By John Moore, Columnist
My wife and I recently celebrated our 45th wedding anniversary. We decided to go south, not that south, Nova Scotia south. It’s been our tradition to head to the south shore of Nova Scotia for a number of years to celebrate our anniversary which takes place close to Remembrance Day. Some say the reason we got married close to Remembrance Day is we ‘d never forget our anniversary or if we did, we’d be in big trouble. In any event, we decided to go to Clarks Harbour located on beautiful Cape Sable Island. We stopped in Shelburne where we had lunch and did some shopping. There are some great shops in Shelburne offering antiques, vinyl records and books, as well as baked goods and homemade jams and pickles. Given we had never been to Clarks Harbour before it was a completely new adventure full of pleasant surprises. We arrived at the Harbour Guest house around 3pm and our hostess Louis Orpin was a delight from start to finish. Before supper we went for a walk around the village which is basically all oceanfront. We came across the ship building area where hundreds of lobster boats were all docked patiently waiting for lobster season which was still a few weeks away. I didn’t realize until our hostess pointed it out, but Clarks Harbour is the lobster hub of Canada. We came across a bit of a park with a soccer field. On it were many geese and duck varieties which we had never seen before. In fact, they looked like miniature geese. Our hostess told us later these geese and ducks breed and have offspring. Apparently, it’s not possible but I wasn’t going to deny what I saw. Our hostess prepared a wonderful meal for us and we asked her to join us. She told us she had moved to Clarks Harbour from Toronto sight unseen a few years ago and quite by chance fell into the hospitality business. She now owns a tour business in India as well as Nova Scotia. It turns out she is quite an entrepreneur.
We found out Cape Sable Island is a bird paradise where birders from all over the world come to check out the many species that fly by. It also has 3 beautiful beaches. The Hawk is the most famous one given its sheer beauty. We made it to all 3 beaches where we gathered some great seashells and saw among other things the largest seal ever. We thought it was a sea lion it was that big.
While there we went to a church service. The church, which is known as the stone church, was built in 1921 and is beautiful. When we arrived, we were greeted like long lost relatives, Deacon Neal Smith welcomed us, and we then took our place. When the service began Deacon Smith announced we have some guests here today so we should have a meet and greet. Everyone then came over and introduced themselves. This one gentleman came along and humbly introduced himself as Bruce Atkinson. Some of the others said you know who he is, he’s the famous boat builder. His grandfather was Ephraim Atkinson the man who invented the Cape Islander in 1908. Without this boat there would be no lobster industry. I thought this place was full of surprises. It turns out another church member knew my parents’ great friends, the Ferris’s who used to summer on the island. This was feeling more and more like a homecoming. We ‘ll never forget our visit to the Stone Church and the wonderful reception we received. We will also never forget our visit to Clarks Harbour and the wonderful people we met. If you’re looking for a getaway, I highly recommend Clarks Harbour. God bless and Happy New Year. May 2025 be filled with incredible blessings!
