It’s true, we’ve now passed the one-year mark since we began our journey. It has been a rich and full experience and yet time has passed very quickly.
Before I forget, I’ll answer a question that was asked just before we left: What if we don’t like it? Well, we love it. Even though the first time I woke up in Island Girl knowing that I’d be living here for a while, my first thought was – What have I done? – I quickly came to love it and have never looked back.
Since we visited the northernmost and westernmost points of PEI, we head out to visit the easternmost point of PEI. You even get a little certificate for having visited both ends – okay we’re suckers for this kind of stuff. PEI is world famous for its Blue Mussels and mussel operations dot the coast.
Based on our first experience with the North Cape, we decided to tackle the Central Coast Drive on a couple of different days.
We headed to the Green Gables Shore on the North of the Central Coast Drive first. This area is home to the Prince Edward Island National Park, located along 25 miles of the shore. Cavendish, the hometown of Lucy Maud Montgomery, author of Anne of the Green Gables is located alongside the park.
The now famous House of Green Gables, once owned by her family and its Victorian surroundings inspired the setting for the book. The house is now managed by Parks Canada. And thus the Green Gables Shore.
There is a lot of “Anne” stuff all over PEI. A major tourist draw. Continue reading
The tourist literature divides Prince Edward Island (PEI) into three distinct coastal drives: North Cape, Central (which includes the Green Gables Shore and the Red Sands Shore) and Points East Coastal Drives. But distances on the island can be deceiving, since those coastal roads can be slow-going. So it’s a good idea to build in time for activities along the way, or for gawking at the beautiful scenery.
We set out for the North Cape Coastal Drive (a bit misleading since this is Western PEI) first, which we’d heard was the most spectacular. This is the (mostly) French Acadian part of the island and also has a Mi’kmaq community – on Lennox Island.
Like the rest of PEI, the area has many picturesque farmhouses on beautiful patches of pastoral land all along the way. We make a brief stop in Tignish, a fishing community.
We stayed at another beautiful campsite on Prince Edward Island (PEI). It was a corner campsite overlooking Malpeque Bay (as in Malpeque oysters) near the town of Summerside. And our coach windshield faced the sunset. Perfect!
Prince Edward Island (PEI), where we are headed next, is the smallest province in Canada; 2,170 square miles in size and with a population of over 140,000.
There are two ways to get to and from PEI, one is to take a ferry which connects it to Nova Scotia, and the other is by crossing an eight mile bridge which connects it to New Brunswick.