Ocean Bound

Halifax, Nova Scotia, just outside the city. We roll up the stoplight at a major intersection, heading downtown but not really sure what the best way to get there is. Not that I'm all that concerned, 'head to the ocean' seems like a good enough strategy. Not 2 seconds after I reach for the map, some guy in a minivan pulls up beside us and motions to roll down the window. 'Where you headed?', he asks. Then proceeds to tell us the best way to go before the light turns green. Just one example of why Nova Scotians have a reputation for being so friendly.

We left Ottawa about a week ago. Our first stop was Kamouraska, a small sport climbing crag in Quebec that boasts some beautiful climbing and even more beautiful views overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As it turned out, a small army of our friends from Ottawa were there for the long weekend, and it was awesome to hang out with them, even it was just for a short while. We got half a day of climbing in before the rains came, resulting in no pictures and us deciding to move on. Hopefully we'll have time to stop again on our way back to Ottawa.

Our next stop was Dover Island, a bouldering destination located on a small, uninhabited island just off the coast of Nova Scotia. It's a pretty unique destination, given it's location. If you don't have a boat of your own you have to arrange transportation with the local fishermen to get you out there. How often does that happen?

We had a bit of time to kill before our pre-arranged ferry ride, so we decided to check out the local tourist attraction, Peggy's Cove. Usually the place is crawling with people, but we arrived pretty early, so had some nice uncluttered views of the lighthouse.

As you can tell it was a bit foggy.

As we were leaving we were pretty entertained by the busloads of Japanese tourists from Toronto who rolled in. Words cannot describe how excited they were to be there.

We also hiked out to some of the bouldering along the shore of the mainland. Although Kristal seemed more impressed by the wild plant life.

Some sort of orchid?

Especially the multitude of her favourite carnivorous plant.

Pitcher Plants as far as the eye can see.

We finally met up with Lawrence, loaded his boat with enough supplies to last us a few days, and headed out into the fog.

He dropped us off, wished us luck, then dissappeared back into the mist.

We had arrived.