July 9 – West Cape

If you don’t care to hear about my struggle with Bell, Canada skip to after the map below.

I knew there was no internet here so while at Fundy I had been to a Bell store and asked if I could activate our usb internet stick over the phone. “Sure, no problem”. We got here on Sunday night and I called. “The activation department is closed. Call back Monday morning” . Monday morning I called. “You can’t activate the stick unless you have a new SIM card. You have to go to a Bell store”. There happened to be a Bell store associated with a Home Hardware near our planned path on Monday. We stopped in at about 10:30 hoping to quickly continue on. After the very nice guy had taken all my info and started the process, a message popped up “To continue you must call corporate security”.

A bit of back story. Last year someone stole my credit card number and used it to buy a bunch of stuff from Bell Mobility. It was all resolved very quickly because I had noticed the bad charge the day it happened. It was a pain to get a new card but that was all.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, we wait 45 minutes on hold for corporate security to even answer the call. After asking the local Bell guy a bunch of questions and me a bunch of questions, she (someone in India) seemed satisfied but then said “You must now wait at least 6 hours and no more than 4 days before you can do the actual activation.” She would not give me the reason. I asked if I could do it over the phone. “No, you have to come back to the store”. By now it was noon and they would be closed in 6 hours so I had to come back today.

So I left Jennie at the RV and head off because I have no idea how long it will take. The same guy helps me and we start again. We get to the same point and now it says “Call Accounts Receivable”. We only waited on hold about 10 minutes to have the person say we had to call corporate security. This called was answered quickly and after about 10 more minutes of explanation and questions we were good to go. Everything looked good. The stick found the network and I was about to connect when the guy realized he had done the activation incorrectly. He had done it as though I had bought a new stick and was in a 3 year contract rather than having brought my own device.

Lots of swear words. We had to cancel the activation and start again. We again had to call security and of course we got someone new so we had to explain everything again.  Finally connected. After another hour and a half in the store.

The security lady said this will happen every time I try and buy something from Bell. As I only use the stick in the summer, I cancel it each fall. If we use it next year we’ll see if Jennie can activate it with less trouble.

Back to the good stuff.

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It was a long day today. After my Bell saga we left about 10 and got back about 6 after making a lot of stops. Lots of pictures. Together we took about 400.

The west coast is wide and flat and just falls off into the sea.

We found a turn off that took us down to the harbour at Howard’s Cove.

With their huge lighthouse.

There were nice views to the south.

Off in the distance we could see an interesting arch and a pillar.

We drove on hoping to get a closer view but there was no access.

We stopped at this viewpoint on the highway, across a potato field.

More wind turbines down here as well.

Next stop was Cedar Dunes Provincial Park with a long beach and the West Point Lighthouse.

Jennie is always checking out the items on the beach.

I walked down to a point.

The lighthouse is still a active beacon but the building is now an inn.

There are even rooms in the tower itself for $170 a night if you can get a reservation.

Moving on we drove up and around to the Cap Egmont in the Acadian area of Region Evangeline.

With a quick stop. Orange pineapple and Island paradise.

We tried to get to the lighthouse but ended up at the harbour instead.

It’s pretty cheap to keep your boat here.

We could see the lighthouse.

There was also another beach so off went Jennie.

We thought the cliffs looked a bit like Mount Rushmore.

A lady at the beach told us where to find the road. The sign was in French and did not mention the lighthouse. I don’t know how we missed it.

 

The cliffs at the point were very high and steep. Jennie got close but not too close.

Next stop was the Bottle Houses.

In the 1980’s and 90’s a man build several building out of recycled bottles in the gorgeous gardens around his house.

It took 10,000 bottles to build the chapel.

The six gabled house took 12,000.

 

The miniature lighthouse was at the end of the garden.

Jennie took some pictures through the bottles.

This is the image of the lighthouse.

And this is me, staring back.

As I said the gardens were amazing.

Next was the tavern.

The bat cave.

Even the gift shop was interesting.

We sat in the garden for a very long time just relaxing. It was tough to move on.

We drove by the church at Mount Carmel and decided to stop.

Our final stop was Union Corner Provincial Park, with another beach.

Jennie found a huge trove of interesting shells.

And then the 45 minute drive back home.

A really great day!