We woke up early and arrived at Lismore Sheep Farm in River John. It is a working sheep farm and has some small exhibits about sheep and wool. There were lots of adorable little lambs as well as ewes and rams. It was pretty smelly and full of flies, but it was nice to see the animals.

We stopped at Rushtons Beach Provincial Park in Brule for a walk along their boardwalk and to look at the birds. As soon as we got there, at 9:30 in the morning, the mosquitoes started swarming our car. They must have been hungry after a long night without food. We quickly scrambled out of the car and sprayed ourselves with bug spray. It didn’t work very well and we both suffered numerous bites.

The next stop of the day was the Balmoral Mills Museum, an old fashioned grist mill that up until June was actively running. We had a difficult time trying to find it, and we were the only ones there. The man who gave us the tour was very nice and had lots of interesting information about the mill and their grinding of wheat, oats, and buckwheat. It was interesting to see how all of the pieces of equipment worked. Most of it was handmade and very old, but still in working condition.

We continued onto Sugar Moon Farm in Earltown. It is a working maple farm and restaurant, and we stopped in for breakfast. We had the buttermilk pancakes, maple cooked baked beans, and a choice of maple sausage - a nice hearty lumberjack style meal. Theresa had their small taster menu and I had their all you can eat platter. It came with two pancakes and I ordered, against T’s advice, another pancake. Needless to say, I was full for the rest of the day. Everything was delicious.

We then drove further on the Sunrise Trail to the Jost vineyard, which we were looking forward to. The woman who helped up was not very friendly and the wines were not that good. We did sample an unusual (for us) maple wine which was good and bought two bottles.

The next stop was the Gulf Shores Provincial Park where the plan was to lotion up, rest on the beach, and go into the water. Once we walked down to the water I saw lots of jellyfish. Yikes! In spite of the jellyfish, we carefully walked out to a sandbar on the shore. The jellyfish were rather large and a purple/brown color, which we’ve never seen before.

On the way to Amherst we saw a heron in a marshy area. It would quietly and carefully walk forward, stand very still looking for food, and then quickly grab a bite. We bid farewell to Nova Scotia and drove towards Fundy National Park in New Brunswick.

We passed by the Hopewell Rocks on the way and decided to save them for the next day. The Chignecto campground in Fundy National Park was large and had nicely wooded sites. Our site was a little slanted, but we managed to find a good area for the tent anyway. The bathroom area had a covered “kitchen” to wash dishes and prepare food in bad weather. This was the first kitchen shelter that we have come across, and is a great idea for when the weather isn’t cooperating.