Ken's Journal
No. 6 - Summer 2007

Halifax, Peggy's Cove and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia
August 11-16, 2007 - Days 27-32 on the road. Part VII.


Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia

Everyone has seen this lighthouse. This is the most photographed lighthouses in Canada and this is the most photographed angle. This is Peggy's Point Lighthouse at Peggy's Cove, Nova Scotia (Map here). According to legend, Peggy's Cove was named after the only survivor of a schooner that ran aground and sank in 1800 . . . a woman named Margaret. Local folk called her "Peggy" and her home came to be known as Peggy's Cove. The original lighthouse was built in 1868.

You have to get here really early to photograph without hoards of tourists swarming all over the rocks and the base of the lighthouse. The Peggy's Cove Post Office is in the lighthouse and you can mail your postcards from here and have them hand canceled with a lighthouse stamp - one of the attractions here. See the webcam here and try to count the tourists or look at the fog. The tourist times are from about 9:00 am through 6:00 pm in the summer - nobody comes here in the winter - the second season up here. If you can avoid the tourists, you still have the frequent fog to deal with.

Peggy's Cove is 25 miles from my campground. I knew the tourists would be a problem so I figured if I got there early enough, I'd miss most of 'em. I found however, that I'd then have to deal with the fog. Visibility was about 100 meters. I left the campground early one very clear morning and ran into the fog half-way there. I turned around and went back to the campground. I found the webcam on-line and started watching that first thing in the morning. One morning it was clear as a bell at Peggy's Cove. I arrived at about 8:15 am, well before the tourists, and managed to get a bunch of nice shots. The tour-buses started to arrive at 9:00 am and put an end to that.

Another shot.

. . . and another. I have about 50 shots of this lighthouse. About fifteen minutes after I got here, a few other early-birds started to arrive so I was shooting around them - I'd wait until they were behind a rock or other-wise out of sight.

If you look at each of the pictures above, you'll see a black square next to the door. This is that black square. Yes, people have died here playing on the rocks.

A Busker. Yes, he's playing for money - his bag-pipe box is on the ground in front of him seeded with a few dollars! He couldn't match the endurance of the piper at the Citadel though. This guy could only puff for about five minutes at a time.

At the Peggy's Cove Harbor.

Same harbor.

This is the decrepit boat from above - Freedom '55.

These are two of my favorites. When I get home, these two will be a pair of 11x17s for my wall.


"Travel is more than the seeing of sights; it is a change that goes on, deep and permanent, in the ideas of living." –- Miriam Beard

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