Moncton to Charlottetown, Tuesday, 13-Jun-2023
This was mostly a driving day as we left New Brunswick and arrived on Prince Edward Island. We went to the southeast to Basin Head Beach, then to the far east to see the East Point Lighthouse.
We were ready early in the morning, so we decided to just head out. We had a two-hour drive to Charlottetown.
The route we took had us driving over the Confederation Bridge. While it's easy to understand that it's a long bridge (8 miles), when you start driving on it, you feel like you're climbing forever before you reach the apex. Work was being done on the pavement, so we had to wait a bit near the middle.
The sides of the bridge are very high, so the only views of the water you get are pretty far off. Understandable, since you really don't want cars going over the side. We avoided paying the toll since you only pay when you leave the island. It's pretty expensive; about CAD 50, or a bit over USD 35. When you look at the per-mile cost, however, it's about the same as the Golden Gate Bridge.
Almost immediately after getting off the bridge, we passed an accident where the first responders hadn't been there very long. A truck was on its side in the culvert. Not good.
We got to Charlottetown and checked into our hostel. The room was being cleaned at the time, so we hung out for a few minutes, after which we unpacked. The owner/operator is very chatty and personable, and during the tour, was very specific about some items. Every time that happens, it makes me think that there must have been some specific incident to cause someone to ask that shoes not be worn during quiet time because they make so much noise.
After we were done unpacking, we got some fish and chips at a nearby restaurant, then got in the car for the hour's drive to Basin Head Provincial Park
Basin Head Provincial Park
There weren't that many cars in the parking lot for Basin Head Provincial Park,, so we pulled into a spot close to the path and walked down to the beach.
When you first get to the beach, you can walk out on a short pier to look at the ocean. Away from the ocean, you can take a look at where Basin Head Harbour empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. You then cross a small bridge that deposits you onto another pier. From there, you can step onto the beach.
There were a handful of people on the beach, but once we started walking, we had the whole beach to ourselves. The sand is supposed to "sing" as you walk on it, but I couldn't hear anything. It sounded like walking on the sand at other beaches to me, but Melody said it sounded like singing. Apparently, my footsteps sounded more like that than hers. When we spoke with the hostel owner later, she said it sounded more like a crunching sound to her than singing.
We walked a bit more than a mile before turning around. The tide was coming in, but there was still a wide path of compressed sand to make the walking not too difficult.
When we got back to the piers, there were only a few people still on the beach, and they were packing up. We got back to the car, emptied the sand from our shoes, and headed out.
East Point Lighthouse
Our next stop was the East Point Lighthouse, which is on the far eastern point of Prince Edward Island. After paying our admission, we started up. Because the lighthouse tapers towards the top, the flights of stairs had each step a bit to the left than the one below (the stairs went up in a counterclockwise spiral).
When we got to the top, it was pretty tight with another couple up there, but they were finishing up and headed down. It was easy to see a wide swath of water. The lamp is no longer there since the lighthouse now uses a radio. There's a deck that goes all around the outside, but visitors aren't allowed to go out there (the small hatch used to go out was blocked off).
On the way down, we stopped on the various floor to look at the exhibits. On one floor, restoration work on a wall was stopped because they discovered a lot of signatures on the wall, written in pencil. One of the signatures was dated 1877.
Done with the lighthouse, we went to the store to pick up some supplemental breakfast items and dinner. We then returned to the hostel, ate our dinner, and settled in for the night.
