Today was essentially a travel day, although we did make an excursion north to see the Northumberland Shore.  We left Pictou on the Sunrise Trail (#6) and followed it west to Rushton’s Beach, reputed to have the warmest water on the Nova Scotia shoreline.

The water is definitely warmer than the oceans of Maine, which are so cold (even in August) that your feet hurt until they go numb and you can’t feel them anymore.  However, the Northumberland Strait is NOT tropical; the water was definitely on the cool side.  I would compare it to the water temperature of one of the big Maine lakes like Moosehead — refreshingly cool but warm enough that you can swim awhile.

The beach is on the other side of a marsh, accessed by the lovely boardwalk seen above.  From the road, the area looks like a picnic area, and we actually thought we had the wrong place, until we realized that the beach was across the marsh.  We buttonholed a local on the beach (is it possible to actually buttonhole a guy wearing no shirt?) who said that this year the water was exceptionally cold, due to the cold and rainy summer which the province has experienced to date.  He averred that the water usually “is like bathwater”.  Probably so.

In any event, it was a lovely beach and it would have been very easy to spend the whole day there, listening to the waves lap the shore and watching the clouds float by.  But we now have an agenda, as the end of our tour is coming into sight.

So, we made our way south over #311 to Truro and promptly got lost there.  Nova Scotians are not generous with route signs.  We finally made the desperation move and got on the highway, #102 south.  We followed it one exit and took the road west from there, which eventually led us to an intersection we could recognize.  At that point we made our way to the Glooscap Trail (#215) and traversed the Minas Basin once again.

In Windsor we regained the Evangeline Trail (#1) and followed it east to Berwick, our stop for the night.  The B&B in which we now reside was built in 1848; owned by a retired couple named Case, the B&B is called “Pillowcase”, a clever play on the name. The place has the original plank floors and post-and-beam construction, and the Cases are most hospitable hosts.

Tomorrow will be our Digby Neck day, followed by a last sojourn down the Evangeline Trail to Yarmouth, where we will board the Novastar again on Saturday and return home.