Points East Coastal Drive Part 2

About two thirds of the Points East Coastal Drive remained to be done so off we went in a clockwise direction. I have to admit that in Prince Edward Island the scenery is much the same throughout - lots of coves and harbours and rivers and lakes and trees and farmland and of course more churches than I've ever seen in my life! It is all very nice but sometimes you'd like something out of the ordinary like in British Columbia or in Nova Scotia or even in Ontario.

See what I mean! Another big Church. It's red brick so it is Catholic. Not all Catholic Churches are red brick but, if they are red brick, they are Catholic! Catholic Churches are mostly big and quite ostentatious. There are also lots of Presbyterian Churches which tend to be big too. Then there are Anglican, United Church, Baptist, Methodist and varying others whose names escape me. I did notice, however, that some churches have been given over to other purposes e.g. the"Bizarre" one I noted before. What would Jesus say - "Stop making my Father's house a market place!"?

The fishermen's huts here in Crowbush Cove reminded Jim of the French song by Francis Cabrel - Les Cabanes des Pecheurs.


















At St. Peters we popped into the ? to see if they had any more information than we had. This involved a short walk over a nice pedestrian bridge which crossed the bay.

The grass at the water side looked to have the quality of velvet.
























The woman at the ?? suggested we go to the National Park at Greenwich and do one of the nature trails. She recommended the Greenwich Dunes trail which was a 5km round trip. This sounded good, so off we went. The trail travelled through old homestead fields with views of St. Peter's Bay, then through a lovely shady forest and then out onto a floating boardwalk over L'Etang Bowley (Bowley Pond). From there you could see the dunes (described as "majestic" in the literature). It was very pretty despite being less than secure underfoot.

Dead trees in the forest - it often amazes me how beautiful dead trees look.

The Greenwich Dunes area is a natural treasure internationally recognised for the dune system, its wide variety of bird species and rare marsh and woodland plants plus nationally important Aboriginal and Arcadian archaeological sites.

Bulrushes - they call them cat's tails here.

At the ?, the woman said that a beaver had a lodge on Bowley Pond and was out recently when she was there. She said it was huge. So we were hoping to see a huge beaver. Unfortunately, the beaver was not to be seen.

Beaver's lodge.

The boardwalk

Isn't that lovely!

 From the boardwalk we reached the beach using a sand ladder and staircase. 400 metres along the beach there was a lookout (they call them a lookoff) with views of the dunes.

A parabolic dune

Greenwich Peninsula's most significant and sensitive feature is the rare and relatively undisturbed parabolic dunes which lie at the western end of the peninsuls. Parabolic dunes are U-shaped mounds of fine to medium sand that form near coasts where sand is abundant and there are strong, undirectional onshore winds. These dunes have elongated arms that extend upwind behind the central part of the dune. They move inland into areas with denser vegetation where the sand then piles up as its advance is halted or slowed.

At last we know where we are!

We had to retrace our steps from the beach, across the boardwalk, through the forest, along the fields and back to the car. We thoroughly enjoyed the walk and the scenery.


For lunch Naufrage (shipwreck) point had been recommended. There we found our 3rd little cafe at a harbour where good seafood is served. It was really nice but one server had the monopoly on smiling and friendliness. The two younger ones, who cleared tables, were the most morose I have ever seen. They are obviously not very happy teenagers!

Shipwreck Cafe.

The wrecks themselves!

Shipwreck Cove.

Then we headed for the most easterly point - East Point and its lighthouse.

Another sand sculpture at a lighthouse.

We had read that there were singing sands at Basin Head so we did not want to miss that.

View just before we reached Basin Head.

When we got to Basin Head, we had to park in a field, along with lots of others. I was thinking these singing sands must be some great attraction.

This is what we found!

A very clear  notice!

But did it make any difference?

We walked along the sand - did it sing or even squeak? Either we were in the wrong place or any singing or squeaking was camouflaged by the screaming and squealing of young people diving into the water and being carried down by the current.


We had now completed the Points East Coastal Drive so off we went, knowing that we had seen all that was to be seen in PEI.


Today we begin the sorting out for our return home. We have time to do it leisurely as we don't leave Bonnie's until about 2.30 p.m. Tonight we will have our last supper in Charlottetown.