Eastern Bay of Fundy - ideas for free time
The rolling fertile fields of the Annapolis Valley provide excellent growing conditions for over 20 types of grape and the wine industry is flourishing in this area. There are many vineyards that have open cellar where you can enjoy tastings and Wolfville is a great base from which to explore some of them. The town itself is quite pretty, overlooking Cape Blomidon, and home to many beautiful gardens. The Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens in the grounds of the University of Acadia showcases native flora of the Acadian forest region, alongside several walking trails through the leafy campus.
Nearby Grand Pre National Historic commemorates the Acadian settlers and those subsequently deported throughout the late 1600s and early to mid 1700s, This is seen by many as the ancestral home of the Acadian culture and so it offers an interesting and poignant insight in to the life and times of those who chose to make Nova Scotia their home.
If you enjoy feeling like an intrepid explorer then the area at the head of the Bay of Fundy, east of Wolfville, is a brilliant place to visit, with one of the most exciting and dynamic tidal coastlines in the world. Indeed Burntcoat Head Park is home to the world’s highest recorded tides. Here you will find a small lighthouse and interpretative centre and at low tide can walk out on to the basin floor and look for interesting fossils and shells on the seabed. Almost directly across the Minas Basin, on the north shore just east of Parrsboro, you can view the tides from a different perspective at Five Island Provincial Park where 300 foot cliffs tower over the bay. A number of trails lead to viewpoints as well as down to the muddy sea floor which you can explore at low tide.
