Peggy's Cove

Peggy's Cove Light  Nova Scotia

9/2/10 - 9/3/10

Granite boulders on granite land

To hell with the hurricane.  We pulled up stakes and headed for Nova Scotia anyway.  It was only about 275 miles to a spot on the coast near halifax.  A spot called the Wayside Resort on St. Margaret’s Bay.  We caught a brief glimpse of the famous Peggy’s Cove on the drive here,   the most photographed spot in Nova Scotia.  It is easy to see why.  Its the quintessential Scotia hamlet on granite shouldered shores.  The few buildings, perhaps two dozen, sit high on granite formations that jut above the white breaking waves extending its isolated sense of habitation grimly and determinedly with thrusting chin to the sea.  There is a palpable sadness in this determination and challenge since we know the sea always wins as the shingles left to grey fade and fall off, as deck planks grow slippery with rot, as piers  lean and grow dark with decay.

   Yet the grace of its site is strong and though it was a grey and froth flung day it was easy to believe that this hamlet has its share of the sun.  When the sea is still and soft and the waters shine the weathered shingles on the buildings will give off a textured and lazy warmth.  Each  structure is individually fitted to and perched upon the pinkish granite slabs and boulders, some bigger than the buildings themselves.

   

Yes, this is a very touristy place, complete with bus loads of tight knit Japanese moving en mass unlike the western tourists who spread out like ball bearings rolling helter skelter down a hill.

I try to traverse the edges but often feel my own impositions.  I take small pleasure in knowing that there are some places or aspects of nature so grand, so  imperious that they can absorb the masses then shake them off like gnats that were never there.  Hopefully.  Now if they can all pick up those cigarette butts that seem to fill every crevice among the granite boulders around Peggy’s Cove light house

In the front that precedes the storm temperatures rise above ninety and the humidity also rises making it feel even hotter.  We have the AC working full time in the truck and at camp we have the airstream’s going full bore to be left on all night.
Pouring over the maps we try to come up with a contingency plan for the storm but there isn’t much around to run to.  In the meantime it has been downgraded to a cat 1 so after talking with the camp owners who lived through the last two we feel a little better about just staying here.  This particular bay is almost closed off and not open to the sea as others that suffered much damage in the past.  We are in the open so trees should not be a problem.  There are power lines above that are a little close.  But having the power hook up and water hedges our bets towards staying.  Only 12 hours to go till landfall,,,,

Entrance to Peggy's Cove

Bones