One of the problems with Peggy’s Cove is the crowds. They are everywhere all the time. And they are relentless. They never disappear. Even when its dark! I waited nearly an hour waiting for the sunset and the crowds to disappear. They never did.

Unfortunately, at Peggy’s Cove some good views of the lighthouse have recently been ruined in an effort to make it safer.  While that bugged me, I have to admit safety is important. In fact, it’s more important than getting a good image. People have died here trying to get the best viewpoint for a good shot. Those waves can be dangerous and can pull careless people into very rough water.

There are more than 160 lighthouses in Nova Scotia and they can be found everywhere. Some of those lighthouses are world famous. Peggy’s Cove is the most famous of them all. It might be the most photographed lighthouse in Canada.

But Peggy’s Cove is more than a pretty lighthouse. It is also a lovely fishing village.  Though it is a working fishing village, I am convinced that some of the boats in the harbour have been strategically placed there to lure photographers and tourists. I can’t prove that, but I am sure of it. This day we got there too late to really look at both.  And the light was pretty dark already so I had to concentrate on the lighthouse.

You gotta make choices and then live by them. Life is hard and then you die.

Hopefully, before that happens you have seen Peggy’s Cove.

A couple of days later, after our visit to Peggy’s Cover, we returned in the hopes of finding better light. But instead, it was worse. It was raining and blustery by the time we got to town. The air was filled with sleet. Yuck.  I really didn’t want to get out of the car. So, we didn’t stay and went to our temporary home instead. I know I am a pretty wussy photographer. I was convinced there was a conspiracy of the Gods.

Peggy’s Cove is famous for rogue waves. They are dangerous. So are the slippery rocks. If you go there, be careful. Your life is more important than your photograph.

The village of Peggy’s Cove is quaint, at least when not over run by tourists, which is most of the time. This day I had to hurry through the village because we got there too late.

One years we stayed for nearly a week at a B& B with a wonderful view of the entire village. Some day I must show those photos.

We stayed at the house painted p9ale yellow on the far right of the line of houses at the top of the house. We loved sitting on the deck sipping a beverage or two. We could then go down when there were a minimum of tourists to block our view.

Who ever thought a fishing village would be so beautiful?

I had to stand over this little puddle of water for a long waiting for a reflection of the lighthouse in the water and when it arrived it was basically a dud.

Peggy’s Cove is one of my favourite places in my favorite province, Nova Scotia. We have been there many times. Frankly, in 2024 we visited it twice and both times the weather was uncomfortable and the light not great for photography. For this blog, I considered pulling out photos to show from other trips, but thought better of it. You gotta dance with the girl you brung and should not look over her shoulder at some girl you feel might be more attractive. There is beauty everywhere. If you don’t see it, you are not looking hard enough.

On our first visit this year, we arrived late afternoon. It was cool and the light not very exciting. I was hoping for a great sunset. After all, I am an unofficial inspector of sunsets. That may be true, but I like everyone else, am at the mercy of the gods and today the gods were not pleased with me. While not surprised, I was not sure what I did wrong. Like the time in Grade 2 when my principal, Miss Kornelson, pulled me out of the lineup before we tried to get in to school, and gave me a ‘lickin’ as we called it in those days. She never told me what I had done wrong and I never figured it would even after consulting my friends who were never shy about pointing out my failings.  I was not a perfect boy by any means, but I certainly, learned no lessons from that whupping.

It was a strange sunset.  One big cloud hid a large part of the sky.  As anyone who inspects a lot of sunsets knows, when it comes to sunsets, the clouds are all. They can hide the sun completely or not at all. Neither is good for sunset images. You need clouds but not too many.  Like Goldilocks, they have to be just right.  And frankly you never know what it will be like until it arrives. Anything can happen.

In fact, the best sunsets are after the sun has gone down. And you don’t need the sunset in the photo because the camera really can’t handle the sun. It is too bright.

So, it is important not to give up on it too soon. You must wait at least 10 minutes after the sun has left to ensure whether it is a dud or not.

It is very sad when the sun disappoints. But that is life. This day for most of the day I thought the sunset would be a complete dud.  Then for a brief while I thought it would be great.  It was never either one. Closer to a dud than great.

Our main goal in our travel in the afternoon was Cape Forchu in  Yarmouth Nova Scotia. OK, it was my main goal. Christiane never expressed such a goal. She is a much more reasonable person than I, at least when it comes to lighthouses.

First, I must set my upcoming comments into the proper perspective. The last time we were in this part of Nova Scotia, about 10 years ago, we made a trip to Cape Forchu I was bad disappointed because the lighthouse there was shrouded by ugly dark, but interesting clouds. Actually, I was more than disappointed. I was devastated. My photos were all duds.

This day started out differently. We had beautiful blue skies sprinkled with little happy white clouds. Excellent!  But, as we started driving towards Yarmouth where that lighthouse is located, darker more miserable clouds started setting in. By the time we got there, there was only a small layer of blue. I was set for another devastation. This could not be. This was monstrous injustice. The universe could not be unfolding that way. But it did. So, I once again photographed as best I could. Which was not very good.

Yet I kept to the high ground. I did not mope or go quiet and sullen. I put on a false brave face. And guess what? I was rewarded for my heroic conduct.

I was already packing up my gear when hope rose on the horizon.  Blessed light was appearing. Slim slices of blue arrived. Light. I raced back up the hill and was rewarded by joy. Pure joy. The light brougth joy into my life again. The only thing that could have been better was dramatic skies. I was not that lucky, but I was lucky.

Samuel de Champlain, Canada’s premier explorer from France  explored this part of Nova Scotia’s coast and named the area “Cap Forchu”, meaning forked tongue of land. Until today that is what it had become for me.

In 1840, The Cape Forchu lighthouse was built by His Majesty’s government in Nova Scotia before Confederation and it was lit on  January 15, 1840 by lightkeeper, James Charles Fox. It was only the 2^nd lighthouse in Nova Scotia with a revolving white flashing light to distinguish it from others. Tragically, just 3 months into his new job, lightkeeper James Fox (age 52) died on March 27 leaving behind his wife Bessie and 8 children. His 24-year-old son Cornelius “John” Thomas Fox was appointed the new lightkeeper.

The lighthouse at Cape Forchu has been called the Beacon of Canada. It is truly stunning. I would love to photograph it in a nice sunset. Sadly, we did not stay for sunset because there were other things we wanted to see today, churches!

In 1857, a fog bell was mounted in a small wooden tower that had been installed making Cape Forchu a light station and not just a lighthouse. The bell’s mechanical striking system which rang 7 times each minute had to be wound up periodically by the keeper.

1873, after 33 years of faithful service John Fox retired at the age 57. During that time, he and his wife Sarah had 4 children during their time on the Cape. Their oldest son James R Fox, age 31 was appointed as lightkeeper in his place. In 1874 James and his young wife Maggie gave birth to a son Harry who died at Cape Forchu when he was merely 4 months old. Life in and around lighthouses was fierce.

A 2^nd order Fresnel lens (the best available) was installed in 1908 at a cost of $38,000. At the same time a new metal lantern room 12 ft taller was built to house the new lens, which today can be seen in the Yarmouth County Museum. It had a frame with 8 lens faces containing 360 prisms. It gave out a brilliant ¼ second flash 24 times a min.

On September 17, 1939, the lighthouse was hit by lightning twice around 1:15 am. This was not the first time it was hit.  This time, the wooden floor of the tower, where lamp oil was stored, was set on fire. Lightkeeper Cunningham assisted by several others managed to keep the fire under control until a Yarmouth fire truck arrived to save the day. During its 99-year history this was at least the 5^th time the lighthouse or residence was struck by lightning. Lighthouses often attract lighning. Professional jealousy perhaps.

In 1940, a new fog alarm building was built, attached to the front of the lighthouse tower.  That same year a big improvement came—electricity. When electrical service began in October, Herb Cunningham the last of the old and renowned lamp lighters, reported that the first light bulb lasted 5 months. During World War II years all lighthouses and their keepers became an important part of Canada’s Coastal Defense Program watching out for enemy German submarines and unidentified aircraft. The Germans attacked any vessels they could. So did the Canadians.

In 1952 Herb Cunningham retired as lighthouse keeper after 30 years on the job. He estimated that during his employment he had climbed the lighthouse stairs about 47,000 times. In total the Fox family, the Doane’s and Cunningham’s had kept watch at Cape Forchu for 112 years. Not bad.

In 1962 it was time for a new tower because the existing one was 122 years. It was replaced with the stunning 75 ft octagonal concrete tower with its distinctive wind-resistant apple-core shape, that we saw today. It also got a new lens to replace the old Fresnel lens.

1993 the lighthouse was automated and after that there were no more lighthouse keepers at Cape Forchu.  The lighthouse is still there but it does not require resident light keepers. An era was over.

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Our next stop in Nova Scotia was the little town of Walton, a place Christiane and I stopped at last time we were in the area.  Acadians lived in this village before they were expelled by the British who feared they might be traitorous because they refused to swear allegiance to the British crown. The Acadians called the place Petite Riviere after a small river in the area. The British changed the name to Walton, after a local large land owner called James Walton.

There was a lot of ship building done in the region but it had no lighthouse, despite much begging for one by the locals, until after Confederation, when the new Canadian government went on a spree of lighthouse building to accommodate the shipping industry. After the shipping industry declined in the area it was no longer worthy of the maintenance of a lighthouse, but it has earned a heritage landmark by Nova Scotia.

When we were there, an “R.V. Adventure Club” was having a photo op. From our perspective there were too many adventurers because their RVs blocked our view until a female RCMP officer arrived. Interestingly, all she wanted was her photo taken in uniform in front of her official car and the lighthouse. What kind of adventures do old RV’ers have? Actually, travelling is always and adventure and your are never sure what the next one will be.

Everybody likes lighthouses and who can blame them?

Today was weird. Really weird.  We were heading on from our stay in Prince Edward Island. As we drove across Confederation Bridge on the way back to New Brunswick, just across the bridge I noticed a lighthouse in the distance. A lovely bridge and a lighthouse, those are 2 things I could not resist. Christiane  was not so keen, so she stayed in the car. Imagine that!  She left me to go on a frolic of my own.

As soon as I got through the entrance building to the Jourimain Nature Centre in New Brunswick right beside Confederation Bridge,  I noticed the beautiful view of the bridge. We had seen the bridge before, but this view of it was special. I quickly phoned her in the hopes of rousting her from her doldrum. I told her I would proceed because it was about a 15-minute walk to the lighthouse. I would meet her on the way back I said.

After that, I continued up a wide trail through the woods to the lighthouse where, of course I took a number of photographs.

The Cape Jourimain Lighthouse is a tapered, octagonal wood-frame tower that was built in 1869 and it measures 15.5 metres (51 feet) and is located at the narrowest section of the Northumberland Strait. That’s why the bridge was built there. The lighthouse sits within the Cape Jourimain Nature Centre on the New Brunswick side of the Northumberland Strait.

Shortly after Confederation, the new Canadian government decided, wisely no doubt, that it should build a line of lighthouses and light stations along the coasts of New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to assist those mariners to navigate the coasts. Shipwrecks had been rising in the area, which was not good for shipping in the area. As a result, they built a lighthouse at Cape Jourimain. One was built here because the surrounding water are shallow and contain rocky shoals.

None of this was weird. Weird came when I returned to the viewpoint for the bridge.  I went off the trail to see if I could find Chris.  As I was looking for her, she spotting me chatting with 2 women who were most enamoured of me.  Hardly surprising.  Actually, they liked my cap made by my daughter-in-law.  She always gives me chick magnets. After a couple of minutes of chatting we returned to the main path to go back to the car parked in the parking lot, when we heard the cry: “Auntie Chris! Auntie Chris!” It turned out that Chris’ niece Margot, who lives in Gatineau Quebec, across the river from Ottawa, was also walking through the small park and recognized her. She was walking with her parents, Chris’s sister Monique and her partner Norm.  Needless to say, we were all surprised to meet each other thousands of miles from our homes. It was truly a weird coincidence. So we stopped there and had a nice short visit far from our homes.

There were surprisingly many lighthouses on Prince Edward Island. Paradise for. a lover of lighthouses. And who doesn’t love lighthouses?

Today I saw a guy wearing a black shirt with the following inscribed on it: “Tuna Assassin.” He was wearing a bit of sheepish grin. Appropriate, I thought.

When I arrived for the first camera shot there was a lovely reflection of the lighthouse in the water that disappeared because of rising wind by the time I stopped the car and pulled out my camera. That sucked. But at least we saw it.

Although we nearly missed it, we stopped at the St. Peters Harbour Lighthouse. This was a hidden unadvertised gem of a lighthouse near a long-abandoned harbour.  We would not have found it had I not been hungry for an ice cream and a chatty woman operating the shop. When we first arrived, the store was unattended because the young woman had to go to drop off her child at the nearby school. When she returned, I asked her if there were any lighthouses in the area and she knew of this one.  And she gave us directions on how to find it.

The moving sand here made the harbour impractical. Thanks goodness they did not destroy the lighthouse! All we could see were remnants of the old pier.

This was another lighthouse threatened by rising sea levels and the sand that often accompanies that. There were remnants of an old pier nearby more or less buried under the sand.

I couldn’t get enough of this lighthouse.

After we made an unplanned visit to Prince Edward Island from New Brunswick, which of course is permitted for meanderers, we took a drive to West Point Lighthouse which is an unusual lighthouse with black and white stripes amidst gray skies. It is the tallest Lighthouse in P.E.I. at 67’8”, made of cedar shingles painted black and white. It stands where the waters from the waters from the Northumberland Strait meet the waters of Egmont Bay.

This was the first lighthouse built by the Federal government of Canada in P.E.I. after confederation. It was built in 1875 and put into service in the following year. The original stripes were red and white but apparently black and white stands out better as offering more contrast, and the color black does not fade as fast as red. Who knew?

In 2020 a big storm caused severe damage to the trees, dunes and the boardwalk swept away from the front of the Lighthouse. Life in a lighthouse is never without its challenges. A protective seawall was built in 2011.

It opened on July 1, 1984 as Canada’s only Inn in an active Coast Guard Lighthouse.  In 1987 extensive renovations were made and a large dining room and kitchen were added and 6 bedrooms were created in a new wing on the northwest side of the light tower.  Needless to say, I would have loved to stay there. I wish I had known about that. I have stayed at lighthouses a few times and each was a bit of an adventure. Someday I must related those stories.  In 2009 to 2020 further renovations moved the rooms to the Harbourside Centre. After that there were a total of thirteen rooms. It is now a four-star inn. Wow I must go back.

We were disappointed that there was road construction that obstructed access to and views of the La Martre Lighthouse. This was a major disappointment because it is one of the more original lighthouses along the Gaspésie coastline. First, it is painted a bright red along with its nearby buildings and second, it has an unusual octagonal base shape. It is considered one of the more photogenic lighthouses in Quebec but the view was seriously marred today. Sometimes life just sucks.

The lighthouse is fully automated today but is operated non-automated during the day so people ordinarily can see the Fresnel lens rotating in its mercury bath while using its original system of weights and pulleys.

After that we veered inland because we were running out of time and I did not want to travel the roads in the dark. Old men must learn to be humble.

The  Gaspé Peninsula, or Gaspésie, in French is peninsula along the south shore of the St. Lawrence River from the Matapedia Valley in Quebec into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Chaleur Bay, on the south side of the Peninsula separates it from New Brunswick. I don’t know exactly where it starts and ends. The name Gaspé comes from the Mi’kmaq word gespe’g, meaning “end”, referring to the end of the land.

Originally, this was the land of the Mi’kmaq people.  Actually, much of the land we travelled through in eastern Canada—commonly called the Maritimes—was in their territory.  And that is important but too often forgotten by Canadians. Jacques Cartier arrived in Gaspe in 1534 and many people think—wrongly of course—that this is when Canada started. This is a very large area, bigger than Belgium for example. Approximately 140,000 people live there. About 1/10^th as many as Manitoba.

Though I don’t know exactly where it began, for me it began after leaving Rimouski and the “people” leaving the St. Lawrence River, looking out for land. This marked the beginning of the Gaspésie for us. It is one of the most interesting areas of Canada in my opinion. It is an area with a great variety of simple, yet elegant homes. They are not ostentatious, but nonetheless beautiful. Simple beauty. Well-tended. These people have heeded the wise words of Bob Dylan, “Don’t go mistaking paradise for that home across the road.”  This area, though I had been there before many years ago, was one of the surprises of the trip.

Canada is full of surprises. And not all of them are bad.

It was a lovely ride beside the St. Lawrence River. Of course, sprinkled along the way were a few lighthouses.  The first one was the Cap Chat Lightouse that was completed in 1909. It is not very tall and unlike the fine sculpturing of the lighthouse at Rimouski, this one was a squat square towers built of reinforced concrete with a circular red lantern It is 133 feet (10 metres) above the sea. It has a revolving Fresnel lens built in France and at the time produced a white flash every 3 seconds that was visible for 17 miles. A new dwelling was built for the lighthouse keeper after the original one burned down in 1923.

I learned that during World War II Cap Chat was a staging area for German U-boats who hoped to intercept coal convoys from Cape Breton Island. Because of stratification in the area of fresh and salt water it was difficult for radar to detect them. It is possible to rent the house for overnight  stays. Wow! Life is good. I have slept in a few lighthouse keepers homes over the years and would have loved to stay, but we got here too early to pack it in. Sadly, we had to move on.

Right across the road from the lighthouse in Rimouski is the historic Maritime Museum de la Pointe-au- which houses the RMS Empress a ship that is sort of Canada’s Titanic. That vessel played a very important role in the history of Canadian shipping and navigation.

The museum commemorates the tragic sinking of the Empress of Irelandocean liner in the St. Lawrence River to Rimouski. It was the worst maritime disaster in Canadian history.  Of the 1,477 people on board, 1,012 died.  Actually what I read was that they were “lost.”  But I think reality is worse. The ship sank on May 29, 1914 near Rimouski.

The land has been declared a national historic site. The ship was considered a symbol of luxury at the time. It had spacious décor with rich wood panels and fireplaces. First class passengers were offered a music and writing room, a café, smoking room, and library. The ship and her sister ship were in their time the fastest ships making the trans-Atlantic run.

Shortly before she sank after a collision with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad, the Commander was told by the pilot, “I don’t think you should run into much fog for the rest of the night. Good luck commander.” Even though no passenger was given a cabin numbered 13, many on board suffered bad luck. In fact, it was the worst luck. On this day the Empress was unlucky as were most of her passengers.