Our first stop was the small fishing village of Peggy's Cove. This is the place that almost everyone who has stopped in Halifax on a cruise ship goes to, and the Peggy's Point Lighthouse, established in 1868, current version built in 1915, is said to the most photographed lighthouse or even structure in Canada. The village was formally founded in 1811 when six families of German descent were given a land grant by the Province.
The dry granite was easy enough to walk on, but there were several warnings to stay off the darker black portions of the rock. Apparently not everyone has heeded this advice.
Tourism is probably the biggest source of income to the community these days, but there is still a fair amount of lobster fishing as well.
We continued south along the coastline to the town of Chester, where we found a great place for lunch, the Kiwi Cafe. The lobster roll and salad that I had were excellent, as was Heather's soup, but the best part was the dessert, which they thoughtfully split into two portions for us.
Fans of the SyFy Channel TV show Haven may recognize Chester and the neighboring towns, as that is where it is filmed. We walked around the little fishing town and just enjoyed a nice day in a quiet place.
Whenever we go someplace new we look for the occasional out-of-the-ordinary thing to see or do. In 1795 three friends excavated a depression in the ground on a small island in Mahone Bay just off the coast near Chester. Oak Island, site of the Money Pit, has seen continuous treasure hunting ever since, and is the subject of many legends. Oak Island is small, about 140 acres, and only about 660 feet from shore. The History Channel has been running a series for the last couple years called The Curse of Oak Island, which is quite entertaining. Theories of what is supposedly buried there range from pirate treasure, to naval treasure, to artifacts brought over by Knights Templar, including even the Holy Grail. Needless to say, if we were that close we had to at least try to get a look. Today there is a causeway to drive out to the island, but mostly because the legend says that one more person has to die before the treasure is found (and also because it is private), we stopped right at the start of the causeway and just checked out the island from the shore.
Proof we were there - that is the causeway and Oak Island directly behind us.
Further south along the coast we came into the town of Mahone Bay, famous for its three churches.
Continuing further around the edge of Mahone Bay we came to the town of Lunenburg, one of only two urban communities in North America designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site. It is considered to be the best surviving planned British colonial town in North America. Lunenburg was founded in 1753 as a Protestant settlement (mostly Germans and Swiss) by Great Britain as a way to gain control over the territory and to push out the Native and Acadian (French) populations who were there before them. The town was named in honor of King George of Great Britain, who happened to be German from Hanover and was also the Duke of Braunschweig-Luneburg. Needless to say, there has been a lot of fighting over this and other parts of Nova Scotia in years past.
Fishing has been the major trade in Lunenburg over the years.
There were a lot of names on this monument.
St. John's Anglican Church, founded in 1753.
Click here to see more images from our trip along the South Coast of Nova Scotia and the Lighthouse Route.
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