Cape Sable Island

Now here’s the post I have been looking forward to writing. I don’t have anything super exciting like the last story to tell, but this is probably one of the coolest lighthouses in the province that you could ever see.
I really wish I could have gotten closer, if it was better weather (not so windy or foggy), and the tides were just right I probably could have gone for a nice long walk and gotten a lot closer than I did. Then again I also had time ticking away in my head as we had other things to do (like get back and actually spend some time at the campground we were paying for).
Even from a far off distance this lighthouse looks like one BIG monster of a structure, and it should considering it is Nova Scotia’s TALLEST Lighthouse and stands 101 feet tall!!! I can only imagine getting a chance to get real close to this one, I mean I’ve been next to some pretty tall ones (like the Brier Island Lighthouse), but they would seem like nothing compared to this big guy.
I did a few google searches and found a few close up photos to share with you and they are brilliant. Please click on the photos to learn more from the photographers that took them.

There were only so many different shots and angles I could get… but I tell ya I really didn’t want to stop or leave. I’m thinking the next time I want to visit the Lighthouse route I should make some new friends with a boat and try to see them from the water….. there are so many more to see if I could’ve had the opportunity to get out there, although I’m sure I would have been a wreck just like at Baccaro Point once the fog was too thick to see through. LoL

So that’s it, this was the last Lighthouse I got to see during my adventure along the Lighthouse route. I sure hope you enjoyed getting some regular updates, ones that were ACTUALLY about Lighthouses, and hopefully I can bring you some more (at least one more), before the season is over.

Happy & Safe Travels

~Jenn

West Head

Here is the next Light on my travel route along the south shore that I got to see. This one wasn’t too hard to find, not far from the Causeway on to Cape Sable Island and just off to the left of the Wharf up on the hill in Clark's Harbour. I wouldn’t really call it a Lighthouse though, “Light station” seems more suitable for this one, however, I do enjoy seeing Lights that are different from the usual Pepper Shaker Style so I enjoyed seeing this one.

Just a quick fact, this light is definitely one of the smallest I have ever been to, if not the smallest, standing at just 6.1 metres tall. Slightly smaller than the original light that once stood in this spot (it was only 11 metres). To learn more visit the West Head Light on Lighthouse Friends. J

One more to go in my South Shore adventure, stay tuned for my next post for the Cape Sable Island Lighthouse, tallest Lighthouse in Nova Scotia.

Happy & Safe Travels

~Jenn

Baccaro Point

The only thing that seems to suit my initial reaction to this Lighthouse Adventure is – OMF!! (Oh My FOG!!). This Fog was like no other Fog I had ever seen! It was think as Peanut Butter…yes I know someone is going to email me and say “thick as Pea Soup” and if that does happen, yes I will respond “you eat what you like and I eat what I like” (if you don’t recognize the movie I am referencing then I apologize as this whole paragraph with have been a big waste of your time. Lol).

Getting back on track, this was the scariest trip out to a lighthouse to date. Sure I expect foggy conditions at times, that partially why there are lighthouses to begin with, but I never expected anything like this! It wasn’t just at the light either. We traveled a good 15 minutes or more on a road where we couldn’t see past our front bumper! I was NOT the best “co-pilot” to have that day, I was freaking out…. Mostly by constantly saying “slow down” even though we were already going 20 under the speed limit.

All of a sudden the “pilot” stopped the van, I asked him what he was doing why were we stopped, I was actually starting to panic as I couldn’t see a thing, then I may have let out a scream as I saw the reason why he stopped. From within the fog I saw a GIANT (that maybe was said a little over dramatically), structure emerge. When I look at the pictures and think back to that moment I will admit it was kinda cool, but in that moment in time I was pretty terrified, and I had ever y right to be. There standing in front of us, fairly close I might add) was this lighthouse, but I couldn’t see the ledge, I couldn’t see where the water was, or how close we were to it, I couldn’t see the road behind us where we had driven in, there was nothing but a bunch of FOG to be seen.Pilot of course is not happy with where we were and needed to get closer, again I was not being a good co-pilot, but as we got closer the fog began to thin out some and we could see the lighthouse a little better (ok, good call on the Pilots part I guess)…. But it was still thick enough that not a whole lot could be seen around us.

It goes without saying that the Fog Horn was blasting non-stop so here is what that noisy thing looked like sitting out there behind the lighthouse. Speaking of the Fog Horn, when I was reading about the lighthouse in the book I have it was saying how it attracted MOOSE with its sound…. Yeah, another GOOD reason to not be out there unable to see and certainly a good reason to stay in the vehicle when ya can’t see what is around you.

Obviously I had quite an experience going out to see this lighthouse, even though it was stressing me out at the time It’s a great story to have to tell and share and a memory to add to the books J

Happy & SAFE Travels!

~Jenn

Seal Island Light Museum Part 2

So yesterday I made wrong a post showing you the Lighthouse part of the Seal Island Light Museum. Today I am going to focus this on the “Museum” part of it for you.

As mentioned in my previous post this Light was never technically a ‘real’ lighthouse. It is not anywhere near the shore to help vessels stay out of danger, Its purpose really always was to be a museum. Located in Barrington, Nova Scotia, it is a replica of the original Lighthouse of Seal Island and its light is from the original lighthouse and is more than 80 years old. When you walk in there are some interesting artifacts on the main floor, as well as some small gift shop type items. You are free to look around, the museum is staffed however, in my experience they weren’t much for showing me around or telling me anything…. I guess if I wanted to know what something was every time I saw something new I had to ask. So it was a good thing I’ve read up a lot on this Light, and knew what some of the photos and things were from my research.

Like I said, there are some neat things to see inside such as the Original Lens form the Bon Portage Lighthouse shown below:A whale gun recovered from the sea:

This old, yet still very large fog horn:

…and of course quite a bit of information about the history of the Lighthouse Keepers.

Once you make your way around the building it is natural to want to start your way up the stairs to see what else is inside, but wait…. This is the point when I was told they’d have to charge me admission if I wanted to go upstairs. Hmmm…. If it were me running the show, I would think it be better to charge first, giving the visitors the most to see for their money. I guess though, in giving the people half of the experience first you are leaving their curiosities open to wonder about what else there may be inside. Maybe that is their strategy and hey, if it works for them who am I to judge. I am not in any way complaining that there is a fee, they obviously need to make some money to keep the operation going and it is a small / fair amount to be asking. $3 per person, children under 5 are free and $10 per family is not a lot.

Once you head up stairs there isn’t a whole lot left to the museum part of things, the 2^nd floor has some points of interest, however the further up you go, the more narrow the floors get so the less stuff there is. So if you are not brave enough to step out on the top deck, the main floor is where you will get the most from your experience.

I grabbed one of their travel brochures for my scrapbook and it’s a little out dated. One thing they point out is that there is a Lighthouse Take Out restaurant and picnic tables for staying to enjoy lunch, there was actually only 1 picnic table, and the Take Out was closed, in fact, it had a for sale sign on it that said the building was for sale and to be moved away.

The light is open seasonally from Mid-June to Mid-September, 7 days a week, and as a lighthouse lover I strongly suggest stopping to visit this light, I think I mentioned it in my previous post that it was a nice break from chasing real lighthouses in the fog, and if you really enjoy lighthouses like I do, any chance to be able to be inside one is an extra special treat. J

Happy & Safe Travels

~Jenn

Seal Island Light Museum Part 1

I must say, after a LONG day in the car, and a few failed attempts at seeing a few lighthouses due to uncontrollable issues (aka FOG!), the visit to the Seal Island Museum was a nice treat.

This museum is not (and was never) technically a Lighthouse. It is a replica of the original Seal Island Lighthouse. We were able to go inside this light and look around so I have quite a few pictures, so to keep my post from being too photo heavy and just plain long I am going to break this up in to two blog entries. First we will take a look at the lighthouse itself.For not being a real Lighthouse they at least found a nice little spot to put this light. Just off the road and up a little hill, a little bit inland, peeking out above the trees, it was refreshing to see a Lighthouse structure not hidden away by fog. This light is fairly large, classic red and white rings, and the interesting part of the light was in fact the light itself. The shape of the lantern makes this structure its own.

The cool part about this visit was the ability to go inside the Lighthouse. Inside there are some really cool artifacts for the Museum (I will go in to more detail on some items inside in tomorrow’s post). Naturally we all wanted to go to the top of the light – first speed bump, if you want to go to the top there is a small fee but well worth the price. Secondly the last two sets of steps are open back steal stairs. Now I know to most visitors that wouldn’t pose a problem but to me that was the end of the venture to the top. I am terrified of open backed stairs, but it was pretty sad that all of my kids were fearless and went up without me. lol

Now what you see at the top isn’t an overly spectacular view, however it is cool to see the surrounding area at a bird’s eye level. The other neat thing about going to the top of this light is the light itself. You can get right up close with the inner workings of the lighting unit and see how it all is put together.

So there you have the Seal Island Museum Lighthouse. As I said before I will be back tomorrow with some photos of items that are inside the light and some more info on the museum itself, so make sure to come back for the ‘full story’ J Until then…..

Happy & Safe Travels,

~Jenn

Pubnico Harbour

Here it is! The first Lighthouse we got to see along the Lighthouse Route (there are others before this one along the way, but due to time restraints this was the first one we could get off of the highway for to stay on track time wise), the Pubnico Harbour Lighthouse. This was a nice one to go visit, a nice short walk on the Breakwater and it brings you right to it. I must admit, with the foggy conditions and the waves crashing loudly on the side of the breakwater, I was a little more than cautious…. Maybe a wee bit scared (as a non-swimmer, I can say that I am a tad bit scared of open waters).

I liked the paint on this one, red on top, white on the bottom, I liked being able to get right up to this one and touch it. It wasn’t a ‘huge’ lighthouse, but it was big enough. If it weren’t so foggy, I should have been able to see a Power Windmill not too far off in the distance off the left side of the light…. There is a nice photo that shows what I mean over on the Lighthouse Friends website.

I didn't even realize until after I looked through my photos when I got home from our trip just how foggy it actually was when we first arrived at this light, but it was pretty thick as you can see.The first thing you see at the end of the road and all of these Lobster Units (sorry, I have no idea what the technical term is for them, guess I should have maybe learned that while I was in Canada's Lobster Capital...lol)......and since I do also enjoy taking random photos of things outdoors I thought this made for a good photo opportunity (and yes, an attempt by man to move them was made but they didn't budge a single bit).

and lastly before I end this blog post I did see a very special friend of mine.... Sponge Bob!!! lol I would like to say he was Sun bathing in the nude, however in this thick fog I guess maybe he was just bored and playing tricks on the tourists. ;) Stay tuned…. There are a few more blog posts to follow of our South Shore adventure. J

Happy & Safe Travels

~Jenn