycle rally in Digby every Labor Day long weekend. When I explained we were travelling and couldn't plan ahead that far and needed to catch the ferry Saturday she said that if nothing became free, through cancellations, we could dry camp in their parking lot for Friday night.  We did manage to get a nice spot for both nights so it all worked out.  All in all the campgrounds in Nova Scotia haven't been too bad.  Maybe that is why so many people camp here.  I am having trouble with my wine glass though. It doesn't want to stay in my armrest and keeps spilling all over me and my chair.  We have our own designated chairs as mine is wine stained now and Gerry doesn't want anything to do with it (plus he wants to protect his chair). It's a good thing I drink white wine and not red! I also have anew favourite drink;  Bailey's with Maple syrup. We could only find it in Quebec and Nova Scotia, so I bought 2 bottles on our last day in NS.  It is so nice to sip while sitting around the fire.  We enjoyed exploring the Digby neck, which is a thin Pennisula, about 60 km long, with 2 islands, that you take little ferries  to.  We hiked and enjoyed the views of the Bay of Fundy.  Did one little hike with 233 stairs up and down!  Can't forget those stairs! We are now on the ferry headed for New Brunswick so I will post this and say good bye to Nova Scotia.



ferry to New Brunswick.  But it is rainy and miserable out and the forecast for the next few days does not look promising,  so I am curbing my enthusiasm for now.