10 Spring Getaway Ideas to Get Off Nova Scotia’s Beaten Path and on the Authentic Seacoast

Spring may be our favourite time of year on the Nova Scotia Authentic Seacoast. Chedabucto Bay, the largest bay on the Nova Scotia Atlantic coast awakens from its winter sleep. And with more than 600 kilometres of shoreline, that’s a big yawn. Lobster boats cross the harbours. Clothes flap on backyard lines. Trout streams burble with new found vigour. And smiles dot the faces of people as they return to coastal walking trails and oceanside fairways.
Away from the crowds and the tourist attractions, the Nova Scotia Authentic Seacoast in spring gives travelers a true taste of the seacoast spirit that has brought visitors to these shores for more than 400 years. To help you look like a local when you visit Authentic Seacoast during the spring months, our local experts share their top 10 tips to experience the best of Nova Scotia’s Chedabucto Bay as it comes to life.

photo credit: Authentic Seacoast Resorts

1. Lobster Heaven
Locals say the biggest bay on the Nova Scotia Atlantic Coast means the best lobster and Chedabucto Bay’s cold waters produce some of the finest lobster on the East Coast. May and June is lobster season is on the Bay and the award winning restaurant in DesBarres Manor Inn celebrates with a two month Chedabucto Bay Lobster Festival to get guests up close and personal with Nova Scotia’s favourite crustacean.

2. We Hear the South Shore is for the Birds
As Chedabucto Bay includes the most easterly point of mainland Nova Scotia, the southern shores of the Bay become a bird watchers paradise.  Nearly 140 species of birds flock to barrens and bays of the south coast during breeding season making it one of Nova Scotia’s best places for spotting birds.

photo credit: Authentic Seacoast Resorts

3. It’s Hard to Keep Your Eyes on the Ball
That 60 acre peninsula sticking out into Guysborough Harbour at the head of Chedabucto Bay is the golf course at Osprey Shores Golf Resort. With scenic ocean views from every fairway, it’s hard to keep your eyes on your ball when you play the Osprey Shores course. The course is also home to a band of ball stealing foxes and each May brings a new litter of bandits in training. Cute alert!

4. Lobster 30 Ways
Award winning Chef Shaun Zwarun takes guests beyond steamed lobster with cooking classes in the DesBarres Manor Inn kitchen. Lobster perogies in a Roma tomato lemongrass salsa? Smoked lobster tail with a sweet onion marmalade? Lobster and wild mushroom Sheppard’s Pie? Mango black bean lobster martini? A cooking class with Chef Shaun means you’ll never look at lobster the same again.

5. A Stroll By The Sea
Starting with the first leg of the Trans Canada Trail in mainland Nova Scotia and ending with the Chapel Gully Trail at the mainland’s easternmost point the Authentic Seacoast’s coastal hiking trails take you to the extreme. Parts of the Province that is. These coastal trails are ideal for an easy to moderate spring hike that takes in the scenic beauty of Chedabucto Bay.

6. It Was This Big
The trout streams and lakes are legendary along the Authentic Seacoast. While the official start to the trout season begins April 15th, locals wait till the Alder leaves are the size of a mouse’s ear before heading off to catch the big one.

 photo credit: ngmackinnon | flickr

7. Starry Nights
Far away from the noise, light and air pollution of the cities, the planets take centre stage in the dark, clear skies over Chedabucto Bay in the spring. Mercury, Mars and the moons of Saturn all make a showing in the Authentic Seacoast’s expansive night sky.
8. A Chorus Line
Spring brings out the peepers. Ahem. That means frogs in Nova Scotia. With eight species of frogs, each with their own mating call, the nightly auditions add up to a spectacular springtime performance.

9. Old Salts
The fishing wharves in the small villages that dot the shores of Chedabucto Bay are the perfect place to strike up a conversation with an old salt and no time is better than the spring. Favourite wharves include Canso’s Fisherman’s wharf and the Guysborough wharf to meet the lobster boat before dinner (that’s what locals call lunch).

10. Take Me to the River   
On May 15th, fly fishers make their way to the mouth of the Authentic Seacoast’s Salmon River for the opening of the Atlantic salmon fishing season. The Salmon River is renowned for its estuarial salmon fishing with the locals knowing to show up the last two hours before low tide.
--
This guest post was written by the Authentic Seacoast Resorts, a collection of historic vacation properties at the head of Chedabucto Bay. You can catch up with them sharing Nova Scotia travel, music, food, wine and recreation on Twitter or learn more about this off the beaten path destination on their website www.authenticseacoast.com