An early start, a quick visit to a local Staples store to print some documents, and then a visit to the Halifax Citadel. As mentioned in the previous entry this is a large stone fort that sits atop the prominent hill around which Halifax is situated. Construction started in 1820 and it was completed in 1860, the fort's primary purpose was to protect against a land attack. The citadel was passed from the Canadian Army to the Canadian National Parks in the early 1950s to prevent the local Halifax citizens demolishing it so that the hilltop could be turned into car parking. The structure is in very good condition and today is garrisoned by volunteers who dress and act the role of the British Highland Regiment that originally garrisoned the fort. We took a short tour with one of the "soldiers". He explained the purpose of the sally port (a narrow door through which soldiers could exit the citadel center to enter the musket gallery) and loopholes (narrow vertical slits in the walls of the musket gallery through which soldiers could fire their weapons at the attacking enemy)

From Halifax we retraced our steps North across the center of the island to the town of Caribou and the ferry to Prince Edward Island. The weather was sunny, warm and humid and the drive and ferry ride gave us some wonderful views.

PEI (Prince Edward Island) immediately had a different feel to Nova Scotia. There is a lot more evidence of farming with large expanses of what we think are potatoes and the beaches have a distinct red coloring from the iron tainted sandstone that has been ground for the sand. A pleasant drive brought us to Panmure Island and its accompanying beach, lighthouse and Provincial Park.