Road Trip!!

July 31, 2018 3:44 pm Published by Mandy MacRae 2 Comments

In my last blog I talked about the summer adventures I have experienced thus far, a topic which I have decided to extend into this blog. The weather here has been very warm and humid – don’t get me wrong, I love the heat, but a humidex of 37 °C is more than I am conditioned to. Luckily, the air conditioning in the office is working perfectly and serves as a nice resting place after being outside.

On the weekends I have been trying to squeeze in as much adventure time as possible because I will be returning to university in one short month. Last weekend, Dylan (my boyfriend) and I decided to use my Saturday off to go on a mini road trip to a place called Five Islands. My brother recommended that we try a hiking trail located in Five Islands, the trail leads to a waterfall at the end of the hike.

One of the most memorable things we saw on the drive to the hiking trail was a naturally carved tunnel where a river flowed through a small mountain. We were able to hike over the mountain to get a better view of the tunnel. Also on the drive to Five Islands, we stopped at a river which is infamous for being a salmon habitat during the summer months. I’m not an expert on the subject, but from my knowledge the salmon population has greatly dwindled over the years in our province. I have never actually seen a salmon in the wild, so stopping at the river and being able to see several salmon swimming in the water was quite memorable to me. Unfortunately, due to being overcome with excitement, I wasn’t able to capture a picture or a video of the salmon, but I did snap a picture of the river.

By the time we made it to the hiking spot it was early afternoon, which of course is the hottest time of the day. Luckily most of the trail was tree covered so the sun couldn’t reach us, however the humidity did get the best of us. At the end of the main trail there was a steep incline in the trail that dropped approximately eighty feet. Someone had created a rope guideline to help hikers get down – I don’t know if I would have made it up or down the incline without this guideline. Even though the hike was challenging for both of us, the view of the waterfall at the end made it all worth while. Take a look at the picture below, you may have to look twice to see me!

On the way home, we decided to take advantage of some fresh NS seafood at a place called Knot on the Bay – when you look below at the picture, I hope you appreciate how witty the name is as much as I do. Our meals were delicious – there is nothing like fresh Nova Scotian seafood, in my opinion.

After the meal, we decided to take the “long way” home, to enjoy some of the beautiful scenery our province has to offer. By the “long way” home, I’m referring to taking the back roads instead of the main highways. This route was made up of a series of uncultivated mountain ranges – which provided us with many stunning views of the surrounding landscapes. We also drove along several blueberry fields where I was able to get a nice picture of some blueberry plants. Many people in the province were concerned about the blueberry crop this year due to unexpected frost at the end of spring, but it looked to me that the crops were doing well. I can’t wait to get some of the blueberries at the local farmers market – hopefully it will be soon!

Thanks for reading blog #4.

-Mandy