Dates travelled: August 3-4, 2016
Yarmouth was the most unknown place on my first and still only Canadian east coast road trip. I doubt we would’ve went had it not been to visit family. We spent very little time in the town itself and were mostly in the outskirts, where my sister lives just down the street from probably the third nicest beach I have ever seen (after Chesterman in Tofino and Vargas Island). We liked the beach so much we set up a tent and spent the night.
I’d picked up bits of camping and beach knowledge over the past few years before this trip, and I was able to use it pretty successfully, at least in my head. We looked at the tide chart and determined where the dry sand was. I pulled one of the only pieces of driftwood in sight in front of our tent for us to sit on and to give us a bit of coverage from the waves. We dug in the sand in front of it to create a makeshift moat if the tide got that far, which it did. We were close to getting flooded, but the bits of knowledge and planning came in handy enough to make the difference. Or it was complete luck, I’m not entirely sure.
There are few things like falling asleep to the ocean tide splashing a couple feet away and waking up to it rushing out. Suddenly there’s so much open beach you wonder what the hell happened to all the water. It made me miss living on the coast.
The east coast is known for a few things, and I think it has a few perks. The people are known for being friendly, and I can’t really argue with that. It has been known for its fishing, but that’s been in decline, which is one of several influences on its struggling economy, which in turns makes it cheaper to live there. When you’re right up against the ocean, the weather is better than in the centre of the country, but you get a lot of wind, and it still gets really cold. Yarmouth itself I think gets less snowfall than a lot of the surrounding areas, but in general it can get pretty heavy on parts of the east coast. On the east coast not too far away from Ontario or from the eastern US like Maine and Boston, so it’s not like you feel overly trapped. All in all, probably not a bad place to retire on a budget.
For me, if I’m going to move somewhere more rural, it has to be the perfect confluence of weather and beauty. I don’t want to deal with winter. I’d also like to be somewhat near a major city, and for me that doesn’t mean Halifax. If I had to relocate to the Atlantic, I think Newfoundland is more my speed, but then I’d have to deal with feeling incredibly isolated. At least there are lots of flights to Europe from St. John’s, though.
There are so many places I’ve been that I liked seeing but haven’t stuck out enough to realistically think I’m going back, unless I had a specific reason. The best part I think of the non-Halifax Nova Scotia is the drive around the coast, of which Yarmouth is at the southern point, stopping where you can to beach climb or at small towns with good food. I don’t know that Nova Scotia is particularly known for its nature, but if you find yourself there it’s worth taking some time to settle in it.
I could spend hours in thought staring out into where the sky and ocean bleed into the horizon, simultaneously forgetting and remembering everything there is to know.
describing space 