After a short layover in New Brunswick, where I got to catch up with one of my former teaching mates, Cathy, we headed over to PEI. Both of us were excited to explore this small island, having heard so much over the years from family and friends, as well as seeing it through the eyes of Anne of Green Gables, a wonderful series depicting the famous stories written by Lucy Maude Montgomery and set in PEI. Our expectations, to be honest, were pretty high and we hoped that this island would not disappoint.
As we drove over the Confederation Bridge on our first morning, there were clouds in the sky and it was a bit dreary, weather wise. However, as people who live on the West Coast, we weren’t about to let a little drizzle keep us from enjoying what we had come so far to see. Our first stop we the very small community of Victoria by the Sea. Cathy had recommended this as a lovely small town to explore and we found it enchanting. We wandered up the main street where there were few cars, allowing us to peek into one shop or another. Island Chocolates was calling to us and so we stopped in to sample their wares, which included lattes, before continuing our stroll. We ended up at a sweet little craft shop where we purchased a Christmas tree ornament to remember this place by.
The clouds were lifting when we made our way across the island (a trip of about 30 minutes) to the town of Cavendish, where it is all things Green Gables. I have to admit that as we drove into the town, I had a sinking feeling that it would be just one gigantic tourist trap from some of the business signs that we saw on the roadside. Thankfully, it didn’t turn out to be that way at all. We started off at the Visitor’s Centre to get our bearings. Since everything we wanted to see was within walking distance, we left the van in their parking lot and set off, first to see the little post office (where I was able to mail off a post card to my very own Anne ). Behind the post office was a trail leading to the location of the home where Lucy Maude grew up. Her mother died when she was young, so her father brought her to live with her grandparents who happened to be the original postmasters in town. Although the original home no longer exists, the Macneill family still owns it and have created a lovely little space to exhibit some pictures and mementos. The young man who we spoke to is a descendant of this side of the family. He was very well versed in the history of Lucy Maud and painted a vivid picture of her life. From there, we were able to walk over to the newly opened Montgomery Park, where we found the most lovely statue of this famous author. Across from the park is the Cavendish cemetery where Lucy, her husband and much of her family are buried.
A lovely walk through the woods behind the cemetery took us along the path the Lucy Maude herself would have taken as she went to visit her cousins who lived in the home that she used as the basis for the famous Green Gables. It was very special, therefore, to come out of the woods and see this house for the very first time, just as Lucy Maude would have seen it.
We enjoyed walking around the grounds and found the newly opened Green Gables Visitor’s Centre to be quite interesting with many interactive exhibits.
As we finished up our Anne of Green Gables visit, we felt very fortunate indeed, as the sun was now shining and we could appreciate the beauty of this countryside. We drove to a few other Lucy Maude sites (the house she was born in and another house from her books, Silver Bush). We, unfortunately, had forgotten to change the clock in our van so that as we arrived at Silver Bush, which is also a museum, they were just about to close. We had to satisfy ourselves with a short walk around the property, but the inside will have to wait for our next visit.
Our Anne day done, we turned our attention to the pressing matter of where to sleep this day. On iOverlander, we found a beach location that looked pretty good, up at North Rustico. We arrived to find a lane leading to the beach where lots of locals were parked. Luckily, it was late enough in the day that some had left and so we parked the van and went for a walk, enjoying our first taste of the red sand beaches that PEI is also known for. What a blissful spot! We couldn’t believe our luck! There was still time left in the day to just enjoy the sunshine now warming the sand, so we got out our chairs, grabbed our books and joined the rest of the local folks in just relaxing and soaking up the sun. It was the perfect way to end our first day on PEI! Much later, after we had retired and watched a movie, we got out to check out the bright bright stars. Although Jim had downloaded an app to help us identify the constellations, we couldn’t figure out how to make it work, so had to satisfy ourselves with just enjoying the view – how terrible is that??? Lol!
In the morning, we drove up the road a bit to find the perfect little roadside café where we enjoyed a great breakfast before heading up the road to find the trail head we were looking for to ride on the Confederation Trail, a trail that goes from one end of PEI to the other. We had asked around and heard that this section was one we should really try. We were both anxious to get back on our bikes and spend a day cycling. We pulled up to the station at Mt Stewart to find a whole group of cyclists getting ready to spend their day out on the trail. They had many good things to say about this section, which made us very happy with our decision for this day’s ride. One of the people we talked to also said that we really should cycle in the Prince Edward National Park, as it was down along the coastline. We decided that perhaps that would be our next day’s ride. We said goodbye to the group and took off along the Confederation Trail. This trail is a typical rail trail, fairly flat with a gradual uphill grade and either hard packed dirt or gravel. We enjoyed the views that we had immensely, seeing lots of places that we wanted to stop and fly the drone or take pictures, but deciding to do these on the return journey. We rode 27 km to the town of St. Peter’s where we stopped and enjoyed a little lunch before heading back. And, of course, as soon as we headed back, we realized that we would be cycling into the wind the whole way – off course!!! The wind had picked up quite a bit, so although we did manage a few flights with the drone, we had to cut some of them a little short. That tiny little drone does not like flying in the wind any more than I like riding into it!!! The scenery really was lovely though, so even with the wind, we enjoyed our ride back as much as the ride down. The total Confederation Trail runs from one end of PEI to the other, with small side spurs along the way. A few people we had spoken with like to ride tip to tip every year and we can see the draw. It is a lovely, well maintained trail that leads to many of the small communities on Prince Edward Island. It would make a great holiday, simply cycling around this sweet little island and exploring as one went. Ah, yet another trail to put on our list of rides to come back to.
Upon returning to the trail head, we had to decide where to stay on this night. As the Prince Edward Island National Park was closer to North Rustico than where we were, we decided to head back there to spend another night on the beach – it didn’t take a lot of convincing for us to make that decision! Once parked back the beach, we wandered over to the very busy restaurants nearby. There are two of them and both seem to have a continual lineup (something to do with the view maybe?). We put our names in at one right on the dock and headed into their bar to enjoy a cold beer while we waited for our table. We didn’t even finish before we were seated with a fantastic view of the little harbour. We both enjoyed our dinners (fish cakes for me, chowder for Jim) and after that very relaxing dinner, wandered back to our own little beach to again sit in our chairs, read our books and soak up some more sunshine – what a great great couple of days!
The following morning, we stopped at the same café for our breakfast before heading out to Prince Edward Island National Park. We parked at the north end, which was fairly empty at that early hour. Riding out, we found we were on a nice paved cycle path which ran along side the roadway. Although we didn’t get as many ocean views as we had hoped, we still found the ride out to be enjoyable. Once again, as we turned to make the return trip, we found ourselves pushing into the wind – will this island never relent??? We stopped many times to take pictures and make our way onto the beach which was across the road and over the dunes. At one point, a couple of young ladies offered to take our picture if we would take theirs. As we chatted, we found out that one of them was from the same small town in Ontario where Jim had grown up! What are the odds???
When we finally reached our van, we changed into some street clothes and spend more time walking the beautiful beach here, dipping our toes into the waters. Even though, technically, this is not the Atlantic Ocean but the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, we wanted to take our toe dipping pic just in case we can’t get to a beach in Nova Scotia. Thus, we will have dipped our toes into two of the oceans that border Canada. Don’t think we will be dipping our toes in the Arctic any time soon!
Cycling for the day done, we drove to Charlottetown, the capital city of PEI. This small city is home to the University of Prince Edward Island. It has a small, but interesting downtown and waterfront area which we enjoyed exploring before eventually settling in at Victoria Park to spend a couple of hours relaxing and reading before heading off to our overnight location – the Walmart! Even though it sounds horrible, its not really so bad camping out at Walmart and this was was particularly nice as the location was quiet and once the store closed, we had a great sleep.
Morning came and we headed to a nearby Starbucks for coffee and breakfast sandwiches. The plan this day was to head down to where the ferry to Nova Scotia was located to scout out a likely camping spot and then ride the southern part of the Confederation Trail. However, as has happened often on this trip, on our way down, we changed the plan. You see, the wind was once again howling and we just couldn’t convince ourselves to cycle once again into it. So, once we found that we could park overnight near the ferry, we took off to explore (by van) the southern part of PEI. First stop was the lighthouse right at the ferry terminal. The wind was blowing pretty fiercely, which made us more than happy with the decision not to cycle this day.
Once done, we just drove along, and soon we came upon a winery, the oldest one on the island, where we sampled some of their wines. We weren’t too crazy about the white wines we tried, but the dessert wines were really yummy. We ended up with two bottles, which I’m sure we won’t have any trouble dispatching along the way.
After that, we drove on to find the Panmure Island Lighthouse. This is the oldest wooden lighthouse on PEI and for a small fee we were able to climb up to the top to look out. It was an amazing view and much more fun hearing the wind buffeting around us than to be riding in it for sure!
We continued our little tour, ending up in the small town of Montague, which, coincidentally, is the end of one of the spurs for the Confed. Trail! We stopped and had a milkshake along the shore, but there was not much open on this day, so we soon headed back to Wood Island and the ferry terminal.
We were able to make use of their waiting room to eat our dinner and do a little work using their wifi before retiring to the van and our nightly movie. It was pretty windy by then and later on the rain began, so we were quite happy to be settled in with no where to go. Tomorrow, we are off to Cape Breton where we hope to explore and cycle on the Cabot Trail! We really need to come back to Prince Edward Island and spend a considerable amount of time. It would be a perfect place to rent a cottage for a month or two and just settle in to enjoy island life – island life on the opposite side of the country from our other island life! One more thing on the bucket list I guess!
Coleen and Ernie
September 24, 2019 at 1:01amLovely….I agree ..spend the summer!