Day 6: Farewell, PEI & Hello, Nova Scotia
DAY SIX: AT A GLANCE
Starting point: Dalvay by the Sea, Dalvay, PEI
Ending point: Five Islands Provincial Park, Five Islands, Nova Scotia
Starting mileage: 16,665
Ending mileage: 16,807
Daily total (miles): 142
Trip total (miles): 1,171
Today marked the end of the first part of our trip, as we’d be leaving PEI, which is always bittersweet for me. We’ve visited PEI five times in the last eight years (2018, 2019, 2022, 2024, & 2026), and it’s become one of my absolute favorite places. The few days here and there are never quite long enough. Perhaps that’s the beauty of falling in love with a place—leaving creates longing for the next visit. So until next time, PEI…
This morning, I was in no rush to get going—but at least the weather wasn’t great, so I didn’t feel like I was being cheated out of a great summer day on PEI. Soon, we’d be crossing back over the Confederation Bridge into New Brunswick and continuing on to Nova Scotia, where we’d be spending the next four nights. While we’ve made several repeat visits to PEI, we haven’t returned to Nova Scotia since that original road trip in 2019, and we were looking forward to seeing friends and then revisiting Cape Breton. It would be a short and whirlwind trip through the province—especially compared to 2019—but we were looking forward to the next few days.
This time around, I made sure to include a stop on the itinerary that I’ve been wanting to visit since that first road trip seven years ago: the Anne Murray Centre in Springhill, NS. G humored me, for which I was grateful; needless to say, he doesn’t love the 70s singer-songwriters like I do (or at least not the same ones!). If I were to put together a playlist of my childhood, Anne Murray would absolutely make the list; “You Needed Me,” “Danny’s Song” (both her version and the Loggins & Messina one), and “Could I Have this Dance” are still among my favorites…so of course I had to make a stop—plus it was on the way!!—and it was well worth our hour’s visit. The Anne Murray Centre is chock-full of all things Anne—awards, childhood memorabilia, outfits, photographs, letters, you name it. Honestly, I loved the visit, and even G admitted the center (museum?) was really well done.
About an hour later, we had made it to our destination: Five Islands Provincial Park in Five Islands, Nova Scotia. We checked into our site, drove back out to the market in town for sandwiches, and returned to the site. The site had a great view, but was completely out in the open, with absolutely no shade. The forecast had initially called for clouds and rain, but the skies had cleared and the sun beat down on the van—causing us to consider whether we should pack up and book a hotel room instead. At one point, the indoor thermometer read 89 degrees Fahrenheit! One downside of our camper van is that it doesn’t have A/C and with the summers getting hotter, that’s becoming more and more of a consideration for us—so much so that we’ve begun thinking on this trip whether we might be making a change. Stay tuned on that front…
We started a fire but ended up spending most of the late afternoon and evening in the van (once it had cooled a bit) due to the bugs—I’m rarely bothered by bugs (G, on the other hand, gets attacked!!), so when I can’t sit out, you know it’s buggy! After lots of back and forth (and maybe a minor meltdown on the parts of yours truly), in the end, we decided to stay and camp, and I’m glad we did. We were both able to relax, and I was able to catch up drafting blog posts and loading photos—though I’m still woefully behind due to poor cell/wifi signals camping! Plus, we needed to use tonight as a way to gauge just how uncomfortable we’re willing to be when camping in warm/humid weather—especially if we’re considering making a jump to another campervan. And those sunset views were pretty great. And that’s a wrap on our first day in Nova Scotia.