Heather had friends, who had also been friends of my Mum’s, and they were keen to see me. They were living in Montague, and so Crystal and I set off to visit them in the morning.

It was a beautiful sunny day, and we returned to Caledonia and picked up Caroline, to go and visit some autumn foliage. There was what was called a heritage trail not far from there, a dirt lane with trees lined thickly on each side, bursting with colour. We went in my hired car as Crystal’s had some issue with the fan for the car heater.

We started about half past twelve, and it took us an hour and a half to travel the few kilometres of road, because we kept stopping and taking photos all the time! There were a couple of small lakes too, which added to the beauty. Mum had had a poster of a dirt road in Prince Edward Island with these colours, and I wondered if it had been taken from here.

The road finished in what looked like a tunnel exit made out of trees. There was a small lake at the end, where we enjoyed the reflections of the trees, and then kept going to some blueberry fields which Crystal wanted to show me.

The blueberry plants all turn to autumn colours as well, making for a beautiful sight. We got to a big expanse of them – they were very low growing, and some parts were starting to go red, and others not so much yet. It was a lovely sight with the stretch covered with different colours, then autumn trees in the background.

We returned to Caledonia for a late lunch, and about five, Crystal and I visited King’s Castle Provincial Park, where Crystal knew of some more red beaches. This was only about 10km from Caledonia, and was on an inlet which looked like a lake. It had a park in front of the beach, which had quite a few painted life-size or larger than life models of animals and people from fairy tales, like the goose that laid the golden egg, the three bears, the Wizard of Oz and the three little pigs. There was also a little lighthouse model, and a huge pumpkin with holes where you could poke your head out, and Crystal and I took turns photographing each other.

The beach was indeed pretty red, more red than I’d remembered seeing anywhere else. It was quite placid, like a lake. It was a little distance from the ocean, and I think it was protected from the sea by a string of islands. It was sunny, towards the end of the day, and the spot was picturesque with forest growing right down to the sandy clay.

Not far from there, on the south-facing coast, was another beach that Crystal knew about, with red rocks and sand, and a ladder going down to it. We drove there, seeing replacement of power poles along the way. They had moved the existing power poles, and wires, so that they were at an angle, and put new power poles in straight, prior to moving the wires across. It looked very strange!

We found the beach, which was at the end of a road, and then a little track leading down to the edge. We weren’t able to go down the ladder to the little cove, because someone was working on something there, and using the ladder. But it was still pretty standing on the top looking at the last light shining on the red cliffs, with the rocks beneath. We had a chat with the man working there, it seemed he and Crystal knew some of the same people – this is PEI after all, where lots of people seem to know lots of other people!

We finished up by going a little further along to Northumberland Provincial Park again, near where the ferries came and went, and a bit after six we walked along the beach as it was starting to get dark. We saw a ferry coming in, lit up, and little solar lights someone had put on the path down to the beach were pretty as the light faded. Across the water were some lights in the far distance, and we were trying to work out if they were on the Nova Scotia coast, or boats in between. Some of them disappeared when the ferry went by, so it seemed like they were boats. It was a lovely peaceful finish to my tours of PEI.

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It was another partly cloudy day, and we kept going with our tour of the north coast of the island. We drove about an hour, into Charlottetown, then back out next to the airport to Brackley Beach, a popular beach in the summertime, probably not least because it wasn’t too far from Charlottetown. There was a large parking lot, but few people in it that day. It was so nice to be able to visit some of these beautiful places without crowds of people finally. The facilities were again closed for the winter.

To the west of the parking lot was Robinsons Island, a small piece of land connected via a causeway, but the road to this was closed, apparently after damage from hurricane Fiona the year before, and hadn’t been reopened. So we went to the nearby beach, which had a large wooden platform and walkway.

We were blessed with a sunny patch, and the colours were lovely, with the sea, rather orange sand, the green tops on the dunes. Not far under the sand on the sandhills was red clay by the looks of it, which perhaps helped give the sand its orange look. In the distance were houses along a far coast, possibly Rustico.

We walked for nearly an hour along the beach. Part of the beach showed as being sea on Google Maps, and we joked about walking in the middle of the sea. We made it to an area on the near part of the coast of Robinsons Island that was covered with red rocks. A little further along it turned into beach again. The island was quite narrow there, and we had a look inland a little way, but there was no track going that way.

We made our way back, and around 1pm we moved on. We found a little snack bar about a kilometre back from the beach, near what looked like an ornamental lighthouse, and had fish and chips, which was pretty nice.

On we went to Rustico, which had another pretty harbour. We found a road that went along near the coast to get some photos of the colourful town across the water. There were only a few houses on large allotments, with grassy areas in between them.

The road rose up to a dead end, and we got some good shots there. From there it was a short distance to one of our main destinations, the Anne of Green Gables museum in Cavedish. It turns out that there were not one, but two competing museums. We went to Green Gables Heritage Place.

There was an inside area with a Lego model of the place, and some information. Outside was a kind of farm area with a carriage, some barns, and of course the house made up to look like the Anne of Green Gables house. It was a fair sized place, with two storeys, and each room made up to look like what a house of that vintage would have been like, and no doubt based on the description of where Anne had lived.

It was white, with green trimmings, and had a lovely garden surrounding it. Some of the wallpaper was quite bold and striking, and the place was well appointed. There were a couple of rooms that were just alcoves where people would store things.

Outside there was a golf course, and some walking trails through forest that was starting to change colour, including two called Lover’s Lane and the Haunted Forest, from the books. We went along one, which may have been Lover’s Lane. We could see more damage from the hurricane, but it was a pretty area.

I was keen to see some really red beaches, which I’d remembered seeing on photos or websites about the island. On the south coast, the Argyle Shore Provincial Park looked promising, pretty much straight down from where we were on the north coast. We started down inland, through Granville, then a little way further south we came on a lovely vista of very green farmland with rows of trees scattered through it.

We stopped for a while taking photos, getting some good shots when the sun came out. Near us was a harvester, with a large funnel pouring grain into a container in the back as it went along. I’m not exactly sure what the crop was.

Towards sunset we got to the pretty port town of Victoria, and it was clear that although Argyle Shore wasn’t too far away, we wouldn’t get there before sunset, so we found a little beach, which was indeed quite red, a short way further along the coast to watch the sunset. We drove back through Charlottetown again, and ate at a place called BOOMburger, where the burgers were definitely tasty.

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Crystal had taken Wednesday to Friday off, and so we started exploring more of the island, taking her car again. Our plan was to work our way anticlockwise around the coast and see how far we got. We started further north from Panmure Island where we’d ended up on Sunday, at Basin Head Provincial Park, toward the easternmost point of the island.

This was clearly a popular spot in the warmer weather, with changing rooms and a museum. Everything seemed to be closed and locked at this season though. From what I saw, toilets at nearly all the parks were locked. Apparently they winterised them – taking all the water out of them and shutting them up for the winter, so they wouldn’t freeze and break pipes. I thought they could have had at least a chemical toilet somewhere. It made finding facilities tricky.

The park was along the beach, where a river ran into the sea, between two jetty-like structures built either side of it, making a rather narrow channel where the water was flowing very strongly. It looked to be actually flowing away from the sea, so perhaps the tide was doing that. I could see that it would be difficult not to get swept away a bit if you ended up there. Apparently people did swim through there sometimes. The river had sandy banks, except for one area with PEI-red soil, which was always striking when I saw it.

We walked along the beach, which had quite white sand, an unusual sight on the island. It was meant to squeak when you walked along it, but at least that day it didn't sound very squeaky. There were very dark clouds over towards Nova Scotia, which was known for being rainy apparently. It had certainly lived up to its reputation when I was there!

The dark clouds provided some great dramatic photos as we walked for an hour or so. About 1km further on was the locality of Bothwell, sporting a general store, and we bought some lunch there, and ate it in the car while looking at some green fields with round hay bales scattered around, and red ploughed soil.

It was about 2pm when we got to East Point, with a well maintained lighthouse in the standard colour scheme, and red clay cliffs that looked as though they were regularly eroded.

The sea around the cliffs was also fairly red, making for a nice colour scheme with the green grass growing on top. The sun came out briefly, adding to the colour. There were what looked like wires or cables going down the cliff, and some rather undermined concrete, and I wondered if something had been built there at some stage, and washed away or had to be dismantled.

A short distance along the north coast we came on a pretty harbor, North Lake. The sheds here were especially colourful, many in red and blue. There were a few people around, but it was fairly quiet. The road went over the inlet into the harbour, and we watched a boat come in from the bridge.

About half an hour further along the north coast, we took a little road off the highway to Naufrage Harbour, at the mouth of Naufrage Pond, which was actually a decent sized inlet with lovely views across it from the bridge.

There was a lighthouse nearby, and a road went towards it, but you couldn’t actually get to the lighthouse itself. Next to it was a curious looking octagonal three storey house, the top storey being much smaller, probably just one room, but no doubt with great views.

We drove back to the highway, which headed inland a little way after a while, to go around a fair sized inlet, and at the end of that inlet was the picturesque little town of Saint Peters Bay.

It was partly cloudy, and there were some colourfully painted houses across a small stretch of water, which we thought would be nice to photograph with the sun on them. It looked as though the sun might eventually hit them - the clouds seemed to be moving in the right direction, so we waited around for a while, and after fifteen or twenty minutes we got our wish.

Out towards the coast, on a small arm going into the sea next to the inlet, was Greenwich, part of Prince Edward Island National Park, which we got to about quarter past five, as the sun was starting to get low, casting beautiful warm colours. The clouds had largely cleared as we made our way past the (closed!) facilities, to Greenwich Beach. Crystal had remembered a walk in the area that went through a kind of lake or marsh, on a boardwalk, and we saw that there was another section of the park with a trailhead.

We drove over there, getting a bit of a surprise when the paved road suddenly ended and gave way to a dirt road that was not in good condition. We found the trailhead, and the walk she was thinking of. It started out near the side of the little peninsula, away from the ocean, and we walked along for a while not very near the coast, but with views across the stretch of water in the distance, then we got to the lake around six, which was still, with beautiful reflections of the sky that was starting to colour up.

We got to the boardwalk, which was actually floating on the lake, and it was pretty long, probably nearly a kilometre. It was interesting to walk across the water like that. There were one or two viewing platforms, and when it curved around, the walkway going along the water with its reflection was a lovely sight. The trail went across to the ocean side of the peninsula, and after climbing a sandhill we got to the beach again, further along from where we had been before, just in time to see the sun set, with beautiful pink and salmon skies reflecting on the sand.

There was a sliver of moon as we made our way back, figuring that we could use our phone torches if it was dark before we returned, and the track was pretty straightforward. The reflections of the lit-up sky on the lake were lovely on the way back, and the lights, probably of Saint Peters Bay, as we did the last stretch of the walk, with just enough light to see by.

We drove back to Charlottetown to get dinner, which was a bit of a detour, but it seemed there wasn’t much to be had anywhere else nearby in the area at that time on a weekday. We went to a place called Blaze Pizza, and had a nice repast after our exercise.

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It looked like a drier day, though still cloudy, and I walked over to the restaurant to have some breakfast and check out, and finished off some dessert I’d bought the previous day.

I had driven through some amazing looking hills covered in colour towards dusk the previous night, and I wanted to have a look at them in the daylight, so I backtracked a few kilometres. It really was impressive, winding up into the hills. Even though the day was dull and a bit misty, the colours really stood out.

There weren’t a lot of places where it was possible to pull over and stop, but I found one, and walked along the road for a little while. Up a little from my parking spot, in a stretch of road where I hadn’t been able to stop, were views of the sea beyond the colourful hills.

There was a waterfall cascading down the steep hillside on one side of the road. Driving back to Pleasant Bay I stopped briefly at a spot which had a walking trail along stream surrounded by more colourful foliage, which I think was McIntosh Brook.

I got back to Pleasant Bay about quarter past nine. I hadn’t seen anything of it the previous night. It had a rugged looking coastline with a little bit of beach, and quite a long section of cliffs that looked like clay, probably around 5m high. There were still strong waves.

The harbour was pretty, with a few boats, and colourful hills behind, as well as a very small lighthouse inside the harbour, which I suspect may have been for decorative purposes.

My main destination for the day was the famous Skyline Trail, about 15 or 20 minutes further along the road. The road went back up into hills again, and I got some nice views of the coast looking back, with the hills fading into the mist, but better visibility than the day before.

I drove through more amazing hills clothed with yellow foliage, then into more open territory with orange-yellow grasslands and some pine trees, past an overlook over French Lake, surrounded by pine trees.

The parking lot for the Skyline Trail was huge, it was clear that this was often a very popular spot. This day there weren’t a lot of people there at 10.15 or so when I got there. I found that it had been closed the previous day, so I was thankful it was open now. I think it must have been very windy along there also, the same weather that caused the ferry cancellation. It was still rather misty, with a few drops of rain, but mostly dry. Quite a bit of the walk was a loop, and there were no recommendations as to which way around was best to go. I got to the dividing of the ways around the same time as another couple, and we ended up each going a different way.

The trail went through some fairly open areas with grasslands and low scrub, and trees a bit further off, and sometimes through more treed areas. It was pretty with the autumn colours in the grasses and some of the trees. Though it was quite misty when I started off, I could see some tree-covered hills in the distance at a lookout point, and a hint of the sea in the distance.

As I went along it cleared a bit, and I could see the sea more clearly. The trail was quite high up, so I could see a fair way out to sea. I met someone who said he had seen a moose in the distance, so I kept an eye out, but I didn’t spot any.

There was a friendly couple I kept meeting as we stopped at lookouts – I walked faster, but I think I stayed longer at the lookouts too, so we kept pace with each other a bit. Every so often there were vistas out to sea, then the trail got towards the end, where the country became quite open. There was a boardwalk you could walk down, and strict instructions that you weren’t allowed to go off the boardwalk, complete with fines for offenders. This was a shame – you couldn’t get close to the sea, and there were enticing tracks going off from the end of the boardwalk, but apparently lots of people had been walking along and causing erosion and degradation of the area – the perils of very popular spots.

The views, even though it was a bit misty, were spectacular. I could see hills covered with yellow trees and the Cabot Trail road snaking through them, a waterfall in the distance, and out in the other direction the sea, with some islands and some kind of peninsula. There was a group with fairly loud music going, hanging around and taking photos of themselves for a fair while. I met quite a few groups of tourists in different places, who seemed always to have music playing out loud when they were hiking. It seemed a shame to disrupt the peace and quiet like that.

I took the other track back, also sometimes through pine forest, and other times through beautifully coloured yellow-orange grasslands, with also a few plants with bright red berries here and there. There was a large fenced-off enclosure that I went through, with a raised lookout in it. According to the signs, moose were responsible for a lot of the open land, which had been forested before – it seemed the issue was that old trees died naturally or in storms, and the moose ate the new seedlings coming up, so new trees never made it. The enclosure was to keep moose out to help the area to regenerate. The open land was quite pretty though. I hoped to see a moose from the top, but they must have all been in hiding.

I drove on towards Cheticamp, the town at the far end of the Cabot Trail, stopping at a couple of lookouts looking along the coast and next to more spectacular hills covered in autumn foliage, largely yellow, but with some orange mixed in. Whatever low opinion North Americans had about foliage that was just yellow, coming from somewhere with very little autumn colour, I was more than satisfied with just yellows as well!

I had been planning originally to do another trail called Blueberry Mountain Trail, not far from the Skyline Trail. It had great views, but this was not such a good day for views, time was getting on and it was nearly a three hour hike, so I went on a couple of shorter walks.

The Coney Brook Trail was near the coast, following a small river upstream for a while. Autumn foliage surrounding a river was a sight that was hard to resist.

Towards Cheticamp was the Le Buttereau trail where after a bit of a climb through colourful trees, I was rewarded with views along the coast, and more colourful hills. Though the sun didn’t come out during the day, it stayed dry, which was a big improvement!

By the time I got to the little town of Cheticamp it was around 3pm, and I was definitely on the lookout for lunch. I found a bakery, which in Australia would invariably have had hot pies unless they were sold out, but I think North American bakeries generally don’t do hot pies, so I had to be satisfied with a roll. It was a little sad seeing a bakery without hot pies!

I found a road going off to a quiet little beach, and ate in the car while enjoying the view. The town of Cheticamp was along the coast very close to Cheticamp Island, which actually wasn’t quite an island so far as I could work out, and looked very green and countrified, with some sheep and cattle grazing here and there. It would have been interesting to see it up close if I had more time, but I had to keep moving. The ferry was running again, about a three hour drive away, the last one was at 7.30pm, and I wanted to leave a little bit of time for sightseeing on the drive back.

After about half an hour I stopped at a little place called Fordview, which had lovely views over a river which looked quite flooded after the rain, and low forested hills with farmhouses on them.

Another half an hour took me to Lake Ainslie, a large and beautiful lake with a lot of colourful trees around it. I spent about 20 minutes walking around the area, and taking lots of photos. There was a house by the lake with a yard packed with red, orange and yellow trees, and I was thinking what an amazing place it would be to live, though in winter it might not be so great.

The minor road I was on joined onto the main highway at a place called Whycocomagh – I have no idea how that would be pronounced – and I drove the rest of the way to Caribou where the ferry left from. I was a bit concerned that it would be full, but I arrived in good time, and there weren’t a lot of people taking the last ferry back, which was a relief – I wasn’t keen to drive the extra 300km back around by the bridge again! It was a free trip since I was going to the Island.

It was dark by the time the ferry left, and I ordered some dinner as it was departing. They had somewhat limited options since they had already served dinner on the previous sailing, and I think we had what was left. They had poutine, which I tried again. The trip was about an hour and a quarter, and once we arrived at the other side, I drove off and immediately took a wrong turn. There was a sign pointing out routes for different parts of the island, and I must have taken the wrong one. Google Maps suggested a route back to Caledonia, but it was a dirt (clay) road, and it was still damp, and I wasn’t keen to get the car all muddy.

So I went on and it marked out another road to go down, which was paved, so I thought, good I’ll take that one. But I was fooled! After maybe 500m it also turned to dirt. I gave up and went with the flow, driving slowly to try not to get too much mud on the car. The road went along for a while, then down a fair way into a valley, and I was wondering if I would end up fording a stream or something, but it climbed back up again, and eventually ended up on the road where the house was, with the driveway just a short distance away. It was good to get back!

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I set off to my destination, the Cabot Trail in Nova Scotia, but because of the ferry being out, I had a seven and a half hour drive to Ingonish at the start of the area I wanted to explore, instead of a three and a half hour drive. I left at around 6am in the dark, and set off to the bridge, which was toward the western side of the island, past Charlottetown, and about the same distance again beyond it, about an hour’s drive. It was a damp morning, and the forecast was not promising – there were heavy rainfall warnings – I had never seen that before!

There wasn’t a lot of traffic as I drove in the dark with a bit of drizzle, though there was more around Charlottetown. I wasn’t really held up though, and got out to the bridge as it was starting to get light. It cost about $55 to cross the bridge, only one way – the way I was going. Apparently it was free to get onto the Island, but you had to pay to get off! The ferry worked the same way, you paid to leave the island, but it was free to return. (But it was first come first serve, unless you paid to book a ticket.) The bridge was cheaper than the ferry, and some people would come to the island by the ferry for free, then leave by the bridge, which was costing the ferry money. I was surprised they didn’t have the same organisation collecting both tolls, or sharing revenue or something.

I paid the toll, and drove along the bridge, which was an impressive sight. I was glad to get to drive over it, even if it did add a huge distance to my trip. It was about 13km long, one lane each way, zoned 80km/h, and so it took a while to drive over it, across the ocean, an interesting experience. I got off the bridge into New Brunswick, an extra province to my list that I hadn’t expected. There were signs advising to slow down at night because of moose. It had started raining, and didn’t stop for the entire day, which made for muted, misty scenery. There were signs of good autumn colour. I saw a sign for a turn off to the Bay of Fundy, which I had heard about, with very high and fast tides. It would have been interesting to see if I had more time, but I think it was a fair way away.

After about half an hour, I joined Trans Canada Highway 2. It was well made, two lanes each way. I was to follow that highway for 380km. I’d brought some snacks along, and munched on these as I went, in lieu of breakfast. The road went through rolling hills. Perhaps another three quarters of an hour later I came to a toll plaza – part of the highway was a toll road, costing $4. I was able to pay by card, so didn’t have to mess around with registering on web sites. A fair bit later I passed the road to the Pictou ferry, which I would have taken if the ferry was running, rather ruefully thinking about how long the detour was!

I stopped for fuel after around four hours or so, at Antigonish (pronounced “AntigonESH” with the emphasis on the last syllable), and got something to have for lunch. It was nice to be driving something less fuel-hungry than the van. Not far after that the road went down to one lane each way, and after a while I went across a causeway onto Cape Breton Island.

It was a rather industrial looking area, with a quarry on one side. I remember Mum talking about Cape Breton, and how they had an ice hockey team which were very rough. There were pretty areas through here, along the side of a huge lake system called the Bras d’Or Lake. I’d remembered Dad talking about seeing this area. In some of these areas, instead of road signs in English and French, they were in English and Gaelic, which was very interesting to see!

The road started to get pretty treacherous through here, because there had been so much rain, and there were depressed tyre tracks along parts of the road that were filled up, but were almost invisible, and would suddenly grab the wheel as I drove through them. I had to be constantly on guard. That went on for probably an hour or so, not pleasant! I passed through Baddeck, which I seem to remember Mum mentioning as well, though I don’t remember why. The foliage was starting to look magnificent, and after about six and a half hours of driving, I stopped to take some photos of beautiful colours near a spot called Harbourview on an inlet.

Not far along was a river which also had lovely trees around it, and I took some more photos along there, on the way to the coast. I stopped for lunch at last around 1, at a place called MacDonalds Pond, near Little River, with lovely views of beaches, inlets and forests. It was still raining, and I ate my lunch in the car.

The sea was pretty rough, and there were large waves coming into the beach. The road wound up into the hills, and I stopped at an overlook to see the sea with misty hills going off into the distance down the coast.

A little further, at the locality of Ingonish Ferry (again pronounced “IngonESH”, I learned), I could see across a bay to Ingonish Beach. To get there you had to drive around the little bay for a few minutes, and I took a turn-off from the main road to have a look along the coast at Ingonish Beach. The waves were really large here, it was an impressive sea. I found a spot to park, and walked along the road a little way. The coast was wild looking, with the beach made up of rather large stones, though the harbour itself was quite quiet.

I got to the visitor centre in Ingonesh, and paid the entrance fee, which was fairly cheap, and lasted till around 4 the next day, which suited me, as I would have to be gone by then. With all the rain, I jokingly asked if we got a discount for the weather! So I had finally arrived at the heart of the Cabot Trail, which went around the top of Cape Breton Island, along the coast on both sides, and cut across from one side to the other near the northern end. It was still raining, and didn’t look like stopping, so some of the hikes I’d planned with views weren’t looking like good options, given the misty views I’d seen so far.

I had a look at the beautiful Freshwater Lake near the visitor centre, then stopped at a beach near Ingonish which seemed to be composed just of stones, about the size of a small hand, coloured with pink and grey speckles, mostly one colour or the other. The sea was rushing in and out, and the stones were rattling around as the water moved them around. It was a very unusual beach.

A little further along was a more sheltered cove, with a small piece of beach, a breakwater, and a some pretty white houses with grey roofs, a peaceful scene. In the distance were misty hills, reminding me a bit of the south-east coast of Tasmania in similar weather.

My first planned hike had been Broad Cove, near Warren Lake. The road in was beautiful, through a colourful forest. I drove to the lake, and enjoyed the scene for a while. It was about 3.30pm by this time. I thought I would have a go at the hike, since the foliage was so pretty. This turned out to be quite an experience. Because of all the rain, a lot of the track was a creek, and stairs were waterfalls. There was water running and pooled everywhere. The rain wasn’t very heavy at this point, and I had some shelter from the trees, so whilst I was getting damp, I wasn’t soaked.

Navigating along the track that had turned into rivers and waterfalls wasn’t easy, as I didn’t want to get my feet soaked in the deep puddles. Once or twice I was able to put a stone or log into one of the puddles or streams so I could get across.

It was a fair climb to the summit, where I could still see across some forest, and just see an inlet and the sea in the distance. It would have been spectacular in the sunshine, but was still beautiful in a misty way, and the autumn foliage all along was fantastic, it looked to be pretty much at its peak.

I got back about ten to five, and had another look at the beautiful road through the foliage before heading on. I had more or less written off other activities for the day. I still had a bit of a way to drive to get to my accommodation at Pleasant Bay. I stopped briefly at Lakies Head, which had huge waves crashing against rocks. It was very dramatic and I’d have loved to see more of it, but I was getting pretty wet in the rain without shelter, and time was going. I had a look at Black Brook Cove, which had a waterfall going into the sea, which was a raging torrent by this time.

From there the road went by Neils Harbour, which I took a quick look at without getting out of the car, then up into the hills, across the island. There was a lot of forest, with truly spectacular colours, fading as it slowly got dark. The road wound down to sea level again, to Pleasant Bay, about 30km from there, where I arrived towards dark, and I was pretty wet. Amazingly, about the only things that had stayed dry were my feet, which was an impressive feat for the hiking boots.

Pleasant Bay was a pretty small place, but the motel had a restaurant, which I was glad of, as I didn’t bring provisions for making dinner, nor I think would there have been anywhere to cook it in the motel unit. I’m not sure there was even an electric jug and tea bags – that seemed not to be a standard thing over there. I’d checked beforehand to make sure I would get dinner! I ordered my meal, while a lady played on a guitar, and sang. I had been wanting to have some lobster while in the Maritime provinces, remembering the lobster we had in PEI when we were kids, but that was in July, and it wasn’t lobster season now.

I could have had lobster for something like $40, but I couldn’t bring myself to pay that, and had a nice meal of fish and veggies, for much less. It was good to go back to the unit and get out of my wet clothes. There was a thermostat that looked as though it was from the 80s in the room, and I wondered if it actually worked. I turned it up to a fairly toasty temperature, and though there was no noise anywhere, the room did heat up quite nicely after a while. I kept it quite warm overnight, and my clothes were dry the next morning, thankfully.

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It was rather sunny in the morning, and I got up and had a bit of a walk around the farm. The top of the hill behind the house was one of the higher spots in the island, with a view of the sea in the distance. I had a look at an old barn, the workshop, and the big collection of number plates inside, as well as many, many tools and bits and pieces, some stored up against the ceiling. There was a blue jay feeding at the bird feeder, and I got a good look at it.

Later in the morning I went to their church with them, a Presbyterian church. The one in Caledonia had closed down, I think due to lack of people, as had another three or so. It was in poor repair, and sad to see it run down. Apparently another church had met there for a while, but weren’t meeting there any more. The Presbyterian Church built a new church building for all the churches that had closed down, incorporating something from each of the old church buildings. It was at Alliston, about 5km from Caledonia.

It was nice to meet some of the family’s friends there. In the pew ahead of me was someone who had been friends with Mum, and had got in contact with me also a few years back, and we’d corresponded a bit. It was great to meet him in person and chat briefly, and we spoke of meeting up later in the week before I went.

We went back home to get some lunch, then set off for Panmure Island, not far from Caledonia. On the way, as we were getting close to the island we found a little harbour, Graham Pond, one of many small picturesque harbours dotted around the island. We stopped and had a bit of a walk around, looking at the colourful sheds, and the reflections in the water.

It was pretty deserted, but I expect it would be much busier during lobster season. One of the sheds had quite a few things nailed to the outside front wall, which looked a bit like pairs of wings, but I think they may have been fish tails. If so, they were from very big fish. They were each probably over half a metre wide.

I’m not sure that Panmure Island was actually an island. There was a narrow strip of land joining it to the mainland, and the road crossed that as a kind of causeway. One one side was the ocean, and on the other a bay, formed from the shelter of the island. We stopped at Panmure Island Provincial Park, and walked along the ocean side beach for quite a while.

It was a fairly sunny afternoon, warm enough that we could go barefoot and paddle in the water a bit. In the distance was a picturesque lighthouse and small house, in a green field, with a very large house nearby.

We walked there for about two hours, then had a look on the other side. Along the narrow causeway was a long grassy hump, probably covering sand dunes. The water on the other side was very still, almost like a lake, and the sun, now low in the sky, was reflecting on it. We drove to the lighthouse to have a proper look, and it was pretty in the evening light.

There were some horses in a field nearby, which were also quite photogenic. From the low hill where the lighthouse was, we looked back over a field of reaped corn, to the causeway and the sea on both sides.

We found a nice spot on the bay side of the causeway, near the lighthouse, to watch (and photograph!) the sunset. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful sunset, and we enjoyed it for about half an hour until it died down.

A day or two before I had booked a ferry for the morning, which would leave from Wood Islands about 10 minutes from Caledonia, and get me across to Nova Scotia where I was to spend the next couple of days. But I got notification that it had been cancelled due to “technical reasons”, as had all ferries until about 3pm the next day. This was not good news, as it meant I would have to drive over the bridge and back, adding about 300km to my journey. I found out later from someone in the know that it was probably because it was very windy.

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Both Crystal and I got off to a late start on Saturday. It looked like a bit of a rainy morning, and we thought it would be a good day to see our great uncle Preston in Charlottetown.

We set out off to the main highway, keeping an eye out for scenic spots. We stopped at Orwell Cove, about half way there. There were pretty views over fields to the sea.

We turned off again at the town of Stonington, which had another pretty marsh, which looked beautiful with the sun on the yellow grasses. On the other side were more marshes, then the sea beyond, with dark clouds in the background. We walked along a bit, to Kinloch Beach with a small stretch of sand, and enjoyed the dramatic clouds.

A little further along was Stratford, a town just before Charlottetown. We stopped at a place called Phinley’s Diner for lunch, just off the highway. We were expected at Preston’s about 3 or 3.30 I think. He was in a nice looking apartment block about 1km from the centre of Charlottetown. It was lovely to see him after such a long time, and also to meet his wife Mary Alice, whom he’d married just a few years back, while in his 90s. He was 98, and I think not good on his feet – he didn’t get up.

We chatted for quite a while, and got some photos with Crystal, Preston and myself. We left around 5ish, and set out to have a bit of a look around the town. By the waterfront was a park called Confederation Landing, with the fancy looking Convention Centre next door. There was an area right by the water with a number of colourful buildings selling food, and it looked as though there were also clothes and other things for sale, and some of the shops seemed to be on structures that were floating on the water. There didn't look to be much open at that time of the evening on a Saturday.

There was a bit of a marina there too, and on one side a few little huts, which looked to be floating, where you could stay. Out to sea a little way was what looked like a huge oil or gas tanker. At that time there was a scarecrow festival going on, and in quite a few parts of the city, people had made creative scarecrows out of various materials and old clothes.

Here and there were metal sculptures depicting famous people from early in the Island’s history, which were very well done. I think it was in Charlottetown where the federation agreement for Canada was signed, and some some of the figures were probably from that event.

Charlottetown has water around a lot of it, so the sea is never far away. On one side, as it was starting to get dark, we found another lighthouse with the ubiquitous white and red colour scheme. It was very much in need of repair, with a big hole in one side. There was a little beach next to it. It was just perched on the coast in between a couple of houses, in a built up area. A couple of large flocks of birds flew over us, I guess heading for nesting spots somewhere before it got dark. We headed for home as well.

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The weather forecast for the next few days didn't look too promising, but there was some blue sky in the morning. I came down to the kitchen, which was where the stove was, and people tended to sit. There was a pretty scene outside the window, with some sun on trees in the background that were starting to get autumn colour, and red bushes and lawn in the foreground.

For breakfast while I was there, I got cereal, then made toast over the stove, which was delicious. There was a metal tool that you could use to hook onto a round cover on part of the stove top, about the size of a small electric element, then a rack where you put the bread in, and laid it over the opening, while the flames toasted it on one side then the other when you turned it over. It toasted faster depending on how stoked up the stove was. It turned out that they were tea drinkers, and Mickey had a teapot of boiling water on the stove all the time. He would put a tea bag in when I came down, and it brewed nicely. They had Orange Pekoe tea, which had a good taste to it.

Crystal had her own house in Murray River not far away, and drove over around 10, and we set off sightseeing. We planned to see some of the nearby coastline that day. There is a coastal drive along the coast in the area. She drove us in her car, and it was a nice change to be driven after driving so many miles. We started at Point Prim, to the west of Caledonia, on a bit of a peninsula. This was one of many lighthouses we would see in the next few days, like the others, wooden, painted white, with red trim around the light itself.

There was pine forest along the shoreline, pretty much right up to the water, but a lot of trees had been blown down by the hurricane that they’d had the previous year. Crystal pointed out a lot of areas where there was damage throughout our travels on the island, it was sad to see so many areas with trees dead or knocked down.

You could go up the lighthouse, so we paid to go in, and look inside. There were about three small rooms one on top of the other inside, a bedroom, I think a kitchen, and what was perhaps a kind of lounge room, then the room with the light itself. Going up, there were photos of lighthouse keepers and their families from long ago, and quite a good view at the top, across the strait to Nova Scotia, which was often visible along the coast.

It had become fairly cloudy, though sometimes there was dramatic weather, with dark clouds and bits of sunshine, and spots of rain now and then. Coming back along the peninsula, there were some pretty views across reaped fields to the sea, with dark clouds. Both Crystal and I are keen photographers, so we would stop from time to time and take shots of scenic spots. That worked out well, because neither of us minded stopping and spending time snapping scenes!

PEI was not a place for driving fast. A lot of the roads were 80km/h, and I from what I could saw, not even the major highways were more than 90. Of course a lot of people went a good deal faster than that. Out next destination was Wood Island, where the ferry left to go to Nova Scotia. On the way we stopped to take photos of some colourful trees. Autumn was definitely coming to the island, though not fully there yet. We found another tree pulled up by the roots from the hurricane.

Wood Island had another similar looking lighthouse, which was quite short, and looked a bit more like a house than a lighthouse, with a door at the bottom with red trim, and only a second storey window before the light itself. I’m not sure if it was in use. There was also a fairly dilapidated looking building in the same colours nearby. Perhaps that had been the lighthouse keeper’s house. It was very much in need of painting.

There was a bit of a picnic area there, and very red cliffs which I guess were clay, around a couple of metres high, down to the sea. We drove over towards the ferry terminal, and found a beautiful marshy area with yellow grasses and some red bushes. Some rain was coming, and we hot footed it back to the car until it went over. There was a beach not far away, at Northumberland Provincial Park, and we walked along that for nearly an hour.

The sand was fairly red, and there were red clayish looking rocky cliffs at one end. The sun peeped out now and then, which made for some dramatic shots with the reddish sand and quite dark clouds in the background, over Nova Scotia. Crystal liked to collect coloured glass pieces on the beaches that had been smoothed out by the waves and sand, so we kept an eye out for them we walked.

We didn’t get very far along from there, towards Little Sands, when we found a pretty spot looking over what was either a lake or an inlet. It looked like a lake, with a narrow stretch of beach dividing it from the sea. I walked a little way down an embankment with a lot of undergrowth to get closer, and found an old jetty.

From there we made our way a little further east to Cape Bear lighthouse, another pretty spot with with more small red cliffs, a reddish beach at the bottom, and forest here and there. There was a little replica lighthouse near the main lighthouse.

The weather was getting a bit more rainy as we drove to the small town of Murray Harbour, and admired the picturesque inlet with small fishing boats, and some wooden buildings, a common scene around the island. There were what looked like large barrels floating on wooden rafts, which apparently people could hire out and sleep there, floating on the water. I’m not sure if they were tall enough to stand up in. There was a big window at one end of the barrel. It would have been an interesting experience.

On we went to the slightly bigger town of Murray River where Crystal lived, stopping on the way to admire some more autumn colour. We spent a little while looking at the harbour, and a river or inlet going off into the distance. While it rained, she showed me around her house, which was two-storey and quite capacious. There were a couple of large storage areas coming off rooms on the upper storey. She was still in the process of unpacking and settling in.

Across the road was a restaurant, the Millstone Grill, and we had a late lunch around 3.30 or so. We seemed to be the only customers at that time. From there we drove further north about 10-15km, past a swampy area with more beautiful colours, to Montague, which was one of the main towns on the island.

It was about 6pm by this time, and we stopped at the harbour there, to see if there would be any sunset colour reflected on the water. It was pretty cloudy but we got a little bit. Crystal showed me the hardware store there where she worked. It was getting dark by then, and we headed back to Caledonia. I enjoyed seeing signs pointing to different towns or areas that Mum used to talk about when she spoke of her childhood, like Heatherdale, Brooklyn and Glen William.

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I needed to hand the van back, then make it to the Newark airport for a flight to Ontario then to Prince Edward Island, leaving at 11am. It was technically an international flight, going from the US to Canada, and I had to get my luggage in by around 10, so I was aiming to arrive by 9.30. I had pre-arranged with the Escape Campervan people that someone would be there at 8.30, and booked an Uber for 8.45, because they’d said it would be pretty quick to hand the van back.

In the morning, while getting ready, I ran into a man from the south, I forget which state, who was very talkative and friendly, and told me that southerners were more friendly than northerners. He was chewing tobacco the whole time, and every so often turned away and spat out some tobacco juice. I couldn’t talk for long because I was needing to get my flight.

I threw out my remaining rubbish and I checked out of the RV park, making sure to sign out. For some reason they were particular about that. If you didn’t sign out you’d be charged an extra fee which was significant. I went next door to the Escape Campervan place, and parked opposite. There was someone in the office, which was quite small, and I handed back the keys. He had a quick look at the van, then went back in, and brought up my details. He said I’d done 9,500 miles, I think he said it was the second longest trip of anyone handing a van back there. I had bought 10,000 miles, and he was trying to process the refund of the miles I hadn’t used.

The figures weren’t working out, and he had to ring someone to find out what to do. I found out that the reimbursement had also been processed, of the money I’d spent on coolant, repairs and service. I was chomping at the bit a little, with the Uber expected pretty shortly. In the end he said to leave it with him and he would sort it out. I found the Uber driver was having trouble finding me – he had ended up at the RV park, but we found each other before long.

It was a fairly quick drive to that airport. I was glad it was also in Jersey City, not in New York. He told me that it could take three hours to drive to JFK airport, with the horrific traffic, and that Uber drivers were paid only by the miles they drove, not their time, so it was not a popular destination for Uber drivers. He dropped me off, and I checked in with plenty of time to spare. It was one of the best appointed airports I’d seen, so far as the lounges were concerned. Each seat had a charging socket, it looked like they all even had USB-C, whereas in most places you were fortunate if each row of seats had one socket, or there would be one much sought-after power point on a pillar somewhere.

I got used to showing my passport and boarding pass every time I boarded a plane, and sometimes also just to line up to go through security. It was sunny when I left, and I got some good views of New York City and the harbour as we went up. Air Canada are not big on meals. We generally got a tiny packet of pretzels or maybe a couple of small biscuits as snacks, and a drink. We flew over the Great Lakes to get to Toronto, and I tried to spot the column of mist at Niagara Falls as we went that way.

In Toronto we needed to go through customs, and I got to go through the Canadian citizens area, which was probably faster than the non-citizen line, as with the long wait in the non-US line in LA airport. They had a lot of terminals where you scanned your passport, then answered some questions on the screen about whether you had anything to declare, then you were issued a kind of ticket with your answers on it, which you showed to an attendant, then went on to a station where someone had a look at the passport and asked a few questions.

I had about two hours layover, which went quickly once you factored in getting off the plane, going through customs, collecting the luggage, then boarding the next flight. They never moved luggage on automatically to your connecting flight if you were entering a different country. They generally seemed to print all the destinations on your luggage ticket though, and I was able to just take the luggage, follow the signs for people connecting to another flight in Canada, and hand the luggage to someone to check in again. I got some lunch at the airport while waiting for the flight, then boarded again.

We had more views of the Great Lakes going up again. It was fairly cloudy, but I was able to see some scenic views of Prince Edward Island from above as we came in. It was pretty special to be flying into my birthplace again after 39 years. Charlottetown airport is like a country airport, it looked like there were just a couple of gates, and we walked along the tarmac to get on and off the plane. My cousin Crystal had offered to drive in to meet me, which was lovely. It was so nice to meet in person after such a long time.

I had hired a car via a company called Turo, which I was to pick up at the airport. They are rather like AirBnB but for cars, where people can rent out their cars, and they get ratings on the car and their service and the like. Car hire wasn’t cheap in PEI, and Turo wasn’t much cheaper than the car hire, but there weren’t the inevitable restrictions on not driving on dirt roads, which I thought I might be doing, and in fact did. Most of the time I didn’t really need the car as it turned out, because Crystal had taken some days of leave, of which she had only a few, to go around with me. This was so sweet, and I really enjoyed the time we spent together.

Once the plane landed and we could turn off flight mode on our phones, I had made contact with the guy who owned the car, and sent a photo of myself and of my driver’s license as he asked. The car parking at the airport was just a single level car park, with free parking for about half an hour, which was very surprising. We found the car, and I rang him, and he unlocked it remotely. Crystal had suggested we have dinner in Charlottetown, and I followed her to a restaurant called Maid Marion, where she had come quite a bit, and they knew her.

We had a good meal there, and then I went with her nearby where she was looking at a bed head that someone was selling. It was in a garage, and she could just go in and look. We parked, and nobody was home, but we found the garage and looked at it, and she was happy with it. We were able to manoeuvre it into her car, and get it to fit.

After that, I followed her in the dark back to Caledonia, and it was a bit of a thrill to see the Caledonia sign as we came in. We parked and met my uncle Mickey and cousin Caroline, and also I think a cousin of Mickey and his wife who were there. It was a cool evening and he had the wood stove going, the same stove that they’d had when we visited in 1984!

It was nice and warm inside, and lovely to talk with everyone. My room was on the second floor, and I wondered who had slept there in earlier days, perhaps my Mum when she was young, or one of my aunts. It was amazing to be able to stay in the house where Mum had grown up, and see it again. They were planning to sell it eventually, so I was glad to see it before it was sold.

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The day dawned with a lovely sunrise. One of the things I had wanted to do was to see the city from above, and there were three places you could do that. I had already ruled out the Rockefeller Centre. I think the Empire State Building was a bit booked out too, but there was a third option, the Edge, with an outside viewing area 100 storeys up, and it wasn’t booked out, so I booked for something like 10.15. I brought along a power bank this time, so that my phone wouldn’t run out of battery.

It was quite close to the terminal of the ferry I’d taken the previous day, so I took the ferry again, and made my way there. The building had shopping areas on the bottom, and I had a bit of trouble finding where to go to get to the lookout. I found it eventually, and there was a pretty long line up to get in, even with tickets. I was hoping that I wouldn’t miss out by getting to the front of the line too long after the time on my ticket. Someone next to me in the queue offered to hold my place while I went to the front and asked, and I found out it wasn’t a problem.

It was something like a 25 minute wait, after which we walked along an interestingly lit passageway with information about the area, and then up 100 floors in the lift, which exited onto the indoor part of the viewing area, with windows all around.

The views from there were pretty impressive, along the Hudson River, which it was close to, and over the city – I got a good idea of just how big the CBD was! The outdoor area had high glass walls all around. As I walked around, I saw someone lying on a part of the floor, and I realised it was actually clear, and you could stand there and look down 100 floors beneath your feet!

It was a beautiful sunny morning, and the views were great! Inside there was an area with (I think fake) autumn leaves and foliage, and some pumpkins, where people were getting photos. It was about the only autumn colour in the New York area at the time I think! There were a profusion of pumpkins around everywhere during the time around Halloween and Thanksgiving. After about half an hour I’d seen my fill and went back down again.

Outside this building was a curious structure, with seven oddly-shaped rings, each probably a storey or more above the next one. I was able to get into the bottom part, but you couldn’t climb up any further. Apparently at some stage people could, but I gather they had issues with people committing suicide by jumping off.

There was a raised walkway with a lot of plants on it, that used to be a railway, which people could walk along. There was an entrance to it near this building, and I walked a little way, but then it was blocked off. I think they were working on some parts of it. I was at a bit of a loose end at this point. I’d ticked off most of the things I wanted to do. I’d been thinking of visiting the 9/11 memorial and thought Wall Street might also be worth a look, as it was near there.

I took the subway again down to the south of the island, and paid my respects at the memorial. It’s a sobering thought looking at all the names, to consider how many people died there.

I had a bit of a job finding Wall Street, even with Google Maps, but I tracked it down, and had a walk along it. It was actually a bit of an anticlimax. It looked quite ordinary, and even the Stock Exchange, though it was an impressive building, was very quiet. You couldn’t go in as far as I could see, and nobody was coming or going.

The way the streets were laid out made for a curious building that was very narrow at the front, as two streets intersected at a sharp angle, and I saw a church peeking out from between the tall buildings. It was around 1 by this time, and I went by a place selling pizza, and had a good lunch. Afterwards I thought I’d have a look at Staten Island, with the free ferry. I walked down to the point nearby where the ferry terminal was, and got there just as masses of people were piling onto the ferry.

The ferry was bright orange, and quite large. There were no tickets, so people all just walked on in large numbers. The ferries left pretty regularly, something like every 20 minutes or half an hour. It was nice trip across to the island, taking about 25 minutes, and going near the Statue of Liberty again. I’d spotted gardens that were about 3.5km from the terminal, the Snug Harbor Cultural and Botanic Gardens. It was about a 40 minute fast walk there, along a road near the coast.

Staten Island, or at least the part where I was, was much quieter than Manhattan Island – not a lot of traffic, no horns honking, few sirens. There was a bit of a plaza around the ferry terminal with some shops, then a footpath along the road near the coast. It went by what had been some kind of large complex, but was fenced off, and abandoned looking.

Further on there was an industrial looking area, and across the river, in Jersey City, lots of industrial tanks and things. There were some pretty spots by the water along a small road closer to the waterfront. Along the way I stopped at a service station and bought something to drink. I was always having to make sure I looked the right way before crossing the road!

I reached the gardens, and started to look around. There was a museum but I didn’t go in because I was still consuming what I’d bought from the service station. The gardens were pretty and peaceful, if not spectacular. There were squirrels everywhere, and it was fun to watch them galloping around with their long bushy tails behind them, sometimes as long as their body.

Some of the attractions were closed, like the Chinese Garden, but there were still flowers blooming in some places, and it was a beautiful warm sunny afternoon to relax there and walk through everything. There was an area with a rectangular pond and fountain, and quite a few buildings around, which perhaps were for functions or exhibits that were open at some point.

I walked along through less structured areas, with a track by a rather overgrown lake, through a tunnel of trees. Coming back toward the entrance, there were a number of quaint looking, rather ornate small brick cottages. I think maybe people lived in some of them, or had small businesses there.

The road exited through an arch in a pretty little building that looked like a guard house, and I hiked the 40 odd minutes back. I found that there was a ferry (not free!) leaving from a similar place to the Staten Island one I’d come on, which went to a spot on the river on the New York side pretty much opposite Paulus Hook, then a ferry from there took me across the river.

I hadn’t wanted to linger while it got too dark the previous day because of my phone being dead, and not wanting to get lost, but this evening I stayed for quite a while, watching the New York skyline across the water and the light slowly fading, while the buildings lit up. I sat for a while by steps near the Colgate Clock, as a couple of girls practiced kicking a soccer ball around, until one of them fielded a phone call for quite a while, leaving the other one at a bit of a loose end.

It was a peaceful spot, and a nice end to my explorations of New York City, a place I was glad I saw, and I enjoyed the visit, but wasn’t left with a great deal of desire to see it again. I was around an hour by the water there, before I started back. I was very glad to have my phone working this time, because (being the poor navigator that I am), I managed to get onto a different street, and had to use Google Maps to work out where I was meant to be. I walked past the marina, pretty with the lights reflecting in the water, and got to the RV park a bit after seven, and it was fairly dark by then.

I wasn’t sure how much the fridge would have used up the battery – I was pretty impressed by how long it went without the van running, but it had been over two days, so I drove around the RV park a little bit just to make sure the battery was still ok, and to charge it a little. I had gathered that the fridge cut out if the battery got too low, but I didn’t want to risk having a flat battery when I needed to leave. I had dinner, and finished up everything I could, in preparation for handing the van back the next day, and got things as packed and ready as possible so that I could make a quick getaway.

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