I finally had the opportunity to get back to one of Canada’s most iconic locations of this great giant nation. In my mind THE most iconic. Peggys Cove! Just south east of Halifax, the drive takes about 45-50 min down a very picturesque road.
I flew to Halifax on my way to Cape Breton for a wedding a few days later and decided to jump on the chance to see my favourite lighthouse. Arriving to the tiny community around 3 in the afternoon where the lighthouse sits majestically on top of some giant barren exposed rocks I found my parking spot for the day and grabbed my camera. My plan was to spend the afternoon photographing the lighthouse and her community, enjoy some fresh mussels for dinner and catch the sunset. Thankfully the weather was absolutely amazing for it all to come together.
While sitting down about to enjoy those fresh mussels an old friend from Windsor saw on facebook I was there and mentioned he now lives 30 min away with his wife and family. Calum (McPhee) was flying home from his work out west and graciously offer me to stay there instead of me driving to Cape Breton that evening. I jumped at the offer as the thought of driving 3.5 hours on the trans-Canada at night wasn’t really appealing compared to 30 min up the road.
By the time the sun was almost on the horizon the amount of people had tripled along with the amount of tripods. I found my location(s) where I thought was the best angle, just due west of the lighthouse on a low outcropping of exposed rocks. Thankfully there wasn’t the amount of people like there was on the main rocks as myself and just one other photographer from the UK enjoyed this pristine spot.
That other photographer did take a huge chance venturing onto some of the (not so safe) black rocks to grab another angle. Which you can see in one of my photos. Shaking my head my thoughts went back to a young fellow from my home town of Smiths Falls, ON how just a few months prior got hit by a rogue wave while on some of these black rocks and was swept away. Very sad. Even worse is that he was never found. There are warning signs saying not to go onto these black rocks for the potential of getting swept away by one of these waves is good. Yet all day I saw people from all walks of life, all age groups doing just that and taking that huge risk.
It was a beautiful day, beautiful location, beautiful sunset. If you ever have the chance to see this part of our great country of Canada, don’t hesitate. Go see it! And I recommend the fresh mussels!
Cheers, Trevor
