Kayaking reveals Nova Scotia’s magical world

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/09/2003 (8307 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

TANGIER, N.S. — The wide-open ocean stretches out before a craggy Atlantic shoreline, while a handful of islands beckon from a short distance away. Light winds sweep across the deep-blue waters as gulls and an occasional blue heron lazily float by overhead.

On shore, a dozen excited travellers pack up and get ready for the kind of adventure that has been slowly but steadily capturing attention around the world.

“Sea kayaking is soooo seductive,” Gayle Wilson boasts as she prepares to lead a group on a day’s outing in some of the best kayaking territory in the Maritimes.

“It’s all about the journey. It’s where it takes you.”

Where it takes you from this isolated little fishing community about 90 kilometres outside Halifax is to a wilderness that hundreds of people have been discovering in recent years.

From the shore, it looks like any other Maritime coastline — its rugged beauty dominated by sheer rock faces, unspoiled beaches, bronzed seaweed and wind-lashed trees.

But climb inside a sleek, five-metre-long polyethylene tube and you can venture out to a world that still seems untouched.

“People never really poked around the coastline,” Scott Cunningham says from the kayaking business he runs with Wilson out of his home.

“We’ve discovered another natural environment at our doorsteps that we didn’t know about.”

On a recent afternoon, Wilson and two other guides take a group of novices on a short trip around some of the dozen islands sprinkled along the coast. Within minutes of stepping inside the narrow craft, most have their bearings and are easily able to skim across the calm, chilly waters.

The most difficult part is paddling steadily for extended periods, but the beauty is in lifting your paddle and drifting quietly as nature comes alive around you. There are murres, osprey, herons and loons, whose haunting calls echo from a nearby inlet. Just metres away a curious seal pops his head up and then disappears.

The playful mammals are often caught sunbathing on rocks or playing close to passing kayaks, says guide Colleen MacKinnon. It’s not uncommon for them to trail so closely to boats that you can hear their snorts and muffled breathing.

Guides lead you through intersecting pathways between islands, giving you the chance to paddle close to shore to look for starfish hanging from rock walls or gently surf the waves that flow through the channels.

There is a handful of deserted islands to explore in the Tangier area, named after a vessel that went down more than 100 years ago off its shores. Tour leaders occasionally stop for snack breaks, allowing paddlers to look for the remains of houses that used to populate the islands but which disappeared after the Second World War.

The magic of kayaking in this region is its subtle diversity. At points, the water is so crystal clear that you can see sand dollars and other shells resting on the ocean floor. For a moment, it has the feel of a Caribbean locale.

But turn a corner and the wind can pick up, the salty sea spray will coat your lips and a thick fog can roll in, leaving you lolling about in the Atlantic Ocean with a compass to guide you.

It is that yearning for the unpredictable and a taste of the seemingly uncharted that Cunningham believes has people flocking from the States, Europe and all parts of Canada to seek out a feast of rocky headlands, salt marshes and barren shoals.

“We all want it — that ability to get away from the familiar, and this coastal environment is that,” says the 54-year-old biologist who opened Coastal Adventures in the early 1980s after discovering his “hovel” on a perch overlooking Tangier harbour.

“I’ll never tire of that.”

There is also the proximity to the water and the calming quiet of a motorless craft. Few other marine sports offer such a closeness to the environment with so little fuss.

Cunningham is one of the most knowledgeable guides in the Maritimes and one of the first to open a kayaking operation in the region. His passion for the sport began after he canoed around Nova Scotia in 1980. He liked it so much he gave up his studies in Quebec and settled in Tangier to open his company with three canoes and one kayak.

His enthusiasm didn’t initially inspire others — in the first year of business he had just one customer. That doubled in the second year.

Things have changed considerably, with about 30 operators now marketing similar programs in Nova Scotia. Cunningham offers one- to eight-day trips here, as well as kayaking excursions in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Europe.

Still, he says, this is some of the best kayaking he’s experienced anywhere.

“We do have a marvellous playground out there.”

–Canadian Press

PHOTO