Sun, Sand, & Serendipity: Exploring P.E.I.'s Expected & Unexpected Wonders.

Many blog posts begin by mentioning the weather. For example, the heading of my December 31, 2024, entry—"The weather did not cooperate for our visit to Pittsburgh"—illustrates how travel experiences can be influenced by weather conditions. Just in case “Mother Nature” is getting sensitive to my protestations, I’d like to set the record straight by saying that this trip has had amazingly good weather. Apart from last week's heat wave in Prince Edward Island, conditions have been consistently excellent: warm, with temps in the high 70’s to low 80’s, breezy, with cool nights, good for sleeping, and not a hint of rain. The pleasant weather has enabled frequent outdoor dining at the picnic table, resulting in limited use of the camper's interior for meals. Not to dwell on our good fortune for too long, but all this nice dry weather, although excellent for sightseeing, has resulted in tinder dry conditions across New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, & Prince Edward Island (also known as the Canadian Maritimes). Whilst in Prince Edward Island, (P.E.I.) we watched the Fire Danger Rating sign climb from moderate to extreme in the matter of 14 days. (These signs indicate the risk of a forest fire at a campsite and use a color-coded descriptive scale to communicate the current risk of wildfires.) Eventually, all outside campfires were prohibited across the entire Province. Case in point, two weeks ago I published a Blog about Shubie Park in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. Last week, whilst in P.E.I., we learned that the 40-acre park that I spoke so glowingly about, and the Shubenacadie Canal, have been closed to the public due to the fear that human interaction would accidentally start a forest fire. Our recent walks through the local forests in P.E.I. have borne witness to how dry the ground cover is. OK, OK, already, “Mother Nature if you’re listening, please send a day of rain and maybe even a night, to help out the farmers and the forests”.

After departing Nova Scotia, we proceeded to visit the third and final province of the Maritimes, P.E.I. Once again, our travels brought us back to well-known locations, as we had previously stayed at Cavendish Campground, a Provincial Park, in 2017. This trip, however, was considerably longer than our initial three-day experiment in RV travel. Our itinerary included two destinations over a span of twelve days, providing ample time to traverse the 2,160 square mile island. Our previous experiences at Cavendish Campground and Green Gables Heritage Place in 2017 had us eager for a return visit. Additionally, there was much left to discover, including the provincial capital, Charlottetown, and the eastern sections of the island. We did this from our second campground, called Lord Selkirk Campground, in Belfast, located in the southeast portion of the island, in a town originally settled by Scottish Highlanders in the early 1800’s.  

Our Gull Friend @ Cavendish Beach

Every trip to P.E.I. involves a trip over the Confederation Bridge. The bridge is the only drivable connection the island has to New Brunswick. This 8-mile-long bridge is the longest over ice-covered ocean water and spans the Northumberland Straits of the northern Atlantic Ocean. It was by far the longest bridge we have pulled the camper over. Once we were on the island, we headed north to the town of Cavendish. The campground, and specifically Cavendish Beach, was exactly as I remembered from our 2017 visit. The beach offers miles of pristine sandy beachfront, perfect for 

walking, and the dark red cliffs made of sandstone make for a striking backdrop. A frequent theme of our summer trip is the beach. And Cavendish Beach, with its majestic sand dunes, and unspoiled panorama was one of the many beautiful beaches we visited. Just a five-minute walk from our campsite to this sparsely populated beach was all it took. We shared the beach with more seagulls than people. Our photo collection is filled with gorgeous beach pictures, but I’ll only post two to this blog.

Phare de Panmure Lighthouse

But wait, there’s more beach to talk about on P.E.I.  I should have started by saying that Cavendish Beach is the most gorgeous beach on the north shore. Whilst we were visiting the campground in Lord Selkirk, we took the 25-minute ride to an amazing beach on a little spit of land leading to Panmure Island. The beach is a very popular destination for locals and has a wonderful white sandy beach and picturesque sand dunes. A beautiful and secluded beach with vast open ocean views. The beach is located along a causeway, which terminates at the picturesque 58-foot tall Phare de Panmure Head lighthouse. Let’s just say that considerable time was spent walking along the beaches in P.E.I. and move on to other excursions.

Lobster Lesson

If beaching is not your thing, I offer you the experience of a food and history tour of the capital of Prince Edward Island, that being Charlottetown. Judy and I spent nearly three hours walking the streets and restaurants of Charlottetown, experiencing the island culinary standouts such as PEI mussels, oysters, and lobster.  Mark, our guide and interpreter of 300 years of P.E.I. history, and a true local, walked us through town with stops at notable restaurants and a lobster shack

Fresh P.E.I Mussels - Yumm!

Anne of Green Gables in 35 Languages

Another place Judy and I had to revisit from our 2017 trip, and explore further, was the connection between Cavendish and L.M. Montgomery's fictional book, “Anne of Green Gables”.  Cavendish is the town where the life and literary career of Lucy Maud (L.M.) Montgomery began and flourished. Honestly, I have never read the book, so I’ll give you my best brief interpretation of what I learned. L.M. Montgomery was a groundbreaking Canadian writer due to her ability to capture the universal themes of childhood, identity, and belonging. Her most famous work, “Anne of Green Gables”, is inspiring because she embodies resilience, individuality, and the power of imagination. 

Montgomery kept amazing journals of her writing process, and all of it is on display at the Green Gables Heritage Place and Museum. And although Green Gables is a fictional place, it is all based upon the area, and we had a chance to walk from the Heritage Center, through the “haunted woods”, to the actual house (foundation only) that L.M. Montgomery, grew up writing in. Here’s a stunning statistic: The book, “Anne of Green Gables”, is still actively published today, has been translated into over 35 languages, and has never gone out of print since originally published in 1908. Wow!

Charlottetown was an easy 30-minute drive from the campsite, and we made our way into the capital city to explore a couple of times. On our second trip, we took advantage of an early morning start and headed directly to the Victoria Park Boardwalk for a walk along the Charlottetown waterfront. At ¾ of a mile, the boardwalk provides unobstructed views of the entry to Charlottetown Harbor through Hillsborough Bay. Outside the bay is the Northumberland Strait waterway over which the Confederation Bridge passes. The Boardwalk concludes at the Beaconsfield Historic House and Museum which we then visited. The house was designed and built for James and Edith Peake. Beaconsfield was one of Charlottetown’s most elegant homes, featuring the finest materials and craftsmanship and equipped with all the latest 1877 conveniences of the day. The Peakes fell into financial hardship and had to vacate the mansion after only living in it for a handful of years. Today, the restored house is an example of Victorian architecture with many original features and a fascinating story.

Beaconsfield Historic House, Charlottetown, P.E.I.

It is noteworthy how circumstances can unexpectedly influence outcomes. For instance, my original itinerary for this trip involved a twelve-day stay at Cavendish Campground; however, due to not accessing the reservation system promptly, I was unable to book a site for as long as I had wished. I was familiar with the Canadian Parks Services' procedure for releasing campground reservations, however I overlooked the time zone difference associated with the Maritime Provinces, which operate on Atlantic Time rather than Eastern Time. Consequently, I accessed the system an hour late. Undeterred, I proceeded to seek alternative campsites elsewhere on P.E.I. to complete my visit, focusing on options closer to the capital. This search ultimately led us to Lord Selkirk campground in Belfast, a location that provided convenient access to both Charlottetown and the smaller town of Montague along the Montague River. In Montague we enjoyed a memorable meal at “Windows On The Water” restaurant. Even better, our revised plans enabled us to visit Panmure Provincial Park and its beach, a wonderful experience we would have otherwise missed. As Judy and I drove off the island crossing the Confederation Bridge with Neil the Northpoint in tow, we agreed that not being able to schedule our entire stay at the Cavendish campground worked out better. Moving our home on wheels across the Island allowed us to engage more thoroughly with the local culture and genuinely appreciate the unique character of Prince Edward Island. Ahh, the exhilaration of not knowing what we will find around each turn of the road as we tell… the Rest of the Story.