Fundy Shore and Annapolis Valley

Fog again, the only thing that keeps us from total discouragement is the forecast that promises the fog will lift by noon. We’ve so many places we want to see today that we set out regardless. Our first destination is Bear River a small village nestled in a deep valley that have some waterfront buildings on stilts to keep above the high tides. The rivers here on the Bay of Fundy are tidal, wide, high-banked and muddy ugly when the tide is out but quite pretty when the tide is in. The entire Bay of Fundy area has dramatic 9’ or more tide changes.
We ride Hwy 1 (the old coast highway) to our second stop, the riverside town of Annapolis Royal which is busy with tourists. The fog has lifted so we head to the impressive Annapolis river Causeway & Tidal Generating Station. It is the only saltwater generating station in North America and the visitor centre offers displays and scenic views of both the tidal flow and the surrounding area.
We continue on Hwy 1 to the Port Royal National Historic Site, one of the most important in North America. In the 17th century, a European country could claim a territory in the New World if it had a year-round settlement there. To do this for France, fur trader Pierre Du Gua de Monts and explorer Samuel de Champlain set up camp in 1604 on Île Ste. Croix, a tiny island on the current Maine-New Brunswick border. But snow came in October, and food and firewood ran short. Of 79 colonists, 35 died of scurvy during that winter.
The next year, the colony moved across the Bay of Fundy to a sheltered bay, Port Royal. Champlain built Habitation, a compound of log houses protected by a stockade. It flourished until 1613 when English raiders from Virginia looted and burned it. The Habitation stands again at Port Royal, reconstructed in 1940 from Champlain's drawings. The colonists today are actor/guides in linen blouses and wooden clogs.
When the settlement was rebuilt a few years after the raids it was built at Annapolis Royal. When Acadia (the French settlers called their country after the mythical land of plenty, Arcadia) was ceded to Britain, Annapolis Royal became Canada's first seat of power, peopled by a few hundred Scottish soldiers and a few thousand French farmers, who created arable land, building dikes with locks that drained the coastal marshes and kept out the saltwater tides. As tensions rose before the outbreak of the Seven Years War (1756-1763), the British, who had gained the region from French, demanded that Acadians take an oath of allegiance to the Crown. When they didn't, declaring themselves neutral, the British, starting in 1755, rounded up as many as 10,000 people, confiscated their property, and deported them. Years later when the Acadians were finally allowed to return, some of them came back to the southwest shores of Nova Scotia.
We ride to the end of the road which faces the ferry port at Digby across the Digby Gut. Then it’s back to Annapolis Royal for a last look. There are many attractions in this picturesque town that we miss, hope we’ll get back some day.
Our final ride of the day is the Digby Neck. We’re riding Hwy 217, the Islands Scenic drive along the very long narrow peninsula known as the Digby Neck. The road winds through small coastal villages nestled into coves complete with fishing weirs and fishing boats. Our road ends at East Ferry where we could take ferries, first to Long Island and then to Brier Island but our time is up.
We end our visit to Digby by walking down to the bustling wharf area to O’Neill’s for a scallop and seafood dinner, with fresh blueberry pie for dessert. Digby is the home port to a large scallop fleet and a fascinating place if like us, you like to watch a working fishing port.