Pictou to Charlottetown

We began today with a tour of a lobster hatchery run by the fishermen's association. When they catch a lobster bearing eggs, they give it to the hatchery. The hatchery raises the larvae until they are past their most vulnerable stages and have about a 1% chance of making it. Then they give the larvae back to the fishermen to dump in the ocean. Here is a female carrying eggs. If you look closely, you should be able to see them in her tail.

Next, we took a tour of the Hector. This was a transport ship that brought 179 Scottish settlers here in 1773. Although no trans-Atlantic trips were easy in those days, theirs was particularly difficult. They ran into a storm that blew them half way back across the ocean. It took two weeks to get back to where they were. They ran out of food. And they had an outbreak of smallpox which killed 18 people, mostly chidren. Their crossing took from July 8 to September 15. The community of Pictou had celebrated their landing for many years. In the 1980s, with the economy in recession, they won government support for an initiative to redevelop their harbourfront into a tourist area. One of the components was the building of a Hector replica. It began about 1990 and was completed about 2000. It was pretty interesting to go on board and see the primitive conditions and close quarters that the passengers and crew were forced to live in for 10 weeks.

Our ferry left at 11:45 for a 75 minute crossing to PEI. We had a bite from their cafeteria, but spent most of the trip on the upper deck. It was a great day, sunny and warm enough that the breeze was not uncomfortable in the morning and was most welcome in the afternoon. It reached a high of about 25 degrees today.

From the ferry, our first planned stop was a section of PEI National Park near the town of Greenwich. After we started on our planned route we got thinking, checked our paper map, and decided that we wanted to take a more direct route. We reconfigured Mabel, who told us to turn right on #205. You might think that would be a highway, but you would be wrong. It was comparable to a Saskatchewan secondary grid road, but with trees. Lots of trees. Anyway, it wasn't too far and there weren't any big mud holes, so we persevered and were soon back on a highway.

There wasn't much doubt about what people do here. Of course, the people near the coast are largely involved in fishing. But inland, it was very clear very quickly and it was reinforced around every corner that these people are farmers. Lots of potatoes, plus cattle and hay. The big differences are that the fields are much smaller and there are way more trees. It is a very green place.

We arrived at the park about 2:30 and took in the interpretive centre. We then went on one of their short hikes. The main feature of the park is the complex of sand dunes. Behind the dunes are freshwater ponds. One of the park highlights is a boardwalk across one of the ponds to the dunes, so we took that trail. It also went through a meadow and a stand of forest, so we passed through several eco systems in short order. I guess that's what parks are for.

From the dunes hike, we went to another spot for the beach hike. I figured I better at least get my feet wet. Boy, was it cold! Anything more than the feet would have had to be pretty quick. It grew tolerable after a while, but tolerable doesn't make for good swimming.

Another interesting observation today was the farming of mussels in the bay by the park. Someone told us the other day that 80% of the mussels (Sold in Canada? Exported from Canada? I can't remember.) come from PEI. When we drove to the park we observed thousands of buoys floating on the bay in rows. We learned in the interpretive centre that this is how they farm the mussels. They fill nylon nets about six feet long and three inches in diameter with "seed" mussels, suspend them from the buoys and grow them for one to two years. As a bonus, they grow bigger and better this way and are much easier to clean for market.

We left the park at 5:15 and found a hotel in Charlottetown about 6:30. We then went out for a bite to eat and a short walk.