Evangeline New of Scotland

Smooth as silk, the Fundy Rose ferry’s captain slides the ship into dock next to the Digby fishing fleet. This picturesque harbour town, originally called Conway, was renamed Digby in 1787 after Col. Robert Digby, who provided a home for the Loyalists escaping persecution in the U.S.

Gingerly, my wife Tina and I exited the auto deck and glided along the shoreline of the Annapolis Basin on our BMW R1200GS to a well-hidden break in the pines. As we rode up a meandering driveway, the scent of pine gum enveloped us as the Digby Pines Golf Resort and Spa, one of Canada’s grand old Canadian Pacific hotels, came into view. We covered the bike and got everything ready for tomorrow morning, then we enjoyed a sumptuous meal in the elegant old dining hall. The view across the manicured lawns, with the Annapolis Basin as a backdrop, is stunning and it took us back to an earlier time.

Waking up refreshed, we stepped out into the early morning sunshine under a cloudless blue sky. We mounted up and found the Evangeline Trail, a.k.a. Nova Scotia Route 1. As the GS thrummed along toward Yarmouth, we noticed that the unusually wet spring had birthed a brighter palette of greens