So as I said in my last blog…..don’t judge a book by it’s cover. John has done an amazing job renovating his family’s cottage and he has plans to expand it, to add a bedroom, deck off the back, etc. It was great hearing his stories. Over years, the cottage was sunk into the ground and just before Hurricane Fiona hit, he had raised it up as the start of the renos. He got worried about the storm coming in, so he filled it underneath and sides with backfill. Him and his Dad were in the cottage for over 12 hours while the storm came through. He didn’t even want to open the door “as I thought it would take it off and just suck us out!” Imagine – winds were 105 miles per hour. He said the windows were bowing, and the sound of the wind was terrifying. He thought the entire cottage with them in it would just blow away. His old trailer on the side of the cottage blew into the field, but the funny thing he told us a pair of flip flops stayed in the same place on the back porch. How is that even possible? As we toured around PEI we saw other damage of what Fiona left behind 2 years ago when it hit the Eastern coast.
We were supposed to get rain today, and we did chat about should we go cycling or not….and we decided to not let technology dictate what we are going to do. We went and it was great. It was overcast but the rain stayed away and we stayed dry. The bike rental Confederation Bike Rental in St. Peter’s Bay was great – we pre-ordered our bikes. I would suggest reserving especially in the busier summer season, as they have a very good cancellation policy.
We cycled on part of the Confederation Sentier Trail. In 1989 the PEI railway was abandoned and the islanders took the opportunity to make a tip to tip trail. The tip to tip route is 273 kms and goes from TIgnish to Elmira, but in total (with branch trails) there is over 450 km of trail. Hmm…..maybe a future cycle trip?
We cycled 30 km in total, going from St. Peter’s Bay to to Morrell. This was about 12 km all along the water of the St. Peter’s Bay. What a great trail! We then cycled to Red Head Harbour where there is a wharf where the fishermen all come in. We wanted to see a lobster boat come in.
Bart chatting with a local, who was fishing for rainbow trout while he waited for his lobster boat to come in. He had binoculars and told us they would be about 10 minutes so we decided to wait, and glad we did as it was cool to see.
They have the refrigerator trucks waiting at the edge, ready to weigh the lobster, and this particular truck was taking them to Nova Scotia. He said today wasn’t a great day for lobster fishing because of the wind. Typically on a good day they could bring in over 1,700 pounds of lobster. The price today off the truck he said would be about $7 a pound. Now you know why by the time the lobster gets to us we pay a pretty penny for them. You can’t get much fresher lobster than you see here……straight from the sea.
The fisherman we were chatting with said…..”just don’t get in the way when they come in,”…..but Tracy got up pretty close and personal with the lobster and got some great shots.
This bald eagle stayed perched on this pole the entire time we were down at Red Head. I am so glad that our daughter-in-law Polly reminded me to take our click and point camera, as it has a much better zoom than my phone. Bart was able to zoom in and get a good close-up shot.
Lobsters and mussels come into the Red Head Harbour. This is a mussel boat. All the black bouys in the background are all mussel lines, and you can see the crane on the boat that they would lift them up. It would be great to get up close and personal on this boat to see exactly how it goes. There is a huge mussel processing plant in Red Head called Mussel King.
We found a great restaurant in Morrell – Holy Cow! – and sit, eat, drink and enjoy!!! Check out the portions of Bob’s fish and chips. The fisherman we met recommended this place as “they have great burgers”. Bart had the burger (which was really good) but I stuck with fish and had haddock tacos.
We cycled back to St. Peter’s Bay and brought our bikes back. On the way back 12 kms we cranked up our battery assisted bikes since we knew we had enough battery life, and we let them rip – we got them up to 32 kms. We were flying!!!! Now that is a great way to travel.
We then went on a road trip. In Montague we found a brewery – Bogside Brewing. A nice place. A big place with a restaurant and patio. The beer was good!! Bob and I partook and had some samples and then we made a purchase so we could enjoy more later!!
We meandered on a scenic route along the south east side of the point (bottom when looking at the map below). We came to a provincial park called Sally’s Point. She was someone who lived here all her life, never married and then donated the land to the province. It was gorgeous here. It was a bit rainy by this time but we still got out and enjoyed the views.
As we were exploring we came across – The Inn at Bay Fortune and we were like Wow! look at that. I didn’t get a picture but took these off the internet. It is quite the place. It is owned by famous US born Canadian Chef Michael Smith. For $255 per person, it sounds like you can have quite the 4 hour experience.
There are so many beautiful places to see when you get off the main path. When we came 13 years ago, we only spent 2 nights and in Cavendish where it was quite commercialized. At that time I said I want to go explore and get into some of the little villages, be among the local islanders and experience what it is like to live here. We have been doing that this trip. What a great day. When we got back, John came over. He took Bart and Bob out and showed them the area around the cottage a little more and they ended up on the point where young John and his friend and cousin were fishing again. They had already caught 3 large fish, so they were happy! I would be happy too filling up my freezer with fish that I caught!! Again, dang! I forgot to get a picture of all of us with John. Tomorrow!!! as we have a special day planned by John!
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