Off the Beaten Path to Grand Manan Island

 

We took the back roads from Woodstock to Black's Harbour, thence to Grand Manan Island on the "big" ferry. This is the picture from last year.

 

 

 

This year we were walk-on passengers. Walking on board involved navigating a rather slippery gangplank without much the way of barricades and then getting off ahead of the huge transport trucks and hoping the drivers knew you were there. 

 

This post is mostly pictures - worth a thousand words:

 



 

This well camouflaged cat was asleep in the old dinghy outside the museum. Here is a link with a picture of the museum itself:  http://www.grandmananmuseum.ca/  Apparently the cat visits here and at several stores along the road and can have a snack on the porch or enjoy cosier shelter as needed:

 

 

As for us, when hunger panged, we went back down Highway 776 to the Back Porch Cafe where we had the best chowder on our trip, likely because the fish was just fresh off the dock. It was neither creamy nor made with tomato base, just a plain broth with potatoes and onions.

 

Lots of fishing boats are in the harbour and drydocks, where I think we were trespassing. There was no one there and a gap in the fence:

 

 

 

 

I enjoyed reading the names:

And the local union:

I am not sure what these are:

 

 

Then there were  doorways, front yards and miscellaneous stuff:

 

 

 

A little bit of everything in this yard:  

 

 

Things derelict in the grass: 

 

 





 

 

We stayed at Ingalls Head Cottages run by our friends Ron and Wendy Plyley. Great accommodation, by the way, a stone's throw from the Bay of Fundy.

 

 

 

 This is the bay beside the cottages:

 

 

 

Ron and Wendy toured us around the Island; actually "around" is not literally true, as the road goes from the lighthouse at the north end to the lighthouse at the south end and stops at the cliffs.

 

We went from sea level to vertiginous in about 20 minutes. Incidentally, the museum does a great job explaining the geological structures comprising the island.

 

 

There were about 30 people there when we visited - most were there to see the sun set. A few sat on the very edge  - not something I would recommend as you never know what the under-cliff may be like! Notice there are no fences in these pictures; the one rusty chain link fence which was there gave only an illusion of safety. The Maritimes provides not a lot in the way of protective this's and that's, I noticed; people are expected to look after their own safety. Sometimes that works; other times it doesn't.

 

No one has fallen over the edge here in recent memory, although a shipwrecked soul a hundred years ago crawled up these cliffs and then to a farm house where he was succoured and revived.

 

 

 

 

The sun began to set, and we returned to Ingalls Head with one stop for really delicious ice cream cones - at a mini-putt golf course, which combined daring inclines and curves with lovely old-fashioned perennials. Alas, it was too dark to take a photo by that time.

 

This was our second year on tiny Grand Manan and we still have more things to see and do! Looking forward to next year ...