I've been wanting to take my family to Seal Island for years and this was the summer we were finally able to make it happen.
Seal Island is a small island off the southern tip of Nova Scotia. It's near the entrance to the Bay of Fundy and surrounded by rocky islets and dangerous shoals and so it has had hundreds of ships wreck on its shores. My ancestors moved to the island from the mainland in the early 1800s to provide shelter to shipwreck survivors and then built a lighthouse in 1831. My grandmother's father was a lighthouse keeper on the island and she grew up on the island. I visited Seal Island several times as a child and I wanted to show my family this amazing piece of our family history.
We flew into Halifax on a red eye and none of us slept much on the plane. But there was no chance to rest when we landed because we had a ride arranged for us that same day so we had to rent our car, fit all our luggage in it, shop for supplies for a week on the island, and drive to Clark's Harbour to catch our ride.
We rode out on a lobster boat with a lovely family: Carla Nickerson, her husband Eric and father Carl. Carl grew up on the island and they all knew my grandmother and great-aunt and great-grandmother. We had a great time chatting with them during the two-hour trip.
The younger three decided to spend some time below deck.
Here's our view of the island as we approach it:
We were exhausted when we arrived and went to bed in the house we'd been able to borrow, a little bungalow that used to belong to my great-aunt's good friend.
My cousin Adrienne and her two kids had already been on the island for over a week and her sisters Heidi (and Heidi's three kids) and Christi (and her husband Ryan) had arrived just a couple days before us. They were all staying in "Winnie's House", the house my grandmother and her sister lived in with their mother Winnie Hamilton after my great-grandfather (the lighthouse keeper) died. When he was alive they'd lived right next to the lighthouse in a house that's no longer there.
One of my fondest memories of visiting Seal Island as a kid was playing with seashells with Adrienne. I remember sitting on this exact deck having a seashell "beauty pageant" with her so I was delighted to watch my kids sort and play with the shells they collected in the same spot.
That afternoon, we all decided to go hang out at the south end of the island, called Mother Owen's Point (pretty sure it's named after a ship that wrecked there). It wasn't a very warm day but the kids still wanted to play in the water.
I love this photo because it illustrates the pain involved in stepping into the frigid North Atlantic waters perfectly:
The island was named by Samuel de Champlain when he was exploring Canada because of all the seals basking on the rocks. Like this:
My ancestors who settled the island often buried the bodies of those killed in shipwrecks:
After the beach, we walked back to the East Side (the tiny village we were staying in) by taking a shortcut through the woods.
We loved how beautifully clear the night sky was out on the island away from city lights.
The next day was warmer and we decided on another beach day but this time we went to the beach on the east side near our house. There's a rusting shipwreck on the beach from a boat that wrecked here in the early 1990s.
This is the other village on the island, the West Side. Apparently you have to have a lobster fishing license to be able to lease land here from the government.
And this is part of the East side village. There's a church and about a dozen houses. There used to be a school that my grandmother attended when she was little.
A popular pass time with all the kids was taking turns getting pushed in Adrienne's hammock.
And eating s'mores at the campfire:
This is the East side slip at sunset (there was a wharf here when I was little but it was destroyed in a hurricane a while back):
The island is over populated with rabbits. Someone brought some to the island from the mainland a few years ago and they've thrived here (there are no predators here other than the occasional hawk).
WARNING: these are the first of many, many sheep pictures ahead.
The island is also populated with sheep (way more sheep than people). They were brought to the island in the early 1800s so that shipwreck survivors would have something to eat. The lighthouse keepers kept them for their wool and meat and sometimes even their milk (though apparently it tastes pretty bad because of all the seaweed the sheep eat). The sheep had been sheared a couple weeks before we arrived and there were also a bunch of new lambs. I knew lambs were cute but seeing them here out in the wild, they are SOOOO cute! They were really entertaining to watch.
The next day, the fog rolled in and settled onto the island for a few days. The constant sound of the foghorn (which is right beside the lighthouse) took a while to get used to. I was just glad our house was a good distance from the foghorn.
Adrienne took care of a half dozen chickens so she'd have a supply of fresh eggs. She delegated the feeding and egg collecting to her daughter Avery and Maira was excited to help.
Jess and Shae decided to go exploring and walked back down to the south point to see what it looked like at high tide (we were told the waves are pretty cool there because they meet at the point and criss cross and crash into each other).
The south point is also the best place for spotting seals:
This is the foghorn:
And here is the lighthouse. It's still working but automated now and with a newer light. But the structure is the one built in 1831.
This was our fancy bathroom accommodations while we were there (no plumbing or electricity on the island):
Brig Pond: the water is root beer coloured because of all the iron in it.
Since there was no plumbing, we had to wash our hair with well water. It wasn't as cold as the ocean but it still felt pretty dang cold on your scalp. We all screamed when we felt it on our heads.
This sheep must have somehow evaded the shearers:
This is the house we stayed in:
Maira in particular had fun playing with her cousins.
Jess and Connor spent one afternoon building a snare to try and catch rabbits (no luck though).
Jess also spent a ton of time clearing out the thistles around the house we were staying in .
He also helped paint the church and built an "obstacle course" in the woods behind our house for the kids to play with:
One morning we decided to all walk over to the lighthouse together.
Here we are sitting on the foundation of the old lighthouse keeper's house, the one my grandmother lived in when she was little.
Because of the overpopulation of rabbits, Heidi and Ryan went rabbit hunting a few times. They had a crossbow, a bow and arrow and a slingshot. They let Connor go with them once and he used the slingshot.
After six days on the island, we secured a ride back to the mainland with another lobster fisherman and said good-bye to the island.
