A great place to spend some time

Monday, September 24
Annapolis Royal is home to the only tidal generator in North America and one of only a half dozen in the world. With large tidal changes it seems to make sense to harness the changes in sea level to help generate power. The reality is a bit different. There are technological challenges to overcome and the financial business case is not strong. The tide comes in and out twice per day but the tidal generator can produce power for about five hours twice daily. The issue of running a metallic generator in a salt environment is daunting and special (expensive) anti-corrosion measures must be taken. The generator has been generating about 20 megawatts at it's peak (enough to light about 4500 homes) but that peak is only for a short time each day. The generator has been in operation since the mid-eighties and continues to be reliable, just not economic to expand or build more of these. Other technologies are being tested but at this point none are viable to harness the potential of the tides.

The 'above ground' portion of the generating station. The first floor is the tourist info office for the town. The second floor is the visitor center for the power plant.

This is the 'headpond' for the generator. As the tide comes in they open the gates to allow sea water to enter the Annapolis River. Once it raises the level to a pre-determined height they close the gates and wait for the tide to go out thereby creating a 'headpond' for the generator.

A view of the generating plant. the 'headpond' is at the top.

They generating station goes down about eight stories into the ground.

It may be hard to read but generally this explains the tidal cycles and how the plant uses the tide to generate power.

A model of the generator.

Tide tables. They can only generate power twice daily, once the headpond is full.

The tour guide took me down about four floors to the generating room. They can only take tours down when the generator is not running. The noise and heat is too high during operation.

The orange section is the stator plates of the generator. The grey tubes contain the wiring from the generator to the transformers then onto the power grid.

One deep hole. This was the very bottom of the generator. Another four floors below where we were standing.

The work area. This plants are spotless, organized and well lit.

The day was still nice and sunny so we went into town (Annapolis Royal) to walk some of the streets. The restored homes are so nice and such a change from what we see in modern cities in Western Canada.

This was an Inn.

There are hundreds of apple trees growing wild in the area. Ditches, pastures, abandoned farmyards, they are everywhere. I suppose when you have been growing apples in the area for over 400 years it is inevitable there will be a few strays.

Small simple homes.....

.....to larger more ornate homes, inns and businesses.

The weather was about to change the next day so we headed out to the sea shore using a different  road than we had been on before. Always nice to explore a new area.

Nice road up into the hills. Not many leaves turning colour here.....yet.

Twisty road as it gets higher.

The over the hill.....and there is the Bay of Fundy!

This is Hampton Harbour. About mid-tide. The boats are floating, and you can see the high water mark on the wharf.

Hampton Harbour Lighthouse

A terrific stoney beach.

It gets windy here apparently. Note the rope tied to a rock holding the port-a-poti in place. It kinda makes you wonder what might have happened in a storm if you were using the facilities.......before they decided they needed the rope!!

The beach was covered with stones. The sound of all those stones washing in and out with the wave action was amazing. Mother nature at work.

So colourful!

We were happily collecting some pretty stones when we saw this sign.......so we put them all back where we found them! :-)

Back down the road toward the campground.

Tuesday, September 25
We didn't move too fast today, but with rain in the forecast we did want to get back over to Digby to check out another seafood chowder place. I mean, why pass it up?

An unrestored beauty. Maybe owned by the Munsters?

Bookstore in Digby

Cannon guarding the fleet in the harbour

Digby lighthouse

The Digby fishing fleet. Digby is known for their famous scallops.

Main street Digby

Some brightly coloured buildings. When these houses were constructed the only paint they had was black and white. It was too expensive to bring coloured paint from Europe. The coloured houses are more recently painted, well, maybe decades ago but not the original colour.

This looks like a good spot for lunch.

Had to have the seafood chowder. Loaded with potato, haddock, scallops, shrimp and lobster.

The town clock. Time on one side, tide time on the other.

Lots of scallop boats ready to go.

......and a nice barn on the way home.

Wednesday and Thursday, September 26 &27

The folks living around Nova Scotia have been getting desperate for rain. Their wells are running dry so when it started to rain here Wednesday everyone was happy. Actually so were we. It meant we didn't have to feel guilty about doing nothing! This park has very good internet so I spent the day writing blogs and checking out our trip south. It rained pretty steady all day.

Thursday started out rainy too, but by about noon it started to clear and we were able to get outside a bit. A quick run to the store and a bit of a look-around and we were home. I dumped the tanks and put away the hose in prep for our departure tomorrow.

The Generating Station from the shore by our campground.

A quick tour of our campground, Dunromin in Annapolis Royal. The sites would be pretty tight if it was summer but in the Fall there was plenty of space. They had good internet, power was good and plenty of water pressure. not a bad place at all!

Cabins on the shore.

Nice spot to relax.

Colourful cabins. Apparently if you ride your bike too fast they take it away and it becomes artwork! See the three bikes below the eve?

Our site

The view from the campground.

Nice sunset with teepee in the foreground. 

Friday, September 28
This was supposed to be moving day but it started to rain about 6AM and didn't stop.....well.....most of the day. So I paid for another night and we'll now leave here tomorrow, Saturday. We snuck into town for lunch to the German Bakery. I had fresh squash soup and a schnitzel burger. Cheryl had the chicken. Was it good? Yes!, but we did have to pick up a couple of pastries for later.

.....and that was Our View From Here!