Friday 6th October 2023
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Mary wrote: We are not due to dock until 1300 so we had a lie-in and got up about 0800. The sun was shining, and the temperature is meant to be 21°C today, so we went out on deck 7 and walked through two laps of the ship. Mel went off to the Neptune Lounge for the second part of ‘USA Music’. I took my knitting out on the deck and got so hot that I had to move from the side to the pool area where it was cooler. I then went to find Mel and we lay on sun lounges for about a quarter of an hour before having to go for some early lunch. We need to be in the Neptune lounge by 1320 for a four hour trip to Peggys Cove. The ship was late getting dock clearance so we left about half an hour late, but we still did the full tour and got back at 1800. Halifax is the capital of Nova Scotia and we both liked the drive. The female tour guide was excellent although she talked nonstop. She has been retired from banking for 17 years and is a very enthusiastic tour guide who obviously loves her country. We saw all sorts of houses on the drive, including a row of houses with moorings on to the harbour. Also small houses refer to as 1½ houses. Some of them had been extended to make 2 dwellings. The fishing villages we drove through to reach Peggy's Cove were very picturesque, and there are small islands and outcrops of rock in lots of the stretches of water. We were shown a huge carving in the granite which was one man's work and showed religion on the left, the family in the middle section, and the working fisherman on the right.
After that, we were taken to the main car park near the lighthouse. The guide went into one of the cafes and returned with two lobsters with their pinchers taped up. She showed us how to sex them, and although the female is smaller, her body width is greater to hold all the eggs that she lays. They can be left or right pinchered, and the prominent pincher is the larger. She held both so we could photograph them. We were then left to our own devices for a further 1½ hours so Mel and I spent a lot of the time walking on the incredible rock formations around the lighthouse. The weather all afternoon was incredible, I was wearing a short-sleeved t-shirt.
I managed to send a postcard to Latilla all from one shop: card stamped and posted. They seem very organised. Shop assistants seemed to be very friendly and chatty. The cafe was very busy and we did not have sufficient time left to get tea. We walked down to the harbour area and I took some more photos before returning to the bus. We were all (36 people) on the bus about 3 minutes early.
At lunchtime the captain said that because of the tropical storm, we will be unable to go to St Johns. Our tour leader said three cruise ships have cancelled the Halifax moorings for tomorrow, so seemed to think some places may be closed. She pointed out some places we could go to tomorrow.
There is a market held on a Saturday, and the Maritime Museum to visit. If the weather is nice tomorrow, there is also a very large Botanic Garden. We went to the Bookmark Cafe for pots of tea once we had got changed for dinner.
The evening entertainment was by the Balmoral Dancers and Singers, who sang and danced through numerous old musicals.
Peggy's Cove used to be home to 300, but now only 37 lived there. The younger people have been attracted by the oil industry and they retain their houses here for holidays. The name Peggy's Cove was given to the village as Peggy was a 12-year-old girl who was a survivor from a shipwreck, and brought up by a couple who lived in the village. They had lost their own daughter of a similar age. The rest of the village helped raise Peggy.
The tour leader told us stories about the Titanic, and Halifax’s involvement with it. Only the rich peoples’ bodies were returned to their home countries, the rest were buried according to their religions, which were often just guessed.
She also told us about the explosion of the SS Mont-Blanc in 1917 which was carrying explosives when it collided with a larger ship in the narrows. It exploded and caused terrible devastation in Halifax, demolishing a huge area of houses and people. We saw photos in the Maritime Museum the following day which were much worse than one could imagine from one boat exploding.
