the Digby Ferry & Port Royal

so off we went on the Digby Ferry- we took the car onto the ferry and drove up a ramp (it was double deck inside the hold) with ramps on either side and a tall space in the middle for semi-trucks and then a thousand tie downs on the lower level where the motorcycles went... oh did I fail to mention we were crossing with several hundred motorcycles? LOL

It turns out that we are crossing the Bay of Fundy from St John NB to Digby, NS along with hundreds of motorcycles because this is the weekend of a rally known in Digby as the Wharf Rat Rally.  Who knew? Apparently everyone but us... Despite that we go up stairs to the passenger decks of the ferry for our three hour ride and settle in - perusing maps and guide books as we start our Nova Scotia adventure.

The ferry is old and apparently about to be replaced but it was well maintained (clean new carpets, clean cafeteria with very good Digby scallops and fish and chips on offer) and we are packing our own cheetos! (a leftover from our provisioning in St Martins before the class started LOL)

they had decent wi-fi and phone service and I found out why when I stepped outside and looked up from the front deck...

It is a glorious blue sky day and the "seas" are calm so despite getting off late (too many tie downs to make the scheduled departure) we make good time - arriving only a bit later than scheduled...

here we enter the vicinity of Digby - which is located in a harbor protected by a barrier peninsula...

we exit town immediately after gassing up the car so that we can leave the revving motorcycles behind (do they really have to make that much noise? and these folks were as old as we are - many of them older- is this the face of modern maturity? I use the term maturity loosely of course...LOL)

we head to Annapolis Royal and Port Royal - the first fortresses of the French new world settlement...
(below a view of Annapolis Royal today)

then the reconstructed Port Royal settlement-

this site is small but wonderful recreation of the original (as drawn so exactly by Champlain)

by the time we leave it is after 5 PM - and so we take the quickest route to Wolfville where we have a room booked for the night and a reservation at Front + Central for dinner.

Below our room at the Blomidon Inn- and some dinner photos-

tomorrow we press on to Cape Breton, stop at Grand Pre before heading north to Truro for the world's best fish and chips and then into Sydney where the largest fiddle in the world resides! All worth returning for.... see you then!