A large rock has been carved with nautical figures as a memorial.

We hiked back to the truck and left. Continuing down the same road, now going north, we came across a memorial to the people on Swissair 111, which crashed offshore from Peggy’s Cove a few years ago, killing 229.

We went to the next crossroads and had lunch at a convenient little restaurant. D had fish & chips, and I had a spicy fish cakes and salad plate. They were both quite tasty.

The waitress/cashier/busperson told us where the nearest liquor store was. All beverages are sold from liquor stores in large population areas, or licensed contractor stores in places without the population to support the full store. I picked up some more wine, and a 12-pack of Clancy’s ale. 

Dolores had the urge to buy another set of leisure clothes for wear in the trailer, so we returned to Dartmouth and made our way to the Mic-mac Mall. It’s next to Mic-mac Lake. It’s certainly the equivalent of our malls. In fact, a goodly part of it looked like one of our malls, what with all the stores 
that are found in both countries. D found her things, and I picked up a couple of CD’s of Canadian folk music while browsing.

We visited the Atlantic Superstore – an upper-scale grocery plus. We picked up a few food items for the next few days.

We returned to the little house in the campground and put things away. We sat for a bit, then decided to take a hike.

The campground is adjacent to the old Shubenacadie Canal. This canal, built around 1840, transported goods from the Bay of Fundy to Dartmouth and thus to Halifax. It was successful for a long period. 

One section of it is still filled with water from one lake to the next – but the locks in between are disabled. If you go through it by kayak or canoe, you have to portage around the locks.

The campground has a path to the beach at the point where the canal exits from one lake to go down to Lake Mic-mac and onward. We walked down one side of the canal.

After we’d gone a ways, a tiny squirrel scampered around to one side of the trail, then came up on the trail to within a few feet of us. Then it stood and looked at us. I moved, and it ran away. 

We continued, and more squirrels ran around and approached us closely. Then a chipmunk ran out of the wood to within a couple of feet and stood.. It looked at us for a bit, then ran off.

Now, this isn’t normal, even in a city park.

A lady with a damp dog caught up with us. The dog had to run up to us to sniff, and that gave us an excuse to scratch the animal and converse with its owner.

When we asked why the animals are so friendly, she replied that there is a local person many call “Squirrel Man” who walks up and down the canal daily, feeding the animals. She says he’s very familiar with the squirrels, chipmunks, and ducks that live along the canal. They’ll eat from his hand. That explained what we’d been seeing.

We continued to the first lock (a mile or so), then crossed over to the other side and started back. All the little animals were just as friendly/curious as their brethren on the other side. Just ahead of us was a couple with a partially full plastic bag. They weren’t always in sight, but twice we saw them bending down, giving something to a rodent. They also fed a duck family we saw. Was this the “Squirrel Man”? 

At the campground, I dug out the grill and made salads while D did the potatoes and set up for dinner. The steak and potatoes were excellent, even though we had to eat inside. The lack of breeze let the mosquitoes into the campground. Great big ones.  Really big.

We cleaned up and stored most of the things lying around. We’ll start toward Cape Breton in the morning, without knowing where we’ll stay tomorrow night. There are lots of options.