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Tuesday 9 May 2017

A life changing experience in Nova Scotia

We kicked off our trip with a long weekend road trip to Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia. Visiting Halifax, Lunenburg and Peggy's cove.   We stopped by Digby on the way to Weymouth Falls for lunch and had the most superb lunch at the "Shore Thing" - big portions, decent price.

Our 4th Workaway placement would be at a small hobby farm and doggy daycare. We made the choice to not work at another hostel or café. We wanted to see what it would be like living with a host and what it would be like working on a farm, and it was one of the most life changing decisions we made.

We started off being greeted by 8 dogs - 2 were puppies! - and by our host Virginia. Her home is in the quiet and rural area of Weymouth Falls. Her home has a cheese making facility attached to the main building and acres and acres of land. We quickly got settled into our rooms and got to know our way around her home; all heating and some cooking could be done on the wood burning stove, nothing other than human waste down the toilet (as the waste is fed into the land via a septic system) and there was no running hot water in the house, so we would be showering and bathing using the sink or bucket with hot water from the stove. Initially a surprise but we got used to this way of doing things incredibly quickly and ended up loving this simple way of life.

Digby Harbour


Our Host

A lovely lady from Newfoundland with a bubbly personality and an incredibly interesting background. She'd moved to Weymouth Falls with her family 15 years ago for a more rural life. Several years later she set-up a successful goat cheese business - the cheese is honestly amazing, Emma couldn't get enough of it! Unfortunately a few years later, drought struck the area and the business failed as goats struggled through the heat and lack of water available. You can still see the remnants of the business around the home; Virginia clearly loved her goats, the cheese and the business and took great pride in her art of cheesemaking.

Today, Virginia responsibly breeds dogs; labradoodles and pyredoodles and has 8 adorable and loving dogs! At times there are an extra 11+ puppies on the farm, who are incredibly cute and a bit of a handful - they're energetic balls of fur! The Farm still has 3 goats, 2 horses and a lot of chickens. Everyday we would have fresh goats milk and eggs on a daily basis; food heaven!



The Puppies 7 out of 11!
Mahala and Truffle having a swim on the Sissiboo River

Horses and Goats

All the chickens
Malala the goat

The workaway

The workaway, like all other workaways, means you work 5 days a week, 5 hours a day. For us, this entailed feeding all of the animals - yes all - helping in the garden, around the farm, fixing fences, tinkering with broken tools, socialising puppies (the best part), baking and cooking meals. It became somewhat of a tradition to have a 4 layer cake in the cold room which we could tuck into at every meal! It was incredibly homely and thoroughly enjoyable work. Who knew we'd enjoy scooping poop and mucking out horses as much as baking and tinkering!

For me this workaway was pretty life changing. When we started this workaway I was terrified of horses - I would not go near them and would be obviously anxious in their presence. By the end of our 3 week stay, I was able to muck out their home, feed them and stroke them without feeling nervous at all! Virginia took her time to explain the psyche of a horse and explained how body language is so important to animals like horses. I'm now keen to learn to ride horses and get more comfortable around them. Another change happened, as a notorious non-morning person the fact I was up everyday by 8am taking the dogs out for their first wee, was pretty miraculous. There was something about looking after them which really made me exciting for the day, I loved watching them play and grow, I loved making sure they were happy, comfortable and fed. It's really something I enjoyed and I am now keen to explore the options of working with animals, I'm not sure on my next move just yet but there is time!

We were really sad to leave this workaway, we would have stayed much, much longer if we could. However, we feel we need to explore as much of East Canada as we can before our flight home on the 30th May. We'll be returning on Canada in September but on the West coast, so our time is limited here. We felt so much love and respect around the farm for humans and animals alike. It was refreshing to be in this environment.
Puppy cuddles; Astrid is the large white pup

Peety on our first week

On of the cuddly cats

Two of the labradoodle pups

Sibling Kisses

Cuddles with Cookie

Peety on our 3rd week

Dave with Marion

Pups, nosy neighbours
Truffle and Amilie

Dave with Mahala and a kitty

Marion

Cuddles with Kiwi

The Surrounding area

We didn't spend much time travelling around southern Nova Scotia.... we had far to much fun playing with puppies and looking after animals to do that.... However, we did get to see Digby, Yarmouth, Kejimkujik National Park, Mavillette beach, Leif Ericson Trail and went kayaking during our stay here.

Digby
A very cute little town - as we said at the beginning of this blog visit "Shore Thing" restaurant if you want the best food in town! It was off-season so not a lot was open but it was the perfect pit-stop and a walk around the town after lunch.
So much food from The Shore Thing


Yarmouth
We went here twice, once just to walk around (there isn't that much there) and once for lunch at Rudders Seafood which offers some great food and beers - which I treated myself too as it was my Birthday afterall! There is also a farmers market on a Saturday morning, it's a quaint little market which you can walk around in about 10 minutes but it does sell a variety of different goods for a place so small.

Kejimkujik (Keji) National Park
... is very pretty and worth the visit! This was the first walk of our trip where we didn't need to wear ski jackets, yey!

We walked a small trail by the visitors centre (trail 1) which was a nice warm up - or would have been if we didn't stop to take so many photos!

We then walked another trail (trail 13) which was just beautiful. It had a mixture of woodland areas, beaches and streams. we took over an hour to walk it as it was a sunny day, so we relaxed by one of the beaches for a while soaking in the warmth and sounds of nature - there was an active woodpecker somewhere in the woods.

Keji lake - trail 13

A small beach on trail 13

oTentiks in Keji


Mavillette Beach
So pretty, a lovely little beach situated about 45 south of Weymouth Falls. The beach is quite long, so you can walk for around 30 minutes and not reach the end of it. It's quiet and peaceful as well, so perfect for a relaxing afternoon.
Sun, sand and sea

...and relax


Leif Ericson, Cape Forchu
We found this trail and lighthouse by luck after a short trip to Yarmouth. The trail is short but pretty is you're on at the edge of an island you can see several different islands and even Yarmouth. The lighthouse was pretty to see as well but this site did some with novelty large deck chairs.... so they added something to this visit!


Kayaking

There is a kayak and canoe hire company, just around the corner from where Virginia lives. We hired a two man kayak for $20 and took a paddle down the river to Weymouth and paddles back. It took around two hours and was so much fun! No one else around, it was quiet, the water was gentle - we definitely earned our cake that afternoon!
Kayaking down the Sissiboo river

Verdict

This was a truly life changing experience for us, and the best three weeks of our entire trip so far to Canada. We loved every minute, especially learning about the rural way of life and how to use resources effectively.

Next stop, Bonavista, Newfoundland

Saturday 6 May 2017

Hello, Halifax

At the end of March, beginning of April we planned a long weekend to slowly travel from Moncton, New Brunswick to Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia. Along the way we spent two nights CouchSurfing in Halifax and a night Airbnb in Annapolis, Nova Scotia.

During this quick trip we explored Halifax, Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg - a 700
km journey!


Moncton ---> Weymouth Falls


Halifax


A city on the East coast of Nova Scotia commonly known for its links to the Titanic, interesting architecture and large harbour. We spent a day in Halifax, which was enough to visit the Farmers Market, museum, visit the public library and visit Citadel National Historic site. All of the above was in walking distance, so park up and go exploring!

The Farmers Market was large and hosted a variety of different goods from Chinese food to bread, to coffee to crafts. It's a typical Farmers Market and you can spend a fair while walking around and browsing - which is pretty much what we did.

Halifax Farmers Market
The Maritime Museum is a must see if you love everything about the Titanic and anything nautical/maritime. Tickets are fairly cheap at $10 for the two of us giving you access to several exhibitions. As a Titanic movie fan, I knew little about what actually happened in Halifax - 100% recommend, I won't give away any spoilers ;-)

The Titanic
The Halifax Library , if you like architecture you must go and see the library. We walked to the top floor and treated ourselves to a drink in the café with views over Halifax before walking around the library and taking a short rest. You can grab a book from the shelf and read in the peaceful quiet that the library has to offer, it's a lovely experience.
Halifax Library
Citadel National Historic site I am so glad we went here. We originally overlooked visiting this site but were persuaded by a girl from Saskatchewan to go and see this site. The site has great views over the city from a hill (an extremely steep hill...) and a fortress too. You'll see the Union Jack and Canadian flag flying and the fort does show an interesting insight into the colonial past of the city.
View from Citadel National Historic Site

Peggy's Cove

A beautiful site situated around an hour south of Halifax (depending on where you're staying). There is a lovely lighthouse, typical of most sites in Canada but the bit which takes your breath away at this site? The rocks, the waves and the sea. A great additional asset to this place is the souvenir shop; it has a toilet for the general public to use - a few and far between luxury for many of our trips and hikes!








Lunenburg

Lunenburg is a quiet town on the east cost of Nova Scotia and is located over an hour south of Halifax. We went during the quiet season so not much was open BUT if you can go there it is worth it for a quiet fish & chips lunch, views of the harbour and a stroll along the harbour front. It's a nice spot! The town is small, we walked around it in about 30mins visiting the UNESCO site and strolling past colourful buildings; it's a photogenic place.
View from our fish and chips lunch

Colourful Houses of Lunenburg

More colourful houses of Lunenburg!

Lunenburg from across the water.

Sleeping Arrangements

During our stay in and near Halifax we CouchSurfed with a lovely couple just outside the centre. We slept on one of the most comfortable sofas ever and enjoyed two enjoyable dinners with our hosts. Extremely welcoming!

In Annapolis, we stayed with two people in a lovely house. It's unlike any other AirBnB experience we've had - hotel style room with all the trimmings and an incredibly comfy bed all for $60 - Better value than any hotel, motel or inn!

To checkout more about our day to day travels follow @thetravellingpickups

Next Stop, Weymouth Falls, Nova Scotia

Saturday 29 April 2017

Exploring Moncton and the surrounding areas

Moncton, you are a cute little city, bilingual, have a chocolate river and you are not far away from Prince Edward Island. You're a pretty good place to visit.

The Place


Moncton is the largest city in New Brunswick, Canada - situated in the maritime of eastern Canada. It sits on the Petitcodiac River (aka The Chocolate River) which experiences a tidal bore due to the extreme tide from the Bay of Fundy; from the river, you can see a small wave pass by which shows the change in direction of the river meaning the tide has changed - it's pretty cool). It's an interesting city. We were based at the C'mon Inn which was about a 10-15 minute walk away from the main high street which has a lot of bars, restaurants and numerous cafes. Moncton has a large Farmers Market, which sells everything from soap to meat to vegetables to dog outfits!



The volunteering

We stayed at the C'mon inn, which is where our third workaway was hosted. For the next three weeks we'll be working in a hostel and had no idea what this would entail. We would work for 5 hours a day, 5 days a week and had two days off in a row to go off exploring. We had breakfast and board included in our stay, so we continued eating healthy throughout our stay as we were responsible for preparing our own lunch and dinners,

Our shifts would mostly include making beds, cleaning bathrooms and common areas, checking in and out guests and general being around to answer any questions. We stayed during the off-season, so we tended to have long-term guests and a few travellers. However, the hostel is a friendly, lively and well looked after hostel and the cleanest hostel we had ever travelled to. Our manager, Nik was extremely welcoming, friendly and had a lot of patience for training. Our fellow workawayers were very friendly and welcoming too, a few nights were spent chatting, drinking and eating good food!

The Surrounding Area

We did a fair bit of travelling around during our stay. Moncton is located in a great area to get around to several key sites such as:

Hopewell Rocks

One of the top things to see when you are in New Brunswick. The rocks are pretty nice to see and there are pretty views from the rocks. The walk to the rocks was actually really enjoyable - probably more enjoyable than seeing the rocks - still snowy but with more and more green leaves springing up as the weeks go by. 




Bay of Fundy National Park

Unfortunately, we hit a snow storm as we were driving to the park.... so we were unable to go for a hike, however, we did drive through the park verrrrry slowly due to the road conditions! A first for testing out the rental car andd our driving skills ;-)



Cape Enrage

There is a reason it is called Cape ENRAGE. The wind, my word, the wind rips around the cliffs, the trees and you! It does have a pretty lighthouse though... but we did only stay for 5 minutes.



Kouchibouguac National Park

There was some unexpected snowfall just before, but we decided to head to the National Park anyway. We learnt the hard way that when the trials say a trail is suitable from snowshoeing it is definitely NOT suitable for hiking unless you want snow up to your knees and to be out of breath after about 20 minutes! We did make it to a lake, which was frozen but it is still a view that I find an amazing!



Irvine Eco Centre 

This was a place we happened to stumble upon when driving around New Brunswick. It was great to see in March as there are still areas of the ocean which are frozen. This offers a view with a stiking strikingt against the ocean and sand. The Eco Centre is essentially a lovely beach with a boardwalk built to walk along the shore.




Shediac 

A great place to drive through and has a lovely little beach! I can't say much else, as we didn't explore much further.



Prince Edward Island (PEI)

I LOVE THIS PLACE. We planned a three day, two night trip to Prince Edward Island. We had our first ever couchsurfing experience in Stratford, PEI, with a lovely couple and a gorgeous dog. PEI is known for its potatoes, so you will a lot of farm land and potato factories. There is also a lot of land and houses scattered in-between. In recent years the island has welcomed and become home to the Amish communities and has a long Acadian history; Houses with a star on them denote an Acadian home.

We went to PEI on the first weekend of April which meant it was the beginning of the BurgerLove Festival...honestly, google it, then book a flight! We drove around a lot of the island in the three days and covered in excess of 600km!

1. North Cape: The most north-west point of the island where the Atlantic wind speed measurements are taken which meant we saw a lot of wind turbines in this area. There is a brilliant 5km trail with information boards along the way.



2. Point Prim: a really pretty lighthouse in a peaceful area - a welcome break from the windy coastline of PEI!


3. Panmure Island: Not much to see here - just a small island which is pretty muddy during the winter months! I have been assured it's a lot nicer in summer.


4. East Point: another lighthouse where we had a spot to eat. Again, just pretty views and a lovely sense of calm.

5. Cavendish National Park: We decided to choose Cavendish due to the description on the Canada Parks websites. I had imaged a beach with rolling sand dunes with lovely trails. And this was what we encountered! I'd recommend this beach and the Duneland Trail - it's a relaxing trail where you encounter a lot of nature and different terrains.





6. Charlottetown: The main city of PEI. We really loved walking around the town and enjoyed a coffee and a BurgerLove (seriously take a look) burger at a bowling alley. The town is definitely a place to visit, it's pretty, has quirky stores and good coffee. 



Next stop, Halifax!