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. Canada 3000's Airbus offered a  comfortable ride with the extra leg room .

Arrival The journey to the airport made, and the flight almost over, we circled Halifax, Nova Scotia’s capital city, not knowing what to expect.  But then, coming into land, as far as we could see, trees and lakes, lakes and trees, miles of them, plus the odd homestead here and there. Awesome.

Emerging from the terminal at 8.30pm in the evening, I had expected the icy winds to blow up my trouser legs. No way. I thought we’d landed at the wrong place and had to be restrained from climbing back on the plane. It was balmy and real hot, just like Portugal. Here we were, these crazy Brits, togged up to the nines in winter gear with the Canadians milling around in shorts and sunglasses!

Due to the problem with car rental and credit cards, we stayed overnight in a local hotel on the outskirts of Halifax. Fortuitously these were also sub rental agents for one of the large vehicle hire operations and quite happy to accept my debit visa card as payment, providing I laid a deposit to be held against the hiring.   If you follow us in this journey, make sure that you fit yourself up with a credit card way in advance.  There are plenty of options on the Internet, if you are having difficulty in obtaining one.

The journey down

Finally on Canadian soil, we set off, for the 220km drive to our base at Bear River.  Panic! I’d only ever driven on the wrong side of the road (the Canadians claim they drive on the right side!) for ten days, and that was years ago.  Strange country, strange road signs, strange ways. Mother luck played another good hand of fate. It was motorways all the way from the hotel to within a kilometre of our new temporary home, and so gingerly, with the team help of my wife, I gained the necessary experience on the hoof so to speak, to adapt my driving.

Make sure that you hire an automatic, with cruise control and a/c (air-conditioning). Having only ever driven around in old bangers, I’d never used cruise before but what it does is to retain your vehicle’s speed at a set limit. To disengage the system simply touch the brake or accelerator and control is passed back to the driver. You need it here because of the long distances between anywhere, and the fact that the top speed limit is just 100kph - about 60mph. To avoid foot cramp and the constant necessity to keep watching the speedo, choose cruise.  As far as a/c goes, this only happened in the UK whenever I opened the car window.  Just in case you, like me, have no idea of what it is, it’s a small refrigerator under the bonnet (sorry - hood) that ice cools the incoming air. Feels like the blast when you open the freezer door at home. Nice and essential. Whilst writing this, it’s 82 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade and it’s September. The news just reported that someone had baked cookies (biscuits) outside using just the heat of the sun.

The Highways

The main highways in Nova Scotia do a giant loop that run parallel to the coast line, so, say, you can go down the north coast from Halifax and return along the south shore.  The further west you drive, the less vehicles on the road and you will be shocked by the fact that sometimes you can look in both directions and not see a living soul, and this is a motorway. Weird!!

Again the more you journey out, the less the options to play I-Spy with the kids. There’s “r” for road, “s” for sky and “t” for ... you guessed it. You will however spot a wide variety of flattened Canadian wildlife, mainly poor old raccoons and porcupines that didn’t make it across the road. Having said that, the odd live beaver, black mink and deer will make an appearance.  We’re still waiting for a bear or moose though.

. Bear River no longer has Bears  and Moose River, no Moose.  Could hunting be the cause? .

Speed

Unlike the UK, there are no cameras on the highways, either traffic or police. No big brother watching. Again unlike the UK, virtually no one does excessive mph (sorry kph) over the limit. Something strange for a Brit to observe. The Nova Scotians appear to drive at a maximum of 110kph, the highest limit around here would be 100kph. To go at 115kph would thought to be rude and flouting the law. Also when overtaking another vehicle, unlike the UK where you hit the floorboards and give as much welly as possible, not the Scotians.  Again that would be considered ill-mannered and abusing the law and therefore be done in slow motion so as not to offend. It’s rare to be pulled over by a cop, but everyone, including the truckers on time constraints, drive like you’d find in the UK when there’s a radar trap or police car around. You know the scene - pious, upright, eyes straight forward and dead on 29mph! I have to say at this, the Nova Scotians are the sweetest people we’ve ever met, any comments I make are only with the greatest respect and love. They are fantastic, honest, caring, generous, and always ready to help.

Ditches

Be careful when pulling off any road onto the hard shoulder as along side that you will find a large deep “V” shaped ditch. These are on all highways and are the provision to take snow from the plough when it goes by in winter. Also you’ll notice that there’s no “cats-eyes or reflective particles used in the road lining.  Plus, if you see a huge locomotive coming down the middle of the highway at you, I suggest you clear the way quick as it’s painting the latter, and at a fast rate of knots.  Whatever happened to the little guy with the push along liner?

Stay Alert

 Word of warning for Brits. We discovered what a Big Mack really was early on in our Canadian driving experience. In a lapse of awareness, we reverted back to British driving and went round the corner on the wrong side of the road, only to be faced with a truck radiator the size of a 3 storey house, and MACK emblazoned across it’s width. Apparently the RCMP (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) allow Brits three weeks amnesty for non-serious driving errors, after which they book you. If you have been here for three months, you have to take a simple Canadian driving test to assure the authorities that you are capable and have learned the contents of their version of the Highway Code.

. Canadian dirt roads are something else .

On to the base Heading towards the rented house in Bear River, near Digby, we encountered our first Canadian dirt road.  Back in the UK, a dirt road would have been a muddy track. Not here, these are laid for logging truck use, as wide as three lanes and resemble a motorway that’s awaiting the final tarmac surface. This sums up Canada - everything is big here, solid, build like brick toilet houses and very, very, practical. Even moths & mosquitos are the size of jumbo jets, robins the size of turkeys (well a wee bit of an exaggeration...). Nothing here is small.

The temporary base Our hearts were in our mouths as we drove along this dirt road, which seemed to go on for ever. Had we made one mother of a mistake booking this place over the Net?  Thank heavens the dirt gave way to paved (tarmac’d) highway by the time we reached the property. It was much larger than we had gathered from photos on the landlords web site. A four bedroom fully furnished 120 year old monolith on 4.5 acres complete with tennis court, all for around £75 per week, including rates and well water. A lot more for a lot less than the mortgage we paid in the UK.  Like 99.9% of the homes in Nova Scotia it’s timber-framed with wood sidings (planked outer walls - similar to giant garden sheds).  The down side is that we agreed to cut the grass.  Even with a powered motor it’s a pain.

. The variety of the most beautiful big moths provide a quick snack for visiting raccoons .