AJ's Nova Scotia: The Camping Expedition

Well hello there, better late than never I guess, apologies for the delay, but I am still catching up from the few days away at the weekend.

We had an eventful time and considering I haven't been camping since the early nineties (with not one fond memory of it), I did surprise myself...With one caveat to that last statement...Next time I need a larger tent that I can stand up in! These old knackered bones and joints are no good for crawling around on the ground!

The trip began on Friday, Anne and I had the day off and were traveling down together in Smiffy's 4 wheel drive, first she had to come and get me and together we went to drop off the cats at the Cat's Inn. I probably didn't mention this last time, but the Cat's Inn, has a humongous amount of steps to climb to get to it, it's gruelling for even a fit person let alone me carrying a cat basket. After nearly keeling over and having a heart attack we made it to the top, and bid farewell to the boys. They didn't seem too bothered, although Shakespeare looked a little sad.

After slogging it back down the steps we then headed back to to our place to cram as much of our stuff into the already quite full car. Then it was off to Anne's to pack up all the food and the rest of her stuff, followed by an unpacking and re-stacking of the the load. Not an inch of space wasn't utilized (see images below). We only just got it all in. After that we were exhausted and sweating pretty badly, but we were on our way!

Upon arrival at the the Park I was a little stunned. I was expecting a field and shower block, like the good old UK. Well there was none of that. It was a good few kilometers to actually get to the sites in the woods. Each pitch had a gravel hard standing of sorts and a fire pit with a line of trees in between each pitch. As soon as I got out of the car the buzzing of the mosquito's around my ears jolted me back into reality.

Anne's friend Kat and her daughter Moira, came to greet us, they had already set up on the pitch next door.

We then proceeded to unpack the car and set up Mine and Rob's pitch, before then heading off to set up Anne's tent which was going up on the same pitch as Kat's. By the end of this there wasn't a bone in my body that didn't ache and the sweating was appalling.

We had supper (I should mention that Kat is a professional cook) so throughout the 4 days we had some pretty amazing food rustled up on the camp stoves). The boys were both working on Friday so they didn't arrive on site until around 10 pm. We got them settled in, unpacked more stuff and sat round the fire with a beer or two.

The toilet block thankfully wasn't that far away, but get this (no logic whatsoever), you had to drive to the shower block, and even more stupidly the shower block has no power points, only the toilet block...!?? Hence I only had one shower in 4 days.

Saturday morning we we up with the light and after breakfast headed for the campers beach. Lovely little spot and a joy to go swimming (definitely felt less grimy after that). The path down the the beach was on a steep hill, so getting back up it wasn't pleasant. We had lunch and then in the late afternoon went to see Mill Falls in the park, such a beautiful spot and flat ground for the most part, which was a treat for my legs.

Then it was back for dinner, after dark Rob, Smiffy, Anne and I headed back down to the beach in the pitch black to marvel at the stars, they were incredible. We we going to try and photograph star trails, but we really didn't have any success, and around midnight we headed back up the hill...OMG my legs were like jelly by the top.

On Sunday plans changed on a dime, the rest of the group were going to go canoeing from a place called Jake's Landing, but due to it being a long weekend, there was a shortage of life vests and way too many people wanting to rent, I have to say Jake's Landing was a stunning spot on the river. Amazing colours. I photographed Moira and another little girl on the jetty there as they made instant friends.

With the canoeing a no go we headed to another beach and spent the rest of the day there, we were going to head out of the park to Annapolis Royal in the evening to watch a parade, but some of us (Anne and I) were so pooped we decided for a quite night doing as little as possible. I managed to snooze on the beach and got myself a little burnt again!!!

Monday sadly it was time to pack up all the stuff and head home. It didn't seem to take as long to pack it up as is did unpack it thankfully. Great time, great company and once I got over the shock of no make up and not washing I definitely enjoyed myself.