5 minute read
Cheddar, cocktails, fish, and fossils
Driving the Cape George loop
BY DARCY RHYNO
My day begins in the town of Antigonish where I’ve booked a room at the Antigonish Victorian Inn. With its many accommodation and dining options, Antigonish is a good base for exploring the 97-kilometre Cape George loop, part of the Sunrise Trail. From here, you can drive west to east on the Trans-Canada Highway and begin at Sutherlands River or take Bay Street east from town onto Route 337.
I prefer the east-west option because I like the sequence of stops, beginning at Crystal Cliffs Farm Road. This short detour gets me out to a quiet beach that ends at a low gypsum cliff. The soft stone in shades of chalk, salmon, and smoke are sculpted by the waves into organic oddities and smooth gems.
Back on Route 337, I follow the undulating coastline, up and down hills and through villages. In pretty Ballantynes Cove, I walk the length of the wharf to check out the fishing boats, then visit the Bluefin Tuna Interpretative Centre to learn about local tuna fishing history and the lifecycle of the great fish. At lunchtime, the nautically themed Fish & Ships takeout across the street serves fresh local haddock and fries.
A few kilometres up the road at the Cape George Point Day Park, the star of the show is the Cape George Lighthouse. Since 1861, a beacon has shone from atop this cliff 123 metres above the water. It’s an octagonal white tower, tapered to a red cap. Simplicity is its eloquence, a tall sentry beaming its warning over the choppy waters below, keeping mariners safe.
Two kilometres farther along, the road veers southwest. I stop at Livingstone’s Cove Wharf Park for a few photos of the coastline rising in gentle slopes from the ocean. Back in the car, I admire the view all the way to Big Island Beach where I stretch my legs. Refreshed, I double back about 14 kilometres to Knoydart Farm. At the cheese shop, a jolly Frazer Hunter offers samples of the flavoured cheddars he makes from his “happy” cows’ organic milk.
“If you buy my young cheese today and keep it for a year,” says Hunter, “it’s better growth in value than mutual funds.” I’m not sure where he’s going with this until he delivers his punchline that’s also a sales pitch. “So, when you leave here, you should be carrying two wheels of cheese.”
Cheese purchased, although not two wheels, I backtrack five kilometres to the seaside cliffs at Arisaig Provincial Park where I turn over a piece of shale to find a cluster of half a dozen brachiopod fossils. These clam-like creatures the size of my fingernail lived on the floor of a shallow sea almost half a billion years ago, twice as far in the distant past as the oldest dinosaurs, and hundreds of times further than any of my humanoid relatives.
Holding their stony imprints, I’m humbled by the magnificent work of evolution. Walking back to the Arisaig wharf and lighthouse, I see Steinhart Distillery up the hill, my destination for an evening cocktail and a view of the sunset over the Northumberland Strait.
“Vodka making is a science. Gin making is an art,” says Thomas Steinhart. “You could do a hundred batches and never quite get it where you want it. Juniper is vital. You want it to stand out, but everything else shouldn’t be so prominent.” His technique for making his award-winning gin is otherwise a long-held family secret learned on his grandfather’s farm back in Germany, but he also adds a little citrus, which his grandfather couldn’t afford. Steinhart offers a unique weekend-long “GINstitute By the Sea” experience. That tour is much longer and more educational because participants learn how to make gin, then distill a bottle of their own design with a mini still.
This evening, however, I’m just here for a cocktail and a perch where I can sip and savour. I choose the Eastside, a cocktail of East Coast ingredients: Steinhart Wild Blueberry Gin, fresh mint leaves, and Nova Scotian blueberries. Here’s to the many flavours and experiences on the Cape George loop!
Eastside Cocktail from Steinhart Distillery
Ingredients
5 mint leaves
5 Nova Scotian wild blueberries
1 ½ oz (45 mL) Steinhart Wild Blueberry Gin
¾ oz (23 mL) lemon juice
¾ oz (23 mL) simple syrup
Directions
Grab a shaker, add mint and fresh blueberries, and gently muddle. Add the remaining ingredients, ice, and shake well.
Double strain into your favourite cocktail glass. Garnish with a mint sprig. Enjoy!
