Maritime Expedition # 6: The Resort Most Canadians Forgot

As I left Prince Edward Island, the same way I arrived, I managed to get a couple more pictures on and around the ferry service.  Here's a view of the bay just west of the Wood Islands ferry terminal, obviously at low tide.  Much of PEI's south shore, facing the Northumberland Strait, looks like this at low tide.

 

 

And a couple of shots from the approach to Caribou in Nova Scotia.  The ferry has to sail well to the east of the dock, then turn 90 degrees to starboard to enter the long, narrow channel marked with buoys.  Only after sailing for some time past the low-lying sandbanks of Munroe's Island before altering course to port does the ship at last approach the pier.  

 

Nova Scotia was a lot less meticulous than Prince Edward Island about checking inbound travellers.  As soon as I showed my pre-approval pass, I was waved through, with no questions.  

 

Even after I was ashore, it took me another four hours of steady driving to reach my next destination, far to the southwest.  I followed the 104 freeway back to Truro, then went west on the secondary highway 236 (a narrow, twisting scenic route) down to Windsor, and there picked up the 101 freeway for the rest of the trip.  My destination was in the small southwest Nova Scotia town of Digby.  Say hello to the Digby Pines.

 

I first learned about the Pines as a child, from a brochure my family had (probably dating from some time in the 1950s) which illustrated the names and locations of all the hotels across Canada belonging to the Canadian Pacific Railway.  One of them was the Digby Pines Resort.  As a young'un, I often wondered just why this hotel needed such a huge bell poised up on the roof (see below).

There's a whole history to why the CPR would purchase a hotel here in a small town in southwestern Nova Scotia.  The CPR's route to the east coast of Canada followed the so-called "short cut" across the state of Maine from Montreal to Saint John, New Brunswick.  From there, passengers for Halifax boarded the CPR steamer across the Bay of Fundy to Digby, and then completed their journey on the Dominion Atlantic Railway, a subsidiary of the CPR, from Digby to Halifax.  This peculiar hybrid route also explains the story of the other hotel on the east coast owned by the CPR, the Algonquin at St. Andrews-by-the-Sea in New Brunswick.

 

Before the 1950s were over, the CPR had sold both properties as tourism increasingly meant overseas travel for Canadians.

 

The upshot of this whole history is that very few Canadians outside of the Atlantic Provinces know today that places like the Digby Pines and the Algonquin even exist, let alone anything of what they are like.  It's too bad, because the Pines at least is an impressive property that deserves to be better known.

 

While it's long since ceased to be a railway-owned property, and the railway to Digby is long gone, the Digby Pines is still here and -- to judge by the number of guests on the property in a midweek in mid-September -- still popular.  I've had a delightful stay here, enjoying the classic elegance of a luxury resort at prices that don't break the bank.

 

Let's start with a couple of pictures of the hotel itself.  This one is in the back, showing the main entrance and the stone turret which contains the main staircase.

 

Now I just wonder why the architect felt that a fieldstone tower with that odd bell-shaped roof would  fit in with the rest of the building's architecture.  

 

Here's the view in the front, looking up at the rooms with a water view.  The hotel is perched up on a hillside, giving the front rooms a dramatic view of the Annapolis Basin, a 30-kilometre-long offshoot of the Bay of Fundy.   

Many other accommodations are available in a series of detached cottages, spread across the property. 

 

 

Down the hill in front of the hotel is a spectacular, large, deep, heated outdoor pool.  I had a great swim there in the afternoon.   

 

Another CPR hotel with a near-identical pool enclosure was the Chateau Lake Louise in Alberta.  The pool there is long gone, although the enclosure is still standing and may be developed in future as a function space.  

 

The grounds of the Digby Pines are adorned with many flower gardens, all well-tended and full of seasonal blooms which put on a beautiful show.

 

Inside the hotel, you can see instantly the old-time vibe which makes the Digby Pines a virtual time machine, taking you back at once into the middle of the last century.  It's there in the main lounge off the lobby.

 

On the corner of the lobby, the main stairs curl up the inside of the stone turret.

 

 

The restaurant, too, goes long on classic elegance, without making anyone feel that they have to dress up for dinner (in the old days, they undoubtedly did).  Last night, I saw people entering the dining room in everything from jeans and sports shirts to suit and tie or cocktail dresses.

 

And now, a word to the wise: it's true what they say, that reading is fundamental.  I read the notice on the resort's website which said that reservations were required for the restaurant, and I called a few days ahead of my arrival to reserve space for dinner for my two nights' stay.  On my first night, I went down for dinner at my reserved time, confidently expecting to be escorted to a table near the back of the restaurant, or by the kitchen door -- this is often the fate of us solo diners.  But no.  I was led to a lovely table right by one of the windows, with a view of gardens, trees, and water.  I had the same table, and the same server, the next night too and for breakfast on my final morning.

A good deal of the elegance is supplied by such gracious touches as linen tablecloths and napkins, and centrepieces with real flowers.  Not to mention that the service staff have been well-trained by someone who definitely knows the ins and outs of quality table service.  The food lived up to the atmosphere in every respect. 

 

The restaurant is called Churchill's, but the reference is not to Winston -- it's to Digby businessman Harry Churchill who built the original Digby Pines on this site in 1909.  The current main hotel dates from 1929.

What else is there to do here?  The hotel has its own excellent golf course nearby, and offers free shuttle service to the golf course and into town.  The resort does have a spa, although this facility is currently closed.  There are many sites and places nearby which will repay your efforts for scenic excursions, hiking, fishing, and other outdoor pursuits.  Digby itself has a waterfront promenade and walkway along the harbour, and assorted shops and restaurants on the main street, many housed in older wooden buildings.  

 

 

In the outlying parts, the town offers many more services than you would expect in a town of about 2,000 people, because it is the central town of a district with many smaller villages. 

 

One of "my kids" (a former student), on hearing that I was in Nova Scotia, sent me a message to say that I was now in God's country.  Certainly, Nova Scotia is that for fans of the nationwide Tim Hortons coffee shop chain.  Halifax is said to have more Tim Hortons outlets per thousand population than anywhere else, but I think Digby has to be the real champion.  With a population (in 2016) of 2,060 people, Digby has not just one but two Timmys!  Halifax/Dartmouth Metro area would need well over 300 Timmy outlets to beat that record.

 

But back to the harbour.  That big fleet of fishing trawlers is employed in season in fishing for scallops, and the Digby scallops are renowned as the finest in Canada and among the finest in the world.  

 

 

Not too surprising, then, that any restaurant here which serves seafood has scallops on the menu.  I went for lunch to the Shoreline, one of the half dozen or more restaurants which face the harbour.  And here are two excerpts from the menu.  The first shows the diverse range of Nova Scotia wines on offer.  Not many people would think of Nova Scotia as wine country, but I found out about Nova Scotia wines right from my first trip to Halifax on VIA Rail, which always features them on the Ocean.  I've certainly enjoyed both old favourites and new discoveries during this trip.  I was also amused by the title "Sociables" (as distinct from "Beverages").

 

 

The next page shows the scallop dinner.  

 

 

Here's the actual meal.  

 

 

Thirteen scallops, beautifully sauteed to the just-right moment, and accompanied by a massive serving of perfectly crisp house-made kettle chips.  In Halifax, I have paid the same amount or more to get five scallops.  Five.  Moral: get thee to Digby, scallop lovers of Canada! 

As all good things must come to an end, I had to check out after my second night.  Pity.  But I had a reservation on the 11:00 am sailing of the ferry across the Bay of Fundy to Saint John, New Brunswick, and the ferry company sent me a reminder email that I must check in no later than 75 minutes before departure.

I took this ferry on my last trip to New Brunswick, nearly two decades ago, and the ship that was then in service was definitely getting a bit long in the tooth.  The MV Princess of Acadia was the very last in a long line of CP-owned Princesses which provided coastal ship links and (later) car ferry services on both the Pacific and Atlantic coastlines of Canada. This vessel served the Digby-Saint John route continuously from 1971 until 2014, a good long run for an ocean-going vessel.  Even at the end of her career, I always felt that this Princess was a very smart-looking ship with stylish lines.

Internet photo

 

The replacement ship, MV Fundy Rose, was built in Greece in 2000 for service with Blue Star Lines among the Greek islands, and then bought by the Canadian government for the Bay of Fundy service in 2014.  After refitting and renaming, the "new" ferry entered service in 2015.

Internet photo   

The curious thing is that, despite the newer ship's much boxier profile, the two vessels were almost exactly comparable in length, width, and tonnage.  But the newer design makes much better use of the space within those dimensions, being able to carry considerably more vehicles and nearly three times as many passengers.  The other huge difference is in speed.  The old Princess of Acadia was timetabled to cross the bay in 3 hours 15 minutes, so a 3x-daily schedule in peak season could only be maintained by having one departure from Saint John at an absolutely ungodly hour -- and the return from Digby at an even worse time of the night.  The Fundy Rose is timetabled to take 2 hours 30 minutes, and today completed the crossing, dock to dock, in 2 hours 10 minutes.  I was actually off the ship and into Saint John with time to spare at the 2-hour-30-minute mark!

 

The Fundy Rose is named for the bay she crosses, and in honour of a most remarkable woman from Annapolis Royal who has just come to my attention for the first time.  Here's a photo of the sign about her on board the ship.

 

 

So there I was on the dock at Digby at 9:30 am for the 11:00 departure.  And I still almost missed the ferry's arrival, because the ship came charging in just before 10:00 while I was doing some updating on my phone!  I was in time to get one picture of the ship slowly backing into the berth.

 

The famous super-high tides of the Bay of Fundy aren't quite as extreme here as they are farther into the bay, but still noteworthy.  The long blue steel bridge truss known as a "linkspan" is moved up or down to match with the height of the vessel's car deck in the prevailing tide.  Even at the most extreme tides, the great length of the linkspan ensures that vehicles will have no more than a gentle slope without any really drastic ups or downs while getting on and off the ship.

 

The fog that had hung over Digby all morning was just starting to dissipate as we pulled away from the dock in the Digby Gut, then turned 180 degrees and sailed out through the Gut into the open bay.

 

 

It was one of those delightful sea days where you can sit very comfortably on the upper rear deck, facing the stern, with the sun on your face and the wind at your back.  After a while, I went down and headed inside to explore the very roomy indoor passenger deck.  There's a huge lounge at the front with a bar (not in service today) and numerous groups of tables and chairs.  On either side in the midships section are two lounge areas equipped with airline-style reclining seats.  One side has numerous video screens and has a movie playing, the other -- partly enclosed -- is a quiet rest space.  Towards the rear, there is a snack counter and a cafeteria, where I had lunch.

 

After lunch I headed back outside, to find the world blanketed with fog again and the captain sounding the ship's horn in a single long blast every 2 minutes.  The horn had been completely inaudible inside, so the soundproofing is excellent to say the least.

 

As we entered Saint John Harbour, the sun came out on the east side (the heavy-industry area) but still stubbornly blanketed West Saint John, where the ferry terminal is located.  The vibration was remarkable as the Fundy Rose was running the engines full astern to take off the edge of her express speed across the bay.  Once we were docked, unloading proceeded very briskly, and I drove into the city, ready for the next stage of my adventures.

 

The ferry is such a great way to reach Digby that Bay Ferries actually sells getaway packages of round-trip ferry fare, transfer to and from the Digby Pines, room and breakfast.

Here, in closing, is the latest update of the map of my travels.